Town of Coburg Honour Board

Image courtesy B. & S. Garrett.

The Honour Board is located in the foyer of the Coburg Town Hall, Bell Street, Coburg. There are over 1,000 names listed there. The database I have been building for the past twelve months began with the names on this Honour Board. Since then, of course, I have collected much more information and added many more men who had connections to Coburg.

Not surprisingly, given Coburg's close geographical relationship with Brunswick, many families lived at various times in both Coburg and Brunswick, so if you are researching a soldier who lived in both suburbs, it is always worth checking out the Honour Board at the Brunswick Town Hall, which lists many more names than the Coburg Honour Board.

Feel free to contact me if you would like to know more about any of the men listed on the Town of Coburg Honour Board.

Coburg’s little known Memorial Avenue of Trees.

Tucked away behind the Coburg State School Infant School (located on the south side of Bell Street, opposite the main school) once stood an Avenue of Honour, dedicated to the memories of 35 old boys of the school who enlisted in the 1st AIF.

The trees no longer exist, although a Memorial Garden was planted in the grounds in 1991 to honour those 35 old boys.

Image courtesy Coburg Historical Society.

The old boys remembered there are:

Tree 1: 5375 Private Edwin William Dunstan (also Avenue of Trees, Lake Reserve)

Tree 2: 4188 Private Charles Henry Skiller (also Avenue of Trees, Lake Reserve)

Tree 3: 13365 Private Leslie Thomas Ward (also Soldiers Book & Avenue of Trees, Lake Reserve)

Tree 4: 3861 Private Rupert James Scott (also Soldiers Book & Avenue of Trees, Lake Reserve)

Tree 5: Corporal Thomas Francis Quirke (died before embarking; also Soldiers Book)

Tree 6: 4520 Private Henry William Phair (also Soldiers Book & Avenue of Trees, Lake Reserve)

Tree 7: 182 Lance Sergeant Ernest James Orr (also Soldiers Book & Avenue of Trees, Lake Reserve)

Tree 8: William McKay (died before embarking; also Soldiers Book)

Tree 9: 1643 Private Allan Douglas McAskil (also Avenue of Trees, Lake Reserve)

Tree 10: William Malcolmson (possibly 2743 Private William Frederick Malcomson)

Tree 11: 1989 Private William Thomas Libbis (also Soldiers Book & Avenue of Trees, Lake Reserve)

Tree 12: 4006 Private Cyril Allen Jolly

Tree 13: 234 Private Donald William Johnson (also Soldiers Book & Avenue of Trees, Lake Reserve)

Tree 14: 2659 Private John Norman Hartley (also Soldiers Book & Avenue of Trees, Lake Reserve)

Tree 15: N. Gates (possibly 125 Private Norman WIlliam Gates)

Tree 16: 1060 Private Robert Gordon Duncan

Tree 17: 6767 Bombardier Phillip Frederick Dix (also Soldiers Book)

Tree 18: 3479 Gunner Raymond Cary (also Avenue of Trees, Lake Reserve)

Tree 19: 6420 Private Frank Dawson Pridham (also Avenue of Trees, Lake Reserve)

Tree 20: 411 Gunner Alfred Williams (also Soldiers Book & Avenue of Trees, Lake Reserve)

Tree 21: 2781 Lance Corporal Stanley Victor Ray (also Soldiers Book)

Tree 22: 2742 Private William George Pollock (aka William Grieve Pollock, later a Lieutenant)

Tree 23: William Pinney

Tree 24: 4497 Acting Corporal James Nicol (also Avenue of Trees, Lake Reserve)

Tree 25: 3208 Lance Corporal Kenneth Fraser

Tree 26: 1554 Private John Francis McCormack (also Soldiers Book)

Tree 27: 3651 Driver Archibald Angus McAskil (also Avenue of Trees, Lake Reserve)

Tree 28: 2864 Private Thomas Oscar Meredith (also Soldiers Book & Avenue of Trees, Lake Reserve)

Tree 29: 1047 Private Frederick Charles Kiellerup

Tree 30: 883 Private Frederick Walter Janes (also Avenue of Trees, Lake Reserve)

Tree 31: 234 Signaller Lance Corporal Thomas Atherton Johnston (also Soldiers Book)

Tree 32: 1910 Private John Vincent Standen

Tree 33: William Geddes (died before embarking)

Tree 34: 2180 Sergeant Charles James Durham (also Soldiers Book & Avenue of Trees, Lake Reserve)

Tree 35: 5364 Private John William Doig (also Soldiers Book)

Some of these old boys are not mentioned on any other Coburg Memorial, making this a very important local place of remembrance.

If you can help with information on any of these men and their families, I would be very interesting in hearing from you.

Coburg State School Soldiers Book

The book contains profiles of the following old boys of the school:

Adams, Rupert William Edwin, Pte, #4351. Died 1920 as result of war service.

Aitken, John Eadie, Cpl, #7471.

Barrie, George, Pte, #477.

Boyd, Thomas Meredith, Sgt, #160.

Broadbent, William Charles, Pte, #3035.

Brown. Arthur Charles (‘Bobbie’), MM, Cpl, #1344.

Bull, George Henry, Pte, #3769.

Buzaglo, Frederick William, Spr, #2971.

Buzaglo, George Leslie, Pte, #55339.

Cail, Robert B., Pte, #4379.

Callaghan, Clive Steward, Pte, #3377.

Callaghan, Frank, Pte, #7464.

Carr, Claude Thomas, Lance Cpl, #2821.

Cash, Arthur, Driver, #4028.

Clark, Victor, Pte, #1414. Died.

Clough, Ronald Alfred Charles, Sapper,#6104.

Clough, William, Staff Farrier Sergeant, #7942.

Crump, Dudley, Lieutenant.

Dailey, William Thomas, Pte, #6003.

Dix, Phillip Frederick, Bombardier, #6767. Died.

Dix, Leslie Gordon, Driver, #3064.

Doig, David James Cairns, Pte, #61964.

Doig, John William, Pte, # 5364. Died.

Duncan, Albert, Gunner, #1182.

Duncan, William, Pte, #55360.

Durham, Charles James, Sgt, #2180. Died.

Endersbee, Charles, Pte, #2900.

Fedderson, John,Gunner, #4570.

Finchett, Charles Edgar, Cpl, #111728.

Fisher, James, Cpl, #2618.

Francis, Leonard Harry, Pte, #2149.

Gould, Fred John, Sgt, #5387.

Gould, Stanley Gratton, Pte, #2044.

Grattidge, Joseph, Pte, #5828.

Groves, Robert Joseph Carleton, Pte, #2165.

Hallam, Vernon Godfrey, Cpl, #15333.

Harder, Howard Keith, Pte, #13295.

Harder, John Charles Victor, Lieutenant. Died.

Hartley, John Norman, Pte, #2659. Died.

Hodgens, Robert Leeds, Pte, #4459.

Howse, Charles William, Sgt, #130.

Howse, James Leslie, Bombardier, #10647.

Hurtig, Daniel Henry, Sgt, #5018.

Irons, William George, Cpl, #3656.

Jackson, Harold le Plastrier, Cpl, #596. 

Jarvie, Leslie Reid, Sgt Major, #10774.

Jarvie, Walter Keith, 2^nd Air Mechanic, #2515.

Johnston, Donald William, Pte, #234. Died.

Johnston, Thomas Atherton, Signaller Lance Cpl, #2845. Died.

Jukes, Albert Leo, Cpl, #10872.

Kitching, Henry James, Gnr, #777.

Lane, Jack, Pte, #2175.

Libbis, Leslie Fookes, Pte, #9025.

Libbis, William Thomas, Pte, #1989. Died.

Lynch, John Bernard, Pte, #6890. Died.

Mahlstedt, Albert Charles, Pte, #61193.

Malcolmson, Thomas James, Dvr, #103.

Marshall, David Ronald, Gnr, #39670.

McCormack, John Francis, Pte, #1554. Died.

McKay, Gordon Alexander, 1^st Class Warrant Officer. Died 1922 as result of war service.

McKay, William Henry. (Did not serve. Died in accident before embarkation.) Died.

Meredith, Thomas Oscar, #2864. Died.

Orr, Ernest James, Sgt, #182. Died.

Percival, Clifton Eric, Pte, #1379.

Phair, Henry William, Pte, #4520. Died.

Quirke, Thomas Francis, Cpl. (Did not serve. Died in accident before embarkation.) Died.

Ray, Stanley Victor James, Lance Cpl, #2781. Died.

Rose, William George, Cpl, #1332.

Scott, Rupert James, Pte, #3861. Died.

Sheehan, John Patrick, Sgt, #3515.

Skiller, Charles Henry, Pte, #4188. Died.

Smith, Frederick Thomas, Cpl, #1029.

Templeton, Keith Richard, Pte, #4212.

Thomson, William Charles, Pte, #408.

Walker, Donald Stuart, Pte, #271.

Ward, Leslie Thomas, Pte, #13365. Died.

Westhorpe, Walter Cyril Roy, Signaller, #1655.

Westhorpe, William Wilson, Pte, #18755.

Whittley, Leslie William, Dvr, #1808.

Whittley, Sidney, Dvr, #5669. Died.

Williams, Alfred (‘Laddie’or ‘Little Gunner’), Gnr, #411. Died.

Williams, Arthur Ernest, MM, Dvr, #207.

Wilson, Walter Roy, Signaller, #2476. Died.

Yorke, Roy, Signaller, #2920.

Coburg Historical Society is developing biographies of these men to supplement the information in the Soldiers’ Book. Please contact me if you can help.

A magpie hero on and off the field

Peter James Martin, Collingwood footballer

Image courtesy Cheryl Griffin

A while ago while wandering around Coburg Cemetery, I came across this headstone. From this we know that Peter Martin played 15 games for Collingwood in 1901 and 1902. But behind the rather splendid headstone lies a sad tale.

3399 Private Peter James Martin sailed with the 6^th Infantry Battalion (later 8^th Infantry Battalion), leaving behind his wife Lavinia who lived firstly in Moonee Ponds, then in North Melbourne. In 1917 at Pozieres he sustained a severe gunshot wound to the head and right eye and had to have his eye removed. He returned to Australia, but died on 24 July 1918 as a result of those wounds, aged 42. He was buried at Coburg Cemetery and for a short time at least, his wife remained in the area, living in Main Street, Coburg in 1921.

Because he lived in Moonee Ponds and North Melbourne, you will find more details on Peter James Martin on the Empire Call website.

If you have information you can add to this brief profile, you may wish to contact Friends of Coburg Cemetery who are always interested in hearing more about the people buried in the Cemetery. 

Coburg Municipal Health Officer joins up

Carl Dyring goes to war

Dr Carl Dyring. 

Image courtesy Coburg HIstorical Society.

As a researcher I’ve become accustomed to seeing the faces of the young when I search the Australian War Memorial website looking for photos of the Coburg men who served in World War One. Often I want to cry for them and their families. They look (and were) so young.

But as I’m learning, there were quite a few men in their forties who were accepted into the AIF and some, like Captain Carl Peter Wilhelm Dyring, who was a doctor, were even older. Dr Carl Dyring joined the Army Medical Corps on 14 August 1915 aged 55. Like some of the other men I’ve featured recently, he was of non-Anglo heritage. His father Peter Frederick was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1832 and arrived in the colony with his parents and siblings in the 1850s. The family settled in the Beechworth district and although Carl had long since left the area, he is listed on the Ovens and Murray Advertiser’s Roll of Honour as one of the ‘lads’ from the district who had enlisted. (Ovens and Murray Advertiser, 19 February 1916, p.1)

Dr Carl Dyring's Residence, 2 Walsh Street, Coburg, circa 1890. 

Image courtesy Coburg Historical Society.  

Dr Dyring was a man of substance, as can be seen by his grand home in Walsh Street, Coburg. In some ways, Dyring represented what was already becoming a bygone age. It’s said, for example, that he called on patients in a high English dog cart and always wore a bell topper and frock coat. 

He was also a man with influential connections. His second wife Dagmar was the daughter of one of the Cohn Brothers, old family friends and pioneer beer makers who were men of considerable influence in Bendigo where they had settled. His farewell was held at the prestigious Menzies Hotel in the city and organised by property developer and friend Montague Dare. An evening at Her Majesty’s Theatre followed. (Brunswick and Coburg Leader, 23 July 1915, p.2)

In 1911, he had performed the medicals for the boys who’d registered as cadets under the recently passed Defence Act and witnessed their first parade at the Moreland school. (Broome, Coburg, between two creeks, p.190) Now he was heading off to Egypt where he might well meet these boys again, this time in the hospitals of Cairo where he was based.

Unusually, his wife Dagmar joined her husband in Cairo, serving as hospital matron and leaving their children (13 year old Carl, 10 year old Rosa and 5 year old Moya) with her family in Bendigo. By joining her husband, Dagmar drew the interest of the Intelligence Forces and there is a file on her dated 1915 at the National Archives of Australia. Unfortunately, it has not been digitised, so I’ve been unable to check it out.

Carl Dyring’s war was not a long one. By December 1916 he’d been invalided home with heart disease and emphysema. On his return he moved to Brighton where a fourth child, Patricia, was born in 1920. He died at Brighton in 1931 aged 71.

...

When I began this research, I wondered whether Dagmar Dyring was related to Ola Cohn, the sculptor whose Fairies Tree in Melbourne’s Fitzroy Gardens I used to visit as a child. They were sisters. While doing the research for this entry, I was very excited to learn that an autobiography, A way with the Fairies: the lost story of sculptor Ola Cohn, ed. Barbara Lemon, will be released in February 2014. It’s already made its way to my ‘must read’ list!

The artistic talent in the family did not end there. Carl and Dagmar’s daughter, Moya Dyring (1909-1967), was one of the first women cubist painters to exhibit in Melbourne. She married fellow artist Sam Atyeo, was involved in the Heide School, moved overseas and eventually settled in France. Divorced from Atyeo in 1950, she visited Australia regularly until the early 1960s. (AustralianDictionary of Biography)

Grave of Laurence Cohen, Coburg Cemetery.

Image courtesy Coburg Historical Society.

And in the way of all such research, I’ve now come across another example of synchronicity. Several years ago when doing the research for a Friends of Coburg Cemetery heritage walk, I discovered that Laurence Cohen, monumental mason and trade unionist, had been apprenticed to George F. Atyeo. Three of Cohen's sisters married three of Atyeo's sons and his sister Olivia and her husband Alfred Atyeo (who are buried in the same grave) were the parents of Sam Atyeo, who married Moya Dyring.

And so the world goes round!

The Harder brothers of May Street, Coburg.

Harder could easily pass as an English surname, but the Harder brothers, Keith and Victor, were grandsons of Johann Peter Christian Harder who arrived in Port Adelaide from Hamburg in 1854 and who married Henrietta Nolopp in Adelaide in the following year. Seven children were born to the couple, including the boys’ father Charles August Harder who married Mabel Gertrude Tilbrook in South Australia in 1895.

In that year they made their way to Brunswick where Victor was born in 1895 and Keith in 1897. Four more children were born in Brunswick. In 1907 the family moved to Coburg where three more children were born. Theirs was a large household, as all the children survived childhood.

Victor Harder.

Image courtesy AWM. Image H06553.

Lieutenant John Charles Victor Harder (known as Victor), was born in Brunswick in 1895, attended Coburg State School and is featured in the Coburg State School Soldiers Book which is part of the Coburg Historical Society collection. He worked as a clerk for the E.S. & A. Bank, played cricket for Coburg and served with D Battery, 50th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. He was killed in action on 26 April 1918. 

Keith Harder. 

Image courtesy Coburg Historical Society.

13295 Private Howard Keith Harder (known as Keith) was born in Brunswick in 1897. He attended Coburg State School and is featured in the Coburg State School Soldiers Book. Keith Harder served in the Army Medical Corps, survived the war and died at Coburg in 1953 aged 56.

Sources:

South Australian and Victorian Index to Births, Deaths and Marriages (via Ancestry); attestation papers for Howard Keith Harder and John Charles Victor Harder; Coburg State School Soldiers Book (in the Coburg Historical Society Collection); resources in the Coburg Historical Society Collection; AWM embarkation rolls and roll of honour. 

Coburg State School 484 Soldiers’ Book

Image courtesy Coburg Historical Society.

The Coburg State School 484 Soldiers’ Book is a treasure trove of information. It was compiled in November 1922, the unnamed compiler regretting that he was not able to begin the task any earlier. He wrote:

I found that the cork had been out of the bottle too long and that all of the “fizz” had gone. Very few people could be got to take an interest in the work, and the soldier himself could not be “bothered” or did not, to his credit, wish to “make a song” of what he had done.  

The compiler goes on to say that he had 222 names on his list and he estimates that he managed to locate about 75%  of them, not bad going given the late start.   

The book is handwritten and many entries include photographs. All contain information supplied by the soldier or more likely his ‘doting’ family. There is a brief summary of the school’s war effort, plus several contemporary hand-drawn plans of the school and some photographs. There is also a plan (with names) of the Memorial Garden planted in the grounds of the Infants School in 1919. There is an index at the back of the book. There is also a more comprehensive index available for use by researchers, along with a fascimile copy of the book, both available for use at the Bluestone Cottage Museum, 82 Bell Street, Coburg. (First Sunday of each month from 2 to 4.30pm).