Rookwood Cemetery Discoveries

  With Father's Day approaching I thought of a store in the Sydney CBD my father and many others used to frequent. In my case my dad could always find a suitably priced and well fitting pair of "strides" and get a great haircut at the same time! The founder has not totally been forgotten but as time elapses his name and Department Store that was once synonymous with all a man could want, will be. J OHN ELLIS SYMONDS GOWING John was born in 1835 in Eye, Suffolk, England, the eldest son and one of ten children to Ellis Symonds Gowing, 'gentleman' farmer and his wife, Charlotte. With the repeal of the Corn Laws at the time, which would cause great loss to the family business, John sailed for Sydney in 1857 intending to purchase farming land. Due to the discovery of gold, increasing agriculture and sheep farming, the Australian economy was booming and his parents and siblings followed him out to these shores the following year. Farming was not what the family

 A female who was the first professional woman employed by an Australian Museum and arguably the best in her field is lying under a headstone that doesn't bear her name. Forgotten no more.. JANE CATHERINE TOST  Jane was born in 1817 (believed to be in London England) to John Ward, a bird breeder, and his wife, Catherine. Her parents not only bred birds but also stuffed them for gentlemen collectors and had been carrying out this activity since the early 1800's. Jane and her siblings learnt the trade first hand and later the siblings were working in the Gould's taxidermy shop in London.  On 1 April 1839, Jane married Charles Gottleibe Tost, a native of Prussia and a piano-forte maker; they were to go on to have six children. The workload at Gould's became so large that Jane was taken on in a greater role and during the 1840's -1850's under Gould's direction she was employed at the British Museum, preparing specimens.  Although taxidermy had been practised fro

Today's blog is about the other Government Architect who calls Rookwood "home". If you are in the Sydney CBD you wander past buildings he has designed or added to frequently This man is soon to have his name shining deservedly once more. GEORGE McRAE George was born in Edinburgh in September 1857 the eldest child of  Duncan, a joiner journeyman and his wife Mary. (For clarification a joiner journeyman is a fully qualified worker who had completed an apprenticeship but worked on a daily rate for another person as opposed to a "master" who employed others).  McRae attended George Watson's College, one where children from less advantaged backgrounds could receive quality education. Once he graduated he joined George Beattie and Sons, Architects, Edinburgh where he learnt on the job about the finer aspects of building design. George McRae cicca. 1890 - courtesy of Wikipedia George arrived in Sydney in 1884, (with his parents and siblings), as a highly skilled ma

 Enduring another wet miserable day in Sydney I decided to watch a movie from my 'watchlist".  I chose "The Best of Men" about the work of Dr Ludwig Guttmann with spinal injury patients at  Stoke Mandeville Hospital England. I wish to honour the life of a woman who calls Rookwood "home" and benefitted from Guttmann's treatment. CHARLENE STUART MEADE OAM Charlene was born in Sydney in 1931 to Charles Ingram Todman, and his second wife, Phyllis Stuart Pearce. Her grandfather, George Todman, with his partner Wilheim Von Der Heyde, set up a very successful import and tobacco merchant business in York Street Sydney in the 1870's. Both held positions of high civil duty and lived in vast homes in the Strathfield area. Charles like his father was a successful businessman starting in the tobacco industry and later progressing to paper production and news media.    In 1946, whilst living in Double Bay, Charlene was working with her mother at the Tor Lodge in

Today marks the beginning of 105th anniversary of the Great Strike of 1917 that had a tragic outcome for a resident of Rookwood. MERVYN FLANAGAN Mervyn was the son of John J Flanagan, a carter, and Susan Webster, a widow, who came to the union with five young children. Mervyn was their first child born in 1885 and was followed by four more children; a large working class family who resided in the working class suburb of Waterloo. Like his father, Mervyn became a carter (horse-drawn cart driver), married Beatrice at the age of 20 in 1905 and watched his first born son die a few months after their marriage. He and Beatrice went on to have 3 more boys. Mervyn was a member of the Trolley, Draymen and Carter's Union and was one of the nearly 70,000 people who took to the streets to protest changes to how the productivity of rail and tram workers was to be monitored. It began in NSW and spread to other States over six weeks from 2nd August to 8th September 1917. The NSW Department of Rai