Australians at War Film Archive

I was born at Jerrys Plains, out from Singleton, July 1st, 1899.

When I was a few months old we moved to Sydney and we moved to Leichhardt.

We spent a lot of our years in Leichhardt.

It was like… everything’s changed a terrible lot now to what it was. It was a quiet suburb. We lived in a little quiet street. There was a lot of us. There was eleven in the family. I was the

fifth eldest, I had four brothers older than me. And there was always a baby in our house. Went to school, I started school when I was seven and left when I was fourteen. I didn’t go to work; I stayed home to help Mum.

Yes, yes.

Well, there was so much to be

done, to help Mum. There was eleven, eleven children. So I happened to be the eldest girl, so it fell to my lot, yeah. They were good old days, really, when you look back on it, and I didn’t go to work until the war years, and then I, we did camouflage nets

and I worked on them for a while and then I went into shop work. When I was forty-five, you couldn’t work in the shop in those days until you were forty-five. So when I was forty-five I went into Woollies [department store], and then I went into a cake shop, I was there for a few years.

I suppose we did really. I went to school at Annandale, St Brendan’s in Annandale, but I don’t, nothing very startling went on in those days,

well, it doesn’t seem as if it was, you know.

Not really I don’t think. I mean we weren’t very interested in things in those days, you know, when we were young like that, it’s only later years that you

become interested really.

I suppose that was right, as it went on.

Well, I think, Ray, no Frank, my eldest brother went first and then the third brother, he went in, he was a prisoner of war for a year and eight months in Germany.

I mean he was missing for a long time. There was a, I think it was the 11th April, there was a, he was in the 13th Battalion and I think they had heavy casualties at that time, but he was a prisoner but there was a lot killed. They had a hard time, yeah. I think, did you get the history – he wrote a book about his experiences while he was

there.

No, there was a lot killed so we thought, you know, it was a few weeks before we found out he was a prisoner, and then they couldn’t write very often. I don’t know what become of all the letters. I mean with moving about,

with Mum passing away and that, and Dad passed away, he died in 1922 I think it was.

Eldest one, he lost eight toes with trench feet, they called it. Frostbite.

And then the third brother, he didn’t join the army, and the next one did. So, another brother was younger than me, he was too, he wanted to go but he was only a kid going to school. And then all the others, there were five girls then, five girls below me.

No, two.

I mean, I don’t think he thought it was going to be a picnic. I think a lot of them went in just for adventure. They thought it was adventure they were going into, yeah, but I think he was about a year and eight months a prisoner of

war when he went. And the other one he came out well, after he lost his toes, he couldn’t, he got out of the army.

Nothing seems to be very clear really. I can’t think of anything really clear. There was a war and that was it. Didn’t think it was going to last long but it did.

No, I think about, the beginning of 1916 I think. Well, one went in and then the other one joined up, you know, soon after that.

Oh, good, they used to give them a white feather [sign of cowardice], you know, yes, those that didn’t go, they’d, some of them would give them a white feather or something. Oh, yes, there was a lot of pressure put on to them. They were sad days really, when they went to

France.

Oh, I mean, you’re hearing bad news, you know, always bad news from the war and that sort of thing, because I think for quite a while they thought they’d lose it, you know.

Oh, well, I mean, they were sad times really, because the death toll was pretty high really and

when me eldest brother, I can’t think much about that. I don’t know how long he was in before he got trench feet. Trenches used to be full of water and his toes got frozen, and he was in hospital for quite a while before he came, he was invalided home then. And then he died,

I think he was, just before the Second War, he was in, in Randwick, before Randwick Hospital was built, they had a lot of huts out there, and he was there, he had TB [tuberculosis]. So that was the cause of that. But he got a small pension and he used to get what you call boots special, boots made. He had difficultly in walking,

no spring with his toes.

Yes. Oh well, he died at thirty-nine. So I mean he, I think the effects, you know, it was the

effects of the war really.

That’s true.

No, not really, no,

not really. They might when they all get together, the conversation as it come up.

Some of them, some of them, a couple of them who went down to the wharf, yeah. They used to be very early in the morning, as a rule.

No, not really, we didn’t do, didn’t do – there was lots of things went on, you know. You partook of those sorts of things, but nothing really special I don’t think we did, no. Just be groups, there’d be things

run, you know, and that sort of thing.

We weren’t very happy really, but still that was their choice, yeah.

I wasn’t in favour of that.

No, we weren’t in favour of conscription, they volunteered and that was that. I don’t know how come that my other brother wasn’t conscripted.

Oh, no, no.

… butter and meat, a lot of the things were coupons.

Yeah.

Oh, yes, there’s always been strikes, not as bad as today though.

No, no I don’t think so.

Oh yes, I remember that. People just went mad.

Everybody went to town and they played up, you know, they all laughed and, that was a great, God, I can remember that. The town was packed. Trams were packed. Yes.

I just joined in with them. You know, I went with my, well, he wasn’t my husband then, I went into town with them, they all went to town, they danced and they

sang, it was very good.

Yes, I think they celebrated for days.

Yeah, yeah.

With his people, I went with.

Yes. Yes.

Well, him and his stepbrother, he was in the infantry and the stepbrother was in the artillery, I think.

Yeah. Yeah, I was their sister’s schoolmate, you know, we were all friends, we were friends for years, since going to school.

Not a great deal. When some of them would get together you’d hear them talking, but

of course, I suppose we didn’t understand much about what went on.

Yeah. Oh we used to get, used to go to the RSL [Returned & Services League], you know, get togethers there, there used to be, a lot of talk goes on then.

He always went, he always went to the march. Yeah. I always went, I always went too. We had a friend who had an office in Martin Place and we used to go to his office and see the procession from there. Yes, he always marched.

Well, I don’t know, I’ve got mixed feelings about it.

Well, the ones, the friends and that you lost and that sort of thing.

That’s true.

Well, I know my brother, the one that was a prisoner of war, he had a hard time. He was,

I think he was about a year and eight months prisoner of war. And they could only write, only write a letter every so often and that sort of thing. But he was only nineteen when he went.

No, you didn’t

expect them to come back. The way things were, things weren’t too good. They were bad times, those. And then when they were missing, of course, you’d think the worst. You wonder why they want wars, don’t you? It’s all for a matter of greed,

I think, and power.

The one that was a prisoner of war he was a long time settling down. He couldn’t seem to settle to anything. But the other one seemed to be all right, but he just,

he couldn’t, he didn’t seem to know what he wanted to do. And he did clerical work before he went to the war but he couldn’t stop indoors afterwards, and I think he did labouring most of the rest of his life. I think he was closed in, and I think

he just couldn’t take the pressure of being indoors.

He was quite smart, he was quite a smart boy, I mean, when he was young.

He would have liked to have been a teacher I think but it wasn’t possible, there was no money. Everything wasn’t free in those days.

Yes, and Dad, he didn’t have a constant job and

he was a stonemason and they couldn’t work in wet weather and in the winter time there wasn’t much money coming in. It was a struggle really in those days for them.

Yes, I think there was a lot went on, there were a lot that were out to make money out of it. But there’s always that type of person, isn’t there? Yeah.

Oh, yes, there was a class distinction. Yes, I think there was. There was always the

poorer class and the higher class, yeah. Of course we were in the lower grade. There was never much money in our house but still we got there, yeah.

Yes, that’s right, I think was right too. There’s always those out to make the money, no matter how they get it, they get it.

But you had so many relatives and that, that, you know, that went and friends and that, and there was so many of them killed. Our brothers had mates that got killed. Only young, only young lads. Lasted a long time, didn’t it?

Yeah, and what was gained out of it, I wonder, in the end?

I don’t know, I’ve never thought of that, and I don’t know, just because it was war, what it was all about I wouldn’t know.

Probably. And when you’re young you don’t think of,

you know, of things like you do, you live in a different way, don’t you? One joined up, I think, because his mates joined up and that was how it would go on.

I think it was the effects of war that my eldest brother, he passed on, he wasn’t, he wasn’t very strong after he come back.

Frank, yeah.

There was one thing. The minister or the priest would, there would be a fatality, they used to come and break the news to the people. You’d hate to see

them come. Yeah, they had that job.

No, I don’t remember much of that. See I wasn’t that, I wasn’t that old really.

Oh yes, they’d have prayers and that, you know, for the end of the war and that sort of thing, yeah.

Oh, well, I mean you’ve got to have some head haven’t you? I never thought really much about it, but you’ve got to have a leader I suppose. I wouldn’t like their job.

No, I’ve never thought a lot about it

really. It’s just something that’s got to be there, that’s all.

Well, I think they did really. I think they looked more to the King and Queen and to the head of the state.

It’s something you have to have and that was that. Either that or a president, don’t they? You can’t suit everybody.

I don’t know really. I think Billy Hughes was fairly popular but I mean I wasn’t up in that sort of thing, I suppose.

You only voted because you had to.

Well, I worked for a while doing camouflage nets. They used to have big nets that they used to put strips, coloured strips through them, you know, to make them look like foliage, I suppose. Did that for a while.

And then my husband he broke his, he broke his leg, I didn’t go to work, I only did that for a while, and then he broke his leg and it wasn’t knitting, so when I was forty-five I went into shop work. That was the first time I went to work. I always stayed home before that.

Well, I used to knit socks and balaclavas and do that sort of thing, beside doing ordinary work. There was always plenty of work to be done. We did that kind of work. Everybody knitted.

Yes, I did my share of knitting in those days. Everybody knitted. Even some of the socks that weren’t so comfortable, I believe, you did your best, yeah.

Yeah.