The Write Side of History

Thursday, February 1, 2024

Ted's Story: Edwin Martin (1895-1918)

Edwin Martin was born on 8 July 1895, the second son of Edwin and Agnes Martin of Dundas, Tasmania. (1) ‘Ted’ enlisted in November 1916 and was granted the regimental number 3358. At the time he was described as a Methodist, standing 5 foot 7 inches in height, weighing 167 pounds with fair hair and blue eyes. His occupation was listed as a millhand, although he had previously worked as a miner. (2) Ted appears to have been close to his brother Howard who was only two years his senior. (3) Ted’s military career was to last only a little over 16 months, ending with his death from wounds at Etaples, France in early April 1918. (4)

Patriotism was likely the underlying motivation for both the older Martin boys enlisting in the Great War. They were inherently children of the British Empire as their father claimed to be Canadian by birth and their mother was descended from English bounty immigrants on both sides from Cornwall and Somersetshire. (5) Both brothers had skills that recommended them for military service: Howard had three years’ experience with the local rifle club, Ted had trained with the Tasmanian 91^st Infantry based at Zeehan. (6) It was perhaps a statement of both their mutual attachment as well as their resolve to serve their country that the brothers enlisted together at Zeehan on 14 November 1916. (7)

Brothers, Ted and Howard Martin.

All recruits received a minimum of three months training following enlistment at Claremont camp. (8) During his training Ted received vaccinations, inoculations and made a will naming his father as his sole beneficiary. (9) He was eventually assigned to the 8^th Reinforcements for the 40^th Battalion on 9 June 1917. (10) Ted embarked on the Hororata on 14 June from Sydney and arrived in Liverpool on 23 September. Ted was stationed at Sutton Mandeville where he would have received further training and instruction. (11) He proceeded with the 8^th reinforcements to France on 27 December. (12)

Ted Martin arrived at the Australian Infantry Base at Rouelles on 28 December 1917 was taken on strength in the field on 1 January 1918. (13) At the time, the 40^th Battalion were finishing an assignment in the trenches of the Armentieres sector. On 3 January, the Battalion transferred the Armentieres sector over to the 57^th British Division. The men were assigned to lewis gun and signalling schools. In late January following the Russian withdrawal, the 40th relieved the 27^th at Red Lodge (Hill 63) as the reserve battalion to the 10^th Division. They began work on a new defence system that also incorporated Messines, St. Ives and Polegsteert Wood in anticipation of an offensive. Every available man at the time, including Ted, was engaged in building this network of rear defences. Despite a short diversion in the Warneton sector, the support role at Hill 63 continued for several weeks. (14) From the 25 February 1918, the 40^th were regulated to a reserve status at Sedingham, where in addition to training and work on the defences, there were football competitions between the companies and base headquarters as well as target competitions held by the Australian Rifle Association. (15)

By late March a German offensive would place the 40^th Battalion back at the front line of the war. However, Ted Martin was proving deficient as a soldier. He was warned for being absent without leave from his post on 16 February and then caught again on 17 February. Ted was officially admonished by the O. C. on 18 February. (16) Concerns over discipline were understandable: after a full day of heavy machine gun fire, the enemy launched several raids on the night of 21 February, which General Birdwood attributed to a desire to test vulnerabilities along the line. The 40^th were all transferred to Lumbres by 23 March. On 25 March, Major General W. Ramsay McNichol informed his officers at Champangne that the British line had been broken and long-range shelling was now striking Paris. The 40^th were promptly marched to St. Omer and at Mondicourt they encountered both troops and civilians retreating, learning that the enemy were only 10 miles away. The entire Australian 3^rd Division were positioned between Ancre and the Somme. A miscommunication resulted in a withdrawal during the night of 26 March. By the time the orders were reversed the enemy had advanced. During the relatively quiet night of 27 March, there was much anticipation of the engagement expected the next day. (17)

The attack on Morlancourt on 28 March 1918 proved to be Ted’s first and last major battle. Two brigades of Germans were known to be marching on Morlancourt and the 40^th and 41^st Battalions were given orders to proceed at 4 p.m. to take the high ground before the enemy arrived. Assembling on the Amiens Line, the 40^th opened out into sections and came under artillery fire from German artillery as they advanced ‘parade ground style’. They encountered about a hundred men digging machine gun posts and opened fire, targeting only the guns as the enemy retreated. A line was established 400 yards west of Treux-Sailly-Laurette Road. The local topography was level and suited to gunfire and with a single bank that allowed cover for base headquarters. An advance was planned for 7 p.m. and although joined by the 39^th, the 41^st had been delayed and they were ordered to ‘dig in’. Attempts to dislodge a nearby machine gun post that night were unsuccessful. At the end of the day there had been 160 casualties, including Ted Martin. The wounded were transferred 800 yards in borrowed carts to the regimental aid post. From there they were transferred to Heilly Station and from there by ambulances.(18) While the Germans had recaptured all the ground of the Somme they had lost over the previous two years within five days of breaking the lines, it had been Anzac resistance that had secured the area by 31 March. (19)

Ted was eventually admitted to the 1^st Canadian General Hospital at Etaples on 1 April with gunshot wounds to his thigh and side. His left femur had been shattered. He died following an attempt to amputate the leg. He was afterwards buried in Etaples cemetery. (20) Bart Ziino has argued that regarding the families ‘distance mediated their attempts to cope with loss’. Their grief was arguably also protracted by the official process as the cemeteries only began to take shape in the 1920s and many memorials were not completed until the mid-1930s. (21) While Ted’s personal effects arrived promptly in late June 1918, it wasn’t until almost a year after his death that his father was sent two photographs of his grave. Edwin senior was posthumously sent a notice listing its location in Etaples cemetery in August 1922. Military bureaucracy also struggled with the dispatch of Ted’s memorial plaque and war medals, complicated by the passing of both his father and stepmother. His brother Howard assumed personal responsibility for liaising with the Department. (22)

The majority of Ted Martin’s military career was spent training or serving in a reserve capacity. The abrupt manner of his death in early April 1918 following his first and only major engagement reflects the precarious nature of any soldier’s life. But the sacrifice of all the men who died as a result of the attack on Morlancourt appears to have had particular significance to the overall war effort. In his history of the 40^th Battalion published in 1922, Frack C. Green explained:

The result of the day was that we had advanced 1200 yards and the enemy was at least 1200 yards further from Amiens than he would otherwise have been. It does not seem much but that distance was of tremendous importance, as that piece of ground overlooked the whole valley of the Somme toward Amiens. Our unexpected attack had also held up the attack which the enemy was making in strength. He sat down and waited for 40 hours, wondering if the whole of the Australian corps were behind it, and every minute of the 40 hours was precious. It enabled us to get forward more machine-guns, to improve our defensive position and, most important of all, it gave our artillery time to arrive. It is probable that had his attack developed at 5 p.m. on the evening of the 28^th March he would have pushed us back, as ours was a thinly-held line without artillery or trench mortars, and no support of reserve troops behind us; and if he had pushed us back there was practically nothing to stop him reaching his great objective, Amiens. (23)

Would this have been any consolation to Ted’s brother Howard or any of his surviving immediate family if they ever read those words? Perhaps, but I certainly suspect Ted himself would have been content. While he was not a model soldier, Ted Martin arguably died a meaningful, patriotic death at a time when devotion to the collective good was highly valued and encouraged. A surviving photo postcard of himself in uniform to his sister appears to suggest an uncomplicated, modest, gentle character. It simply reads: ‘To My Dearly beloved sister Edith with kindest regards from Ted.’(24)

- Dr. Colin Woollcott Mallett, 2 February 2024.

Endnotes

(1) His father was a miner and later a farmer. Both his parents shared Cornish heritage and had four children who survived infancy. His mother died in 1898 and his father subsequently remarried his housekeeper, Phoebe Parker. Edwin senior had a second family and three of Ted’s half-siblings survived to adulthood. See: Tasmanian Archives, Register General’s Department, Registers of Marriage, District of Mersey, RGD37/1/49 no. 907; Tasmanian Archives, Register General’s Department, Registers of Death, District of Zeehan, RGD35/1/67 no. 1194; Tasmanian Archives, Register General’s Department, Registers of Birth, District of Zeehan, RGD33/1/80 no. 3163; Tasmanian Archives, Register General’s Department, Registers of Marriage, District of Zeehan, RGD37/1/44, no. 1331.

(2) Service record of Edwin Martin, First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920, National Archives of Australia, B2455, MARTIN E, pp 1, 9-10. Also see: Edwin Martin, Roll of Honour Cards 1914-1918, War, Army, 441/3, Australian War Memorial, AWM145, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1649498 , accessed 4 September 2023.

(3) Tasmanian Archives, Register General’s Department; Register of Births, District of Strahan, RGD33/1/76 no. 2663.

(4) Service record of Edwin Martin, pp 40-41.

(5) Tasmanian Archives, Register General’s Department, Registers of Marriage, District of Zeehan, RGD37/1/44, no. 1331; Tasmanian Archives, Register General’s Department, Registers of Birth, District of Morven, RGD33/1/44 no. 962.

(6) Service record of Howard Martin, First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920, National Archives of Australia, B2455, MARTIN H, p 1 and Service record of Edwin Martin, p 1. Known as the Tasmanian Rangers, the militia were first formed in 1914 and it was ‘B Company’ that was stationed in Zeehan and Waratah. Refer to: ‘Tasmania Military – Infantry 1914’, Australian Military History of the Early 20^th Century, https://alh-research.tripod.com/Light_Horse/index.blog/1840846/militia-distribution-in-australia-1914-6th-military-district-part-1/ , accessed 4 September 2023.

(7) Service record of Edwin Martin, p 1 & Service record of Howard Martin, p 1.

(8) F. C. Green, The Fortieth A Record of the 40^th Battalion A.I.F., John Vail, Hobart, 1942, p 2 & Service record of Edwin Martin, p 4. The Claremont training camp which serviced up to 2200 recruits at a time was situated at Triffett’s Point near Hobart. This position was considered ideal as it was close to rail and an embarkation port. Refer to: ‘Claremont Training Camp Remembered’, Centenary of Anzac, https://www.centenaryofanzac.tas.gov.au/grants_and_programs/centenary_of_anzac_grants_program/past_projects/claremont_training_camp_walk_of_remembrance#:~:text=A%20good%20place%20to%20train,housed%20up%20to%202200%20men , accessed 4 September 2023.

(9) Service record of Edwin Martin, pp 17, 45-6, 49. The will was dated 23 May 1917 and witnessed by Sgt. Urban A. Hanley.

(10) Service record of Edwin Martin, p 4. The 40^th Battalion was the Tasmanian contribution to the Australian Third Division of the 1^st AIF. Notification of the intention to form an exclusively Tasmanian Battalion had been announced early in 1916. After some initial doubts the quote was soon met. See: Marilyn Lake, A Divided Society Tasmanian during World War I, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1975, p 58.

(11) Service record of Edwin Martin, p 4. The camps at Sutton Mandeville were positioned between Fovant and Shallowcliff and included the requisitioned manor house. Refer to: ‘The Camps’, The Sutton Badges, https://suttonbadges.org.uk/the-camps/ , accessed 4 September 2023.

(12) Service record of Edwin Martin, p 4 Statement of Service indicates 24 December but Casualty Form p 9 lists his departure date as 27 December 1917.

(13) Service record of Edwin Martin, p 9. The 40^th Battalion had enjoyed a distinguished career to that date on the front. Originally disembarking at Le Harve on 24 November 1916 they had initially engaged in trench warfare in Armentieres on 9 December for a period of four months. They had then been involved in the Battle of Messines on 7 June 1917. The Battalion had gone on to take part in action in the Third Battle of Ypres. Notably in August 1917 when the Battalion was transferred from Armentieres to Ypres, they took 300 prisoners and captured 17 machine gun posts at the price of 50 casualties. See: Green, The Fortieth, pp 59, 62.

(14) Green, The Fortieth, pp 106-108. The makeup of the Battalion at this stage consisted of the four companies headed by: Captain G. S. Bisdee (A Company), Lieut. G. L. MacIntyre (B Company), Capt. W. C. G. Ruddock (C Company), Maj. L. F. Giblin MC (D Company). There’s no indication in his war file to which specific company Ted belonged.

(15) Following the Battle of Riga in early September 1917, the Russians lost six divisions and left the Entente. Consequently, there followed a massive redeployment of German troops to the Western front. See: C. E. W. Bean, The Australian Imperial Force in France: during the main German Offensive, 1918, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1937, p 93. See also: Green, The Fortieth, p 109-111.

(16) Service record of Edwin Martin, p 9. There is no more information on the incident in his file. In contrast, his brother Howard received no black marks on his war record. Refer to Service Record of Howard Martin, pp. 1-30.

(17) This was to be the start of a new period of attrition warfare in the Somme for the 1^st AIF. Between 27 March and 7 May 1918, as a result of the German offensive, the Australians suffered 15,000 casualties. Green, The Fortieth, pp 109-112. The first and main offensive was known as Operation Michael, after St. Michael the patron saint of Germany. It was also called ‘kaiserschlact’ or the Emperor’s battle. The line was broken at the southern end of the front against the British 5^th Army. See: Christopher Mick, ‘1918:Endgame’ in Jay Winter (ed), The Cambridge History of the First World War Vol. 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2013, pp 147-148.

(18) Green, The Fortieth, pp 116-120. The ‘disposition of the Battalion’ that day: Capt. J. D. Chisholm (A Company), Capt. G. S. Bisdee (B Company), Lieut. C. H. O. Whitaker (C Company), Lieut. C. H. Cane (D Company). Lieutenant A. P. Brown led Platoon 7 on two attempts to eradicate the machine gun post positioned in the ‘problem copse’ from the left flank but had to withdraw when it was reduced to only five men.

(19) Bill Gammage, The Broken Years Australian Soldiers in the Great War, Australian University Press, Canberra, 1974, p 195-196. The regimental aid post was under the command of Captain W. I. Clark MC.

(20) Service record of Edwin Martin, p 10 His death and circumstances were reported in the Mercury 12 April 1918, p 6, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/11389176 accessed 16 August 2023.

(21) No remains were repatriated and only 38,000 of 60,000 casualties were buried in identified graves. As early as 1917, the Imperial War Graves Commission were given a mandate to operate on behalf of the bereaved constructing 1,850 cemeteries with uniform monuments. Although families were provided with photographs and could provide a personalised inscription at their own cost, few could afford to visit in person, and this impacted the mourning process. See: Bart Ziino, A Distant Grief, Australians, War Graves and the Great War, University of Western Australia Press, Crawley, 2007, pp 1-3, 125, 130.

(22) Edwin’s personal effects were returned 11 June 1918 to Australia via Barunga arriving 20 June 1918 in case no. 1223 and addressed to his father. They included: two Discs, two fountain pens, a Knife, a key ring and chain, a metal watch damaged and strap, an electric torch, a matchbox cover, writing pad cover, photos, two letters, a wallet. The photographs were sent on 18 March 1919. It was around the same time on the 22 March 1919 his father received Ted’s bank book. Regarding his listing on the Roll of Honour at the newly minted Australian War Memorial, Edwin senior wrote to the Secretary of the Department of Defence on 15 February 1920 explaining that due to old age and poverty he could not afford the fee and had forwarded the letter to his son Howard for his consideration. The letter describing the position of Ted’s grave as Plot 32 Row a grave 5A was sent 14 August 1922. Edwin senior himself had died on 5 July 1921. See: Service record of Edwin Martin, pp 18-53 & Tasmanian Archives, Register General’s Department, Registers of Death, District of Hobart, RGD35/1/1921 no. 1957.

(23) Green, The Fortieth, p 120.

(24) Photograph of Edwin Martin, c.1917, original held by Colin Woollcott Mallett, Launceston, Tasmania.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Australian War Memorial, Roll of Honour Cards 1914-1918, War, Army, AWM145.

Edwin Martin, Photograph, c. 1917, original held by Colin Woollcott Mallett, Launceston, Tasmania.

Mercury (Hobart 1860-1954).

National Archives of Australia, First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920, B2455.

Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department; Registers of Births, District of Morven, RGD33.

Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department; Registers of Births, District of Strahan, RGD33.

Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department; Registers of Births, District of Zeehan, RGD33.

Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department; Registers of Deaths, District of Hobart, RGD35.

Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department; Registers of Deaths, District of Zeehan, RGD35.

Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department, Registers of Marriage, District of

Mersey, RGD37.

Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department, Registers of Marriage, District of Zeehan, RGD37.

Secondary Sources

Bean, C. E. W., The Australian Imperial Force in France: during the main German offensive, 1918, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1937.

Gammage, Bill, The Broken Years Australian Soldiers in the Great War, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1974.

Green, F. C., The Fortieth A Record of the 40^th Battalion A. I. F., John Vail Government Printer, Hobart, 1942.

Lake, Marilyn, A Divided Society Tasmania during World War I, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1975.

Mick, Christopher, ‘Endgame:1918’ in Jay Winter, The Cambridge History of the First World War Vol. 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2013, pp. 133-171.

Ziino, Bart, A Distant Grief Australians, War Graves and the Great War, University of Western Australia Press, Crawley, 2007.

Online Sources

‘The Camps’, The Sutton Badges, https://suttonbadges.org.uk/the-camps/ , accessed on 4 September 2023.

‘Claremont Training Camp Remembered’, Centenary of Anzac, https://www.centenaryofanzac.tas.gov.au/grants_and_programs/centenary_of_anzac_grants_program/past_projects/claremont_training_camp_walk_of_remembrance#:~:text=A%20good%20place%20to%20train,housed%20up%20to%202200%20men , accessed 4 September 2023.

‘Tasmanian Militia – Infantry 1914’, Australian Military History of the Early 20^th Century, https://alh-research.tripod.com/Light_Horse/index.blog/1840846/militia-distribution-in-australia-1914-6th-military-district-part-1/ , accessed 4 September 2023.

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Mad or Misunderstood? Richard Willis Senior (1777-1855)

Richard Willis senior, was an early settler to Van Diemen’s Land. He hailed from Kirkoswald, Cumberland, England. His origins were surprisingly humble if it is true that he was originally a shoemaker by trade. He married Anne Harper, the daughter of a West Indian colonist in 1800 and the couple migrated to the colony in 1823 with their eleven children. Based on a favourable recommendation from the colonial office, considerable assets and independent income, the well-connected Willis senior was awarded the maximum grant of 2000 acres with an additional reserve of another 1000. He further impressed on his arrival with a hundred head of pure merino stock. Willis senior named his property ‘Wanstead’. (1) During a visit to the island in 1839, Merchant J. J. Macintyre of Sydney described the Willis homestead as a ‘well finished’ three story mansion adorned with a garden and a large orchard. (2)

Market Cross in Kirkoswald by Bill Boaden, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikipedia Commons

Despite his material success in the colony, from the outset Richard Willis senior appears to have proved himself to be quarrelsome. On 20 January 1826, Willis senior was found guilty on two counts out of three charges of libel against businessman Alexander Charlton. (3) Perhaps, at least at that point, his behaviour should be considered within the context of an embryonic, yet hostile, colonial society. Indeed, one of the witnesses called was fellow settler Andrew Barclay, whose own conduct was questioned by the military officers comprising the jury. (4) In contrast to Willis, Barclay was generally regarded as being a modest, unpretentious man who was well remembered in his community long after his death. But clearly, even Barclay could not completely escape the mire of competing interests, expanding egos and high emotions. (5)

Overtime, Willis senior gained a reputation not just for being difficult but for also being unjust and even cruel. One example occurred when he failed to recuse himself from the trial of an absconded convict David Turner in April 1834. Turner had been assigned as a servant to his son, Richard Willis junior. (6) Turner had absconded in early March – possibly significantly at the tail end of peak harvest on the island. (7) He was subsequently apprehended in early April. (8) Along with another magistrate, Willis senior sentenced Turner to three years hard labour at Port Arthur despite Turner’s overall favourable record as a prisoner during the preceding four years. The decision caused an outcry to the extent that representations were made to Governor Arthur, who in turn mitigated what was generally regarded as being ‘…such a dreadful and cruel sentence, for such a trifling offence…’. (9) This decision was made despite the fact that Arthur is on official record in the period as stating that any mitigation of a sentence to secondary transportation ‘should be exercised with the greatest discretion.’ (10)

Lentisco at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

His own family were also victims of Richard Willis senior’s capricious behaviour. By 1837 Willis senior had driven at least three of his sons out of his household and into the next colony. That April, James Lewis Willis along with two brothers transported 650 sheep to Port Phillip. They established a homestead of their own at the junction of the Yarra and Plenty Rivers. Over the five-month period James maintained his diary, he made numerous references to Willis senior, at one point describing him as an ‘…unreasonable and unfeeling father…’. James laments their reduced circumstances in life and attributes it directly to his father’s own distracted conduct:

This state of things cannot last long. Some fearful crisis is at hand. Some impending calamity awaits our family. I dread to conjecture when my father’s unnatural conduct with have an end – he has driven out all his sons from his roof and by heaping indignities and unjust reproaches upon his wife seems either to wish her to follow them, or seek rest in another world being resolved that in this world she should find none.

Even if this account is exaggerated, it’s likely strong evidence that Willis senior was at least to some degree financially and psychologically abusive to his family. Indeed, James claims to be measured in his appraisal of his father noting that ‘I could say a great deal more. I could explain the cause of this infatuation prompting in his heart hatred towards his family.’ But he does not. His father’s conduct is lastly and concisely described as being ‘unkind and inconsistent’ when a previous promise to lend his brother Edward assistance was not realised. (11)

Although Governor Arthur had made Willis senior a member of the Executive Council and he had gained the favour of his successor Governor Franklin, he was still at war on his departure from the colony; planning to appeal a lost case over a land dispute directly to the colonial office, he and his wife sailed for England in February 1839. Perhaps because Willis senior had burned most of his social bridges, the couple never returned. (12)

- - Dr. Colin Woollcott Mallett, 19 January 2024.

Endnotes

(1) P. R. Eldershaw, ‘Willis, Richard (1777-1855)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography online, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/willis-richard-2798, accessed 3 July 2023.

(2) Mitchell Library: James J. Macintyre - Notes and diary 1839-1840, MLMSS 1721, p 12.

(3) Tasmanian Archives: Supreme Court (Register’s Office); Minutes of Proceedings, Various Centres, including Norfolk Island, SC32-1-1 1826, entry 131, https://stors.tas.gov.au/SC32-1-1$init=SC32-1-1P137JPG, accessed 3 July 2023.

(4) ‘Launceston News’, Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser, 27 January 1826, p3, Trove https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2447063, accessed 3 July 2023.

(5) Karl R. von Stieglitz, A History of Evandale, Birchalls, Launceston, 1967, pp 17, 20.

(6) ‘Our Correspondent at Norfolk Plains’, The Colonist and Van Diemen’s Land Commercial and Agricultural Advertiser, 29 April 1834, p 3, Trove https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/201159321, accessed 3 July 2023.

(7) ‘Absconded’, Hobart Town Courier, 7 March 1834, p 2, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4186622, accessed 3 July 2023.

(8) ‘Apprehended’, Hobart Town Courier, 11 April 1834, p 2, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4185580, accessed on 3 July 2023.

(9) ‘Our Correspondent at Norfolk Plains’. David Turner’s conduct record (police number 522) was not spotless as he had previously served one week in irons for insolence and at another time was reprimanded for uttering a falsehood. Additionally, Turner was suspected of being ‘connected with runaways’ during his flight. Refer to Tasmanian Archives: Convict Department; Assignment system – male convicts, CON 31-1-43 1803-1843, https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON31-1-43$init=CON31-1-43P19, accessed 7 June 2023. At the very least the incident indicates there was a growing perception that Willis senior abused the application of his authority as a magistrate although the sentence was passed in conjunction with another magistrate: William Gray. This is likely the William Gray first appointed as magistrate in July 1828. Refer to: Hobart Town Courier, 12 July 1828, p 1, Trove https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4221781, accessed 3 July 2023. While Willis senior is also listed, he was first appointed in 1825. Refer to: Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen’s Land Advertiser, 29 April 1825, p 1, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1090707, accessed on 3 July 2023.

(10) Tasmanian Archives: Supreme Court (Register’s Office); Minutes of Proceedings of the Executive Council, EC4/1 as quoted in Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Closing Hell’s Gates the death of a convict station, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, 2008, pp 263, 290, 293. This ‘mitigation’ then strongly suggests that at least in this instance there were genuine grounds for a genuine miscarriage of justice having occurred.

(11) James L. Willis, ‘A Pioneer Squatter’s Life’, in Michael Cannon and Ian Macfarlane (eds), Historical Records of Victoria, Foundation Series, Volume Six, The Crown, the Land and the Squatter 1835-1840, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1991, pp 182-200. The young Willis’ diary which has been retained by his family to the present day, remained unpublished until this volume. James L. Willis comes across as a rather endearing character as much concerned with the wellbeing of his mother and siblings as himself.

(12) Eldershaw, Biography.

Bibliography