Valentine William Kelly — a slim, dark-haired draper from Victoria — was 25 when he signed up for the Australian Imperial Force (A.I.F.) in July 1915. His parents James and Emily Kelly lived in Mosman at a house named “Alda” in Calypso Avenue.
Local philatelist Andrew Brockett recently came across some poignant postal covers that tell something of his story.
Many Mosmanites were “doing their bit” closer to home as members of the military, voluntary workers, entertainers and fund raisers.
One of the most prominent of these was Annie Alethea Evans who was widely known and referred to as simply Miss Evans. She was active in a number of voluntary capacities and as Commandant of the No 8 Mosman Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD), established and ran the Anzac Buffet from late 1915.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the dedication of the HMAS Sydney Memorial Mast at Bradleys Head, Mosman. The ceremony took place on 24 November 1934, attended by thousands who watched from land and sea.
When it comes to tagging Mosman service men and women in Trove’s historical newspaper database, John Bryan is well in advance of all other parties.
More than 1,500 is his score.
Two years ago, Tim Sherratt suggested the tag mosman1418-person. With so many articles tagged, we now have a useful filter when searching Mosman names:
Search only newspaper articles tagged mosman1418-person →
The tag even features in Trove’s top 100.
NSW State Records offer another source for Mosman WWI records — deceased estate files.
The Stamp Duties Office created a deceased estate file for every individual who died leaving property or other assets (‘estates’), which were subject to death duties. The files contain the papers, correspondence and other documentation relating to the assessment of death duty by the Stamp Duties Office.
Learn more about these records with Archives In Brief 29 – Deceased estate files, 1880-1958.
Deceased estates files can be found for some soldiers. Search the index to deceased estate files by name or enter “Australian Imperial Forces” in the locality search field.
There are 39 results for Mosman and Australian Imperial Forces.
The files themselves are held at the Western Sydney Records Centre.