St Thomas Grammarians and Carlton Collegians Honour Board

This board records the "Old Boys" of St Thomas' Grammar and Carlton College.  It is now located in the junior school of Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School, Raleigh St, Essendon.   The names on the board are listed here, and identifications are being made progressively.

The Khaki Girls

 

This interesting photo shows a group of women from the Commonwealth Clothing Factory who had formed a patriotic organisation known as the Khaki Girls.  Presumably they sewed their own uniforms at the Factory.  The sign indicates that the photo was taken on the occasion of the "Our Boys' Day" in March 1918.  This Day was held annually from 1916 to raise funds to provide comforts to the men in the trenches and in hospital.  

The Khaki Girls performed both in displays and in ceremonial duties - the latter being Welcome Homes at the docks and forming guards of honour.  They did displays of marching, physical culture, and they had a bugle band.

The photo belonged to Pte Julius Rudolph (Ru) Jacobsohn of Moonee Ponds, who is standing in the centre row at the right. Jacobsohn was an original Anzac, invalided home and discharged in 1916.  

Identifying the other men in the group is a challenge, but the man seated on the left of the front row with the cane is probably Thomas Trumble, the Secretary for the Defence Department.  The man to his left is Senator George Foster Pearce, the Minister for Defence.  The man in the centre is unknown, but the next two men appear in an AWM photo of the manager and office staff from the Commonwealth Government Clothing Factory.

The sergeant seated second from the right in the front row may be Sergeant E C Perkins, whose name is mentioned in an Argus report as being in charge on the occasion of a fete at the Exhibition Building in September 1918.    This same man is in a SLV photograph of the Commonwealth Clothing Factory Personnel in 1918.

The biggest challenge is to identify the women of the Commonwealth Clothing Factory.  If you had a nanna or great aunt who worked at the Factory in World War 1, have a look and see if you can identify her.

Diggers - Report in the Commonwealth Gazette, Jan 1916

This edition of the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette contains an interesting report on the tunnel diggers at Gallipoli and France.  Despite the peculiar numbering of the editions, this series of Gazettes seems to contain reports on the situation at Gallipoli.

7th Battalion, Headquarters Detail, Broadmeadows 1914

This photo was taken at Broadmeadows Camp in 1914, and has the label on the back "Headquarters Detail 7th Battalion 1st AIF". The men would roughly speaking be identifiable at the top of the first embarkation list of the 7th Battalion Headquarters personnel, but some changes occurred in those personnel between the photo and the embarkation roll. For instance, the owner of the photo is in the photo, but had been transferred to the Machine Gun section prior to embarkation.  I would be grateful for any help with further identifications than the ones I have here

Click on the photo for a larger version.  (And it's ok, I know Pompey Elliott is there.)