Commemorative Roll, AWM Canberra

Last week I was privileged to stand in my mother's place as her cousin Pip was remembered at the Australian War Memorial (AWM) in Canberra.

The occasion was a talk given on 16 January 2020, explaining the existence and meaning of the AWM's Commemorative Roll. Like the Honour Roll, it acknowledges the lives lost in war in the service of one's country, but those on the Commemorative Roll were Australians serving in an Allied force and not the Australian armed forces.

Elise Horspool & Louise Wilson, AWM Canberra, Jan 2020

Philip Hugh Boulton (Pip) was among the eight or nine people whose stories were briefly told by Elise Horspool, an Assistant Curator at the AWM. An Australian, he happened to be in England when WW2 broke out and thus he served as a pilot in the RAF rather than the RAAF.  He was killed on 29 May 1941 when a plane in which he was a passenger crashed into the Dorset hills after an air-sea firing exercise.

P H Boulton, Sussex, 1939
Photo by Courtesy Julia Woodhouse

It seems that his name was submitted for inclusion on the Commemorative Roll several years ago by an internal staff member of the AWM. Once the relevant AWM staff had confirmed all the details, Pip's name was added to the Commemorative Roll database in September 2019, 78 years after his death! The reference number is www.awm.gov.au/collection/R2682025. His is not a unique case. Names from past wars continue to be added to the Commemorative Roll, as researchers come across the stories of relevant candidates.  Nominations from the public are also considered by AWM staff.

It was not until late November 2019 that the family first became aware of this amazingly-belated recognition of Pip's service, or even knew that he was eligible for it. Elise Horspool sent a message and then a follow-up message:

Pip represents a large cross section of Australian society at the time: a family with generational service and an Australian who died serving in the Royal Air Force/Volunteer Reserve. Along with Pip, I have chosen an Australian Philippine Army guerrilla, an Australian Commando serving with the British, an Australian Merchant Marine who survived the sinking of two of his ships (but not the third), an Australian Engineer who served with the Federated Malay States Volunteer Force and worked on the Thai-Burma Railway, two British brothers who made Australia their home but heard the call to return to the British Army and an Australian Painter who'd migrated to New Zealand. These stories represent different facets of our history and society over different wars and services. However, they all have the same thing in common, they were Australian but served with other Allied forces. I think their stories are extraordinary and they are equal to those on the Roll of Honour. 

The Commemorative Roll is tucked away up a short flight of stairs at the end of the Reflective Pool, on the right hand side as you enter the pool area.

Commemorative Roll Alcove, AWM Canberra

If you wish to view the roll you need to ask an attendant at the main desk to unlock it. I did this but the name I sought was not on the page.  Having only recently been identified as eligible, Philip Hugh Boulton (Pip)  will be included when the Roll is reprinted shortly.

Commemorative Roll Display Cabinet, AWM Canberra

Afterwards I bowed my head before his uncle Steve's name (S P Boulton) on the Honour Roll for those serving in the 2nd Brigade of Australia's First Division in WW1. His name was so crowded with poppies that it is almost obscured.

Honour Roll, Panel 11, AWM Canberra

Read more about Pip here and here. Read more abut Pip's father and Uncle Steve in WW1 in their letters, published as Brothers in Arms: the Great War Letters of Captain Nigel Boulton, R.A.M.C. & Lieut Stephen Boulton, A.I.F.   The AWM Bookshop still has two copies.

Should you ever wish to consult them, the original letters are held in Canberra within the AWM's Collection, Nigel's at https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C92249 and Stephen's at https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C92250

Gladesville Boys in WW1

Next week, on 16 January 2020, a public talk will be given in the Commemorative Area of the Australian War Memorial (AWM) in Canberra. It will feature the stories of a representative group of Australians who died in WW2 while serving with other Allied forces. The names of these people are included on the AWM's Commemorative Roll, holding equal significance to the AWM's Honour Roll (for those serving with Australian military forces). The talk on 16 January will include the story of Philip Hugh (Pip) Boulton, the son of Dr Nigel Boulton, a long-time resident of Gladesville and Ryde.

Pip was chosen for inclusion in the talk as an example of the inter-generational service of fathers who served in WW1 and their sons in WW2.  Pip, as a baby, features strongly in the letters written by his father and uncle during WW1 and published in the book Brothers in Arms: the Great War Letters of Captain Nigel Boulton, R.A.M.C. & Lieut Stephen Boulton, A.I.F.  Like his father, Pip attended The Kings School at Parramatta and, like his father, he also happened to be in England when WW2 broke out. Unlike his father, Pip did not return home from WW2.

Dr Nigel Boulotn, Pip and his mother Mona, England, mid 1918
from Julia Woodhouse Collection

In the generation before Pip, a number of other young men from Gladesville also did not survive their service. Altogether five sets of brothers from Gladesville who fought in WW1 make an appearance in the Boulton book. A century later, their names provide an interesting record of a friendship group, almost a social class, within the larger number of men from Gladesville whose service in WW1 is recorded by the Australian War Memorial.

The two Boulton brothers lived prior to WW1 at 'Bi-frons', Coulter St, Gladesville, a three-generation household containing their sister, their widowed mother, her sister (Aunt Mog) and their Flockton grandmother. Frank Bryant, a banker and close family friend who kept an eye on the welfare of the Boultons, was the nephew of Australia's first Prime Minister, Edmund Barton. The Barton family will reappear twice more in this story but no direct connection has been identified between them.

'Bi-frons', Coulter St, Gladesville c 1910
from Julia Woodhouse Collection

During the war their womenfolk lived at 'Coolah', on the corner of Ross Street and Western Crescent, Gladesville.

'Coolah', Western Crescent, Gladesville
from Julia Woodhouse Collection

Dr Nigel Boulton, c Dec 1913
from Julia Woodhouse Collection

Bank officer Stephen Boulton, c Dec 1914
from Julia Woodhouse Collection

Nigel Philip Boulton served as a doctor with the British Army and survived the war,  and Stephen Philip Boulton, Service Number 3872, was killed in France on 3 October 1918.

Stephen & Nigel Boulton, England, Sep 1917
by courtesy Sarah Dennis

After the war Nigel was a doctor at 760 Victoria Rd, Ryde for several years and at 237 Blaxland Rd, Ryde for many years. His Aunt Mog (the scientific botanical artist Margaret Lilian Flockton) lived at Tulagi, 30 Kemp St, Tennyson from 1918 to her death in 1953.

Two Shelley brothers of "Glen Doone", Henley, William St, Gladesville (towards Huntleys Point and Hunters Hill) both survived the war. Eric Ralph Shelley, Service Number 3130, was a farmer and grazier before the war and was awarded the Military Cross in 1917. His brother Mac Robert Shelley, Service Number 3131, was a bank clerk.

Two Herring brothers had lived at Bracondale, Ashburn Place, Gladesville, close to the Boultons. Edward Edgar (Jack) Herring, Service Number 939, was a bank clerk like Stephen Boulton when he signed up on 27 August 1914. He died on 9 August 1915 and is buried at Gallipoli.

Edward Edgar (Jack) Herring
(Sydney Mail, 13 Sep 1915)

His older brother Sydney Charles Edgar Herring (Syd), a married man and estate agent of Gladesville, has no recorded Service Number because he was already an army captain  when he signed up on 9 October 1914. He had a distinguished military career.

Brigadier General Sydney Herring, London 1918
Australian War Memorial, in Public Domain

Two Barton brothers of "Nyrangie", Linsley St, Gladesville (not far from the Boulton residence) both died in the war. They were first cousins of Andrew Barton (Banjo) Paterson, in whose honour a harbourside park has been named because Banjo lived with his grandmother at 'Rockend', Gladesville for a lengthy period when he was a student.

Francis Maxwell Barton (Max or Mac) was a student but already an officer (2nd Lieut) when he signed up with Syd Herring on 9 October 1914, so he has no recorded Service Number. Max died in France on 11 August 1916, shortly after this photo was taken of him in March 1916 at Tel-el-kebir in Egypt.

13th Australian Infantry Battalion plays donkey polo, Max Barton in left foreground
Australian War Memorial, in public domain

Max is not picked up as a Gladesville 'boy' on the Australian War Memorial website when it sorts by place. However his younger brother is: Robert Anthony Barton (Tony), Service Number 4660, was a student when he enlisted on 16 August 1915 and he was killed on 9 June 1917 in Belgium. Max and Tony's letters were discovered in a suitcase by their niece Gay Shannon, who is now publishing them online in a blog and a Facebook page

Francis Maxwell (Max) Barton
by courtesy Gay Shannon

Robert Anthony (Tony) Barton
by courtesy Gay Shannon

Four Kirkwood brothers served and Stephen Boulton mentions 'one of the Kirkwood lads' at Pozières in August 1916. This was William Russell Barton Kirkwood, Service Number 907, a farm student when he enlisted, who was later killed in France on 3 May 1917. The Kirkwood brothers' home address was 'Speen', Wharf Road, Gladesville, around the corner from the Herring brothers. Phillip Barton Kirkwood, Service Number 604, a bank clerk when he enlisted, was killed at Gallipoli on 19 May 1915. Soon after Phillip's death two more Kirkwood brothers enlisted. Noel Edmund Barton Kirkwood, a doctor, enlisted as an officer on 27 May 1915 and survived the war. John Barton Kirkwood, Service Number 2619, an auctioneer, enlisted on 14 June 1915 and survived the war. Photos of all four brothers are on the Virtual War Memorial Australia website. The Barton appearing in all their names honoured their grandfather Russell Barton of 'Russell Lea', Five Dock, a separate Barton family to that of Max and Tony Barton.

From the adjoining suburb of Hunters Hill, the Boulton brothers refer in their letters to two others:

Walter Stirling Macansh, a stockman whose family lived at Brown Street, Hunters Hill. He was a first cousin of the eldest (half) sister of the Barton brothers. He signed up early, on 2 September 1914, his Service Number being 147 and he survived the war.

In a letter written from 'Somewhere in France' on 30 April 1916, Stephen Boulton mentions a Mr Budden: "An occasional lot of gift stuffs come along for the 1^st Brigade of Artly., which we being in the 1^st Brigade get a share of. We haven't had any since coming over to France but I suppose later some will come along. Mr. Budden of Hunter's Hill is Secretary I believe." His reference was to Henry Ebenezer Budden, an architect of 'Morillah', Hunters Hill, who volunteered in 1915 to act in a voluntary capacity as the Commissioner of Australia's 'Citizens War Chest Fund'. This was a charitable body aiding the troops in Egypt and Europe.

The Boulton brothers attended The Kings School at Parramatta in the early 1900s, and their letters also mention some names from their school days:

• Harry Lloyd
• Arthur Champion
• Harry Jacob
• R G Waddy
• Billy Metcalfe

One military researcher describes the Boulton book as among the best first-hand accounts in print. If you'd like to read more, it's available from BookPOD in Melbourne or internationally through major online booksellers.

A Christmas Gift from a Reader

A lovely letter has just turned up in my post box, almost like a Christmas gift, from a reader named Laurie Gallop who knew Nigel Boulton.

Naturally I had to ring him straight away to say thank you. Laurie's nephew recently bought him a copy of Brothers in Arms: The Great War Letters of Captain Nigel Boulton, R.A.M.C. & Lieut Stephen Boulton, A.I.F., having heard Laurie reminisce so fondly about his old family doctor, 'Dr Boulton'. Laurie thinks many more old patients of Dr Boulton's at Ryde would love to read this book, if only they knew of its existence.

Dr Nigel Boulton

Although he is 85 years old, Laurie also enclosed with his letter his own drawing of the Old Bank House at Ryde, copied from a picture in the paper. He says this building, on the corner of Church St & Victoria Rd, housed the Bank of New South Wales until 1914 and included a hitching rail for horse-drawn vehicles. Dr Boulton purchased the building in 1922 and practised there until after the Second World War. He then moved to a new home and practice in Blaxland Rd, opposite the tram terminus.

Old Bank Building, Ryde, drawn by Laurie Gallop, 2017

Laurie drew this picture especially for me, as a gift to keep. At this time of year, it's a Christmas gift. Drawing is his hobby, he says, as his health status means he doesn't get out much. He was never an artist himself but his father made his living teaching art at the East Sydney Technical College, a.k.a. the National Art School at Darlinghurst. Coincidentally, this means that my mother Julia Woodhouse was an art student of Laurie's father, around 1940.

On the phone Laurie described Dr Boulton as quiet and gentlemanly, but not without humour, and very well-trained as a doctor. Here's Laurie's letter:

Dear Louise 

I must congratulate you on your fine book BROTHERS IN ARMS. It has meant a lot to me, as it has filled a void in the life of Dr Nigel Boulton. 

Dr Boulton and Nurse Lane were present at my birth on the xxxxxx 1931. The now faded Birth Certificate has one error. The Register Clerk mispelt Dr Boulton's name as Dr Boutton. O well! 

I have some very close memories of Dr Boulton and I must say they are part of my regular reminiscent moments in life. I kept in touch with Dr Boulton up until his death, spanning over 35 years. He was a fine and capable surgeon, especially as a setter of broken bones. His concern for the welfare of his patients was legendary. 

I have always wondered about the family life of Dr Boulton in particular. BROTHERS IN ARMS says it all. It is so interesting to read those beautiful letters between their mother and her two heroic sons. Without BROTHERS IN ARMS many people like myself would never have known very much about the Boultons and what a loss that would have been. 

My parents were married in 1920 and they set up home in Meadow Crescent, Meadowbank, and there they raised five children. We were all born at home except my sister Clare who was born at Wollongong. Dr Boulton was no doubt assisted by nurse Black or nurse Lane on the other occasions. 

The whole family were treated by Dr Boulton at one time or another. He got me through pneumonia with the trusty sulphur drugs, along with home care from my good mother. This was during the Second World War. He also removed a Half Penny from my stomach, without surgery in 1934. I was playing with coins laying down on the floor. I threw them up without care, at age three. Down the Half Penny went. Dr Boulton arrived at Ryde Hospital in no time, and I remember this event as if it was only yesterday. [On the phone to me, Laurie said he remembered choking and foaming at the mouth, a white sheet being placed over his head, and an overnight stay in hospital, so he assumes he was chlorofomed and the coin was extracted from his throat with a long instrument of some kind.]

Dr Boulton took over some of Dr Gordon Smith's patients at his retirement, about 1935. I can remember the old Bank House about this time. Dr Boulton had some of his wartime souvenirs on the picture ledges in the waiting room. He later moved to nearby Blaxland Rd opposite the tram terminus. It was a two story brick building and he remained there for the rest of his life. 

Dr Boulton loved his aeroplane. He was reported flying it, "Barnstorming" the railway bridge and going under it one Sunday afternoon, to the thrill of the picnic crowds in the park. This was some time in the 1930s. [Note - This story came to Laurie from his parents. My research shows that Nigel obtained his licence to fly a Gypsy Moth from the Royal Aero Club of NSW in 1928 and he flew a B.J. Monoplane on the Sydney to Melbourne leg of the East-West Air Race to Perth in 1929. His brother-in-law Cleon Dennis knew the Kingsford-Smith family.]

Gypsy Moth Plane, picture from en.Wikipedia.org

I worked and lived in Ryde for 55 years, and I remember the good Doctor doing his rounds in his 1946 Ford MERCURY. It was a big powerful car and it suited his tall lean stature.

1946 Ford Mercury, picture from www.hireoldcar.com

BROTHERS IN ARMS has given us a wonderful insight into the Boulton family. It has added a rich chapter into the history of Ryde and its people. 

Cheerio for now 

Laurie

NOTE: The book Brothers in Arms: The Great War Letters of Captain Nigel Boulton, R.A.M.C. & Lieut Stephen Boulton, A.I.F. recently rated very highly among all the books read by members of the Athenaeum Book Club in Melbourne during 2017. Hearing of that verdict was like another Christmas gift to me. The book's available in Australia via BookPOD and internationally via the online sources such as Amazon and Book Depository which are mentioned on my website. I hope everyone reading this post will enjoy some equally unexpected pleasures this Christmas and that the year to come, 2018, will be loving, healthy, safe and happy for you.

Wicked Stepmother?

Dr Nigel Boulton's second wife Marie was the widow of James Clayton Tofield, late of Leura, and the daughter of one of his patients Madame Memory, who my family remembers as a very eccentric woman but as an excellent pianist.

At some stage Madame Memory was the caretaker of a mansion diagonally opposite the house of Nigel's sister Thea Dennis. From early 1933 Thea lived on the corner of St Vincent’s Rd and River Rd, Greenwich with her five children, one of whom was my mother Julia. In my childhood, when visiting my grandmother Thea, we knew that neighbouring mansion as the Pallister Church of England Girls Home but it was off-limits to us kids and always a bit mysterious. We never saw much sign of any activity happening there. Where were the girls?  It’s now the Greenwich Hospital, specialising in palliative care.

According to my mother, Marie Ellen Tofield née Memory had long red hair and bred red setter dogs. Nigel married her at the Registrar General’s Office in Sydney on 24 November 1927, when he was close to forty and his boys Philip (Pip) and Peter were about ten and seven years old respectively.[1] In her mid thirties at the time, Marie was inexperienced with children and their needs.

Dr Nigel Boulton & second wife Marie

In Nigel's divorce from his first wife Mona, custodial rights to the two boys reputedly involved them staying with their father until the age of 14, when they were allowed to choose which parent they wished to live with. At this point, in the early-mid 1930s, both boys were placed in an invidious position by their step mother Marie, who reportedly took them aside and said she would leave their father if they chose to stay with him. They were thus given little choice but to choose their mother, which broke Nigel's heart, especially as his second wife Marie left anyway, a few years later.

According to my mother, she ran off with a poet in the later 1930s. (Update, 3 June: I've now been informed by Kate O'Neill, a researcher at Woodford Academy in the Blue Mountains, that this was Raymond Hanson, younger than her and a musician, not a poet. In October 2017, Kate will present a paper on Marie to the Blue Mountains Historical Society.)

The two Boulton boys sometimes found it difficult living in the home of their mother Mona and stepfather (Alphons James Dee) and, in his mid-teens, Peter (born in 1920) spent long periods living with his aunt Thea and his cousins (my mother Julia and her four brothers). His older brother Pip sailed off to Europe in May 1939.

During one of these periods, when Marie rented a holiday cottage at Patonga for 4-5 days, Peter came to stay with his father and step-mother, bringing a friend, and cousin Julia came too, with a friend. But the food was rationed out, even the biscuits were counted to make sure no-one ate anything additional to the rations. Cousins Peter and Julia long afterwards remembered how starved they felt and how they wished they could go home.

Nigel eventually divorced his long-absent wife Marie in 1950.[2] He found happiness with his third wife, another widow. Thelma Attwood née Robertson, a well-known antiques auctioneer, married Nigel at St Stephen's, Macquarie St in Sydney on 19 January 1951.[3]

Marie reverted to her maiden name and her death at Sydney Hospital on 24 May 1964 was registered as Marian Memory.[4] She would have been around 72 years old. Nigel died at his home in Ryde on 30 June 1969, aged 80.[5]

There is a street in Ryde named Memory St but I don’t know its history or possible connection to Nigel’s second wife and her family.

There's a great deal more about Nigel Boulton's life in my book 'Brothers in Arms: The Great War Letters of Captain Nigel Boulton, R.A.M.C. and Lieut Stephen Boulton, A.I.F.'.

---

[1] SMH, Wed 21 Dec 1927, p 12, col a

[2] SMH, Sat 27 May 1950, p 7, col e; and Decree Nisi, N P Boulton v M E Boulton, SMH, Fri 17 Nov 1950, p 9, col c

[3] Marriage Certificate No C850225, Original Copy, in possession of author

[4] Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages, NSW, https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/lifelink/familyhistory/search/result?3

[5] Nigel Philip Boulton, Certified Copy of Death Certificate, Issued 18 July 1969, NSW Registry of B, D & M, Sydney

Letters from a school boy at BOA Slough, 1905

The old British Orphan’s Asylum (BOA) at Slough in Buckinghamshire offered free tuition and board to the children of ‘gentlemen’ where the father had died, leaving the family to suffer a declining standard of living. Children could only enter the school if they obtained sufficient ‘votes’ in an election campaign held amongst the financial supporters of the school.

In far off Australia, the widow of Englishman Philip Boulton, a bank manager in Melbourne prior to his death in 1895, feared for the prospects of her two Australian-born sons. Government schools in Australia were deemed not good enough for her boys, and she was unable to afford private schooling. English relatives stepped in to help and evidently did a fine job promoting the Boulton boys' cause, because both were accepted into BOA, on the other side of the world.

Still aged only ten, Master Nigel Boulton was one of the passengers for London when the R M S Australia sailed from Sydney on Saturday 9 September 1899. During his journey he wrote several letters home.

Nigel Boulton, c 1899

A year later, ten-year-old Master Stephen Boulton also set off alone on the long sea voyage to join his brother, leaving Sydney on 14 July 1900 aboard the P&O vessel Britannia. In both cases, a suitable person among the fellow passengers must have been charged with the responsibility for each boy's welfare. 

Stephen Boulton, c 1899

Their mother Dora, known as Dolly, was keen to get away and join her two boys in her native land. With her husband’s probate in England finally granted late in 1901, Dolly and her seven-year-old daughter Thea sailed for London on 24 June 1902 and enjoyed an 18-month stay in England as guests of various extended family members. Photos of the three children were taken at this time.

Nigel, Thea & Stephen Boulton, England c 1902

Since her own immediate family (her parents and her sisters) had made their home in Australia in the 1880s, Dolly returned to Sydney, departing Liverpool with Nigel and Thea aboard the Medic on 14 January 1904 and leaving Stephen behind at school in England.

Only three of Stephen's letters written from BOA survive, the first one ostensibly dated less than two weeks after his mother sailed for home. However, among those of his WW1 letters which were written in January, he sometimes forgot to advance the year. This seems to be the case with his '1904' letter, because in a postscript he mentions that he expects to see his family before year's end, and he returned to Australia in September 1905. He also mentioned being in the 5th form, another indication that he was in his final year of schooling in England before returning to Australia to complete his education: 

B.O.A.
Slough
Jan 26th 1904
My dear Mother
You see that I have got back to school from the holidays. I got back here on the 19th, John and Ken [Dixon, his second cousins] went back on the same day. I am now ninth top of the fifth, I was glad to hear that I was staying on till Midsummer.
Mr Gilliat during the Xmas holidays took two of his old boys and one of the boys still here to Bournemouth, for a fortnight or three weeks, he did not ask me to go, I did not find it out until I got back. [Presumably this was Algernon Gilliat, who built the boys' school in 1885. His wife Lady Mary, a member of Earl Mountcashell's family, had died in 1903.]

Mr Gilliat, c 1904-5

When Cousin Mary [his mother's cousin, mother of John & Ken Dixon] received that booklet of Flowers of Australia [painted by Margaret Flockton, Stephen's maternal 'Aunt Mog'], Maud and Bob were staying with her, and Maud was greatly overcome with them and the excellent painting she knew them all; Bob and her are both artists. Mr Gilliat told me that he had received one of them.

Margaret Flockton's 'Australian Wildflowers' booklet

Last Saturday he took us to a lake to skate, hardly any of us (the 5th form) could skate but we enjoyed ourselves very much in sliding.
Tell Nigel that Mr Veerman has left, and that last term, the chaps contributed to give him some music. The new master is rather decent- I am his water-boy, his name is Mr Roberts. Also tell him that the prefects are Barker 1, Robinson 1, Wilson, Shibbs, Potter, Hoyles. While the other 5th Form boys do shorthand I have to teach some boys writing, who do not do shorthand.
Last Wednesday we went to a lecture on New Zealand.
There is no more news to tell you so I will have to say Good Bye hoping you are all quite well and sending much love and kisses to all especially my Bab-Child [his sister Thea] and her children [her dolls].
I remain
Your Loving Son
S Boulton
P.S. I shall see you all before this year is out. Imagine it!!! I put that 10/- which Aunt Julia [Julia Charles, his mother's paternal aunt] gave me in the Bank.

It's highly likely that Maud & Bob were the Sennetts, an interesting couple. Prior to her marriage to Henry Robert Sennett in London in 1898, the talented Maud had been a successful young Shakespearian actress with the stage name of Mary Kingsley. Roughly the same age as Margaret Flockton, Maud a.k.a. Mary Kingsley had toured Australia in the early 1890s and this would explain the familiarity with Australian wildflowers mentioned in Stephen's letter. He described Maud and her husband Bob as artists, but this must have been a recreational activity as they were running her family's ornamental confectionery company. Australian women had the vote by the 1903 Federal elections and soon afterwards Maud became very active in the sufragette movement in England, leading to her arrest several times.  An unknown R.J.W., perhaps a woman appreciative of Maud's efforts and knowing that she loved the wildflower paintings, presented Maud with a handsomely-bound copy of Margaret Flockton's wildflower booklet at the end of 1904.

Back cover of Maud Sennett's copy of
Margaret Flockton's wildflower booklet.

Family memorabilia includes a number of photos of Mr Gilliat in company with groups of boys like the Boultons, living too far from their families to return home for the long Midsummer holidays.

BOA Boys with Mr Gilliat, 1904 or 1905

Now for Stephen's second letter. Wanting her sons to finish their schooling at The King's School, a school she deemed of suitable status for her boys and could now somehow afford, in 1904 Dolly had rented the home 'Willow Grove' in Philip Street, Parramatta. Stephen was keen to hear where he would sleep when he returned home in 1905:

B.O.A.
Slough
Feb 9th 1905
My dear little Bab Child
I am sending you this little post card album for your birthday, I know it will be late but I hope you won’t mind that, I thought you would like it to put postcards in, I think I remember you having some. You are an awful pro winning first class honours at music, you are much better than me.
Mother talks about me going in for the “matric” which will be impossible for me unless I can give up Latin, which I hate and am no good whatever at it, tell mother that Mr Hill can’t understand me not doing Latin when I do all the other subjects, he never makes me do any and knows I can’t do it, so he passes me over.
Tell Mother when she writes next to tell me all [about] the house and what sort of a room I will sleep in etc.
Thank you very much for the paper and little cutting. I sent the cutting on to Aunt Eleanor [his mother's paternal aunt Eleanor Flockton], she said when she wrote to me that she had only heard from you once since you left England.
There is no more news to tell you so I must say Good Bye sending much love and kisses to all hoping you are all quite well
I remain
Your Loving Nephew [crossed out] Brother
Stephen

Willow Grove, Parramatta

In the third and last of his schoolboy letters, written two weeks later, Stephen sent some good news to his mother but let her know he was not keen to endure ny more exams. He referred to himself as 'Toots', the same nickname subsequently used throughout his artillery service in World War 1:

B.O.A.
Slough, Bucks 
Feb 23rd 1905
Dear old Mums
“Well played Toots he has actually passed in his exam what an awful fluke”. The reports came last Thursday so I am just writing you a short letter to break the news. The detail reports do not come till the end of March, so I will have to tell you what I passed or failed in, anyhow that does not matter much, so long as I have passed.
I hope Thea will like the post-card album, I thought she might like to put her postcards in.
It is awfully cold here now there has been a wind blowing for the last 3 days.
I do not like the idea of going to King’s College when I get out there especially if I will have to do Latin every day, here I do not do hardly any, when I do do it, Mr Hill calls it my Latin (Boltonic Latin) and then passes on to the next chap.
I think I have got a chance of going away with Mr Gilliat again at Midsummer, but I am not sure, the other day he said to me “we will have to pick some boys for next summer”.
There is no more news to tell you so I must say Good Bye sending much love and kisses to all
I remain
Your Loving Son
Stephen
P.S. I did not take my own bike away with me at Mid-Summer, but each of us were provided with them by Mr Gilliat, they were fine ones.
Four chaps failed in the exam.

BOA Boys on Mr Gilliat's Bikes, Midsummer 1904

BOA Boys, Midsummer 1905

Stephen Boulton had dark hair and looks like the older and taller boy standing on the right of the seaside photo, presumably taken at Bournemouth not long before he left England.

Fifteen-year-old Stephen travelled home alone, reaching Sydney aboard the Medic in late September 1905 before briefly joining his brother at The King’s School where Nigel had recently passed his matriculation exams. 

The King's School, Parramatta, c 1890

By the start of the 1906 academic year Nigel had left school and was enrolled in the Arts Faculty at Sydney University, planning ultimately to become a doctor. During 1906 Dolly purchased a property at Broughton Street, Concord. If the Boultons ever lived at Concord, it was not for long, as they soon joined forces with Dolly's botanical artist sister Margaret Flockton and their mother, forming a communal three-generation household in rental property at Gladesville for the next ten years.

Trailing a year behind his brother at The King's School, there is evidence in 1910 of Stephen as an 'old boy' of the school but no record that he ever sat for his much-feared matriculation exams in 1906. Around the end of the 1906 academic year he went to work in the Pitt Street, Sydney branch of the Union Bank of Australia, his father's old employer. After seven years at the Union Bank, Stephen moved in early 1914 to the new government-owned Commonwealth Bank of Australia, around the corner in Martin Place.

In his personal life, from 1911 for four tennis seasons he was an active doubles tennis player for the Hunter's Hill Tennis Club, working his way up into the A Grade competition by December 1914, the month before he enlisted for the Great War.

NOTE: Other posts in this blog cover aspects of the lives of the Boulton brothers prior to their early teenage years. And for more details about their experiences during the Great War, see Brothers in Arms. Their aunt's life story is told in Margaret Flockton: A Fragrant Memory. 

Dr Nigel Boulton of Ryde, Family Doctor

It's gratifying to watch the penny drop when you are speaking to a new audience, as I did on 12 July at the Ryde District Historical Society.

Nigel Boulton, R.A.M.C.

Actually, I'd wondered a few days beforehand whether anyone would come on the night, having looked at the RDHS online list of 'forthcoming events'. My talk was advertised only as Brothers in Arms: The Great War Letters of Captain Nigel Boulton, R.A.M.C. & Lieut Stephen Boulton, A.I.F., with no other preamble. Would you see reason to turn up?

Donning my long-ago hat of mathematics teacher, I realised I would have to convince my audience that there were logical and legitimate reasons for giving this particular talk. I rearranged my presentation to focus on -

Q1. Why am I giving this talk now?
A1. Because this was the group's monthly meeting closest to the centenary of the battle at Pozières, on the Western Front. Nigel's brother Stephen Boulton was there, 100 years ago. I showed slides of Pozières and explained its significance in Australian history.

Q2. Why am I giving it here, at Ryde?
A2. Because the Boultons had lived in the Ryde district for many years from mid 1890s to 1969. I showed slides of the family and the houses where they'd lived at Gladesville, all part of RDHS's local history but now obliterated by redevelopment.

Q3. What will you gain from reading my book?

A3. My book has special features as a 'war book'. It tells a start-to-finish story of 1914-18. It shows how Germany nearly won the war in the Spring of 1918 and how important was the role played by Australians. It's about relationships. My slides included pictures of Dr Nigel Boulton, working for the British Army, and his brother, in the Australian artillery.

When I arrived the room contained an audience, thank goodness, and using my trusty Powerpoint slides I tried to reward attendees for coming out on a cold winter's night.

Reaction

Brows wrinkled with puzzlement and then sighs of satisfaction were released as men and women in the audience realised I was talking about their old family doctor.

Person 1. "Wait a minute, was that the Dr Boulton in Blaxland Rd?" 

"Yes." 

"Really? He was our family doctor."

Person 2. "You mean Nigee Boulton, at the hospital?" 

"Yes" 

"For goodness sake, I was a young nurse on duty with him years ago."

Person 3. "Hey, that was the doctor's name on my birth certificate." 

"Quite likely. He practised round here for nearly 50 years after WW1."

Person 4. "I'm going home to check my birth certificate too."

I had to laugh.

Dr Nigel Boulton at Ryde, 1920s

Nigel Boulton with his great-niece Jennifer, 1947

About a month later:

The Department of Veteran's Affairs published a short 'review' of the Brothers in Arms book in the Off the Shelf page of VetAffairs (Vol 32, No 2, Winter 2016). Soon afterwards I received an email from 91-yr-old Rev Ron Hansard:

I feel Dr. Nigel Boulton, if his practice was in Ryde NSW was our family Dr. If so I remember as a child his rooms near Ryde Police Station and a glass cabinet containing a number of World War I items including what was probably a German Officers steel helmet. 

Naturally I telephoned Ron, who passed on some interesting anecdotes.

Ron's first point, about his Christian names.

Ron's parents were Stanley Hansard and Amy Fulton. Amy was born in 1894 at Niangla near Walcha and her mother died in 1896 when Amy was 2. She and her siblings fended for themselves for about 6 weeks, & were then farmed out to various relatives, with Amy raised by her mother’s childless sister Jessie (née Abernethy) and her husband George Gibson on the understanding the child should believe she was a Gibson. She farewelled her brother Bob off to WW1, not realising he was her brother and not her cousin. Robert John Fulton, aged 23 of Richard St, Ryde in 1915, listing his next of kin as his brother J Fulton, was killed at Fromelles on 19 July 1916 and his body has never been found.

When Amy married Stanley Hansard in 1923 she’d become aware of her true family history. Then she lost a still-born daughter in 1924. By the time Ron was born in 1925, his mother Amy had strong feelings about the significance of past family connections. As a result, Ron was named as Ronald George Abernethy Hansard, with nurse Black and Dr Nigel Boulton present at his birth.

Ron then repeated a story about Nigel which Ron had told in A Life Extended in ‘The Baptist Recorder.’ No 121, April 2013: ‘

When I was born on 7 June 1925 the family doctor asked what name was being given to me. Mum replied ‘Ronald George Abernethy Hansard’. Doctor said, ‘You both have one Christian name and you’re loading all this on this child.’ It is only in the last twenty years that I have come to use and appreciate my Scot name.

Ron's second point, about Nigel as a doctor:

Ron remembered his family doctor as physically lean, quiet by nature and very caring. Ron's parents had five children and little money, and when protracted illness struck Ron's father during the 1930s, more than once a box of groceries was delivered anonymously to Ron's mother. She always believed they were sent by Dr Boulton.

Ron's family was active in the Baptist Church but Nigel told them he was agnostic, after his wartime experiences. When Ron later felt called to the Ministry, involving years of further study, Nigel said to him 'Should you be doing that?', as if reminding Ron that, as the eldest, he owed something to his parents and younger siblings as a provider.

Ron also remembers Nigel with gratitude for his treatment in 1947, when he was admitted to hospital with rheumatic fever and 6 weeks later with the complication of pericarditis. Everyone thought Ron would not pull through the pericarditis but he recovered fully. Ron remembers Nigel saying to him 'You're a freak!'

Ron's third point, about Nigel as a mystery man

Q. Ryde School children believed he was building an aeroplane under Tuttlebees Grocery store opposite in Lane Cove Rd and would sneak down the lane way beside the shop to peer inside into the gloomy interior to see if it was true (about 1934). Was it?

A. I'm not sure. He did learn to fly and participated in the East-West air race from Sydney to Perth in 1929, getting as far as Melbourne.

Nigel with his first wife Mona (left) & his sister Thea, c 1920

Q. Was the rumour true that Dr’s first wife left him as she could no longer stand the pressure of being a Dr’s wife?

A. No, Mona liked having a good time and in 1923 she ran off with a man who'd stayed behind in Australia and had never been involved in the horrors of World War 1, whereas Nigel was probably a bit inclined to depression after his gruesome experiences in that war. He retained custody of his two boys, who were educated at The King's School, Parramatta. He remarried in 1927 but the marriage was unhappy and lasted about 10 years. In his early 60s he found happiness with his third wife.

Memories of Ron's cousin
Ron put me in touch with his cousin, Joan Fulton, who said she was born in 1923 and thinks Dr Boulton also delivered her. Until she moved away in 1948 he was her family's doctor and she remembers him as a kind, rather serious man. His surgery was in a red brick house on the corner of Blaxland Rd & Lane Cove Rd, with beautiful views across to the Blue Mountains. Joan doesn't remember the presence of a wife in his life.

When Joan caught scarlet fever at the age of 17 her mother did not want her to go automatically to an isolation ward in hospital and Dr Boulton, an expert at treating fevers of every kind as an army doctor, allowed Joan to stay at home.

Her mother had a lot of praise for him, especially because he was very kind towards any young woman who got herself 'into trouble'. He would send her away to someone he knew in the country who would look after her until the baby was born.

NOTE:

Nigel was my grandmother Thea's brother and thus my great-uncle. Sadly he has no descendants from either son, so had to make do with his sister's grandchildren. He practised as a doctor at Ryde from around 1920 until his death in 1969 at the age of 80. If you have memories of him in this period, I'd love to hear from you. Leave a comment below.

And don't forget - to discover more about Nigel's life and role in WW1, you are invited to buy my book!

Would you let your 10-yr-old travel on his own by ship from Sydney to London?

Nigel Boulton's mother did. Read these three brave letters from young Nigel, who sailed from Sydney on 9 September 1899. He was en route to attend the British Orphan Asylum, a boarding school at Slough in England.

Nigel & Stephen Boulton, England, Dec 1900

Nigel was born in Bundaberg, QLD in 1888, his bank manager father and his mother both being English. When Nigel's father died in Melbourne in 1895, the family back in England felt they had to ‘do something’ about educating Nigel and his younger brother Stephen. (Their sister didn’t count!) The school at Slough offered free tuition and board to the children of ‘gentlemen’ where the father had died leaving the family to suffer a declining standard of living. Entry to the school required a student to obtain sufficient ‘votes’ from the school’s financial supporters. Evidently the English relatives did a fine job promoting the cause of the Boulton boys, because both were accepted into the school.

Presumably Nigel was entrusted to the care of an adult known to his mother, but whoever stood in loco parentis was not mentioned in his letters. Nigel travelled on the ship S.S. Australia, otherwise known as R.M.S. Australia because it carried the Royal Mails.  The ship made headlines in 1904 when it was wrecked off the entrance to Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne, after the pilot in charge of the ship made an error. Everyone on board was rescued.

S.S. Australia leaving Sydney Harbour in 1904

Young Nigel called at Melbourne and Adelaide before writing to his mother as his ship crossed the Great Australian Bight. He clearly felt his responsibilities and seemed old before his time:

S.S. Australia

Saturday 16th 99

My Dear Old Mother

I received your letter. I don’t think it would be wise to be vaccinated till after I reach Albany, for it is very rough now and I think I should be very sick, for it would be calmer I think. 

It is very rough now, and they have to put fiddles round the table to keep every thing from falling off, that is a railing round the table. 

I have broken the lock of my box, very, very sorry, mother but I will tie it with rope or fix it up somehow. 

Who will pay the doctor for vaccinating me, never mind, I will pay him with my 10 shillings. 

I am wear[ing] some new things every day, because Cook says he can get them washed for nothing. 

How are the Cales and Steve and babs, how is Steve getting on with his schooling, does he miss me much. Has Miss Tick left yet, hope not, give my love to her if she has not. Mr Wormley wrote me a Post Card and I wrote to Is and he wrote a Post Card back to me. 

Here his first letter ends. Thomas Cale was a storekeeper at Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, where his mother also lived, in a cottage in Cascade Street, Wentworth Falls. It's possible his widowed mother now ran a guest house and that Miss Tick was a paying guest. Mr Wormley worked at the Wentworth Falls Railway Station. Steve was his 9-yr-old brother and babs was his 4-yr-old sister, Thea.

The ship called briefly at Albany on Sunday 17 September but Nigel had lost accurate track of the dates in his next letter:

S.S. Australia

Tuesday 20th 99

Dear Old Mother

I am enjoying my trip very much, it is very rough weather. I have been vaccinated, it does not hurt at all, I have not been sea-sick any more, I saw the doctor and he says it will take, don’t worry yourself mother, he says he will not charge anything. 

Has Denis been yet, has he sold the pie-bald; how is Bill getting on with the painting, has he painted a side yet, and did you get enough paint? How is everybody, all well I suppose. 

I am sorry to say that I am neglecting one of the things you told me to remember; it is to write in my Book, I am so taken up with the voyage. 

Does Babs miss me, does she ever ask of me. Give my love to Miss Thickner. 

I play men cards on the boat, and every time I beat them. 

The Officers got a bag-pipe and start playing on it it did sound funny. 

I have got 9/3 in hand, and I am not going to spend any more till I get to Colombo. 

Good Bye dear Mother

From your loving son

Nigel P Boulton 

The ship reached Colombo on 27 September, Suez on 9 October and on 21 October it stopped at Plymouth in England to unload the all-important mail from Australia. The ship docked in London several days before Nigel's 11th birthday on 29 October, a milestone which he celebrated with his English relatives, strangers to him. Auntie Connie was his long-dead father’s half-sister. She was married to bank manager William Pemble Doherty and they lived in a conmfortable house at Herne Hill, today an inner-south suburb of London. The four Doherty children, Nigel’s cousins, were around the same age as him.

Cosbycote Ave, Herne Hill, 2003

After Christmas he wrote from the Doherty home to his younger brother in far-off Australia:

‘Longfield'

Cosbycote Aven.

Jan 19th 1900

Dear Old Steve

I was so glad to get your letter that you wrote on December the 3rd. You must have been sharp to be top in the Lower Third. You will have your prize when this letter gets to you. 

We are called by our Sir names at school, you might think this funny, but it is a very good idea, as there might be six or seven Jacks in the School, how could you tell which from which? By calling them by their Sir Names, as they call me Boulton at school. If there are two brothers, they would call the oldest Primus and Secundus. Primus and Secundus are two Latin words which mean first and second. So you will have to get used to being called Boulton Secundus.

I will answer those questions you asked me in your last letter. 

1st. Who did I like best on board. I like Mr Cooke, the Second Saloon Barman. He would give me Lemonade and Gingerbeer for nothing, he was the man Isidore forgot to introduce me to. 

2nd. How did I like Thea’s photo. I like it very much indeed. She has altered a little since I saw her. 

3rd. Do I like the English School, I like it pretty well, it is not as nice as Mr Chiplin’s. I have to go to School on Saturday. But we have a half-holiday, on Wednesdays, and Saturdays, but I do not come home to Aunties I have to stop and play football. I am doing Fractions now, and Practise with Fractions in them not like Mr Chiplin taught me with Decimals. And I am getting on in French, and Latin. Tell Mr Chiplin I will write soon. Auntie wants to say something on the other side. 

Auntie says that she has not had time to write this mail, will you tell mother, she will write next, but if you are coming in July you will have to be here about the second week in May she thinks. 

Good Bye Steve 

From your Loving Brother 

Nigel Boulton 

Mr Chiplin was Walter James Chiplin, a gifted teacher at Nigel’s old school at Wentworth Falls. He deserved Nigel’s praise. Prior to his arrival at Wentworth Falls in 1896, he’d worked for four and a half years as the assistant at the Model School, Fort Street, the leading public school in Australia, and in addition he had university training. Parents at Wentworth Falls appreciated having a teacher of such ability to train their children but presumably it did not occur to the relatives in England that superior schooling was available in Australia. Nigel did not know, when he wrote, that Chiplin had just been promoted to a new school at Miranda in Sydney.

Nigel returned to Sydney aboard the Medic on 28 February 1904, this time travelling with his mother and sister, who'd been visiting their English relatives. Brother Stephen was still at school in England. Nigel completed his education at The King's School at Parramatta and went on to study medicine at the University of Sydney.

When Nigel next visited England, early in 1914, his life was turned upside-down. Read all about it in my book 'Brothers in Arms: The Great War Letters of Captain Nigel Boulton, R.A.M.C. and Lieut Stephen Boulton, A.I.F., available from BookPOD.