Project blog

W J A ‘Allan’ Allsop. worked tirelessly as a Stretcher-bearer behind front lines of Fromelles on the night of 19/06/16. His diary entries give a vivid, if brief account of the battle.

Cobbers remembered: Mosman’s dead 100 years past

Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery, Fleurbaix. Photo: Bernard de Broglio

Schoolmaster, poet and linguist Patrick Pearce (Pádraig Anraí Mac Piarais) stood on the steps of the General Post Office in Dublin, on the 24th April 1916, and read out an impassioned plea and proclamation.

IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN. In the name of God and the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us summons our children to her flag and strikes for her freedom..

As he did so strategic points around the city were occupied by the Irish volunteers, and the Irish Citizen Army led by James Connolly (Séamas Ó Conghaile).

Battle of Mont St. Quentin, Fred Leist 1918 (AGNSW)

Among the many residents encountered in the research for this latest exhibition – Faces in the Crowd – were some local official war artists including the Bulletin artists Henry Fullwood and Frederick Leist.

Fullwood lived in Mosman for a year in the late 19th century and Leist lived in Mosman from the 1920s.

We received this email from Laurita Smith.

Many thanks to the Library for these WW1 Boards. Through them I have been able to find out so much of my mother’s heritage – she and her twin sister were children of William Leonard Turner, the brother of Arthur Magnus Turner, and Pte. Jack Aubrey Turner whose photos are included on the Boards, together with records of their family. My mother and her sister had very little contact with her father (divorced from her mother when only very young) – but finding this family contact has led me to discover that these Turner men, are direct descendants of Edward Turner, who was transported to Australia for playing a leading role in the Pentrich Revolution in Derbyshire UK in 1817. Edward Turner’s story and the Pentrich Revolution is well publicised on the Web – and I just thought I’d like to thank the Library staff for putting up the Color Boards. Without the information provided with the photos, I would never have known (as neither did my mother) that there were other relatives (aunts and uncles) she never knew, and that her father’s family linked back to the early days in Sydney, to the Stonemason’s Arms in Broadway/Wattle Street, and the colourful story of Edward in his new life in Australia. I have certainly been taken on a fascinating journey to my heritage roots.