William Hunt AKA Brown

A recent collaboration that we had established is with Ian Martyn who runs Medals Reunited New Zealand. Ian noticed one of the names on my list was an Australian who served in the NZEF during WWI. The soldier in question is 42336 William Hunt NZEF. All the information that I could find was from the New Zealand Cenotaph site which showed who was listed as his NOK and his address in Wellington. Ian took this scrap and has come up with a spectacular result. This is a synopsis of Ian’s research.

The search started with a revelation that one of my researchers found on a MyTrees.com inquiry for William Hunt. He appeared in a McCarthy tree but was called Brown, same birth date, included name William, died NZ, of an accident, same date, place etc. The McCarthy tree also had a person by the name of John Huggard McCarthy 1824 Ireland and a Flora Jane McCarthy 1826 Ireland. Flora Jane McCarthy is part of the Brown tree, as was the name Huggard, later extrapolated into deHuggard or DeHuggard - more familiar name links to William Hunt. 

McCarthy's linked Brown tree have all the same people as identified with William Hunt - they also had appended "Hugh William Ernest Brown, known as Hunt" on their tree. This coincided with some key information on a portion of one of the many Brown families in New Zealand in the Ancestry Archive. Also some key names came up from previous Hunt searches on Ancestry plus the appearance of his sister's name (Flora) as NOK one point.

The thing that gave me the most grief was reconciling why William would transition from BROWN to Hunt. So here is the short version of a long story. Robert H also responded to an information request - William (Hugh Ernest) Brown managed to embarrass the family by taking up with and running away to NZ with a married woman, one Isabella (Bella) Cook, this person he cites as his NOK and living in Ghuznee St, Wellington (the Cenotaph entry connection).  To effect and disguise this fact, he obviously selected his 2nd name and surname from the other side of the family to cover his tracks.

Part of my family tree that shows Hugh Brown 1838 - 1887 was married Flora Jane Eland. They were the parents of both Hugh W E Brown and Hellen Flora Jane Huggard Eland (married to Oliver Warren). Another sister was Mary Moody Brown (1875 - 1935). This is Robert H’s Great Grandmother.

After the war William worked as a quarryman at Sandspit Island. Ian found the following information about his death.

 “11 Feb 1928 in Auckland, age 48yrs after injuries received from accidentally falling from a ladder while boarding the SS “Hirere” – this entry is handwritten in his Army file.

The SS Hirere was a costal river freight/passenger boat that transited from the Port of Clevedon to the Coromandel Peninsula via the Firth of the Thames and on up the Waihou River.

Obituaries – Papers Past

Auckland Star, 11 Jan 1928

FALL INTO HARBOUR. SEAMAN'S MISHAP. DEATH IN HOSPITAL.

Mr. William Hunt, who was hurt yesterday afternoon through falling into the harbour and striking some, wharfs piles, died in the Auckland Hospital this morning. Mr. Hunt, who was employed by Messrs. McCallum Bros., was returning to the steamer Hirere, at Albert wharf, when he slipped. He was helped from the water by several men who were nearby and taken to the Hospital by the St. John Ambulance. He was suffering from internal injuries and a broken nose. Mr. Hunt, who was 54 years old, lived on Sandspit Island, Thames Estuary.

Death Notice in Auckland Star, 12 Jan 1928

DEATHS.

HUNT.—On January 11. at the Auckland Hospital, as the result of an accident, William Hunt; aged 54 years. Funeral will leave Mr. Tongue's Mortuary, top Mount Eden Road, at 10 a.m., Friday, for Waikumete.

This has been a significant piece of research by Ian and his team. I am very indebted to his efforts and the information provided by Robert. I very much look forward to sending Hugh and Robert the medal in the near future. Thank you to Kyle B of Lilydale, Victoria who sent me the medal. The returned medal tally is now 1697.

Thank you to the family of William Hunt for kind permission to reproduce these family pictures. William is the young man third from the right with his knee up in the first photo. It is believed that the man in the second photo is also William.

 

William Booth

Another medal I received from the Toodyay RSL was the Defence Medal awarded to 64138 William Herbert Booth. There is not much to tell about this story as it only took me 10 minutes from the time I started searching until I was speaking to William's family. Easy searchers through the NAA WWII RAAF records, Ancestry, the Ryerson Index and the White Pages led me straight to the right person
Thanks again to Max from Toodyay. The returned medal tally is now1697.

Post update
Information and photos supplied by the family of William Booth

WILLIAM HERBERT BOOTH

William Herbert 'Bill' Booth attended Trinity Grammar School and worked as a furniture salesman for Beard Watson & Co. Ltd. in Sydney prior to World War 2. As a young boy he attended many parties at the family home of Hardwick and the photograph below identifies him as ‘Billie Booth’.

Bill joined the RAAF at the start of World War 2 and was initially stationed at Parkes, NSW. He then attended the Signal School at Point Cook from 10 May 1942 to 15 October 1942, graduating as a wireless mechanic. From October of that year, he was based at No. 1 AOF.1 School at Richmond. From March the following year he was a member of 83 Squadron, returning to Point Piper in July 1945. While in 83 Squadron, Bill travelled to Millingimbi Island in the Arafura Sea in December 1943 and Gove on the coast of Cape Arnhem on 19 January 1944, remaining there until 20 September 1944. He reached the rank of Corporal in 1943 and was demobbed on 30 November 1945.

Bill married Lila Elizabeth Munro, 'Bonnie', on 15 April 1939. 

Between 1943 and 1949 Bonnie, and after the war, Bill, lived at 62 Bathurst Street, Liverpool. Below is an extract from the 1943 Australian Electoral Roll:

Bill and Bonny had two sons. By 1954 the family was living at 154 Pacific Highway, Greenwich, and Bill and Bonnie were listed as storekeepers. By 1958 the family had moved to 104 Liverpool Road, Ashfield. Bill and Bonnie divorced in the 1960’s and Bill went to live in Maroochydore, Queensland. He died in September 1980 in Gosford, NSW.

 

Colonial Auxiliary Forces Long Service Medal

Through the WA RSL I was recently contacted by the Secretary of the Toodyay sub-branch. They received a box of medals which had been recovered from a Perth tip. The medals arrived today and some of them are really interesting.
The first I looked at was a Colonial Auxiliary Forces Long Service Medal. It is named to Major Joseph Dudley Westwood MC. This really got me interested. It didn't take long to workout that Joseph also received an OBE and made a Member of the Order of Australia. Both for services to veterans.
Following Joseph through the electoral rolls was simple and it also gave me the name of his son and a further search provided his grandson's name. A minute later I found this name in the white pages and shortly after confirmed I had the right family (sorry Bill). How this medal got to WA when Joseph spent his entire life in NSW is a mystery.
Thanks to Max from the Toodyay RSL.
The returned medal tally is now 1696.

Another example of the curse of Anzac Day

I got to give this to Bill as a great result in a very short time.

I always envy Glyn and his ability to find an obscure name, take a chance and find it in the phone book. Well envy no more.
I opened an email from Anzac House at 4.05 pm with the brief message:
'Hi Bill....this medal was found in the Seymour car park .... could you please assist returning it to the owner?'
Five minutes later I found 'the owner', the only problem was that it took until 7.00pm to finally contact him. Yes I know it is not a record but after some searches of late, I consider it a reward for perseverance.
At the request of the owner I'll keep the details brief other than to say he was quite surprised and somewhat disbelieving when I rang as he assured me it was safely in his coat pocket where it had been on Anzac Day.

The returned medal tally is now 1695.

Albert Gale

Some of the information I found on the internet when doing this search was not what I expected. It might be better to start at the end and move backwards.
I have just spoken to Patrick and Barbara the grand son and grand daughter of 745 Albert Morley Gale. While I knew their names from the electoral rolls it was this story by Barbara's daughter Jenny that pointed me to the small town where Patrick lives.
Albert was a bank manager who died in 1937 in Yackandandah. He served in the 29th Battalion AIF. As Jenny's story says Albert was the nephew of John Gale whose name is familiar in the Canberra and Queanbeyan region. I now know that Albert died of a heart attack on the night of the Coronation Ball in 1937 and was buried in an unmarked grave. That was until his family placed a headstone on the grave in recent years.
The medal was sent to me by Paul O from SA who is a Vietnam War veteran.
The returned medal tally is now 1694.
Thank you to the family of Albert Gale for kind permission to publish his photo as part of this story.