Part 2: Life at Kooringal, Wagga Wagga

My 2x Great Grandparent’s Home in Wagga Wagga

Hello, welcome back to the world of Jessie and Alexander and their life at Kooringal. Also thank you so much for the wonderful response to part one of their story, it is most appreciated.

To pick up where we left off, I mentioned that I had some information to correct on the actual property of Kooringal. It came about thanks to the discovery of an online mapping software called IntraMaps that most local councils use. (Thanks Alex!)

You might recall I shared this slide below in Part One, showing what I thought might be the original homestead that Jessie and Alexander lived in.

Thanks to another phenomenal discovery, that IntraMaps has historic images loaded when available and a fade-in/out function, I can now confirm that this wasn’t the original homestead. Check out these images below that fade from a 2022 image of the site to a historic one from 1944.

The images match perfectly and look what happens to the house.

It disappears and actually shows the boundary marked out with a row of trees

So I think we can safely assume that it wasn’t the house they lived in, but look what appears if we pan the view up a little from this spot.

A homestead, complete with outbuildings and what looks like an orchard out the back of the building. I think that this is actually the Kooringal Homestead that Jessie, Alexander, and the family lived in. And look what is still standing today.

That grand driveway at the top left of the image is well-established. Unfortunately, most of the orchard is gone but you can still see the remains of it on the corners. The building directly in line with the homestead, toward Vincent Road at the bottom of the photo, is still there and the shed after that has obviously been replaced with that more significant building but it is still in the same position.

The building to the right of that looks the same, it has the same large tree overhanging on the right top corner and there are the silos I mentioned in part one. If you check the 1944 image you will see they are not there as I suggested they probably wouldn’t have been.

Here is a great aerial close-up of what the homestead looks like today.

And then below, the aerial view from 1944. We are so lucky to have this as there are no other earlier historic images for the site. It is twenty-six years after Jessie’s time and nineteen after Alexander was there but I’m pretty sure they would recognise this image below as their home.

I wonder if that section there at the bottom right-hand corner of the house with the large tree might be where the car was parked for the photo of Jessie and Alexander in their beautiful 35hp Renault.

At the risk of sounding too stalker-ish, I will share, we did do another drive-by on our last visit to Wagga Wagga back in August. We took this photo looking down the grand driveway and then zooming in on the house

Oh it does sound stalker-like doesn’t it? But it is just that enthusiasm for connecting with the past. I did have the thought, that I might mail a note with a link to the posts to the owners in case they might be interested in the history. Wouldn’t it be amazing if they had a historic photo of the homestead they were willing to share?

Anyhow, back to the  life that was happening around Kooringal at the time. We next pick up an article describing a fundraising day organised by the Red Cross League to raise funds for the Red Cross causes of the Allies in France.

I can’t find a mention of Jessie in the article but I’m sure if she was back in time from her visit to Melbourne in February, she would have been involved. (I shared in Part One that she was there seeing William off to war.) Take a look at who is donating a large sum of money towards the takings for the day.

Article 7: Courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia

Talking of the Red Cross League, this next piece of information was pretty exciting to stumble upon. It is from the Charles Sturt University Archives site and it is a copy of an article on the League from 2011.

It has photos of the women Jessie worked with. I know they are the women who worked with her, as I recognise some of the names provided. They match with the names of the committee members that were listed with Jessie in different Trove articles. In actual fact, you will see for yourself in Article 8 below that a few of the lady’s names listed as appearing in the photo also appear in Article 8. (If you need to rotate the image, click the double arrow heads icon on the right and it will open up the rotate options.)

Figure 78i: Courtesy of Charles Sturt University Archives

The photos are amazing, I have poured over them to see if I can match a face with Jessie’s face but nothing is standing out for me. Maybe the lady on the left.

Article 8 below, is a wrap-up of the year’s fundraising efforts at the Annual General Meeting and it shows that Jessie was elected as one of the vice presidents for the coming year’s work.

Article 8: Courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia

This next article would have been very distressing for the family, notification of Jack’s 2nd wounding. That is Jessie and Alexander’s nephew, Maffra William Macvean.

This article above was printed twenty-six days after the day Jack was wounded, not that Jessie and Alexander or the rest of the family would have known that unless they received a cable from Jack’s parents in London.

If they didn’t receive that cable, they probably could have had a pretty good guess as to where Jack was when it happened. This is what they were reading in the Advertiser at the time.

This article is just three days after the incident. Jack was shot on the first day of the offensive to take back Pozieres, Sunday the 23rd of July. His casualty form is devoid of any real details or description of the horror that he must have gone through.

Lucky for us his record also contained a copy of the Proceedings of a Medical Board review on his injuries which fills in some of the blanks.

His left arm was shot entirely through, bullets pulverising bone and disintegrating his flesh. I can only imagine it must have been beyond agony. I’m sure Jack would have been left with some permanent loss of function for the rest of his life.

Interestingly, I found this article from Charles Bean, the official government historian printed in the Advertiser on the 29th of July, describing his visit to the Pozieres battlefield on that very Sunday Jack was shot. It is a trimmed-down version but it gives you the general idea.

I wonder if Jack ever got to read this and if he did, whether he scoffed and choked on the barely concealed propaganda.

In piecing together this part of Jack’s story and working out the significance of the 23rd of July from the Australian War Memorial site, I’ve had the honour of reading dozens of letters from men involved in the battle that have been shared online. All of them describe a living hell where mates going over the top of the trench with them are shot right in front of their faces. Where exploding shells are burying and reburying the dead over and over again until those still standing are covered with dirt, mud, and human remains. https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/E84338

I wonder if any of these men who penned these letters were the men Bean observed whose morale was so high on that Sunday afternoon?

I discovered a couple of photos at the State Library of New South Wales of what Pozieres looked like on that Sunday.

Next, we have an example of what can only be described as the complete antithesis of the bloody battle described above, a mention of Jessie’s ensemble that she wore to the Wagga Wagga Show.

Article 8a: Courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia

The Lost Wagga Wagga Facebook page just happened to have a photo of this slice of normality that was continuing in the face of the bloodshed occurring on the other side of the globe, it is dated at the very time Jessie was attending and could very well be the day she was there.

This next find, well I have no proof that Jessie and Alexander attended the event described, but I’m assuming they would have, considering the event was auspiced by the Red Cross and the fact that Jessie was on the Red Cross League Committee. Also, the topic of the event is where Jack, their nephew fought and it is where he received his first wounds of the war. So the probability they were in attendance is high.

Lieutenant David Doull was 32 years of age at this time. The reason he was delivering a lecture in Wagga Wagga on Gallipoli, just nine months after the allies had withdrawn and not in France fighting? His casualty record explains.

I mean the horror of being buried alive with all those severe injuries, surviving this somehow, being left with significant disabilities and then going on tour to lecture about it not even 12 months later.That is just mind blowing to me.

As I suspected, the effects took a toll on David. I found this notice printed just a week after Jessie and Alexander attend David’s lecture.

I’m sure if Jessie and Alexander were aware of this article, not only would they have been concerned for David but I could imagine them thinking about what scars had Gallipoli left on Jack.

I did manage to find one photo of David, pictured below. He did recover from this episode and continued on with his lecture tour. He also had the lecture published. Incredibly, it is available for us to view today. Click the link below to find a copy in the National Library of Australia.

Again the Lost Wagga Wagga site comes through for us. It just happened to have a photo of the Oddfellows Hall where David delivered his lecture.

It is the three story building in the middle. You’ll note that it is dated from 25 years before the 19th of September 1916, but it was the closest I could get to what it probably looked like at the time Jessie and Alexander listened to David’s lecture, minus the water of course.

The building stood there for another 52 years before being demolished in 1968. It has a fascinating history and if you are interested, hit the link below the photo for more details. (The name in the link gives you a good hint as to who has performed there.)

We next find Jessie attending a community event at the Presbyterian Hall which looks like it was purely for the enjoyment of the Girls Guild. A chance to just get together and have some fun and not think about the war for a while.

Article 9: Courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia

Next, I have collated a number of articles describing different fundraising events that Jessie was involved with. When you look at the number of events that she and Alexander were involved in, they just seemed to roll from one to the next. It must have been exhausting with all the other duties of running a station, the stock and not to mention the homestead itself.

Unfortunately, I cannot uncover an historic photo of the hall at this time but you might remember that this is the hall that Jessie and Alexander donated to for the cost of its construction and it is also the hall that Jessie got to lay the foundation stone for.

We also got the chance to see the interior on our 2018 trip. So, somewhere here below, Jessie had her stall set up. Perhaps right where her 4x Great Grandson, Xander, was sitting in this next photo.

Now we have a joint event by the Red Cross and the Y.M.C.A, a fete in Wagga Wagga’s Newtown Park.

Here is a wonderful photo of a section of the park from the early 1900s. Not sure if this is where the fete was held but it gives us a good idea of what it probably looked like.

I was so lucky when searching for images of the park that I found some high quality scans of the photos from the Doubleday article (Figure 78i) mentioned above, shared on the Charles Sturt University site.

Oh, I wonder if that is Jessie on the very left above, and then maybe third from the right in this photo below.

I’m hoping the university might have some names that go with the photo in their records. I’ll email and ask.

Again, the luck kicked in. I found this photo of the Town Hall mentioned above from the 1930s.

I swear I can almost see Jessie and the ladies of the Red Cross emerging from the building.

This next article was an extraordinary find, an actual letter from Jack to his aunt and uncle, Jessie and Alexander describing what happened to him at Pozieres. We are beyond lucky that they felt that it was important enough to be shared with the paper.

Unfortunately, I cannot find one single photo of Jack. His full name was Maffra William Bushby Macvean. I did however stumble upon this most extraordinary find on an online auction site called WorthPoint.

Rare and Original Named Officers Jacket to Captain M.W.MacVean, 1st AIF

I say incredible a lot I know, but these are considering we have no photo of Jack. To know that not only did this jacket belong to him and that he wore it but that it somehow survived for well over a century now, wow what a story it must have. I did make contact with WorthPoint and they confirmed that the jacket was sold on EBay in the UK in 2011 but there were no further details. So unfortunately it is lost to us. They did however very kindly give me permission to share the photos here.

If you click the link above it will take you to the jacket’s listing and a short summary from the person who was selling it. In that summary they describe that they found Jack’s name inside the jacket and this is how they were able to confirm that it belonged to him.

Talking of not having a photo of Jack, amazingly there was a photo on the Victorian Collections website that shows Jack with his mother, Lottie and his sisters, Olive and Gertrude when they were children. They are pictured in the gardens of Lottie’s parents’ home, Brocklesby in 1894. How random.

Lottie’s parents, Charlotte and William Bushby Jones, Jack’s grandparents built the home in 1866. William died in 1889 and Charlotte sells the house in 1902. In 1907 the home becomes the first Lauriston Girls High School. https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/618c5c110a060348092bb988

The school still operates to this day. I can’t tell from this next image if Brocklesby still stands but the school has taken over the whole site where it use to stand.

Now we have another example of Jessie’s war efforts.

Article 11: Courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia

Having just learnt what Jack went through at Pozieres, this next notice must have been harrowing for Jessie, Alexander, and the family to read. It would have been their biggest fear realised, William wounded.

Luckily for us, the Australian Town and Country Journal carried a few more details in their short piece on William’s wounding.

I must say it is heartening to hear that Jessie and Alexander at least had a wire informing them of the wounding and didn’t have to read it in the newspaper. William’s casualty record notes that he received the wound in the field on the 27th of October.

As you can see, he received a severe shrapnel wound through the right thigh. William was shipped back to England on board the Hospital Ship Dieppe.

In the midst of all this family turmoil from the war, we have another example of the minutiae of home life. It just seems so surreal when compared to what we have just read William and Jack have lived through.

Next, more information on that wartime turmoil. This time, a letter from William to his parents. And again, so lucky for us, it was discussed in print in the Wagga Daily Advertiser in early February 1917.

I mean it is just incredible to me to be able to hear William’s own voice in this article, what a gift.

I went searching for some information on St Anselmas and Sir James Sargent, and it took about an hour of digging to confirm that these details were incorrect. It was actually St Anselm’s in Walmer, Kent and it was Sir Charles Sargant and his wife, Lady Amelia (Millie) Sargant whose residence William was admitted to.

And of course, I went looking for St. Anselm’s, and I can’t believe it, I found it. The hospital building still stands today. This is where William was recovering from his wounding.

It is also very interesting to learn from William’s letter that he and his Cousin Jack were fighting in the same area, Pozières, but obviously at different times. I wonder if their paths crossed and they were able to catch up face to face. William, being wounded in October, places him just three months on the other side of the battle where Jack was wounded, the first day of the Battle of Pozières, the 23rd of July 1916.

This was Jack’s second wounding and ends his active service.

He was shot in the thigh at Gallipoli, survived that wounding then was sent to France, fought at Pozières, and sustained this terrible injury to his arm. What an experience and it wasn’t even the end of 1916 as yet. He was awarded the Military Cross on the 1st of January 1917.

Article 12: Courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia

I was curious to know what the Military Cross looked like. A few are put up for auction at any one time on Google so I was able to find us an example to look at. I did put Jack’s name in the search but nothing came up specifically for him concerning his cross.

I wonder if Jack’s cross has survived the hundred and six years since it was awarded to him and if it has, whose set of drawers is it sitting in and will it ever come to light again?

I can only imagine there must have been a swell of pride and excitement within the family when they became aware of this honour Jack received, let alone when they read who was honouring him at this special event mentioned below.

I couldn’t find a photographic record of the actual event that Jack attended, but I did find one from eleven months earlier in March 1916. I’m sure Jack’s visit to Buckingham Palace would have looked very much like this.

I’m assuming it must have been his experience in the battle on the 23rd of July that earns Jack his Military Cross. I just haven’t found anything written to back that up yet.

A little after Jack’s afternoon tea with the King and Queen, Jessie and Alexander received another letter from William.

Now, there is no doubt here as to how William is feeling from the tone of this letter. He is angry and frustrated. I can only imagine having to fight and then being wounded in one of the deadliest battles that the Australians faced might be the reason for him feeling like this but what had me really intrigued was specifically William’s statement, “…crawling cowards in Australia who won’t enlist.” What did this mean?

Well, a quick Googling of “Enlistment rates Australia, 1917″ provided plenty of answers.

So after the disaster that was Gallipoli, in terms of its failed execution, the men killed and numbers wounded, the rates of enlistments tumbled during 1916. Australia had real problems meeting the commitment of men that the Government had made to the British Government. Billy Hughes who was Prime Minister at the time thought conscription was the answer. https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/conscription-referendums

The very next day after William was wounded so badly in Pozieres, on the 28th of October 1916 the first conscription plebiscite was put to the Australian public. It was narrowly defeated, with the “No” vote of 51.6% and the “Yes”, of 48.4%. https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/the-first-conscription-referendum-1916/

This meant Australia wouldn’t conscript men to fight overseas.

With this defeat and the dwindling enlistment rates, I could imagine this Dancey drawing above is probably how William felt. Abandoned by the country he was helping to protect.

William is discharged from St Anselm’s in Kent, sometime before the 4th of January 1917 to Perham Downs to convalesce. His record doesn’t have an actual discharge date but we know he is at Perham Downs on the 4th as he is charged Absent without leave on this date.

He is eventually shipped back to France to rejoin the battalion on the 16th of January 1917.

I can only imagine with this referendum defeat fresh in their minds and just a couple of months after receiving William’s letter, that Jessie and Alexander’s frustration levels would have gone through the roof on receiving this next piece of distressing news.

William wounded for a second time. When reviewing his service record William was actually wounded on the 18th of March 1917 not even two months have passed since he returned to France from recovering from his first wounding. You’ll note also from the date of the article above that it has taken nearly seven weeks for Jessie and Alexander to be informed of William’s situation.

William received a gunshot wound to his left foot this time. He was shipped out on the 18th of April back to England on board the Hospital Ship, the St Patrick.

Here to put him in the picture, is a photo of William below. I am so fortunate to have this, thanks to the very generous share by Cousin Tony Edwards. Tony had it as part of his family history collection and it shows “Billy” not Willie, in May 1918 just 12 months after this wounding.

It is amazing to think this second wounding happens just seven months out from the severe wounding William received at Poziers.

At the time that William was traveling on the St Patrick back to Britain, Jack his cousin was two days out from departing Capetown South Africa, on his way back home.

This photo above is only months out from when Jack left there on the 18th of April 1917, so this is a real window into his timeline and life. It takes another three weeks for Jack to make it back to Australia. He disembarks on the 15th of May 1917 in Sydney.

I found this remarkable record of the ship Jack was traveling on, the SS Beltana confirming the details of his voyage back home. You will note on the entry for the 21..3..17, below, that the ship left the UK on the 18th March. That is two months at sea to get back to Australia.

I found a discharge notice for Jack in his file that also confirmed the voyage dates.

I was then lucky enough to find this wonderful photo of the actual ship that Jack returned to Australia aboard. The Beltana.

Jack’s return was also mentioned in the papers. This one is from the Glen Innes Examiner.

The Sun newspaper carried the same article but with much more detail and a photo of the returned men being driven to a buffet being held in their honour.

Somewhere in this photo, is Jack. Being one of only two Military Cross recipients I wonder if he is in the first car. There is no way to know but what is incredible, is to know that he is here somewhere.

I’m sure Jessie, Alexander and any other members of the family who could have been there would have been in that compound in the Domain waiting for Jack to welcome him home. How incredible it must have been for them, to not only have Jack back, not in one piece of course but at least back and to know he was being honoured this way for his contribution. I do love the fact that it is also pointed out to us in the article, Jack’s and Captain Walklate’s marked reticence to talk of their exploits.

The ANZAC Buffet is another of what I would call those lost pieces of history. It was set up by Miss Annie Evans and three other prominent women of Sydney at the time and completely run by Red Cross Volunteers and operated solely on donations. It provided a place in the Domain in Sydney for returning soldiers from the front to meet their families. It also provided meals and entertainment seven days a week from 10am -10pm. https://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/archive/curio/exhibit/1371/index9e72.html?from_collection=2&page=2

Returning for a moment to those exploits that Jack wouldn’t discuss above, my Cousin Anne Macvean pointed me in the right direction to find Jack’s commendation entry. It appears in the “Recommendation file for the honours and awards…1st Australian Division…” on the Australian War Memorial site.

How extraordinary to now discover that Jack received his Military Cross not only for one event but for three areas of battle he was involved in. Pétillon, Fleurbaix and also for leading his company in the attack on Pozieres. Now that I’m aware of these names I plan on doing a bit more digging on what happened in these battles and will detail what I find out in a future post on Jack.

Back on the home front again, here we have Jessie contributing a large amount to the Wagga Boys Hut Movement.

Yes, I asked the same thing. What the hell is the Wagga Boys Hut Movement? Well, it took a little bit of digging on Trove as there were absolutely no links coming up in Google at all. This next article explains what it is in a nutshell.

St Andrews is, of course, the Presbyterian congregation Jessie and Alexander belong to and the key to understanding what the Huts were all about is the Y.M.C.A part.

This initiative discussed by the St Andrew’s Women’s Aid Society above culminated in a fundraising day for the cost of the hut.

I came across a few mentions of other Hut’s being erected at the front for different battalions. The initiative took off in other areas around NSW. The Huts were also used for other services that troops might have needed.

Now that I had the key and these few other details to go on, I tried Googling, “YMCA Huts” and found this straight off on the Australian Y.M.C.A site.

I mean those efforts and money raised are incredible. I couldn’t uncover a photo of an Australian-sponsored hut but I did manage to find one of a captured German Hut that the Australians took over. Also a photo of a mobile Aussie canteen truck, and a photo that shows what a typical hut looked like at the front.

The next find was an Uncle Jeff letter from Ivan Macvean, Jessie and Alexander’s grandson and he specifically mentions the big news within the family at the time.

Obviously the news about William being wounded again was being shared around the family.

This next article is really amazing for me. It is one of those personal examples, showing that life is still continuing, despite the fact that there is a major worry for Alexander and Jessie, their son’s life being in danger.

I found the Coreinbob Railway Station site, on the Historical Land Records Viewer of the NSW Land Registry Services. It straddles two parishes. I have checked both maps and Alexander’s name does not appear anywhere, neither so, Bryan Doyle’s, so I can’t pinpoint exactly where Clutha was. But it would have been somewhere either side there of the station which I have marked in yellow highlighter below.

I’m assuming it must stay in the family for a while as it looks like it makes an appearance in Alexander’s obituary. Small spoiler, sorry.

It looks like Uncle Willie, might have taken over the property. I know it doesn’t have Clutha noted next to William’s name but I reckon we might be close.

We next find Jessie, again donating, this time to the Presbyterian Church Stall.

Isabel Macvean, Uncle Willie’s niece is next to discuss what news is happening for the family in another Uncle Jeff letter.

Figure 100a: Courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia

The Lost Wagga Wagga Facebook page had this wonderful window into what the show probably looked like for Isabel and the family. Obviously, this is not the year the floods hit and kept the crowds away.

Keep Isabel’s mention of the “Strikers” in mind, more on that is coming up. What is really interesting here in her letter is not only the personal news about the floods and the show but the fact that she is aware that William is now back in France with his battalion and fighting. So we can deduce from this that a letter from William must have reached the family letting them know this news or at least another wire from the war office stating that he was returning to his battalion.

We last left William departing France aboard, the St Patrick for England, to receive treatment for the gunshot wound to his foot. He is admitted to the military Hospital in Canterbury. I can’t be certain but I think this Military Hospital was the General Kent and Canterbury Hospital on Longport Road which was part of the St Augustine’s site, pictured below.

The Hospital is the large three-story building, mid-center right of the photo with a circular drive and garden in front. Below is a close-up of the left wing of that front view.

According to William’s service record, he remained here at the Military Hospital recovering until the 8th of May 1917 when he was discharged on furlough and then given orders to report to the Training Dept at Perham Downs once again.

I discovered a few more details on what exactly Perham Downs was. The Downs were situated on the edge of the Salisbury Plain. It was a camp set up at the beginning of the war as Australia’s No.1 Command Depot. There were four Australian Command Depots in total set up across the country. Unlike their English counterparts, Australian Troops had no home to return to in the UK after being discharged from hospital, so it was basically a holding depot for Australian troops to continue their convalescence and then once recovered, engage in retraining to harden up in preparation to rejoin their battalions. https://anzac-22nd-battalion.com/training-camps-england/

I just had the most brilliant piece of luck. I stumbled upon another family history blog post, titled “The Kent & Canterbury Hospital” and within it, they had this amazing photo, below, confirming that this hospital was known as the Canterbury Military Hospital, as noted on William’s service record. And not only that, it is dated May 3rd, 1917, exactly the time William was there. Meaning that while Hilda and her friends were posing for this photo, William was somewhere in the building with them.

Now if we refer back to Figure 101c, William’s service record confirms the details of Isabel’s letter, that Uncle Willie was back at the front fighting. As we can see William sails back to France on the 4th of June and rejoins his battalion, the 29th, on the 6th of June 1917.

Of course, Isabel is referring to William returning to the front after being wounded for the second time in her letter to Uncle Jeff. What she couldn’t have known is that just three days before her letter was published, Uncle Willie was actually returned to duty after a month-long admission in the 50th Casualty Clearing Station, this time suffering with scabies.

Oh, I just did a quick dive on Scabies in WW1, OMG! It is harrowing. Scabies is an infestation of the upper layer of the skin by the human itch mite, where it burrows in and lays its eggs. https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/scabies/gen_info/faqs.html#:~:text=Scabies%20is%20an%20infestation%20of,a%20pimple%2Dlike%20skin%20rash.

You know I’m itching as I’m typing. Apparently, the mites preferred areas of infestation are the feet, hands and penis. Yep, your read that right, the penis. Even better than that, the first step in treatment was to thoroughly rub the skin for 15 minutes with a soft soap to open up the burrows and expose the mites and their eggs. It was found that an average admission in 1917 amongst troops serving in France, was 29-30 days before the patient was considered cured and discharged. (https://archive.org/stream/medicalservicesd02macp#page/68/search/scabies )

So William’s admission was in that average. And I mean, to state the bleeding obvious here, what a miserable time for William. This is only two months since he rejoined the battalion after suffering the gunshot wound to his foot. His foot also turned septic apparently, I read this further on in his file. And of course, it is only 10 months since his severe wounding at Pozieres and then you might remember from part one of this post that William started his overseas service with that severe VD infection for the first couple of months, that was when he was still recovering from his mate putting the pick axe through his hand in training. I can understand why he has multiple AWOL charges in his service record as well now.

Back to Kooringal again. Jessie and Alexander have according to this next article, been enjoying the company of Mrs James Henry from Melbourne. I have no idea who Mrs James Henry was, I cannot dig up one connection with her, Jessie or Alexander at this stage. Hopefully, they had a good catch-up together, as it was a long visit.

The next article relates to Captain Jack, (Oh you have no idea how much I have wanted to say that, the dad jokes run strong through me) (I’m referencing the Dr Who character here too, not Pirates of the ……I can’t even type it.) Anyhow back to Captain Jack. Now that he was back on home soil, a Military Cross recipient and injured to boot, I can imagine that the War Office would have wanted to capitalise on all of Jack’s strengths and use him to help boost those dwindling recruitment numbers. This next article confirms that thought.

I can’t find any other mention of this meeting or photographic record of the evening at Manly Corso but this photo below, which happens to be taken at the Wagga Wagga Show, Jack’s Aunt and Uncle’s hometown, might give us a bit of an idea as to what it may have looked like.

I have been working on this post for five months now. I stupidly said when I finished Part 1 back at the end of September 2023 that Part 2 would be out soon. How wrong was I?

I have been so incredibly lucky in that I just kept finding information to add to the story. So because of this, I’m now going to have to split this post into two, look out for Part 3 very soon. I pretty sure that will be the end of the Kooringal story as I have rung Trove and Google dry. I think.