A Question of Truth - William Kerswell and Hannah Maria Rymes

When looking into your family history, have you ever found something that has made you furious? Something so audacious or brazen or just wrong, done by an ancestor, that made you want to reach through history and give that person a good slap? Last week I was visited by just such a feeling.

We grew up knowing that my third great grandfather had abandoned his family in Australia and gone to America. My grandmother had always said he was a Mormon, but that was about all I knew as a child. In my teens I found out a little more of the story, and then in the last ten years I got the full story, partly from Owen Pearce's "Rabbit Hot Rabbit Cold" and partly from research. Last week another piece dropped into my lap.

First, the story so far, and a photo of the culprit, William Kerswell (1827-1916)

William Kerswell, from the Hunting Bagley Collection, digital image from L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University

I wish I had a better photo of his wife, Hannah Maria Rymes, my third great grandmother, but that's the way of it.

Hannah Maria Rymes from Rabbit Hot Rabbit Cold by Owen Pearce

William and Maria were from Devon. Both had become members of the LDS Church while in England. William could read and write, Maria could not. The couple married in August 1848, then in March the following year made their way to Australia aboard the Florentia, landing in Adelaide on 20 June 1849. During the voyage their first child, Elizabeth, was born. The family lived in Norwood, South Australia, where William worked as a brickmaker and three more children were born - George, William and Hannah. Both parents continued in the LDS Church. After about eight years William decided that the family would move to New South Wales to seek greener pastures. They did the sensible thing and travelled to Melbourne, with plans to continue up the coast to Sydney. The land between Adelaide and Sydney is particularly challenging, even now. I have done that trip in a car - twice. We stripped a tire the second time and were stranded all day in the baking heat. Never again. I can't imagine it with a horse and cart.

In Melbourne things went badly wrong. The family split over an argument. Owen Pearce was told that William was asked by members of the local LDS Church if he would take his family to Utah. He said yes, but when he told Maria she flatly refused. They had a huge fight and William went anyway, leaving his wife and four young children behind. The date is unclear, but going by other records this would have been some time in 1857.

Maria and the children continued on to New South Wales. By February of 1858 they were in the Burragorang Valley, where Maria gave birth to her fifth child, a boy named Heber¹. Maria worked in Camden and in Burragorang, doing what she could. She worked for a while as a housekeeper to Joseph Folden, unitl his early death. Members of the LDS Church helped out, with the Mannerings of Goulburn taking in George and seeing to his schooling. Each child obtained work as soon as possible to contribute to the family's survival. Heber died in 1871. 

So what happened to William? He sailed first to England (Owen Pearce was told he stowed away in a barrel - this is unlikely) and from there to the US, leaving Liverpool aboard the Empire on19 February 1858, bound for New York². On the 1860 US Census he was living in Springville, Utah with his new wife Sarah (ni Garlick), her three sons from previous marriages and her mother. He owned a farm valued at $100 and had a personal estate valued at $150³

In 1866 he served in the Indian Wars for 42 days (or at least there are three sworn affidavits to that effect from 1910⁴).

In 1877 William travelled back to England where he visited his family and Maria's. He also on this trip copied a letter written from Maria to her mother after William's disappearance. He travelled back to America aboard the steamship Wisconsin, leaving Liverpool on 19 September, 1877⁵.

Between 1860 and 1876 William and Sarah had seven children, four boys and three girls. All these children attended school and could read and write. He had a difficult relationship with his stepsons. A letter from one of them, John Albert Strong, transcribed in “Rabbit Hot Rabbit Cold”, is very acrimonious and outlines a number of serious grievances the boys had against their stepfather⁶.

Meanwhile, back in Australia, Maria and the elder Kerswell children managed as best they could. The children married and had families of their own. Maria lived with Elizabeth and her husband, George Pearce. Then, in 1894, more than thirty five years after William's departure, a letter arrived out of the blue from Mapleton, Utah. This must have been something of a shock. It certainly caused waves. Over the next few years there was a strong flow of correspondence between Utah and New South Wales, with Maria's children and grandchildren reading her the letters and writing her replies. William claimed, amongst other things, to have left Australia because of “important business”⁷. He also wrote that he had given up hope of ever seeing his family again, that he had thought them lost in a shipwreck, but also that he had been in contact with Maria's family (in 1877) when he had copied her letter (but not thought to write to her?). He outlined all the things he had – land and livestock and interest in a mine. After about 18 months of writing William finally told them he had a second wife and family. All this and then he asked Maria to consent to be sealed to him so that they could be husband and wife in eternity. It was carried out by proxy.

In most of the letters William expressed his dislike for Australia and exhorted his Australian family to sell up and move to Utah. According to Owen Pearce and others, this caused divisions within the family. William Jnr's wife, Margaret (ni Maxwell), left him for a while until he came to his senses. George Pearce demanded Elizabeth make a definite decision and then inform her father, which she did (she chose to stay in Australia). Her branch of the family took firmly against the LDS Church (members of the local branch had been asked by William to stick in their oar, which was not well received - although I doubt he told them the full and unvarnished truth). My mother remembers Elizabeth's daughter Hannah and her husband George Shoobridge being fiercely opposed to any visits from Mormons. I understand this reaction, but personally I think it was misdirected. That William was a Mormon merely dictated where he went, it didn't dictate that he went. That, I think, would have happened regardless.

When William Jnr's wife died as a result of complications in childbirth, he determined to take his children to Utah and see how things would go. His two eldest children, both boys, flatly refused, but William, his four daughters and his mother, Maria, set sail aboard the Mariposa, landing in San Francisco on 25 May, 1903. They made their way to Provo, but William Snr did not meet them, nor arrange for them to be met, which I always thought was strange.

Then last week, as a result of a Legacy Webinar, I was made aware of the Harold B. Lee Digital Collection on the Brigham Young University website. I searched “Kerswell”, hoping to find out some more about William Jnr's four daughters, who made their life in the US and never returned home to Australia. Well, I did find some things pertaining to them, but I also found a newspaper article, which I have transcribed below. As you read it, bear in mind the actual course of events as outlined above.

OLD FOLKS ARE WEDDED AGAIN

Happy Ending to a Sad Story.

Were Separated by Fate for More Than Forty Years.

Reunion Brought About by Meeting of Father and Son at Mormon Conference.

Seventy-six and seventy-five years were the respective ages of a bride and groom who took train for their future home at Springville a few days ago. Not until after their departure from Salt Lake did the romance of their marriage come to light. It then transpired that William Kerswell, the groom, had led the same woman, then a blooming girl, to the altar nearly half a century before. She became the mother of his four children; they listened to the strange teachings of the Mormon elders and were won over to the new faith; together they started for the holy city of the West. It was then that fate forced them apart – a separation lasting for thirty-seven years and which ended with their remarriage in Salt Lake. Fiction affords no stranger histories than theirs.

Were Married in England

William Kerswell and his wife lived for the first two years of their married life in England, after which they sailed to the northern part of Australia. Here they lived for eight years with their little family of four children, two boys and two girls. About this time they were converted by missionaries to the Mormon religion, and became at once possessed with the desire to make Zion their home. To this end they saved, and were finally able to make the trip down to Melbourne, from which place they were to take ship for America. What was their sorrow to find that they were too late for the vessel on which they wished to embark! They could only stand in a huddled group on the wharf, the children crying miserably as they clung to their mother's skirts, and watch the vessel fade away to a speck on the horizon.

Somehow, in the unaccustomed rush and excitement of the city, the little family became separated from the father, and the mother, with her four little ones, found herself hedged on every side by strangers to whom she felt she could make no appeal.

Sought Husband in Vain.

She made her way through the crowd vainly trying to find her husband, but the quest was useless, and, with her children, she seated herself where she thought he might most easily find her. Here the little group waited until darkness fell, the little ones beginning to sob and cling to their mother, whose heart beat with even wilder fear then their own, but without anticipation of the pitiful fate which had even then overtaken her.

For, while she had been seeking her husband, another ship had arrived. He had previously purchased their tickets. When the ship was about to depart, and he could not see his little family on the wharf, he concluded that the mother had taken them aboard, and hurried upon the vessel. When he discovered his error he was frantic with grief, and being a simple countryman, supposed that he might easily go ashore, but this was impossible, and the next land upon which he set foot was America.

Son Comes to Zion.

It is needless to picture the heartsickness and grief of the desolate woman in a strange city. It never came into her mind that her husband might have taken the outgoing ship. She gave him up for dead or a deserter, but she never ceased to love him.

A volume might be written concerning her struggles for the existence of herself and children. It is enough to say that the brave woman succeeded, and about forty years after the fateful night when the family found themselves deserted on the wharf at Melbourne, seemingly doomed never to reach the loved Zion, the woman's son set sail with his own young family for Utah, where he made his home in Provo three years ago. The mother remained in Australia.

A Remarkable Meeting.

The most remarkable part of the story comes at this point. The son, being a Mormon, was attending conference in the tabernacle at Provo one Sunday, when he heard the name of “William Kerswell” called from the speakers' rostrum. Turning at once to see who might bear the family name, the son came face to face with his father, whom he had not seen for thirty-six years. After a few words, father and son recognized each other and were overjoyed at the reunion.

Then the old man explained how he had tried to reach his family by letters, and, having failed in this, without money to return to Australia, he had given them up in despair. Some years after he married again and by this marriage had several children. His wife was now dead.

Sent for His Aged Wife.

When the situation was understood, the old man communicated with his former wife in Melbourne. Finding that she still loved him after all these years of uncertainty, the old man and his son set to work to save enough money to bring her out to Utah. The old couple wanted to be married again, and last Wednesday this event took place after a delay of one day which the old lady took very much to heart.

When the ceremony was actually performed, reuniting the husband and wife, it was the old man who shed tears of joy, while both old figures trembled with the stress of their feelings.

From the Salt Lake Tribune, 31 August, 1904, page 10⁸.

I have little doubt that the information for this article was supplied by William, possibly as a letter to a journalist. That it is full of lies built on kernels of truth is obvious enough. Some may have been as a result of confusion by the journalist (exacerbated by poor knowledge of Australian geography), but the level of detail goes beyond that, points to inside information. There is a subtle air of blame over Maria's reported actions on the Melbourne wharf. That the couple converted in England is rewritten so that the drive to head for Utah is readily understood as newly converted zeal. William's supposed impoverishment in Utah is belied by US Census returns, which repeatedly show him with property and assets, and by his trip to England. If he was so desparate to find his family, why didn't he go to Australia instead, or, failing that, ask Maria's family where she was, or write to her after he copied her letter?

I do wonder if Sarah ever found out that she was supposedly dead when William Jnr arrived.  And as to that arrival, without his mother, and the VERY public reunion in the Tabernacle in Provo, suddenly William Snr's lack of a welcome to the Australian party made sense to me. William Jnr seems always to have been the one most wanting to meet his father again, and the one most likely to be gracious and warm at such a meeting. So William Snr made sure that that first meeting was where everyone could see, where he could get material for his own spin on things. If the journalist went asking, he would be told of a surprise meeting in the tabernacle, where father and son warmly embraced. Why muddy the waters with the truth, or the knowledge of lengthy correspondence? And why diminish William's heroism in the matter by making it clear that he had not paid a cent for Maria's passage, that the money had instead come from William Jnr selling all he had?

Remember, Maria couldn't read. She would be relying on others to read the paper to her. William Jnr had settled in Provo, while Maria and William, along with Sarah, were living in Springville. Once they had "taken train", Maria would be at William's mercy in regard to what parts of the paper were read to her, if that particular issue of the Tribune happened to make its way to their home.

It is an arch piece of propaganda, but totally in keeping with what I and others have found that reveals William's character. Owen Pearce tried to find something good to say about William, but I find myself unable to be so gracious. He seems always to have put himself above his family and to arrange life to suit his own needs. And that article really irritates and angers me. William tried to make sure that there was a public record of his own version of the truth, where he was painted as a pitiable yet noble figure. Annoyingly, he has probably succeeded. He got his article in the premier newspaper of his state, and now it is digitised, increasing its life span. The real truth is out there, but is in bits and pieces, needing to be pulled together. This blog post is an attempt to do that in a small way, but its life span will not be the same as the Tribune article.

1 Wesleyan records, Camden, NSW BDM V18586010 121C/1858

2 James Lovett Bunting (MS, Provo, Utah, 1857-1877), p. 214; digital images, Brigham Young University, "Overland Trails Diaries," (accessed 4 Sep 2013).

3 1860 U.S. census, Utah, Utah, population schedule, Springville, p. 270, dwelling 2409, family 1894, William Kerswell; digital images, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm M653, roll M653.

4 "Indian War Affidavits," database and images, Utah Sate Digital Archives (http://archives.utah.gov : accessed 24 Oct 2012); Affidavit of William Kerswell in 1910.

5 "The Emigration: List of Passengers per Steamer "Wisconsin"," Deseret News, 10 Oct 1877, p. 16, col. 1-2; digital images, BYU Harold B. Lee Library Digital Collections (http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu : accessed 17 Aug 2013), Deseret News Collection.

6 Owen W. Pearce, Rabbit Hot, Rabbit Cold: Chronicles of a Vanishing Australian Community (Woden, ACT, Australia: Popinjay Publications, 1991), pp465-466

7 Letter from William Kerswell to Maria Kerswell, 23 Feb 1896, Mapleton, Utah, cited in Owen W. Pearce, Rabbit Hot, Rabbit Cold: Chronicles of a Vanishing Australian Community (Woden, ACT, Australia: Popinjay Publications, 1991), p 454

8 "Old Folks are Wedded Again," Salt Lake Tribune, 31 August 1904, p. 10, col. 3; digital images, Utah Digital Newspapers (http://http://udn.lib.utah.edu : accessed 17 Aug 2013).

Matters of Conviction - Philip Keefe and Margaret Daly

Can I just say, here and now, I HATE flu season? I HATE flu season. Done.

It was hard to decide where to start, I have quite a few convicts in my family tree, 26 at last count (don't panic, I am not going to write about them all). In the end, my great great great great grandparents, Philip Keefe and Margaret Daly, were the obvious choices as they naturally lead to a number of others. Convict family groups were not uncommon.

Some of Philip and Margaret's stories (and their relatives) will be drawn from Owen Pearce's "Rabbit Hot, Rabbit Cold", an excellent history of Owen's ancestors and relatives from the Burragorang Valley. Owen was an engaging writer, but more importantly he was a careful one. Events are documented and credit is meticulously given, making this a relatively reliable family history book. If you have family from the Burragorang, even if you are not related to the Pearces, Shoobridges, Kerswells, Kings, Maxwells, Hunts or Keefes, try to find a copy of "Rabbit Hot, Rabbit Cold" for a view of Valley life. Owen also mentioned a lot of Valley people who weren't from these families, so you never know...

If anyone can put me in touch with Owen's family, I'd be really pleased.

Enough of the book review.

Philip Keefe/Keeffe and Margaret Daly/Daley
Philip was born in County Kerry, Ireland, in 1797. There is an alternate birth year of 1799, but that comes from only one source. The other sources back 1797. Owen Pearce says Philip came from a large farming family. In 1820 Philip, Darby and John Mulcahy and  one other were arrested for sheep stealing. Tried at Kerry, they were found guilty and sentenced to seven years' transportation to New South Wales. Although Philip's parents petitioned the Irish Government, asking for leniency, none was forthcoming and Philip left Ireland on 16 June 1821, bound for Sydney via Rio de Janiero. The transport was the John Barry 2, captained by Roger Dobson. Daniel McNamara was the ship's surgeon. For someone who could neither read nor write, letters were to play quite a part in Philip's life, although few of them ever did him any good.

The ship's muster listed Philip's age as 22, giving a calculated birth date of 1799. I can't find other documents that agree with this.

During the voyage, on the night of 18 August 1821 the convicts were unusually rowdy, and a drunk guard discharged his musket "point-blank into the prison" (Rabbit Hot, p309). The prisoners increased their noise (no surprise), the other guards panicked and they also fired their muskets into the prison. It is a miracle that only three prisoners were wounded, and none died, despite two of the three being seriously wounded. The guard who started it was arrested. The John Barry docked in Sydney on 7 November 1821.

On disembarkation, Philip was assigned to the Government, to work in the Rooty Hill area. Government convicts were generally the fittest, those deemed best able to build the colony (often literally). In 1823 he was assigned to a Frederick Murphy and then in February 1824 to John Lacy of Parramatta. In January 1825 Lacey requested permission for Philip to be put in charge of cattle being run on land in the Wollondilly at "a spot known by the native name of Brimmillo". This is in the Lower Burragorang Valley. John Lacy, his family and convict servants were the first European setttlers in the Lower Burragorang, and Philip was amongst them, tending to the dairy herd.

Lacy was happy with Philip's work and wrote to the Colonial Secretary in November 1825 requesting that Philip and three other convicts be granted land adjoining his own (or perhaps he was merely seeking to control more land through his convict servants - personally, I would rather think well of him). Request denied.

1827 Certificate of Freedom for Philip Keefe

1827 and a Certificate of Freedom, which was only granted after correspondence between John Lacy and the Colonial Secretary. Note the year of birth, 1797. After he was freed, Philip applied again for land adjoining Lacy's. Again he was unsuccessful. Lacy continued to employ him, and paid him wages in money and in stock. Money was a bit of a rare commodity at times, so payment in goods was not unusual. Mid 1831, having had his land application turned down, Philip went further up the Burragorang, finally securing three blocks of land (to a total of  170 acres) on the Cox's River. According to Owen Pearce, this land later became part of Strathmore, owned by the McMahon family.

Previously owned by Philip Keefe. Strathmore: Thomas McMahon in foreground with impressive whiskers. About 1903. Photo courtesy of Blue Mountains City Library

More letters. Poor Philip couldn't get the deeds to his land as there was a dispute over which Police Division the land fell into. John Lacy handled the correspondence, but nothing much was decided. Bureaucracy has always had a knack for dragging its feet.

Meanwhile, Philip Keefe got on as well as he could, clearing his land, building fences and a house, farming and running his cows and pigs. He also applied for permission to marry. It took 10 months for permission to be granted, and Margaret Daly, aged 25 years, of the transport Palambam, became Mrs Keefe on 22 December 1831. I don't know if she was assigned or requested, if they had met before they were married and if so how.

Margaret was Irish and Catholic, like Philip, but hailed from County Cork. She had worked as a dairy maid, but was found guilty in 14 August 1830 of stealing clothes. She was sentenced to seven years' transportation and arrived in Sydney on 31 July 1831. Two convicts had died on the voyage.

Initially Margaret was assigned to HC Antill, but I don't know what her duties were. Winter in Australia, while it can be cold, is not like winter in Ireland. Margaret may have thought the weather quite pleasant. But then came summer, and a new husband, and a new home, down in the Burragorang. I often wonder what she thought of it all.

Philip and Margaret had between six and nine children together over the next ten years. I can find records for five, but with the family illiterate and the Valley quite isolated, it is not surprising that some were unregistered. Letters written for Philip and Margaret over the years also state different numbers of children, first nine and then eight. Maybe some died or maybe, as Owen Pearce suggests, counting was a problem. Either way, time marched on and still the matter of the Deeds was not resolved. John Lacy continued to write letters for the family, trying to sort things out (see why I want to think well of him?), but to no avail. Letters were returned, each body claiming to not have responsibility or jurisdiction. Margaret's Certificate of Freedom was granted in 1838, but still the family's fortunes did not change. Instead, they were set to become worse.

Margaret Daly's Certificate of Freedom 1838

In 1841 Philip suffered a severe stroke which left him paralysed down one side and unable to work the farm. With no means of producing food or of gaining income, the family faced starvation. John or possibly Timothy Lacy penned a letter for Philip to Sir George Gipps, Governor of New South Wales and Philip signed said letter with a cross. It laid out the predicament, put forward Philip's desire to sell his land in order to feed his children and begged for "merciful consideration" and the Governor's intervention. Again the Keefes were met with, as Owen Pearce puts it, "red tape and buck passing" (Rabbit Hot, p.312).

However, on 21 February of 1842, George Gipps came good and the land was duly recorded as Philip's. There are two records in the Register of Land Grants and Leases. The first is for 120 acres in Cook "at Black's Hollow near Burragoraang situated on the North side of Cox's River...promised to John Farrell on or before the 31st March 1821 and 10th may 1824... and advertiased at his request in favour of the said Philip Keefe as No.204 in the Government notice dated 7th November 1838 and the Deed now prepared in his name in pursuance thereof" and 50 acres "Being the land promised to William Danley or Danaly on or before the 18th November 1825...on or before 18th November 1825...advertised in favor of the said Philip Keefe at the request of the Promisee as No.203 in the Government notice dated 7th November 1838 and the Deed now prepared in his name in pursuance thereof".

So the land was securely his, yet Philip didn't sell any of it. I don't know if he offered it for sale and found no takers, or if he just held onto the land once he had the Deeds.

And now things get murky. The bald facts are as follows:
In the second half of 1842, Philip and his cousin Francis killed a bullock that had strayed from a neighbour, Joseph Story. They shared the meat and buried hide and head in Philip's paddock behind his house. A local, already under suspicion of cattle duffing, turned in the cousins to the police and personally led the police to where the hide and head were buried.

But it can't be that simple. Philip was paralysed down one side, he was unable to work. How on earth did he help kill a bullock? Francis was a trouble-maker and an inciter to crime (I'll get to him when I can work out just how many Tickets of Leave he was awarded and lost), and he liked to avoid trouble for himself wherever possible. He was also not above shopping others to save his own skin. I suspect it was his idea to bury the evidence on Philip's farm, possibly on the grounds that Philip's family had the more desparate need of the meat, even though he took his share. Did Philip even know where the remains were? And if so, did he object or just go along with it? And what could he have done to stop Francis burying the evidence on his land?

Then there is the question of how the informant knew so much. Had he helped with it all and then seen an opportunity to take some of the heat off himself for his other misdemeanours? Had he been initially instrumental in the bullock "straying" in the first place? Had Francis ticked him off so he took a course of petty revenge?

It probably isn't possible to uncover the truth in all this, but regardless of where the truth lay, it meant harder times for Margaret and the children, and death for Philip.

Part 2 coming up.

ANZAC Stories - The Kerswell family

War destroys so much. For the non-combatants in the area their lives and livelihoods are turned to rubble and dust, they suffer harshly for the hell visited upon them. The soldiers, ordered there by men and women who sit worlds away in secluded comfort, their lives are ended or forever altered. And then there are those back home - family, sweethearts, friends, colleagues, even the bus driver or the person at the corner shop who said hello every morning. War tears through them all.

These are never stories of one person only. As John Donne wrote, "no man is an island, entire of itself". Each life comes with many other lives entwined.

The Kerswell family lived in Burragorang Valley, that fertile farming haven now deep below the waters of the Warragamba Dam. Henry (or Harry, as he was known) was the eldest child of Elizabeth Kerswell, and stepson to her husband George Pearce. He was born in the Valley in November 1869 and grew up on the family farm on the Cox's River. He married Sabina Tollhurst and together they raised a family, first in the Megalong Valley and then back at Cox's River. They had six children:

Arthur Leicester Kerswell (b. 1896), John Lewis (Jack) Kerswell (b. 1897), Thomas Henry (Tom) Kerswell (b. 1900), Eleanor Ruth (Poppy) Kerswell (b. 1903), Owen George (Dick) Kerswell (b. 1906) and Olive Annie Kerswell (b. 1909).

The Kerswells, like most people, worked hard. They ran the farm and the post office and operated a mail run by pack horse. Harry also transported his goods and those of his neighbours to Camden and brought back supplies with his horse and waggon. They had good neighbours around, many of whom were family - the Pearces, Shoobridges, Maxwells and Clarkes, to name but a few.

Then one day, on the other side of the world a bullet struck a man, an Arch-duke, and the world shifted. It took a while for that shockwave to hit the Valley, but hit it did. The young men of the Valley began to sign up. Arthur, the eldest of Harry and Sabina's children, went to Camden to join up, but was turned down as unfit. He gave it up for a bit, but then his brother, John Lewis Kerswell, got in, and Arthur tried again. On 12 October 1916, Arthur Leicester Kerswell joined the Anzac Mounted Division, signing up at the Sydney Show Ground. He was a Private, no. 1608 and answered no to "Have you ever been rejected as unfit for His Majesty's Service?"

Arthur was a farmer, 20 years and 9 months of age and 6 feet tall. He weighed 10st 4 lb and his chest measured 32 35 1/2 inches, his complexion unreadable, eyes brown, hair brown, denomination C of E. Arthur had a number of scars - an appendix scar, a supiapubic scar and a large scar on the rear of his left leg. The doctor declared him fit but noted that he had had an appendix operation 12 months before (perhaps why he failed the first medical?) and wrote something indecipherable about Arthur's wrist.

Along with his mates, Arthur was but aboard the Bakara on 4 November 1916 and disembarked at Suez exactly one month later. He was promptly put in the Isolation Camp at Moascar. If there was an outbreak of illness on board a ship, such as measles or flu, it was not unusual to put everyone in isolation on arrival to prevent further spread. Arthur was discharged on 14 December 1916.

It was straight into action then with the Battle of Magdhaba. This was an assault on an Ottoman garrison in the Sinai Desert. There was little water and supply lines were still under construction. On 20 December Allied forces reached El Arish, only to find that the Ottomans had retreated to Magdhaba, a village about 8kms away, with a network of trenches and well-camouflaged redoubts or forts. The ANZAC Mounted Division was noted for its tactic of riding up and then dismounting to fight hand to hand. Magdhaba was taken on 23 December 1916. It took six more days to get the wounded out and heading back to Suez.

There was a reorganisation making the ANZAC Mounted Division part of the Desert Column under the command of Lieutenant General Philip Chetwode. On 9 January 1917 they were out again, this time attacking Rafa. Once more the Turkish army was defeated, despite no reserve ammunition and Chetwode insisting that all wheeled vehicles remain behind.

Map of the Battle of Rafa, Powles, C. Guy (1922). The New Zealanders in Sinai and Palestine Volume III Official History New Zealand's Effort in the Great War. Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin and Wellington: Whitcombe & Tombs Ltd, pp. 80–81

Arthur was readmitted to Moascar Hospital on 20 January 1917. His records merely say "sick", but on 2 February he was sent to Abbassia with bronchitis, where he stayed until 13 March. He joined the 1st Light Horse Training Regiment on 17 March. This regiment used recuperating men to train new recruits. It was a good strategy, enabling men to get better while still being of use to the army, but it didn't initailly work for Arthur. He was back in hospital on 26 April with measles, this time at the 26 Stat Hospital in Ismailia. He was not discharged until 8 May 1917, when he went back in to the Training Regiment at Moascar.

On 27 May, 1917 Arthur was transferred to the 1st Field Squadron Engineers to be trained as a sapper. Wikipedia explains this well:

A combat engineer, also called pioneer or sapper in many armies, is a soldier who performs a variety of construction and demolition tasks under combat conditions. Such tasks typically include constructing and breaching trenches, tank traps and other fortifications, bunker construction, bridge and road construction or destruction, laying or clearing land mines, and other physical work in the battlefield. More generally, the combat engineer's goals involve facilitating movement and support of friendly forces while impeding that of the enemy.

That's Arthur, but then there was John. John had joined up first, on 11 January 1916. he was a farm labourer and listed his dad as his next of kin. Harry and Sabina had both written letters giving John permission to join. John was 18 years and 3 months, 5 feet 11 3/4 inches and 9 stone exactly. His chest was 32 34 1/2 inches, complexion fair, eyes hazel and hair brown. He gave his religious denomination as C of E. There were no distinguishing marks and he was declared fit for service, although the doctor noted "Conditional teeth". He was no. 5058 and assigned to the 13th Reinforcements 18th Battalion at the Victoria Barracks in Sydney.

John sailed out of Sydney aboard the Kyarra on 3 June 1916 and arrived in Plymouth on 5 August, 1916. The men of the 13th Reinforcements 18th Battalion put out a magazine while on board, "The Pink Un", three issues of which are in the War Memorial Library. It contains "Humour, verse and stories for the soldiers aboard the troopship Kyarra".

Upon disembarkation John was assigned to the 5th Training Battalion and then on 29 September 1916 to the 33rd Battalion. He sailed out of Southampton on 21 November 1916, bound for France. The Battalion sat through an appalling winter and John was admitted to hospital at the end of January with severe muscle pain. He was discharged to duty on 11 February and rejoined his unit on 14 February 1917. The Battalion continued to wait, serving in the trenches along the Western Front, but not seeing a lot of action. And then the order came. The Battalion was to join the attack on Messines as part of the 3rd Division.

The attack was set for 7 June 1917, beginning at 3.10 am. The 3rd Division had already come under gas attack at Ploegsteert Wood and were having to regroup. Some time between 3 and 5 am the 3rd dug in near the Douve River. German counterattacks were driven back. John Lewis Kerswell fell during this time. According to his file he was buried about 1 mile south of Messines, between an old front line and a tramway track (tramways were rails put down for hauling ammunition on hand carts).

There is a commemorative cross in the Strand Military Cemetery in Ploegsteert Wood - Plot 7, Row A, Grave 43, but the note in John's file says "Actual grave[s] unknown". Two letters sent to the family do not make the situation clearer. One, from Lieutenant Colonly Leslie J. Morshead, John's CO, says "His body was buried in this Battalion's Cemetery in Ploegsturt Wood and his grave has been registered by the Graves Registration Unit". The other letter, from the 33rd Battalion Chaplain, George S. Richmond says "Your boy fell bravely fighting the great battle of Messines Ridge on 7th June near to where he lies buried".

Memorial stone for John Lewis Kerswell, Strand Military Cemetery

I don't know when Arthur was informed of his brother's death. He remained in the Middle East with the 1st Field Squadron for the duration of the war. Once the Sinai had been captured, Allied forces moved on to Palestine. I haven't yet ascertained what battles Arthur took part in, but his health took a turn for the better. He was not admitted to hospital again, and the next entry on his record, following his transfer to the Engineers is "To embark HT Malta at KANTARA for Australia 8.7.19" He arrived home in the Burragorang Valley on 13 August and was discharged on 18 September 1919.

But the war was not finished with the Kerswell family. When Arthur came home he brought something else with him, Spanish flu. His mother died exactly one week after his return, and then his little brother fell ill. Owen George Kerswell, known as Dick, was almost thirteen. Owen Pearce writes in "Rabbit Hot Rabbit Cold"

"After his mother's death he must have known that he was going to follow her, for he said "I only hope that I can last until Tuesday and I will be thirteen years old." He did, and died on his thirteenth birthday." Dick and Sabina were buried at Lagoon Flats.

Harry and Poppy raised little Olive and when the girls were married Harry sold the farm and spent his life moving from one relative to the next, working hard all the while. He died in Liverpool on 30 August 1964, at almost 90 years of age.

Arthur went to Queensland to work after the war, and married Myrtle Stevens. He and Myrtle eventually returned to NSW. Arthur died in 1969 in Port Kembla Hospital and is buried at Shell Harbour.

The heartache caused to this family by World War I was cruel, but unfortunately not unusual. First there were the notifications of Arthur's illnesses. Measles doesn't sound so bad now we have immunisation, but back then it could be a killer. How worried must Harry and Sabina have been for their boy so far away? And then came the death of John, the son to whom they had both consented to join the army, followed by two years of tense waiting for Arthur's return. How joyful must his homecoming have been, here he was safe, unhurt, seemingly healthy. And that last, cruellest of strokes in the deaths of Sabina and Dick.

That gunshot that killed the Arch Duke killed so many other people because leaders and politicians decided to rattle their sabres rather than sort their differences, because pride and conquest were more important than human lives, because generals thought that throwing young men into the paths of guns and shells was a valid tactic. If any of these "decision makers" were required to be the first in the fight, would the outcome have been different? Would the Kerswells and so many others like them have been spared these horrors?

Shining Star

A female ancestor with a particular talent.

My mother's mother and her mother were excellent seamstresses, embroiderers and cooks. Their work with a needle was particularly fine, they worked to a standard I am still aspiring to but haven't achieved. They were both clever and capable.

My father's mother was an artist. She could turn her hand to most visual arts (but she was a shocking cook and couldn't really sew, although she could knit). Nanna was a difficult person, very bitter and angry, and a racist with it, but the more I find out about her life, the more I understand why - I don't condone or excuse it, but I do begin to understand. One of the things that frustrated her in life is that she would have liked to have done something professionally with her life but wasn't able to. The needs of her husband and children had to come first, and when she worked to support them all, it had to be in something with a quick return. Grandpa always viewed her art as a hobby and never really took it seriously, and that annoyed Nanna.

Not an ancestor, but a relative, was Clarice Marelle Maxwell, related through the Ellem side. Marelle was a gifted musician whose father  couldn’t stand that she could play the piano by ear. He sent her to violin lessons and her sister to piano, but Marelle listened to her sister playing and simply repeated it when her father wasn’t around. She met Arthur Oliver Slade at a hotel where he was singing and she had gone with a friend. Someone dobbed her in as a pianist and next she knew, she was on stage playing while Arthur played the violin. They began working together, playing hotels in Circular Quay and then around Australia. The couple were married in 1966 and toured Europe before coming back to Australia to continue in the entertainment business.