Pittwater RSL and its Sub Branch has stated:
Join us as we come together to honour the bravery and sacrifice of Australian service personnel who have died or suffered in wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations. Arrive 10am | Service 10:20am | Last Post 11am. The Commemorative Service will be held at the lower cenotaph. Let us pause, reflect, and remember those who gave so much for our freedom.
Avalon Beach RSL Commemorative Service details are:
Where: Avalon Beach RSL Club, Bowling Green Lane, Avalon Beach. When: Wednesday 11 November, 10:45am. Starting at 1100, seating from 1045. President, CDRE Richard Menhinick, Rt'd, AM CSC, will lead the Commemoration with the Vice President, LCDR Tamara Sloper-Harding, Rt'd.
Palm Beach RSL:
On Wednesday 11 November, we pause to remember all who have served and those who gave their lives. Join the Palm Beach RSL Sub-Branch for the Remembrance Day Service at 10.45am. Please meet at the Cenotaph. Refreshments will be served afterwards. All members, guests and the community are welcome.
The 11th of November each year marks the anniversary of the Armistice that ended fighting with Germany in World War I.
Australian journalist Edward George Honey (1885–1922) is credited with proposing the tradition of the national minute of silence for Armistice Day, which evolved into the modern Remembrance Day. Mr. Honey, (under the pen name Warren Foster), originally suggested five minutes. Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, a South African statesman independently suggested a silent pause to the British Cabinet, citing a daily silent pause practiced in Cape Town during the war. He suggested three-minutes. However, after a trial with the Grenadier Guards at Buckingham Palace, King George V approved shortening the duration to two minutes.
King George V personally requested all the people of the British Empire to suspend normal activities for two minutes on the hour of the Armistice ‘which stayed the world wide carnage of the four preceding years and marked the victory of Right and Freedom’.
Australia was a small nation with a population of fewer than five million when this conflict commenced. From this small population, no less than 416,809 men enlisted of which 302,000 served overseas. Of these, 62,000 were killed and 155,000 wounded, including people from Mona Vale.
At least a further 8,000 died of war-related injuries after the war. These figures do not include the neurological trauma inflicted on so many soldiers, which negatively affected their lives and those of their families for many years afterwards, if not their whole lives.
Every year since 1919, nations have paused on Remembrance Day in memory of their fallen service people. It’s now a day for people to acknowledge all the service personnel who have died or been injured while serving, including in wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations. It's also a day when we honour their loved ones, those impacted by the loss of a father, brother, sister, and mother, especially when it is little children who waited at home for the return of their dad or mum, aunt or uncle.
At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, people in Australia and many other countries pause for a minute of silent reflection in memory of those who died while in military service, and renew their commitment to support those still coming home with injuries that are visible and those that cannot be seen.
Whether you observe a minute’s silence at 11am, wear a poppy or attend a service, we help keep the legacy of our Defence people alive on Remembrance Day through honouring their service and commitment to keep us safe through their efforts to defend others and restore peace in places of conflict.
This year our Remembrance Day precursor comes from the pen of Ernest Walter Edwards of Macpherson street, Warriewood, in an article he penned for the children of Mona Vale Public school. They had sent sheepskins to the men of Mona Vale serving on the Front.
The people of Narrabeen, Warriewood, Newport, Bayview and Mona Vale were particularly civic mind during this time - they not only held events to raise funds for families starving through the wider work, in supporting the Commission for Relief in Belgium or C.R.B. , also known as the Belgian Relief, an international organisation that arranged for the supply of food to German-occupied Belgium and northern France during the First World War, they also raised enough to send sheepskins over.
The Sheepskin Vest Fund was another civilian and community-led fundraising efforts that collected public donations of money, wool, and sheepskins to manufacture and ship warm sheepskin vests to frontline soldiers. This is a great reminder that everything begins and grows out from being based in community - what we say and do here will always spread and become part of who and what we are. When those changes are for something good, for something positive, they become permanent, so much so that those who come after us will have to cast a long look backwards to find out that this has not always been part of what goes on here.
Between 1914 and 1916 volunteer community networks produced around 100,000 sheepskin vests, (costing about seven shillings each), to protect Australian, British, and Canadian troops from freezing trench conditions in Gallipoli and France. The book Men in Sheep's Clothing can tell you the full story.
It's just as well they did as the northern Winter of December 1915-1916 was incredibly cold, with deployed soldiers stuck in trenches in the open, while those further back from The Front were housed in tents, snow all around them.
Mr. Edwards had four children by then, three of whom would have been students at Mona Vale Public School and one who would be a student there by the time he returned home.
His letter appeared in the newly started 'School Magazine of Literature for Our Girls and Boys' published by the Department of Education in New South Wales. This had stories and poems written for as well as by children. Volume 1, No. 7, where his work appears, also contained a great story about a young girl and boy who looked after ringtail possums they had rescue.
The 'School Magazine of Literature for Our Girls and Boys' may have inspired schools to commence their own magazines and share great news, great reports and creative writing through poems and stories, supporting the next generation of Wordsmiths, Journalists, Poets and Writers to put pen to paper and hone their craft.
Mr. Edward's piece tells us from the outset he was once a pupil in our area - most likely in the first edition of the Mona Vale PS, which was at Church Point:
A LETTER FROM THE TRENCHES.
The following letter written in the trenches in France has been received by the pupils of the school at Mona Vale
France, 1st March, 1916.
''To the Girls and Boys of my old School,
I thought you might like to know something about one of the sheep-skin coats which you and your parents have been helping to buy for the soldiers who have gone away from Mona Vale. One that came all the way to France had a ticket upon it, which stated who had sent it, and also the name of the soldier it was for. Perhaps the woolly sheep which had that nice wool upon his back little thought that it would make such a fine coat for a country where there is so much snow and ice in the winter. But it has made a lovely warm coat.
You know that one day a ship sailed away from Sydney with heaps of things on board, and in amongst all those things was a parcel of sheep-skin coats. It was tossed about badly in the darkness of the ship’s hold, or the big room in the ship, because the sea was very rough sometimes, and the ship rolled to and fro for days at a time. The passengers were very sick, and they began to wonder if they would ever come to land again, the time seemed so long to the sick people. Of course they did come in sight of land at last, and then one day they sailed away over a sea which was very blue, even prettier than the summer seas we have near our beaches at Mona Vale. Every day became warmer and warmer, and the people, who were quite well by that time, began to feel very hot indeed. Those coats, too, in the big parcel under the decks, must have felt remarkably stuffy and warm. I expect they wondered why they were being sent to such a hot place, which was so unsuitable for them. But of course, coats, and we people, too, do not always know just why about everything which occurs, do we ?
“Well, the ship came to port again, and nearly all the people on the land were black or brown in colour. They had funny clothes on, too, which were not so warm as ours, and of course, in the great heat, and the sand which covers most of the land, they do not want very warm clothes, except on winter nights. Well, there were lots of soldiers there too, some from England, others from India, and some from our own Australia. Not far from here were thousands more from Australia, and many of them were from Mona Vale. You know them all. Well those coats got a shaking- up, you can guess, for lots of them were sent ashore, so that they could go forward to our soldiers,.- because the winter nights were soon coming on. All of them did not go ashore, oh, no ; some were to go on farther. The people on the ship waved to the people ashore, and the ship soon started out into a big sea called the Mediterranean Sea.
Here they passed numbers of other ships, and some of them were the great big battleships and the destroyers which had been fighting at the Dardanelles, where most of our soldiers were. There were other ships, too, with crowds of soldiers on them ; these ships were called “ Transports,” because they carry or transport soldiers and war material from one place to another. The captain, officers and passengers now began to watch the sea, and, I suppose, if those coats could have seen them, they would have wondered why they were so interested in the great big sea. It was because of the German submarines which were trying to sink ships, and our captain knew there were some not so very far away.
However, the submarines did not sink the ship, and one day that parcel of coats was bundled out, neck and crop, into a waggon, and then probably to a big post office in England. But some of them were for France, so they were put into a smaller ship and taken across the English Channel, and then they began a ride in the train up to the 11 Front,” —the place where the terrible fighting is going on, and where the Allies are trying to beat back the selfish Germans who want all the land and things which belong to other people. Did I tell you that the weather was very cold indeed, for the big ship had crossed the Equator, and this meant that she was sailing into the cold of a European winter.
Well I suppose those coats began to feel happy, because they are suitable for the cold, and all around them was snow, and the creeks were covered with ice, on which the boys and girls of the villages were sliding and skating. Perhaps, too, they may soon have become a little frightened, for in the distance they began to hear the terrible roar of distant guns, and then in the sky away in the front of them there were little balls of white smoke—a long row of little clouds of smoke where the English shells had been fired at a German aeroplane, which had come over to see how many men the English had around there. When the shells got up near the aeroplane they burst in a flash of light, and the broken metal scattered in all directions, and perhaps some of it hit the aeroplane. Where it burst, a little cloud was left behind. The sky was very pretty, but the man in the aeroplane must have felt rather frightened too, for he soon headed away back towards where the other German soldiers were.
Night came quickly, and there was a big reflection all along the sky in front of the train. Soon the soldiers on the train could see the star shells, which were lighting up the ground around the trenches. These are funny little shells which go slowly up into the air, and, instead of bursting into bits of metal, they become bright balls of light, which go up, and then, turning slowly over, they come gradually down again, and burn out. They are fired so that the soldiers can see if the German soldiers cire coming in the night. Heavy guns are going off, and the flash lights up the sky, just as summer lightning does in Australia when it is a long way off. And you can hear the big shells (many of them heavier than the boys and girls of your school) as they travel singing, and sometimes whistling shrilly until a dull roar and a flash of light in the distance tells you they have burst over the German lines.
Those coats must have felt very much afraid at first, don’t you think ? Soon they got used to it however, and then they were not always near the line, though they could always hear the roar, hear the shells, and see the lights and reflection.
“ One day a soldier from Mona Vale sat in a canvas hut, and outside there were heaps of snow and ice. It was very, very cold. The little door of the hut opened, and in came a soldier-postman, with snow over his big coat and on his big rubber boots. He read out the names on all the letters he had, and then- why, he had a parcel for the Mona Vale soldier, and that parcel was a sheep-skin coat sent by the children and parents of Mona Vale. That soldier was glad, —yes, but he was gladder still because he knew that someone in Mona Vale was thinking about the soldiers who had gone away to the war.
Now you know all about one of the coats, and I hope that you too will be happy, because people can always be happy themselves if they really try to make other people happy.''
“With best wishes from
“E. W. EDWARDS."
New South Wales. Department of Education. (). A LETTER FROM THE TRENCHES., The school magazine of literature for our boys and girls Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-807690844 - 1. Vol. 1 No. 7 Part 2 Classes 4 & 5 (August 2, 1916)
In December 1915 Winter weather returned to the Western Front in France after a dry Summer, bringing above-average precipitation, including snow and freezing conditions, particularly in mountainous and northern sectors like the Vosges and Alsace. Soldiers on both sides faced extreme hardship from freezing temperatures, leading to widespread issues with frostbite, exposure, and trench foot.
While troops in frontline areas increasingly lived in waterlogged and snow-covered trenches or dugouts, rear-area camps and mobile units used canvas tents that offered little insulation against sub-zero weather.
Unidentified Australian soldiers visiting the graves of fallen comrades in a cemetery located between Albert and Becordel. The man on the left is wearing a greatcoat and his companion in the centre is wearing a sheepskin vest. January 1917 in France: Picardie, Somme, Albert Combles Area by Unknown Australian Official Photographer, courtesy Australian War Memorial, item; E00165
Image: France, 1:20 000 : sheet 36 S.W. : trenches corrected to 11th December, 1915 [edition 6] - A single sheet from the France/Belgium/Holland 1:20 000 topographical map series, covering the area around the northern French towns of Aubers and Radinghem, and overprinted with military information. Shows enemy trenches, wire, battery positions, huts, telephone exchange as at 11 December 1915. Relief shown by contours. Includes legend and, on verso, glossary and index to adjoining sheets. From and courtesy Australian War Memorial.
Ernest Walter Edwards: World War One War Service
Ernest was born in 1881, with the birth registered at Glebe, to Charles Henry and Elizabeth Edwards. Obviously he and his family moved to Pittwater at some stage soon afterwards, so he could attend 'my old School', likely to be an earlier version of Mona Vale PS, in the Church at Church Point, or just around the corner from there when the Morrisons set up a new school there. He would have been too old when the school was moved to the village of Mona Vale for primary school grades.
Pittwater Public School - Samuel Morrison with his pupils - circa 1898, courtesy Bob Waterer
Bay View PS students 1906, Image: 15051_a047_000882, courtesy State Records NSW - moved to Mona Vale in 1906 (some sources record they were in new school is open by July 1906): Mr. Samuel Morrison, Teacher, Provisional School, Pittwater. Government Gazette Appointments and Employment (1884, May 27). New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900), , p. 3425. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article221672305 - Transfers and Appointments - Teachers: Mr. S. Morrison, from Newport to Mona Vale; SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL TEACHERS. (1906, September 5). The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), , p. 626. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article163682045
Ernest Walter Edwards, of Macpherson street Narrabeen (Warriewood) enlisted on February 9 1915 aged 33 and 7 months. He had already served as a Driver with the 7th reinforcements ASC from February 1914.
His War Record states his previous experience. He had already served with the Australian Engineers (Submarine minors) for 2 years and as a Cadet for 2 ½ years prior to that and had resigned on removal to New Zealand.
He was a Pattern Maker prior to enlisting and had been apprenticed for 5 years to G & C Hoskins.
G. & C. Hoskins Limited was an Australian iron and steel manufacturing company. In 1914, the firm was operating major pipe works and iron foundries in Sydney and Lithgow. By 1914, G. & C. Hoskins occupied a large workshop area on Wattle Street in Ultimo/Broadway and a major cast-iron pipe manufacturing facility at Rhodes.
A Pattern Maker in iron and steel was one of the highest-paid and most elite tradesmen of the Industrial Era. Working within a foundry or engineering works, they were essentially elite woodworkers who built the precise structural blueprints for the heavy industry that built the modern world—including locomotives, steam engines, ships, and architectural steel.
Charles Henry Hoskins (1851-1926) was an Australian industrialist, who was significant in the development of the iron and steel industry in Australia. Born on 26 March 1851 in London, to John Hoskins, gunsmith, and his wife Wilmot Eliza, née Thompson. He emigrated with his family to Australia as a small child in 1853, and all his education occurred in Melbourne. Charles Hoskins joined his elder brother George (1847-1926) in Sydney in 1876, operating a small engineering workshop at Hay Street, Ultimo. Around 1889, their firm, G & C Hoskins, moved to larger premises in Wattle Street, Ultimo and established a foundry, pipe-works and boiler shop. This plant was expanded in 1902. From 1911, they opened a second facility at Rhodes, to manufacture cast-iron pipes.
Through their pipe manufacturing, they became very successful. A breakthrough came when they began to win contracts for the Sydney water supply mains. The Hoskins brothers were not only efficient; they were also innovative, patenting a number of their ideas for improving pipes and their manufacturing processes.
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The exhibit of G & C Hoskins at the Agricultural Society Show of 1904. Unknown photographer Published in The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser Wed 13 Apr 1904 Page 926. - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/163992381
Ernest Walter Edwards and Lucy Elizabeth Pring married in 1907. They had two little girls, ‘Bessie’ (Elizabeth born 1907) and ‘Voilet’ (born 1909) and three little boys; Edwin George Edwards (born 1911) and Ernest Charles Edwards (born 1913), and Ivo J W (born 1920).The children’s births were recorded at Balmain for Bessie, and Paddington for Violet, Edwin and Ernest and Ivo J W’s – birth is registered at Manly.
Lucy was born in 1881, birth registered at Paddington, to James and Elizabeth A. Pring.
Mr. Edwards War Records record his wife Lucy is receiving 10/- or ten shillings per child as part of his service to help pay for what the first of his children require. This equated to half an Australian pound, or £0.50. Ivo wasn’t born until he after he came home.
The older children would have been attending Mona Vale Public School when he left to serve and Ernest Charles would have joined them by the time he came home.
He was seconded to the 8th Australian Army Service Corps., Reinforcements.
Formed as the 8th Army Service Corps Company (New South Wales and Queensland) in September 1914 and attached to the First Division. The unit departed Melbourne on HMAT Ceramic on 22 December 1914. They were diverted to England, arriving on the 15th of February 1915 where they were renamed the 301st Mechanical Transport Company. The unit moved to France in July 1915 and was again renamed, as the 17th Division Ammunition Sub Park and assigned to the British 17th Division. Renumbered the 1st Division Ammunition Sub Park April 1916 and then re-assigned to the 1st Division AIF. Disbanded in March 1918, the Company was one of the first Australian units to serve in France, and predated the arrival of the remainder of the AIF by eight months.
In 1915 the 8th AASC operated in support roles connected to the Mediterranean and Middle East theatres, including logistics and ammunition transport supporting operations around the Dardanelles/Gallipoli campaign (with some personnel stationed or landing near the beaches/hospitals).
From July 1915 – 1917 and onward the 8th AASC was dispatched to France to serve as a mechanical transport and ammunition park unit supporting Allied forces through the heavy campaigns of the Somme, Flanders, and the Ypres sector.
Ernest embarked on the HMAT Orsova on July 14 1915.
HMAT Orsova. Photo: courtesy State Library of South Australia, Item B 73282/7
Deployed as a Driver, (and he was engaged in other work) by October 1915 he was in Rouen, France. Rouen operated as a major medical base with tens of thousands of hospital beds distributed across roughly 15 facilities, including general and stationary hospitals, as well as Red Cross units. Wounded and sick soldiers arrived via train, ambulance, and barge evacuation.
Letter from Lucy E Edwards to the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, courtesy Australian War Memorial, this letter from Mrs E.W. Edwards to the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, from ‘Narrabeen, 6 July 1916’ mentions an enclosed article, written by her husband, for publishing consideration. Attached to the letter is an article written by Ernest Walter Edwards called ' Australians in France, A Re-union', which tells the story of a company of Australian Engineers serving with a British Division in France. Research could not find in the Sydney Morning Herald his published work, nor this piece in particular.
In December 1916 he was reported being in hospital due to severe ‘shell shock’. A telegram sent to his wife spoke of his ‘severe condition’. Later she received another message stating he was ‘improving’. His records state he rejoined his unit in March 1917. He was sent to Doullens Hospital after a further 3 months suffering from Neurasthenia, headache and (sound/nosie;???) in his ears (unable to read scribbled note).
Neurasthenia is an historical medical term used to describe a condition of chronic physical and mental exhaustion, weakness, and "nervous fatigue". Doullens Citadel (specifically the No. 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital) or the Endell Street Military Hospital, was in London.
On discharge Ernest was categorised as an 'Artificer', which is an appointment, not a rank, and his unit 2nd D.A.S.P. the 2nd Divisional Ammunition Sub-Park. These were highly specialised mechanical transport logistics units, with both the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) operating units by this name.
During World War 1 an Artificer was a highly skilled military tradesman or technician responsible for repairing, maintaining, and constructing specialised equipment, weaponry, and machinery. Here again his earlier work as a Pattern Maker must have been put to good use, and his being sent to Doullens Citadel Hospital would indicate he had been deployed as part of an Australian contingent working with the Canadians on that specialty.
He was boarded at ‘Weymouth’ to rest with a finding of; 'Temporarily unfit for General Service – more than 6 months, and later 'Unfit for Home Service'.
AUSTRALIANS ALL-IN ENGLAND AND FRANCE.
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Australian Convalescents in No. 1 General Hospital, London. Among them is Pte. V. H. Simpson, of Singleton, N.S.W., who, after two spells in the trenches, is now suffering from shell shock.
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In a Military Camp Hospital at Witcham, England. All are Australians.
AUSTRALIANS ALL—IN ENGLAND AND FRANCE. (1917, March 14). Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), p. 13. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article160386790
In July 1917 it was decided he was to be returned to Australia per ‘A’ 71, the 'Nestor' as he was still suffering badly from Neurasthenia. He returned to Sydney, disembarking on September 25 1917.
From October 3 1917 to January 14 1918 he was placed in No. 4 AGH. The No. 4 Australian General Hospital (No. 4 AGH) was an Australian Imperial Force (AIF) medical unit established during World War I at Randwick in Sydney's eastern suburbs. It later evolved into the historical site known as Randwick Military Hospital, which subsequently developed into the Prince of Wales Hospital.
His records show that on October 17 1917 he was ‘feeling better, stronger, not so nervous’.
On November 20 1917: ‘not quite so nervous. To go to Armidale for month.’ where, his records state, he will require ‘plenty of open air as much milk as he can drink’.
By 1917 a number of homes throughout New South Wales were being administered by the Red Cross as convalescent hospitals for the care of returned servicemen. The du Faur family homestead, for example, was made available to the Red Cross in 1915 in order for it to be set up as a convalescent home. (AHDB Lady Davidson Hospital. Place ID 100595).
Other homes converted to convalescent hospitals for returned soldiers during the First World War included: Kamesburgh (1918) in Brighton, Victoria; Booloominbah Homestead (during WW I) in Armidale, NSW; Saumarez Homestead (during WWI) in Armidale, NSW; Hathrop (during WWI) in Glanmire, NSW; Lady Galway Home in Adelaide, South Australia and after WWI the Mill in Moss Vale, NSW.
In November 1921 he received a loan for land as part of the Kentucky Soldiers Settlement at Armidale – ‘open air and as much milk as he can drink’ became his life.
The Kentucky Soldiers' Settlement World War I soldier settlement scheme was located near Kentucky in the New England region of New South Wales, south of Armidale and near Uralla. The Returned Soldiers' Settlement Act 1916 was established following World War I to provide returning discharged soldiers with a rural livelihood. Kentucky is a quiet rural village featuring historic weatherboard cottages, local landmarks, vineyards, and fine wool properties. This was originally established as a large-scale orcharding scheme (growing fruits such as apples as well as pumpkins, melons, cabbages, maize and millet, as well as raising sheep). The blocks allocated under the Kentucky Soldier Settlement Scheme were between 40 and 250 acres in size. The total settlement area spanned roughly 7,319 acres and was subdivided into 80 individual farms. Approximately 1,200 acres of that total land was dedicated to fruit orchards—growing crops like apples, prunes, pears, and cherries.
The scheme required the soldier settlers to clear rugged bushland, build modest cottages (they helped each other do this), and tend trees with limited resources. There was a store and school, and a railway station.
Later this transitioned to fine wool merino production and utilised Italian prisoner-of-war (POW) labor during World War II.
Government Printing Office 1 - 38478 - Kentucky Soldiers Settlement – school. Contents Date Range; no date 01-01-1919 to no date 31-12-1919. Item; FL3722092, courtesy NSW Records and Archives.
Government Printing Office 1 - 38472 - Kentucky Soldiers Settlement - cabbage growing, Contents Date Range; no date 01-01-1919 to no date 31-12-1919. Item; FL3722452, courtesy NSW Records and Archives.
Government Printing Office 1 - 38479 - Kentucky Soldiers Settlement - railway station & school. Contents Date Range; no date 01-01-1919 to no date 31-12-1919. Item; FL3722106, courtesy NSW Records and Archives.
Government Printing Office 1 - 37195 - Kentucky Soldier Settlement: the village of Kentucky. Contents Date Range; no date 01-01-1920 to no date 31-12-1920. Item; FL3688523, courtesy NSW Records and Archives.
Government Printing Office 1 - 40505 - Kentucky Soldiers Settlement, a completed home. Contents Date Range; no date 01-01-1918 to no date 31-12-1918. Item; FL3818844, courtesy NSW Records and Archives.
The Uralla Visitors Centre tells us:
‘’ Weatherboard cottages built on small blocks of prime New England land were won by ballot, and the diggers and their families settled into a life of hard work.
The initial years were difficult for many orchardists, waiting for their trees to produce fruit and trying to survive on the subsistence allowance granted by the Government (15c per day in today’s currency!) They grew vegetables and shot rabbits to eke out an existence until the fruit came in.
Nationwide, the soldier settlement scheme was a disaster, as often the country selected was unsuitable and the blocks were not large enough. According to a government inquiry in 1929, one third of the settlers failed in their attempts to work the land.
However, once the orchards started to bear fruit in Kentucky, the area prospered, also bolstered by the surrounding grazing land of Kentucky Station and Terrible Vale, which was producing some of the nation’s finest wool. Churches, schools, halls, and shops sprang up, and lively dances, sporting days, and community gatherings were the order of the day.
Kentucky had a unique, almost English-style atmosphere, where, due to the relatively small size of the farms, neighbours were never far away and there were always plenty of social activities available.’’
Gaining a foot through the door of a writer’s career to share your voice can be a tough road. It has a Catch-22 element to it in that someone has to first give you a go in order for you to get a go anywhere else. Publishing is expensive, time consuming and a lot of hard work if you’re going to do it well and to the best standard you can – many publishers go broke or work for years for little or no pay in order to share important ideas and outstanding voices.
Ernest Walter Edwards clearly had a voice and the acumen and articulation to express ideas and feelings in words. He would have known, through toiling in steelworks and then on the land, the hard yards. Although no further instances of his work could be found, they must exist. His Probate Notice shows us he was a publisher and he and Lucy were back in Sydney after their farming jaunt at Armidale, giving others that go they needed in order to get a go everywhere else.
Ernest's journey into publishing or speaking out and providing insights, as well as creating opportunities for others, is all the more remarkable when we remember many of those who served and serve still on battlefronts are rendered silent by the horrific experiences and scenes they bore witness to.
‘They never spoke about it’ is what they and their children have related through numerous interviews since the news service started.
Ernest Walter Edwards must have been determined to recover, to live his life to the fullest, overcome the many obstacles seen and unseen he was burdened with, and pursue what he felt he had some talent for.
His, ultimately, is as story of triumph realised through a love of his family and through his own nature, his generosity of spirit. And of course, growing up in Pittwater, where fair winds, green and blue views to all horizons, access to fresh fruit and vegetables in the orchards and gardens once here, and fresh fish, plus an opportunity to dive into soul-restoring saltwater, as his childhood base and touchstone may have helped him through knowing all he need do is return to what is good for you.
We all run into the arms of God every time we step into the Great Outdoors here in Pittwater. It's a healing embrace.
His story is also a reminder to be kind to each other, to everyone, even strangers, as you never know what somebody else is going through, and an insensitive word or deed may hurt more than you know, while a little kindness can make room for the opposite to occur - thereby many have entertained angels unawares.
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have received Angels into their houses unawares. Hebrews 13:2
Lucy Elizabeth Edwards passed away in 1950, aged 69.
Ernest Walter Edwards’ date of death is recorded as July 26 1975, making him 94 when he passed away.
Clearly ‘open air and as much milk as he can drink’, along with a place for him, his wife and children at Armidale was a tonic that worked and allowed Ernest Walter Edwards to take steps towards what he really wanted to do, and was, by then, a long way…
From the trenches….
We will Remember Them.
Lest we forget.
References
- New South Wales. Department of Education. (). A LETTER FROM THE TRENCHES., The school magazine of literature for our boys and girls Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-807690844 - Vol. 1 No. 7 Part 2 Classes 4 & 5 (August 2, 1916)
- National Archives of Australia – digitised WWI records
- Australian War Memorial
- Remembrance Day 2026 Services in Pittwater - listings: Pittwater RSL and RSL NSW
- Methodist Church at Church Point: The Chapel the Point is Named after - Some History
- Hesketh George Henry MacSwiney of Mona Vale
- Remembrance Day 2021: Mona Vale's Hales-Smith Haynes Smith, Holding, Brentnall And Roby - A.I.F. Men Of World War One who died on the Fields of France
- Church Point and Bayview: A Pittwater Public School Set on the Estuary
- Mona Vale Public School 1906 to 2012
- Beryl Clarke née Byron of Mona Vale - Profile
- Remembrance Day 2016: War Memorials - Mona Vale, November 14, 1926
- Mona Vale War Memorials: A School Honour Board, A Victory Tree, A Cenotaph - 2022 version
- HMAT A67 Orsova. From; https://birtwistlewiki.com.au/wiki/HMAT_A67_Orsova
- WWI Convalescent homes in Australia for AIF Servicemen - records per NSW Heritage Office
- Wikipedia contributors. (2026, May 29). Charles Hoskins. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charles_Hoskins&oldid=1356729437
- EDWARDS Ernest Walter. Index Name; Soldier Settlement Loan Files Index 1906-1960. Name; Ernest Walter, Surname; EDWARDS. Index Number. 75. Address; Kentucky Soldiers Settlement. Land District; Armidale. Start Date; 17 Nov 1921, End Date; 29 Mar 1928. Loan No; 7706 - NSW Records and Archives
- ‘Kentucky’, Armidale – webpage in Uralla Visitors Centre website. Retrieved from; https://www.uralla.com/Explore/Things-to-Do/Uralla-Shire-Villages/Kentucky
National Archives of Australia War Records, Digitised:
Driver Ernest Walter Edwards
- Service number: 6947
- Ranks Held: Driver, Motor Driver
- Final Rank: Driver
- Unit: 2 A.M.T.S.
- Date of enlistment 09/02/1915
- Date of embarkation: 14/07/1915
- Ship Embarked On HMAT Orsova A67
- Date returned to Australia: 22/07/1917
- Unit: 8 ASC 17 Divisional Ammunition Park 301 Company (MT [Mechanical Transport]) - 1 to 13 Reinforcements.
HMAT Orsova (A67) was a 12,041-ton passenger liner built in 1908 by John Brown & Co for the Orient Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. During World War I, she was requisitioned as a Hired Military Australian Transport (HMAT) carrying Australian Imperial Force (AIF) troops, horses, and medical staff to the Middle East and Europe. Specifications: 536.2 feet in length, a speed of 18 knots, and a troop capacity of around 1,310 personnel. between 1915 and 1917, she made multiple voyages transporting Australian soldiers and medical personnel from ports like Sydney and Melbourne/Fremantle to Suez and Plymouth. On 14 March 1917, Orsova was damaged off the coast by a German submarine (U-68) torpedo or mine. She was repaired after the war, resumed regular UK-Australia passenger service in 1919, and was eventually sold for scrap in Scotland in 1936.
‘’Our mess on the 'Nestor'. Sutcliffe, Brooks and 'I' [7588 Walter James Sutcliffe, 7449 Alfred Ernest Brooks, 7624 John Thomas McCague] in centre foreground.’’ Photograph (was inside the wallet) likely belonged to 7624 Private John Thomas McCague, 8th Battalion. Date Made circa November 1917, at sea. Courtesy Australian War Memorial
Ernest Walter Edwards birth per NSW BDM’s: EDWARDS ERNEST WALTER. Registration number; 5697/1881. Father's Given name(s); CHARLES HENRY, Mother's Given name(s); ELIZABETH. District; GLEBE
Ernest Walter Edwards - Date of Death 26/07/1975, Granted on 06/11/1975 – NSW Records and Archives.
Ernest Walter Edwards death per NSW BDM’s: EDWARDS ERNEST WALTER. Registration number; 24265/1975. Father's Given Name(s); CHARLES HENRY, Mother's Given Name(s); ELIZABETH. District; 001 – ‘001’ corresponds to Sydney.
Lucy’s birth per NSW BDM’s; PRING LUCY E. Registration number; 6684/1881. Father's Given name(s); JAMES, Mother's Given name(s); ELIZABETH A. District; PADDINGTON
Lucy’s death per NSW BDM’s; EDWARDS LUCY ELIZABETH. Registration number; 19486/1950. Father's Given Name(s); JAMES, Mother's Given Name(s), ELIZABETH ANN, District; KINGSFORD - Eastern Suburbs of Sydney.
NSW BDM’s Marriage: Registration number 7017/1907. Groom's Family Name; EDWARDS, Groom's Given Name(s); ERNEST W. Bride's Family Name(s); PRING, Bride's Given Name(s); LUCY E. District; BALMAIN NORTH
Ernest does not appear to have remarried.
Probate Notice:
IN the Supreme Court of New South Wales.—Notice of intended distribution of estate.—Any person having any claim upon the estate of ERNEST WALTER EDWARDS, late of Cartwright, publisher, who died on 26th July, 1975, must send particulars of his claim to the Public Trustee at the address appearing below on or before 20th February, 1976. The Public Trustee will distribute the assets of the estate, having regard only to the claims of which at that date he has notice. Probate, with the will dated 22nd July, 1975, was granted in New South Wales on 6th November, 1975, to the Public Trustee. W. McINNES, Branch Manager, Public Trust Office, cnr Moore and Northumberland Streets, Liverpool 2170. 2858—$5 IN the Supreme Court of New South Wales.—Notice of (1975, December 19). Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 2001), p. 5487. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article220172720
Cartwright is a suburb in south-western Sydney, near Liverpool. The suburb of Cartwright was officially gazetted on 7 April 1972.Cartwright is one of the six suburbs of the Green Valley Housing Estate established between 1961-1965 by the NSW Housing Commission to provides homes for up to 30,000 people. The first sod was turned on the 3rd of August 1961. The suburb is bordered by Cabramatta Creek and Hoxton Park Rd. – from Liverpool council archives
THE NATIONAL DEFENCE FORCE—TRAINING AT MONA VALE, N.S.W. (New Series Vol. 3 No. 6 (1 May 1915 - page 385). The Lone hand Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-392506948
See: Mona Vale Training Grounds: From Lancers on Horses to Lasses on Transport Courses
Above: 'Church Point, Pitt Water - 20 minutes from Sydney' by A. J. Vogan (Arthur James), 1859-1948, [circa. 1910 - ca. 1915]. Courtesy State Library of Victoria. Image H82.254/8/29 - showing the chapel; Church Point was named for.
Pittwater, Broken Bay.-I am a little boy 11 years old. I come to school in a boat. I have plenty of school-mates, and we have fine fun. My amusements in the evening are playing about and boat sailing. I have a nice little schooner, and she sails very well. This is a very nice place down here, and I would not like to leave it. . -ALFRED.
[Your writing is very good.]
Pittwater, Broken Bay.- I am only a child, but I must write you a letter, and I have seen none from Pittwater yet. We have a public school. The school is held in the church. I believe we shall have a new one. I have a young pet opossum; he will climb up your back, over your shoulders, as he is very tame. It is funny to see him hang by his tail. My father has a large orchard, and we have fruit nearly all the year round. GRACE. The Children's Letter Box. (1886, July 3).Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1907), , p. 30. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71064727
See: Methodist Church at Church Point: The Chapel the Point is Named after - Some History and Church Point and Bayview: A Pittwater Public School Set on the Estuary
AUSTRALIANS ALL-IN ENGLAND AND FRANCE.
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Australian Convalescents in No. 1 General Hospital, London. Among them is Pte. V. H. Simpson, of Singleton, N.S.W., who, after two spells in the trenches, is now suffering from shell shock.
New South Wales North Coasters in France. THEY belong to No. 12 Section, B Company, 35th Battalion, A.I F (Newcastle's Own). The group includes Pte. Cumins, who has since been killed in action. The battalion saw some heavy fighting on the Western front.
A Group of Non.-Corns, in France. Standing : Sergt. Elazer, Corp. Ellis, Corp Burns. Sitting: Corp. Thomas, Sergt. Robinson, Corp. Pearce, Corp. Cartwright and Corp. Bonnor.
In Camp in England. Section 16, Platoon 16, D Company. 36th Battalion.
Wounded Australians in Prince Edward's Home, England. They were entertained by the Queen and Princess Mary at Sandringham. The photo was taken by the Queen's photographer.
A Group of Australian Gunners. BACK ROW: Hinds, Ralston, Gosbell, Phipps, Potts, Dodds. Middle Row: De Verdie, Meyer, Mullane, Corp. Mrriby, P. Boland, Richmond, Still. Front Row: Hedley, Leahy, Sergt. Ogg, W. Boland, Madden, McNamee. Lying: Anderson and Cork.
Men of the 34th and 36th Battalions. Standing: Pte. Richardson, Lance-corp. E. J. Conway, Lance-corp. K. Clinch. Sitting: Lance-Corp. D. . Courtnay, Pte. G. E. Smith, Signlr. S. Brazil.
In a Military Camp Hospital At Witcham, England. All are Australians.
AUSTRALIANS ALL—IN ENGLAND AND FRANCE. (1917, March 14). Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), p. 13. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article160386790
General Hospitals
These were large base hospitals with 250, 500 or 1000 beds. They also generally administered a number of auxiliary hospitals. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 10th and 14th served overseas; the others were based in Australia. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 14th were all eventually upgraded to the maximum size.
1st Australian General Hospital (1AGH) Formed Queensland, August 1914. Departed Brisbane aboard Kyarra 21 November 1914. (Egypt, Western Front)
1AGH Egypt This hospital was located in various buildings in Cairo. It dealt with all war cases—physical injuries, diseases, shell shock.
1AGH Rouen, France This hospital dealt with general battle casualties.
2nd Australian General Hospital (2AGH) Formed New South Wales August 1914. Departed Sydney aboard Kyarra 28 November 1914. (Egypt, Western Front)
2AGH Boulogne, France This was a large tented hospital, and most of the patients were battle casualties. It came to specialise in the treatment of fractures. This hospital experienced many air raids. Towards the end of the war there were outbreaks of influenza. When the armistice was signed, the staff barely found time to celebrate. They were too busy treating the influenza victims who continued to arrive throughout November.
3rd Australian General Hospital (3AGH) Formed New South Wales 1915. Departed Sydney aboard Mooltan 5 May 1915. (England, Gallipoli, Egypt, Western Front)
3AGH Abbeville, France This hospital operated from tents and huts at Abbeville, in the Somme area of France. For most of its existence (May 1917 to May 1918) it admitted gassed patients and treated them briefly before sending them to other places.
10th General Hospital Formed July 1915. Departed Australia 22 July 1915. Arrived in the United Kingdom 29 September 1915. This unit was intended as a 500 bed general hospital for the treatment of Australians in the United Kingdom, but owing to a lack of accommodation and poor AIF medical administration, it was broken up at Harefield, England in October 1915 and personnel used to staff Auxiliary Hospitals. (England)
In full - by ANZAC Day Commemoration Committee and at: https://anzacday.org.au/australian-ww1-hospitals
The forgotten soldiers By Claire Hunter, 18 February 2022 – AWM.
Available at: www.awm.gov.au//dr-effie-karageorgos-on-the-sufferings-of-war
An historical account of shell shock during the First World War and reforms in mental health in Australia 1914-1939
Abstract
The study of the disorders of the mind at the turn of the twentieth century offered useful knowledge about the psyche and the First World War (FWW) provided an avalanche of case studies. Prior to the war the mentally ill were treated with disdain and the social distrust of individuals who did not present as 'normal' was high. The level of diagnostic expertise of psychiatric illness by doctors and nurses was low and as a consequence medicine and nursing was ill-equipped to deal with the phenomenon initially referred to as 'shell shock'. However, the soldiers of the FWW who endured the varied and seemingly unrelated symptoms of shell-shock were respected men - occasional heroes - who were reduced to the status of 'mentals'. There is evidence that civilian trained health professionals altered their views about mental illness during the FWW but initially, the military imperatives inherent in a global conflict perpetuated the notion that mental illness was linked with defective morality. This paper provides an historical account of changes in attitude toward the mentally ill as a consequence of the FWW. The interregnum (1918-39) was a period of advancement in the field of mental health within the civilian sector. However, the imperatives of war negated these developments and there is evidence that the management of soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders in the Second World War did not benefit from the lessons learnt in the FWW.
Rae R. An historical account of shell shock during the First World War and reforms in mental health in Australia 1914-1939. Int J Ment Health Nurs. 2007 Aug;16(4):266-73. doi: 10.1111/j.1447-0349.2007.00476.x. PMID: 17635626. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17635626/
