The Rookwood murder of William King and his young wife Elsie in 1898 shocked not only Sydney, but the entire colony of NSW. William King had been manager of the large, Roman Catholic section of Rookwood Cemetery for decades, living there in a quaint cottage surrounded by
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What’s in a name? Well to French artist Charles Camoin it was everything. This story begins in 1939, when an exhibition of modern French and English art came to Australia. In Sydney, the paintings went on show at the David Jones Gallery. The following newspaper photo shows
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FOR THE FIRST PART OF THIS STORY ON PERCY BUSH-COX, CLICK HERE. Percy Bush-Cox enlisted with the Leicestershire Regiment in World War I. In June 1918 he was reported in the press as having been wounded for the second time. Percy Bush-Cox is pictured at right in
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Returned serviceman Ernest Durham would have been amazed to find that after his death in 1949 he would become the centre of a story so bizarre I hardly know where to start. 😎 Private Durham signed up in 1916 with the newly formed 34th Battalion. It was
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FOR THE PREVIOUS PART OF THIS STORY, CLICK HERE. Sawson is a quiet village south of Cambridge in the U.K. On December 30 1954 there was disbelief when local widower ‘Ernest Durham’ was found dead in his garden, a bullet through his head. In the same incident
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In December 1924, Ulverstone born Gwendoline Doris Bailey was the subject of an amazing story. The press reported that the nineteen year old had inherited more than £15,000 from a great uncle in England. At the time she was living in Victoria, working as a waitress at
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Dr Charles Ronald David Brothers was born in the small farming community of North Motton, North-West Tasmania. At left is his mother, born Jessie Violet Saltmarsh. On the right is his father, Charles Brothers Snr, in uniform as a private in the Boer war.
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On May 8 1895, Mrs Fanny Bushell, a bank manager’s wife from Young, boarded the mail train to Sydney at nearby Harden. The train reached Goulburn late that night. Mrs Bushell had been the only passenger in a first class, ladies compartment. However, at Goulburn, two nuns
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Intriguing convict relics found at Blackheath. in the NSW Blue Mountains, appear to have vanished over the years. This seems such a shame. They were associated with the 1840s convict stockade, located on the site of what is now the local primary school. The first school building,
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In 1921, the Whittle family of Hobart received quite a shock when the following letter appeared in their local newspaper; To the Editor of The Mercury Sir, I ask you to publish the death of Thomas Clyde Whittle. who lost his life in a gambling hall at
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