A recent donation to our collection is ‘Finding George’, a family memoir by George Ramsey-Stewart. Professor Ramsey-Stewart has published this very limited edition in memory of his uncle, Joseph George Allen Stewart, known as George. George Stewart was an ANZAC, who was wounded at Gallipoli, and died in France in the 1914-18 war aged just 20. From family letters and from official sources, his short life has been recreated in interesting detail. He was the sixth child in a family of ten children, and his father, J G Stewart, a Scot, opened a prosperous department store on the west side of the Corso in 1905. Stewart’s Emporium was extended in 1911, and stretched from 33-39 Corso. The photograph shows the shop at its fullest extent circa 1916; Professor Stewart’s father, Stan, is third from the right. Another view of the shop can be seen in the 2007 autobiography by Justice Don Stewart, Recollections of an Unreasonable Man.
The Stewart boys were high-spirited. Out paddling one evening, “they came upon a fair-sized beached stingray. For some inexplicable reason, they decided to take this creature home. However, while walking along West Esplanade, they decided that this was not really such a good idea. This revelation hit them as they passed a residence with an open front door and a well lit, linoleum-floored, long hallway. George and Fred, encouraged by Stan and little Harold, with a doubtful Will looking on, lobbed the stingray through the below-street level doorway. Whereupon it slid noisily the length of the hallway, bringing down an aspidistra in a brass pot on its journey. This produced great consternation in the resident family, who unsuccessfully pursued the Stewart boys into the evening darkness.” (p23)
George was a popular member of the North Steyne Surf Life Saving Club, and earned his Bronze Medallion. He played rugby for the Manly Second Grade side, and when war came, he enlisted with a couple of his mates from the team, Clarrie Creighton and Roy Quirk. Finding George vividly describes their war-time experiences.
The Stewart boys were high-spirited. Out paddling one evening, “they came upon a fair-sized beached stingray. For some inexplicable reason, they decided to take this creature home. However, while walking along West Esplanade, they decided that this was not really such a good idea. This revelation hit them as they passed a residence with an open front door and a well lit, linoleum-floored, long hallway. George and Fred, encouraged by Stan and little Harold, with a doubtful Will looking on, lobbed the stingray through the below-street level doorway. Whereupon it slid noisily the length of the hallway, bringing down an aspidistra in a brass pot on its journey. This produced great consternation in the resident family, who unsuccessfully pursued the Stewart boys into the evening darkness.” (p23)
George was a popular member of the North Steyne Surf Life Saving Club, and earned his Bronze Medallion. He played rugby for the Manly Second Grade side, and when war came, he enlisted with a couple of his mates from the team, Clarrie Creighton and Roy Quirk. Finding George vividly describes their war-time experiences.
No comments:
Post a Comment