People of East Melbourne
This is a list of biographies of residents of East Melbourne.
This project started to commemorate the soldiers and nurses who went to Europe to serve in World War 1. But it has grown from there to cover biographies of any and all residents of note.
Along with many of their fellow Australians people from East Melbourne flocked to enlist. Many were heroes. Many lost their lives or suffered horrific physical or mental injuries. At home family and friends worked, endured and suffered consequences that were sometimes terrible and persisted long after the war.
Major-General Michael O'Brien gave us a starting point with a list of East Melbourne people who served in WW1. He spoke to the Society in April 2013 to give us some context to the period and to help the EMHS prepare for its own commemorations of this most devastating period in our history.
Everyone can participate by gathering or documenting information:
- Photos, memorabilia and family records
- Stories in books, newspapers and on-line
- Memorial plaques in churches and public places
- War memorial, church, national and state archives
You can refine the list by applying the various filter criteria and go to a particular detailed biography by click on the title.
GRAY, Clark Maxwell
Clark Maxwell Gray was born on 6 December, 1896 in Dunedin, New Zealand to William Gray and Mary Gray nee Cameron, both born and raised in the Dunedin area. After completing his schooling William Gray worked his way into increasingly senior teaching roles in the Otago region until he undertook a B.A. at the Otago University in 1894, followed by an M.A. 2 years later.
- 5675 reads
GRAY, Reginald Albert
Reginald Gray was born in Bristol, Gloucestershire, in Octobet, 1893. He enlisted at Kerang, Victoria, on 21 November, 1917, having been once rejected for being under height - he was only 5 feett 1 inch tall. He was a dealer by occupation, but what he dealt in is not disclosed in his record.
- 2910 reads
GREAVES, George Frederick
George Greaves was 22 years old when he enlisted on 22 March 1915. He listed his occupation as "labourer"; his father, Alfred, was a jeweller and the family came from England at some time after 1901, as the UK Census of that year has the family living at Smethwick, Worcestershire. They arrived in Melbourne on 20 January, 1911 as unassisted immigrants.
- 3183 reads
GREEN, John Victor
John Victor Green was born in 1887 at Williamstown, Victoria. He was the youngest of two brothers and four sisters, of John Vanham Green and Charlotte Una West. He married in 1910, to Jessie Dunford Andrews and in 1911, they had a son, John Vanham Green.
- 2944 reads
GREHAN, Frank Albert
Frank Grehan's story is one of the oddest accounts of a volunteer soldier in the Great War. Born in Stawell on 24 August, 1889, he had joined the British Imperial Navy on 24/8/1907, on his eighteenth birthday, serving as a 'Boy First Class' on board HMS Psyche. He remained in the Imperial Navy for six years, leaving in 1913.
- 2789 reads
GREY, Denis Basil
Denis Basil Grey had almost no contact with East Melbourne, staying perhaps only very briefly at 'Rosebank', a boarding house in Clarendon St. afer being returned to Australia following a war injury. He was born in Ceylon of English parents, but the family then moved to Hong Kong, where his sister Nora Evelyn was born in 1898.
- 2977 reads
GRIFFITHS, George Norman
George Griffiths was 27 and 2 months old when he enlisted to serve in World War 1. He had previous experience, having enlisted on 16 August, 1914, to serve in New Guinea with E Company, First Expeditonary Force.
- 2499 reads
GRIFFITHS, Francis Llewllyn
Francis Lllewlyn Griffiths was the son of William Moore Griffiths and his wife Rosa August, nee Petterick. He joined up on 23 January 1915 at Victoria Barracks. At that stage he was 28 years old, 5' 8" tall, with dark brown hair, brown eyes and a fair complexion. His occupation was listed as 'clerk'.
- 2470 reads
GRIFFITHS, Norman Lance Guy
Private (Pte) Norman Lance Griffiths, aka Tasman Lance Guy Griffiths, 8th Australian Light Horse Regiment, of East Melbourne, Vic. Pte, Griffiths enlisted on 5 July 1915. His uncle, Arthur Griffith, as his legal guardian,gave his permission for the boy to join up. He had attempted to enlist once before, but his height, only 5' 2", probaby led to his rejection.
- 3269 reads
GROVES, Charles Edward
Charles Edward Groves was born at Jolimont in November 1882. He was the only son of his widowed mother, Fanny Nina Groves, when he went off to the First World War, but had a sister, Ida. Before enlisting, he was working in the Belgian Congo, employed by the Belgian government as a mining engineer.
- 2524 reads
GUTHRIE, Albert John
Albert John Guthrie enlisted in Melbourne on 26 January, 1914. He was one of four brothers, all of whom volunteered and enlisted just nine days after his brother, Henry David Guthrie, had enlisted in Perth. The brothers were the sons of David Guthrie, a tobacconist, and his wife, Eliza Ann, nee Harvey.
- 4541 reads
HAAKE, Adolf George
Adolf George Haake wa born in March 1889 in Bradford Leeds to Adolf and Clara Haake, both from Hanover, Germany. Adolf had five siblings, 1 older sister BeA Cmpany rta, two older brothers Christian and Ernest, and two younger sisters Clara and Celia. The UK 1901 census show the family living in Bradford and his father's occupation as merchant clerk.
- 3347 reads
HABEL, Louis
Carl Louis Habel was born in Murtoa in 1883, the son of Johann Carl and Emilie Clara Habel. In 1909, he married Florence Annie Shearwood, born 1889 in Collingwood, and in 1914, they were living at 1089 Hoddle Street, East Melbourne, with their two children, Melville Carl, born 1909, and Arthur Louis, born 1913. Carl Louis Habel was then working as a labourer.
- 2858 reads
HABEL, Oswald Emile
Born at Dunkeld in the Western District of Victoria, Oswald Habel was the eldest of eleven children born to Emil and Annie (nee Hempel) of Minyip,Victoria. Of these children, two other Habel boys, Otto and Walter, joined up. In the wider habel family, in all, there were nine volunteers, mostly from Murtoa,Victoria.
- 2559 reads
HALL, May Isabel
May Isabel Hall was born on 6 August 1879 in Sandhurst (Bendigo), Victoria. She was the fourth of the five children and first daughter of John Pitchers Hall (c1836–92) and his wife Isabella Jane (c1845–1918), successful drapers of that city.
- 7437 reads
HALLEY, Edward John
Edward John Halley was 28 years old when he enlisted at Geelong on 14 November, 1916. He had already had one earlier attempt to sign up, probably in Melbourne, but had been rejected because of poor vision and bad teeth. He was in employment as a liftman and gave as his address 20 Lansdowne Street, East Melbourne,the home of his mother, Annie Grace Doran.
- 2889 reads
HAMILTON, Richard Henry
Richard Henry Hamilton was the son of John Lambie Hamilton and his wife, Clara Jane nee Booth. He enlisted at age 19, with the consent of his mother. According to his enlistment form, he lived at Croft House, Warley Rd., East Melbourne. The record was not corrected until 1917, when Mrs.
- 2602 reads
HAMILTON, Robert Bell
Robert Bell Hamilton was 23 years old and practising as an architect when he enlisted on 8 December, 1917. At the time, he was a single man and living with his mother, Jane Napier Hamilton (nee Bell), at 91 Powlett St, East Melbourne. He had been educated at Scotch College. He was 5' 9" tall, with brown eyes and hair.
- 3784 reads
HAMPSON, Francis Christian
Frank Christian Hampson was born in Sydney, possibly Strathfield, in 1887. He became a wool classer by trade, moving across NSW and Victoria to the different woolsheds. On 24 March 1915, he married Eileen Mary Evans, at St Thomas Church, Essendon. They were to have a child, Murray Cecil Hamspon, born in 1916 and died in 1917.
- 2689 reads
HANKINSON, Stanley James
Stanley Hankinson was the second child of seven. Born in 1885 to James and Catherine Hankinson, nee Stratton, he had an elder sister Elizabeth (Lily) Ellen b. 1883 and then two sisters and two brothers: Ethel May b. 1888; Norman Lewis b. 1890; Albert Edward (Bert) b.1894; and Irene Victoria Catherine (Rene) b. 1901. He was born in Kyneton, Victoria, and educated at Kyneton State School.
- 3122 reads