Stories

Last November I wrote a story for this blog about the life of Mosman soldier Sergeant Selwyn Robin. I had stumbled across Selwyn Robin whilst researching a short letter I obtained that was written from Mosman in February 1918. The letter was written by Selwyn’s mother, Mrs Annie Renfrey Robin, from her home at the time, Riversdale in Canrobert Street, Mosman.

The details of letters and postcards from the First World War like this provide us with insights on a personal level of how life was lived at the time and how the war affected those caught up in its momentous and turbulent events. Although only a short letter I thought it may be of some interest to the Mosman 1914-1918 project to elaborate on the writer and those mentioned within it.

Janet Croft, Gordon Lacey’s niece, brought in a number of items to the Scan-a-thon last year and you can access these from our Local Studies Digital Archive by searching for “Lacey”. Among the items were three diaries that we have uploaded to FromThePage for transcription. They are not particularly long, and the handwriting is easy to read. The first two cover the journey overseas, including Lacey’s observations of the Panama Canal, and the third tells of England and France.

Noreen Powell, Sid Carroll’s niece, with the Thuillier photograph. Sid is in the sidecar.

The exhibition of Louis and Antoinette Thuillier photographs – Remember me: the lost diggers of Vignacourt – is on display at the Australian War Memorial until 31 July. Mary Lou wrote last year about the discovery of the Sid Carroll photograph that features in this exhibition, and more recently we interviewed Sid’s niece Noreen and great-niece Shane.

An edited version of the following piece appears in Issue 13 of the excellent Inside History magazine.

Lots of people had questions about their photos and memorabilia at Scan-a-thon, so we turned to the wider, online community for help. We’ve learnt a lot!

This is an interesting story – Remarkable Rescue: Four Days in a Shell Hole – and I’m not sure why it wasn’t printed in the Australian newspapers, particularly as the story is noted as originating from Sydney. Perhaps Selwyn’s mother, Mrs Annie Robin, sent details of a letter to the papers. As I have been researching Selwyn’s older brother Herman recently I hope you don’t mind me putting some flesh on the bones of this story.