…i.e. was he a member of broadly the same group of Odd Fellows that used the Action Line Cryptogram to acrostically encrypt their initiation ceremonies?
In South Australia, Odd Fellows founded their first Lodge in Adelaide in late 1840 (according to this 1843 page from their journal), at just about the same time as a Lodge was formed in Sydney: and even today, Odd Fellows in SA are apparently still going strong.
So… looking again at the Tamam Shud text, it parallels the Action Line Cryptogram: that is, it gives cryptologists a very strong impression of having been constructed as an acrostic English ciphertext, because its letter frequency distribution closely follows the same frequency distribution pattern found in English texts.
All the same, pure acrostic cryptograms are relatively rare in the wild, because they are more mnemonic than cryptologic: they are there to remind the reader of something they already know rather than to communicate something unexpected to someone else. The more personal the message, the more unknowable its contents: and that’s they way it is, I guess.
So perhaps in this instance Marshall McLuhan is right, and the medium (an Odd Fellows-style acrostic cryptogram) is the message. If so, the most we are likely to infer from this is that it was written by someone who was (or had been) a member of an Odd Fellows Lodge, very probably in Adelaide itself. The Somerton Man may well have been down on his uppers (albeit very shiny uppers), but I expect those same shoes had likely been inside an Adelaide Lodge at some stage.
Now, Pete Bowes will likely take this as a cue for explaining why (in his belief) the contents of the suitcase were laid out in such a ceremonial way: and why the name link to recently-deceased Adelaide Freemason Tom Kean was never explored by the police. But… one thing at a time, Petey-boy, one thing at a time… 🙂
I’ve moved on Nick …. and am wondering why analyst Cowan didn’t test the slip for foreign substances. Not so much a slip of paper, but a twist of paper. Perhaps the end contained the means to the end.
Marvellous stuff this … You should try to keep up old boy, there’s movement at the station.
Pete: not the old hokey-cokey? And there’s me thinking that it was Freemasonry that floated your
boatsurfboard. 🙂Nick – Are you going to comment on the Morse code angle raised? Seems a bit more plausible IMO and worth pursuing…
Jay: I’ve commented on Gordon Cramer’s “prosigns” hypothesis on Pete Bowes’ site, and I will probably comment on it here at some point… but the short version is that I’m not yet convinced. The explanation of (e.g.) ABAB seems a bit unwieldy: and given that the rest of the text inside the prosign “wrapper” must also be encrypted, it doesn’t really explain anything.
Although I see you are fatigued in the presence of new Voynich theories, here’s one I think you should evaluate: http://www.academia.edu/7144268/Voynich_Manuscript_Roma_Sindhi_Mahajans_Reference_Book_in_Landa_Khojki_scripts
Nick, Your views are always appreciated even if we don’t always agree. The basic position is that the letters of the code that we see on the page are in fact the results of the Police or whoever else was employed to do the job, tracing over indentations that showed up under UV light. How that was done is another story.
The Prosign hypothesis is another way of saying that on the SM code page there is a mass of code and it so happens it is covered/disguised with a layer of ‘tradecraft’ in the form of letters which in turn look to be Prosigns derived from a Radio Operators User Manual dated 1945. There is a lot of work to do with each larger letter having to be digitally taken apart to reveal its micro code content but, for larger letter read ‘line of code’ because that is what it appears to be, a line of code presented in the form and shape of a letter. A simple but proven to be a very effective way to disguise code. In tradecraft terms, the letters become ‘Carriers’.
A quick overview of the 5 lines of letters on the code page with emphasis on the prosign meanings of the first and last letters,
Line1. 1st . letter M meaning ‘source’ in a particular style which I will call style 1
Last letter: D Prosign meaning deferred, the coded message within the letter D is deffered.
Line 2. 1st Letter m a different style called style 2
Last letter ? This line was crossed out but refer to line 4.
Line 3. 1st letter M in style 1
Last letter P, prosign meaning Priority: this letter contains a line of code that is a priority
Line 4. 1st letter m in style 2
last letter C, Prosign meaning Correct Version: this letter contains a corrected version, see line 2.
Line 5. 1st letter V, Prosign meaning From: This letter contains details of who the message is from
Last letter(s) AR underscored, Prosgn meaning This is my last message and no reply is expected or required.
Standing back from the page my view is that the first 4 lines, less 1 for the crossed out line, are copies of intercepted or overheard information with the two M styles describing 2 different sources of that information.
The last line is the message to be transmitted whether that message is for radio transmission or passed on in some other way is something we may never know.
There is a lot of work to do on this and no doubt there will be hurdles, what I will be doing is releasing each set of information as I uncover it and then others can do the hard work of decryption. And Yes Nick, I will be working on each of the larger letters to associate them with Prosigns if at all possible. Your input especially would be greatly appreciated.
Gordon: as I mentioned, I do plan to write this up in more detail before very long. I am skeptical about the suggested presence both of microwriting (the scan resolution seems too low to tell them apart from, say, JPEG artefacts) and of Prosigns (which seem to me to make the rest of the text even harder to understand) in the MLIABO text, but perhaps I’m missing something important in both of these.
To catch a spy, Nick, you have to think like one … devious gentleman at the best of times, untrustworthy, duplicitous, canny and deceitful. Easy for some.
Thanks Nick, More than happy to discuss the issue of JPEG Artifacts and the Prosign issue. Big work day ahead for me but will email you later with some detail.
Freemasons also use one letter cipher books to aid them in memorizing ritual, so it’s just as likely he became familiar with the idea of using first letters from the Freemasons as from the Odd Fellows. Examples can be found online by searching or similar search terms.
Nick – Please find us a way to discuss without having to make statements! So much information is lost when faced with having to “perform”! Your comment about the Sidney HMAS…There’s a link to Joy…I have no idea what it means so I won’t post but I would love to share and discuss. Gordon – Hat’s off to you on the article that was posted but I have several objections and questions about what you have found…I won’t ask them publicly but would love to discuss them respectfully – somewhere…
We need a way to discuss!
Gordon – I can’t imagine (even in 1948) that the police would have written over the original sheet (with indented markings)! It makes no sense and would have basically involved the destruction of the only “code” evidence that they had.
I’m lost. Attack me and try to bash some sense into me please. I would really like to see what you see…So much so that I have spent an inordinate amount of time blowing up everything you’ve posted and all I see is nothing. Also – please, what do YOU see? So far, you’ve posted that you see micro-writing but you’ve never described what exactly that micro-writing is…Can you spell it out? Perhaps if you’ve managed to discern specific letters/numbers we could help to decipher them?
I always keep an open mind and will continue to do so…
Joy was “friends” enough to have invited one of the important naval officers who died on the Sidney HMAS to dinner. It was in the papers. (Trove as usual.) He lived in the same neighbourhood as she did. Most likely, this means nothing. If there is a possibility that it could mean something, I will gladly elaborate.
Misca: See what you can see in the letter ‘Q’ on Gordon’s post … he has lifted off the layers, so to speak.
and he’s not a basher, and nothing needs to be attacked or blown up … we are all gentlefolk in these parts
There is a book called “The Art of Omar Khayyam: Illustrating FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat By William Mason, Sandra Martin”. It has an illustration in it by W G Stirling that is very much in keeping with the “Boxall” Khayyam illustration (on the flyleaf with Jestyn’s signature)…Has this been investigated? If so, could someone share some info? The recent “Adelaide” article is the first time I’ve seen a complete image of the inscription page – quite exciting! Going back to earlier discussions, I am now convinced that the female with fez hat was printed and not drawn onto the page.
Pete – I see the letter “Q” blown up. I will keep looking.
DA, I believe, has updated his SM information page with a higher resolution image of the code page. Expanded, it looks like felt/ink marker on a glossy surface and the beginning and end points of most letters (with their tell-tale empty hole middle) make it clear that the writing is most definitely not on porous paper. So…Are we now assuming that this page was traced over a photograph/acetate equivalent and that NOT ONLY were normal letters traced but their nano-micro-writing as well?
That’s a tough sell. Not impossible but tough.
Misca, no problem, we can catch up on tamamshud.blogspot, lots more information there. I also visit Pete’s site regularly. A bit tied up this week though.
Misca to respond to your questions, you are correct the Police would not have marked directly on to the surface of the page. The procedure for marking up a document would be to use acetate over a photograph of the processed document. The process can be quite involved so won’t go into that here suffice to say it very probably involved the use of Iodine which shows up almost every fibre. Iodine alone would not be sufficient and a fixative chemical solution was probably also applied to the image of the page. In other words there would have been some customisation of the image and hence the need to use a sheet of acetate to preserve the modified image. There is a lot of robust discussion right now on the code page and Verse 70, that’s a good thing because it lifts the profile of the case and creates a lot more interest.
Apologies to you Nick, I mentioned my url in the previous comment and that’s not good practice.
Misca, You are correct I believe, acetate was used and placed over the image before marking it up.
We need to ask why it was marked over, the process was either to use Iodine and/or to photograph the page under UV light which would show up the indentations as being white with blue tinge/grey surround, this image was turned negative which made the indentations black in colour.
Here’s the thing, if the indentations were of full letters and they were now turned black against the greyish coloured surrounding areas, why would you need to overwrite them? You would have all the larger letters showing up in good relief. In my view there may not have been any larger letters in indentation form, just the microwritten letters shaped in the form of larger letters. Perhaps even both with larger letters acting as a predrawn carrier for the micro ones. There is an example or two of that.
In my view the answer is you would overwrite them to cover the smaller microwritten letters/numbers and that’s what is shown in the close ups. Gerry Feltus told me of the negative image part of the process a while back and the penny didn’t drop, I must be getting old or slow or both 🙂 Then again, no one else seems to have grasped it either so I take some comfort from that.
Can I make it clear that I am not a code person in any way and I ‘doffs me cap’ to those that are. My chosen area is tradecraft and concealment and I do profess a reasonable knowledge in that subject.
His name isn’t Gordon Cameron, and for a small fee I will disclose his real identity, or send your bank details for a direct debit on an ongoing basis. I have more.
Your trust is assured.
Careful, Pete; Misca might take you at your word…
😉
: o
Some laundry marks from the USA, probably New York State, have a similar format to those found on SM’s trousers that were found in the suitase.
l have been researching laundry marks (also called laundry indicators in the USA) in the hope of possibly identifying at least the broad geographic origin of the laundry marks found on SM’s trousers. I have not had any success in locating a general treatise on the subject, or any lists of laundry marks, but there is a lot of scattered information dealing with specific matters and I have made use of these to compile the following notes and observations.
I searched Trove (more than 1,000 refs to wade through) for any references to “laundry marks” and a summary of the laundry marks that are described is appended. I did not find any laundry marks that conform to the format of those on SMs trousers (ie four numerals slash one numeral), or anything similar (numerals slash numerals) in the Trove material.
However, I did find find a legal case in the USA where laundry marks of the format numerals slash numerals were mentioned ie. Shirley KREMEN, Samuel Irving Coleman and Sidney Steinberg, Petitioners, v. UNITED STATES of America. 353 U.S. 346 (77 S.Ct. 828, 1 L.Ed.2d 876)
Decided: May 13, 1957.
The clothing with these laundry marks was seized by the FBI in 1954 during a raid on a cabin in the Sierra Nevada mountains (near Twain Harte, Tuolumne County, California). Members of the American Communist Party had been hiding a fugitive, Robert George Thompson (1915-1965). The people who were in the cabin at the time were Robert George Thompson, Mrs Shirley Kremen, Samuel Irving Coleman, Carl Ross, and Sidney Steinberg. From the description of the clothes and their nature, I think that the clothes with the numerals slash numerals laundry mark probably belonged to Robert George Thompson.
I note that Thompson was described as the “New York State Communist Party chairman.”
Ross was from Minnesota, Kremen from Los Angeles, Steinberg and Coleman were Communist Party officials from New York/Buffalo.
The West Australian (Perth) 5th May 1954 Page 7
“Four Will Be Gaoled For Concealing Red SAN FRANCISCO, Tues. Four Community Party workers today received sentences ranging from one to three years’ imprisonment for having harboured Robert Thompson, a former New York State Communist Party chairman, while he was a fugitive from trial. Sidney Steinberg and Samuel Coleman, New York party officials, were sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for their part in the concealment of Thompson in a hut in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Carl Ross, Minnesota Communist Party leader, received a two-year sentence, and Mrs. Shirley Kremen, of Los Angeles, was sentenced to one year.”
So, the laundry marks on SM’s trousers could have originated in New York State, or California. Taken with the evidence of the US origin of SM’s coat (the evidence of tailor Hugh Pozza regarding the feather stitching), this suggests that, 1) either SM obtained the clothing in question (Marco brand trousers and the coat) from charity stores, or 2) SM had visited the USA post 1939.
The photograph (Feltus page 66) showing the laundry marks also shows the following printed words on the trousers. “…arco …Strap Patent No. 29089 Supporting trousers War time model (non elastic)”. Elsewhere the trousers were identified as being “Marco” brand. I can remember Marco trousers and I owned at least one pair back in the 1950s and 60s.
Trove shows that Marco brand Elsta-strap trousers were sold throughout Australia, but advertisements in West Australia and Tasmania were limited. Advertisements over the period 1939-1948 were: NSW 148. South Australia 65. Queensland 63. Victoria 31. Northern Territory 12. West Australia 9. Tasmania 8. Australian Capital Territory 3.
Marco Elasta Strap trousers were manufactured by the Marco Elasta Strap Trouser Top Company. The principal of this company was Marcus Manly Isaacs who is listed in the electoral rolls as living in Maroubra 1930, then living in Coogee (1936-1963) so I presume his factory was in Sydney.
The trousers evidently post date the outbreak of war (1939) and the patent number should further refine the earliest date for the manufacture of the trousers. I assume elastic (ie rubber) restrictions only became significant after the outbreak of war in the Pacific (December 1941).
So, we might be looking for a man born 1898-1908) who travelled from Australia to the USA post December 1941 and who came back to Australia. SM appeared not to have any vaccination marks, so he was probably not an Australian serviceman. It was noted at the inquest that occasionally vaccination marks can fade.
Summary of laundry mark information from Trove (1890-1949).
The Daily News (Perth) 10th January 1938. Page 4
area – Freemantle, WA
Laundy mark 5803 or S803
Goulburn Evening Penny Post 10th January 1935 Page 2
Area New Zealand
Laundry mark (presumably the laundry identifier) RCO
The Courier Mail 17th September 1937 Page 19
Area London, UK
II H
The Argus 29th November 1950 Page 3
Area Melbourne
MO36-6
The Argus 3rd September 1934 Page 9
Area Albury NSW
RIW QIW RIN or QIN
The Daily News (Perth) 17th September 1949 Page 1
Area West Australia
Laundry mark N. Ward
News (Adelaide) 29th May 1950 Page 1
Area Adelaide, SA
Laundry mark B557
Army News (Darwin) 16th October 1944 Page 3
Area London
Laundry mark P733
Recorder (Port Pirie, SA) 5th May 1931 Page 4
Area Surrey UK
Laundry mark LC and DI 220
The Argus (Melbourne) 19th August 1927 Page 16
Area Melbourne
Laundry mark WMA
Western Mail (Pereth) 8th February 1902 Page 43
Area Melbourne, Victoria
Laundry mark 27
The Northern Miner (Charters Towers) 16th May 1951 Page 2
Area Brisbane
Laundry mark Smith
The Courier Mail (Brisbane) 9th January 1934 Page 18
Area Brisbane
Laundry mark CX
The Geelong Advertiser (Victoria) 16th June 1913 Page 3
Area Victoria
Laundry mark CX2077X with another X below this
The Sydney Morning Herald 4th February 1929 Page 7
Area Sydney NSW
Laundry mark P 10
The Courier Mail (Brisbane) 20th October 1947 Page 3
Area Brisbane
Laundry mark 3587
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate (NSW) 28th November 1947 Page 3
Area Sydney
Laundry mark S9233
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate (NSW) 17th February 1949 Page 5
Area Queensland
Laundry mark 5614 and 5619
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate (NSW) 25th February 1924 Page 5
Area Newcastle
Laundry mark H/40
The Northern Miner 4th July 1949 Page 1
Area Queensland
Laundry mark 16602W
The Advertiser (SA) 23rd March 1912 Page 21
Area Melbourne
Laundry mark 144
Maryborough Chronicle (Qld) 20th March 1950 Page 3
Area Queensland
Laundry mark Mault
The Sydney Morning Herald 14th October 1927 Page 11
Area Sydney
Laundry mark John J Barr
The Sydney Morning Herald 14th October 1927 Page 11
Area Sydney
Laundry mark Crowe
Warwick Examiner and Times (Qld) 19th November 1898 Page 4
Area New York
Laundry mark G51
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate 8th January 1951 Page 2
Area Newcastle, NSW
Laundry mark Wright 26.441. Wed
The Australasian (Melbourne) 16th April 1892 Page 24
Area Victoria
Laundry mark “like a capital F reversed”
The Maitland Daily Mercury (NSW) 31st July 1939 Page 5
Area New South Wales
Laundry mark L.B.A.R.C.
The World’s News (Sydney) 3rd August 1946 Page 4
Area UK
Laundry mark 599
Frankston and Somerville Standard (Victoria) 13th March 1936 Page 3
Area Melbourne
Laundry mark 52
The World’s News (Sydney) 8th May 1954 Page 16
Area Portland, Oregon USA
Laundry mark D431
Mirror (Perth) 20th September 1952 Page 7
Area UK
Laundry mark R1009
The Sydney Morning Herald 25th April 1932 Page 5
Area Sydney
Laundry mark soft S 188
The Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder (NSW) 26th August 1930 Page 5
Area Newcstle
Laundry mark G. White and W166
The World’s News (Sydney) 8th January 1949 Page 4
Area Vermont. USA
Laundry mark K1
The West Australian (perth) 5th June 1947 Page 17
Area West Australia
Laundry mark Hobby
The West Australian (Perth) 9th September 1936 Page 8
Area Freemantle, WA
Laundry mark G.P.Mc
The World’s News 1st December 1937 Page 22
Area London
Laundry mark Oake
Soldier British Army 1941
Laundry mark RA1019 (but his name was Hill)
RAF WW2
Laundry mark M9 W.A.D. And S.226
RAF WW2
Laundry mark HLL 878
US Army
Laundry mark first letter of surname plus last four numbers of Service Number
I have abstracted the descriptions of the clothing containing laundry marks with the format numerals slash numerals from the long list of clothing seized by the FBI in the following case.
Shirley KREMEN, Samuel Irving Coleman and Sidney Steinberg, Petitioners, v. UNITED STATES of America.
353 U.S. 346 (77 S.Ct. 828, 1 L.Ed.2d 876)
Decided: May 13, 1957.
A copy of the F.B.I.’s inventory of the property thus taken is printed in the appendix to this opinion, 353 U.S. 349, 77 S.Ct. 830.
…………..
1 Brown man’s jacket, single breasted, with inside label “Witty Bros., Craft,” has the following marks: Inside breast inner pocket is tag “Witty Brothers, New York, A84630; near shoulder attached to lining of right sleeve is stapled cleaning tag 90/93371; several inches below shoulder in inside of right sleeve, written on lining are numbers 14/5. Has pipe cleaner in breast pocket and loose tobacco
1 Man’s single-breasted blue suit coat, no label, inner lining of right sleeve contains lettering “27/99692”
1 Pair Men’s tan or beige trousers with brown leather belt, worn and mended; left pocket has laundry mark 1/968
1 Pair Men’s blue trousers with following marks: right pocket has laundry marks “4649” and “27/99269”
1 Trousers-man’s-herring bone, blue-gray, laundry mark on left pocket New Man SA, right pocket 27/9969 B5 1460 6247
An observation, when you look athe Police image in whch they show the laundry marks on the inside of the trousers, they are very faint and don’t stand out in view. In contrast, the ‘close up’ images of the marks are well defined and quite black in appearance, in fact uniformly black.
A question would be that if they were untouched or not overmarked by the Police then it would be odd to say the least that all the marks had the same intensity of colour.
Given that the trousers would have been cleaned on a number of occasions and with some quite caustic chemicals, you would think that the earlier ones would have faded. Not so.
Then we are left with wondering did the Police trace them just like they did with the code page or were they faked? I mention the latter because laundry marks, amongst may other things, were used to conceal code and secret writing by the spying fraternity at those times. At the detail level amongst other aspects, you will notice that in the close up images that the number 3 is of quite a different style in each mark.
Food for thought.
The use of elastic in garments was restricted by National Security Order of 24th June 1942. See:
The West Australian 25th July 1942 page 4
These restrictions were relaxed in January 1946. See: Northern Star (Lismore, NSW) 23rd January 1946 page 5
So, it would appear that SM’s Marco brand Elasta Strap trousers were manufactured between July 1942, and early 1946.
B Deveson: did you mean “before July 1942 or after early 1946”?
Nick: Manufactured between July 1942, and early 1946, because the trousers were branded “war time model” and “non elastic”.
B Deveson: ah, my mistake, thanks – very interesting thread!
NSW police made inquiries with Marco Productions Pty. Ltd., the manufacturers of the Marco trousers found in the suitcase. The company’s records only went back to 1945, and “the number appearing on the trousers is not included in the numbers recorded since that year, indicating that the trousers were manufactured prior to 1945.” Feltus page 69.
A search of Trove revealed that the only advertisements (seven in total) for Marco Elasta Strap trousers in the period 1/7/1942 to 1/1/1945 were placed by the Palace Store, Kiama. There were seven advertisements in the period from 18th March 1944 through to 15th April 1944.
These trousers were expensive because other brands were selling for about twenty five to thirty shillings.
The Kiama Reporter and Illawarra Journal 5th April 1944 page 2
B. Jenkins, Palace Store, Kiama. Men’s Tropical Grey Crusader Sergette Trousers, Marco Elasto self supporting strap 39/11 and 10 coupons.
Just why the Kiama store was the only store in Australia advertising Marco Elasta Strap trousers over this period is not clear.
Travel within Australia was very restricted during WW2 so it would seem that there is a significant chance that SM’s Marco trousers were bought from the Palace Store at Kiama. Which is a little strange, but I will now focus my attention on males from the Kiama district who disappeared into smoke in late 1948.
…. or men passing through, a trawler, back from New Guinea.
Hi BD, Just a note that a business called A M Sullivan, Manning St, Kiama was advertising in the Kiama Reporter & Illawarra Journal on 17 July 1946 and stated they were a depot for dry cleaning & Nu-system laundry. Wonder if there is a any connection with the SM & his tags?
Pete – You’ve posed a very good question and I’ve been trying to find the “Australian Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd.”! I’m looking forward to the next chapter.
Byron, a couple of thoughts that you probably have already had. The seam in the trousers is ragged, it was apparently done that way by seamstresses to add greater strength. Interestingly that kind of seam was predominantly put in by contractors working from home/ away from the factory.
Whilst the trousers were marked as ‘war time model’, you could imagine that there would have been some significant stocks left over at the end of hostilities. These may then have been moved off in bulk to Army Surplus or similar outlets.
Last thought was the tie in with the dry cleaners marks. The trousers were apparently cleaned 3 times in all, a question would be how often would a man have his trousers laundered? Going back to the 50s and 60s we would take
trousers/uniforms to the cleaners every 2 to 3 months especially if you didn’t have that many spare.
Misca,
I think the company name is Australasian Publishing Company Pty. Ltd. which was situated at 55 York Street, Sydney in the 1940s.
BD: Not so restricted for the travelling big top shows such as Wirth Circus , billed as the greatest show on earth, and a regular big seasonal draw card in Kiama over many years. So yes indeed; our SM, the famous educated dog & pony trainer, cum circus clown may well have picked up his war-time model non elasta-fit Marcos at Jenkins Palace store. What’s more he could also have had them cleaned at A.M. Sullivan’s (rings a bell) New-Style laundry, perhaps over three successive visits. NB: This fellow should not to be confused with Jock Armstrong (Glenelg RSL ’34), who had worked for the Australian Ballet in 1950 and who strangely does not get a mention on Worth’s list of past performers by that name.
Here we go then, Agnes May Sullivan nee Davis bn.1881 was the widowed wife of J.E. McAlpine and mother of Olga and Keith? both of whom hooked up with Cyril and Isabel, Keith Mangnoson’s siblings. Their dad Jack had been killed in France and you might like to read about his Freemasons memorial service in Trove. Aggie May then went off and married a fellow from N.S.W. with the same initials as her own named Sullivan whom I didn’t track down, though it appears that she died in Geelong in1940. The big mystery about the family is that no records show up for her son Keith apart from the listing on Violet Lehmann’s grave in Adelaide. I’m still looking for the bastard after two years of painstaking paper chasing and it’s driving me nuts. If he turned out to be SM everything would fit together rather nicely, but alas it would be far too coincidental; would it not?…
John, Keith Alexander McAlpine. Birth 1913 Death 26 Jul 1979 Largs Bay, Port Adelaide Enfield City, South Australia
Burial Enfield Memorial Park Adelaide, Adelaide City, South Australia, Australia
Plot Cremated Remains Returned to Family
Byron: Many thanks; I can see now how I missed him and rather careless making assumptions. Keith and Violet must have stayed together with the Mangnoson’s in later life. Here’s me thinking that, he being the adopted? orphan boy, must have taken off with the circus leaving poor Isabel at the alter. Wonder whether he took up with the Kirk like his Dad?. By the way did you spot the unclaimed money left to rot with Cons. Revenue by young Ian Andrew George Mangnoson?…
Byron: Pretty sure that you did all the Moseley St. addressees years ago and I seem to remember that 90A was a one bedroom flat without provision for off street parking. It was apparently owned by a family trust in the name of J. Allen from memory. Question is, did a family of that name occupy the main part of the house now listed as No. 90, a two bedroom part of the same structure running down the left side past the driveway entrance, which may have been without a carport in ’48. It seems likely to me that the unidentified man, looking for his old nurse aquaintance back then, would have been more likely to attempt making contact with the occupants of 90, when he found nobody home at 90A; as opposed to asking around the corner in Bath St. which seems to have been the case. I would also have expected that there being only one structure, that there might only have been available, a single shared telephone connection for both tennants at that point in time. Little things may mean a lot and I’m sure you’ll know the answer to this one.
Did we ever confirm whether or not Jess worked at the Alvington Crippled Kiddies Centre, just down the road from her flat. If so then would it have been mere coincidence that she had done her nurses training at RNSH, the first major hospital in Australia to introduce Sister Elizabeth Kenny’s revolutionary treatment for infantile paralysis or polio. And is it also coincidence that her own kiddies, Robin and Kate were given the middle names McMahon and Helena, which were shared with another famous nurse of the era, Matron Helena Elizabeth Monica McMahon.
According to S&M there was a 90, 90A and a 90B in 1948 (Farrer F.K., Ross A., and Shipman E.T. respectively) – in ’47 90A lists as Pope, R.I. and Lyndan H.A. (1949 is obviously “Thompson P. McC” (sic))
As a slight side, that means that 90A seemed to turn over tenancies pretty quickly, and the Thom[p]sons couldn’t have been there very long (if the name(s) in ’47, ’48 were the same, I’d see a possibility of slow updates to the record)….Someone coming looking for a nurse he used to know has some pretty good intel, or has been stalking her for a while – because it would seem he hasn’t gotten there via the public record….
John – Keith was born in 1913. You knew that. Do you think that SM looked like he was 35? Why waste time and energy (for you and for other well-meaning folks) searching for where and when he died? Really?
Keith married Isabel Violet Mangnoson. Ooops. You know that too, don’t you? For the recored…Her twin sister, Violet Isabel, is the one who married Mervyn Lehmann.
Isabel Violet Mangnoson
Violet Isabel Mangnoson
Two different gals. Twins.
Stop for a moment and think. The ONLY reason we know anything about SM is because the Australian government either wanted to send a “message” or they wanted to know who he was. If not for this, SM would have been one of hundreds of “suicidal”/”accidental”/etc deaths that occurred with a tiny blurb in the newspapers.
If you can wrap you head around this, then either they were sending the message that someone had been killed or they were desperately trying to figure out who was sent to do damage on them.
If not one of these two alternatives, why make such a big deal about nothing? Hate to put it this way but after trolling trove for many years now, people came and died without much ado…
They made a bust. WTF?
Misca: I learnt about Keith’s DOB when Byron responded to my post about him two days ago so I could hardly be excused for wasting people’s time, not like someone else, who, knew for instance, Otis Pearce’s (pierce) full details (DOB ’12 & DOD ’73?) and claimed to still share an interest in his potential for SM…By the way I’m well familiar with the Mangnoson twins, Violet’s marriages and her kids, Ross Allan and Kay Ada….Any late relevant news on Mark Oliphant and his special pal from Boga Swamp who married the Jetty Road chemist, whatsiface’s daughter; really reverting stuff to be sure.
MM: Riveting as in nailed by a cheap Taiwanese spell check…Milongal: I can’t seem to make any headway with those residency search sites, though I should be up on it by now, I’ll own. Shipway Shipway; wasn’t there a detective by that name in Adelaide? sounds really familiar, perhaps Errol Canney’s other half, which would explain a few things.
Misca: My rule has always been that if you can’t trust your gov’t to tell the truth, you can replace them with one that can, or you can get out of Dodge; well guess what?. In all seriousness I’m almost sure that it was probably the newspapers, on a slow day that got the Somerton case going; then it just got legs of its own to lead us down the inevitable path of perpetual intrigue. Had it been left to competent, Harold Shipway’s original investigation team from day one, they might well have had a good outcome albeit, not as spellbinding as demanded by the reading public. When Major Crime inspector Geoffrey Leane put his brother and ex mounted Constable Lionel, the newsman’s friend on the job, that proved to be the beginning of the end, in my humble opinion. It just kept on going down hill, though never quite hitting bedrock, which if I’m not wrong, is where we find ourselves to-day. Little snippets of spicey new leads still keep some of us from pulling out, just as they did in ’48 when they were carefully leaked to waiting copy hounds in the press, by old Scan Sutherland for hungry consumption, no matter how seemingly outrageous. As for the government of South Australia, they had more pressing things to worry about, like how to handle the influx of new migrant job seekers and a million and one other more important things, than the true fate of a dead man on Summerton Beach. Tamam &C.
Milongal & Misca: Detectives Strangway (SM case) and Shipway were of about the same vintage, both selected for criminal investigation work by Commissioner Raymond Lionel Leane, following the troubles in the late twenties. So no Detective Shipman, leastways not on trove to concern us, so sorry about that.
The “govt wanted us to know” is only if we believe he was a spy – and even then there’s another alternative….Federal and State forces not really communicating well, and then the Feds trying to cover the secrets that SAPol accidentally found…
While deaths come and go, this man was unidentified (which kept the coppers’ attention for longer than it otherwise would), and you can imagine the intrigue and imagination from people with each twist and turn – EC Johnson presenting at the Cop Shop, Boxall turning up alive, the ‘code’ etc….I still lean toward it being a more mundane explanation than espionage. And a lot of the mystery likely comes through a range of misinterpretations, misreportings and possibly hoaxes (e.g. I’m not 100% convinced the Rubaiyat they found with the ‘code page’ was actually the one where Tamam Shud came from – which would then dismiss the entire code angle).
To some degree I’ll agree that much of the detail almost appears made up – the whole explanation to the Rubaiyat as a spy code needs us to simultaneously believe that we’re dealing with is orchestrated by top spies and that they really didn’t manage to cover their tracks (at the very least this would suggest spies with limited reach into the local authorities). Similarly, the whole tickets fiasco just seems so cumbersome – either his pockets were emptied and the tickets returned to them, or the tickets were planted – but why? If they’re a plant it’s almost like there’s a narrative we were expected to work out from that that we’ve absolutely missed – and if they’re not they don’t make any sense whatsoever either (not least because they were there).
I would imagine (but of course stand to be corrected) that the key to espionage is invisibility rather than confusion. This case is full of chaotic and confusing evidence that often seems to contradict itself – but I don’t think that works for the spy game because they would want to deal unseen rather than attracting attention (even if as a diversion). Even if there’s a deliberate attempt to publicise it far and wide (ie to send a message) it would seem that there’s so much unnecessary periphery that attracts the wrong attention – Prosper’s ‘lost Gold Watch’ would be a subtle way to send someone a message – a body that is linked to increasingly suspicious evidence seems to garner the wrong sort of attention, because all us armchair experts want to read a story into it.
@JS 90, 90A and 90B Moseley were sold as part of a large estate that included Bath St properties too….
Off on a slight tangent….
I think some of this has been mentioned before, Prosper seems to have been linked to Duffield Motors (in 1949 he’s looking for a house using phone F3380 – which is the after hours number for Duffield (interestingly the same number seems to have been a car yard in Vic pre 1945)).
It seems to link to an address in Magill (47 Barnes St) which shows as being occupied by W.G. Duffield – which makes sense….
Interestingly, in December 1948 Duffield (presumably) is trying to sell a repeating rifle….wasn’t there some tie in to a rifle barrel in the Pruzinski theory?
@JS I know you’ve mentioned Gaston before, and I *think* you’ve mentioned Quentin too so I assume you know there were 2 other brothers (and a sister) in the Thomson tribe:
Adrian
Prosper
Ysabel
Rolls (or perhaps Rollo)
Quentin
Gaston
They seem to have moved to NSW some time between 1916 and 1935.
I also stumbled across a picture from 1938 (which I conveniently can’t find) of a car salesman in Woolongong appointed to run some car yard. I only mention it because he seems to resemble the Thomson’s, and his name was E.C. MacTaggart (which is what piqued my interest originally), but MacTaggart doesn’t appear to have been a family name so it’s probably nothing….He also probably looked too young to have been Ernest Chalmer (Chalmus?) Thomson…..
Wow, I was way wrong….it was E.R. McTaggart and he was a kiwi….
Milongal: Yes it’s very difficult to find fault with your general retort to how Misca put her own somehat accusory Australian government interference reasoning…In respect of the Thomson tribe, excluding daughter Isabel (trying to expurge that name); the only one that doesn’t wear a hat is mysterious dead Rollo. He seems to have been initially mentioned by James Carl Thomson aka Callum aka Courage & Friendship aka Hedge fund Dave and others which connect with my ‘Marshall Plan’ contention…I think we now have good reason to suspect that Prosper could only have part named his three kids, Robin, Kate and poor baby Elizabeth, after H.E.M. McMahon, our Matron who took a team of recently called up VAD nursing sisters to Japan in March 1946. I still can’t help thinking that, that was about the time Jess Harkness was last heard from following her possible graduation from RNSH, prior to having Robin McMahon some sixteen, unaccounted for months later. I wonder did Kate reveal to 60 minutes that mum might have dabbled a little in pijin nip, following a volunteer stint in 130 Australian Base Hospital Kure. That would certainly account for a number of her unclear residential situations and as I once touted, Robin might then have been conceived in Japan, where Prosper’s bro, Gaston, was then presumably serving in the Navy. That would account for the family resemblance would it not; also the apparent bad blood between the brothers and of course, Jess Harkness’ reluctance to speak of her service in the Orient.
Milongal: You sure Mctaggart E.R. was a New Zlnder; all the ones I ever ran into were either Trevor, Kevin or plain Kiwi. It also seems that when our own McTaggart placed his add for a nursery-housemaid, he also stipulated that the position would only be of four weeks duration, commencing after 9 December and for applicants to call him at X1863 from 2nd instant. For starters, that is a different contact than our usual X3239 (a worry) and of course we’re not to know if it involved, by then toddler aged Robin. If it was, then it may have meant that 90A Moberley would be conveniently unattended until the call date, which could mean that the occupant(s) knew something was going down directly. Then we are left with the short period of work entailed, which could well mean that Jess has been called up to cover a Christmas stint at a hospital, nursing home or even a nearby Crippled Children’s facility (to keep an eye out). Of course we are never going to be the wiser in that respect, though we can still get to the bottom of the phone number dilema. It seems that X3236 came from Gerry’s own book search for the period (doubtful imv), however we know well that Sister J. Thomson had that number until at least 1951, long after Jess had moved away from Moberley, and indeed, the Glenelg area. I have my doubts that her line would have been portable outside a given zone in those days somehow; which leaves us with X1863 as the most likely line in to 90A. I’m sure that Gerry won’t mind chasing that up for us if he’s not to busy and while he’s at it, he might consider giving us a copy of the better quality, Elliott fingerprint card so that we might make some comparisons when the time comes along; know what I mean?…
They seem to be either renovating or tearing down 90 and 90a Moseley st. I’ve driven past it a few times as I’m a local
Milongal: I got a feeling that ‘Rollo’ was likely to have been Norman Roland Carr, Jessica Harkeness brother-in-law, born in UK or Morgan S.A in ’18 or ’22 (depending) and was the 3rd mate on one of the Borneo/Japan BCOF resupply fleet vessels, run by Adelaide Steam Ships in ’45. He could have taken sweet fiesty Jean (Bn. 33 Vic.) to Sydney after demobilization, which sounds about right to me, though you can never be sure with a ’36 sack race champ from Mordialloc College, Mebun. Seems we don’t know anything more about them, but I’m sure James Calleb Thomson would.
Rollo (somewhere I saw Rolls) was a sibling of Prosper – I have him born 1916 (I’ll see if I can confirm that…..)
Prosper seemed to advertise to several different numbers and PO Boxes (there’s at least one ad I’ve found that uses Duffield’s number). I think Misca (mighta been someone else) previously pointed out that there were some peculiar ads that basically would say something strange like ‘if the car ads say Thomson then they’re guaranteed’ – possibly competing or distancing himself from other salesmen (like Duffield).
Prosper’s ad habits seem to change in December – he is suddenly fairly quiet (of course, going on holiday might account for that, or perhaps December is not a good month for car sales). In fact, there’s only 2 ads for X3239 in Dec – Mrs Thomson selling furniture and play equipment, and Prosper looking for his gold watch. By March 1949 he wants to offload a car ‘urgently’, and in June he advertises specifically to Port Lincoln (maybe he was planning a trip there and hoped to sell a car to fund it, or something)….
Don’t really want to read too much into it (firstly there might be a lot of stuff not properly indexed on trove, secondly there’s a million reason people’s habits change – and in this case could be the career shift from salesman to chauffeur; or family changes as kids get older (shit gets real when they get to the age they can walk)), but there’s certainly some interesting scope for speculation…..
I’m not sure where x1863 came from, but I think that’s unrelated. The only x1863 I can find (trove) is for an Archie McTaggart on a station North of Port Augusta, whose wife advertises:
1947: Nursery Governess wanted, Pt Augusta
1949: Governess wanted, 2 kids, Pt Augusta
1950: Companion-help, 3 toddlers, 6 weeks, Somerton (given the number give is still the PortaGutta one, and it’s only 6 weeks, this sounds like a holiday in the ‘Big Smoke’)
QLD Births,Deaths,Marriages:
1916 C1965 Rolls Burrowes Thomson Ernest Chalmers Alice Fortune Hawkes
Milongal: Something about Rollo being killed in an aircrash from websleuths; see if we can chase it up.
Here we go; it seems like poor Rollo crashed during his solo flight training with the RAF at Henley on Thames, UK on 14/3/43. Attended by a Lt. Carr, he was found to have died instantly and so wife Nina of Mosman, as well as his dad Ernest were notified accordingly. He was said to have been a tall man just like his siblings, in addition to being slow witted, so I guess that takes care of his most unfortunate place in our inqury I guess, unless the slight name(s) variations and inconsistent year of death estimate are a cause for worry.
Those Duffields were Sth. Australias version of the Royal Family it seems; with Kenneth, the internationally renowned stage writer, lyricist and author; as well as brother Walter the world accredited astronomer. The family who had palatial homes in and around Glenelg, also had huge top shelf pastoral holdings, though they may also have had some of their lower ranked kin making a quid or two selling Autos, with reasonably good paperwork. If they had been in competition with Prosper, one can make a fair guess on who would have come out ahead.
John sanders: Prosper ran Duffield’s business for a while (while Duffield was away?) around that time, but when Duffield came back there was a disagreement over the way Prosper had been running things for him, at which point the two parted company.
Nick: I didn’t know that, though you’ll understand, it was before my time. Thanks for your input; I’ll keep it in mind.
John sanders: of course, what could a young tyke like you possibly know of the past? etc etc 🙂
Nick: I do know that the Duffields and the Ellis’s of 29 Pier street were thick as thieves and used to travel to the continent quite frequently. Old man Ellis, who died in ’27, had swish restaurants all over, though one in particular, the Covent Garden burnt down a month before SM’s demise and six workers also perished. His heirs were investigated as possible Nazi sympathisers (unjustly perhaps) and moved up to Craffers in March of ’49 after Mr. Cleland’s no fault inquest. NB: Nancy Beaumont was an Ellis and Jim’s dad Sam Grant the meat providor, who may have supplied quality meat to top Adelaide eateries, passed on just before his return from Japan in ’48?. I have no idea whether or not there was any connection between the families and there is of course no suggestion of a link with the Kid’s abductions in 1966 that I’m aware of.
@NP – regarding the falling out…. We can see that Prosper advertises for accommodation via Duffield’s (home) premise, and we’ve seen the “trust these ads from Thomo” – is that the basis for the notion of a disagreement, or is there something more to it that I’ve missed?
(i.e. is the falling out just trove-based speculation, or is there someit more concrete?)
NB: Not having a go, just sounded like you have some more solid/certain info on it…
Odd fellow indeed, indeed, especially if one might dare
suggest that our Somerton Man could be partly misnomer. I’m thinking along the lines of our friend having prefered a feminine address, in accordance with a particular fancy. My stage history sleuthing was able to provide me with the name of Felise, the femine form of Felix; for a long time person of interest to me. This, along with some further variations such as Lucky and Teresa which I obtained elswhere gives me some heart. The theory that our man may have been a cross dresser is not new, so going the whole hog for a full gender roll reversal and being a real burlesque stage performer to boot should come as no surprise, if indeed that’s what it turned out to be. I guess had SM presented around town and on public transport as a gal, then later changed into mens clobber, he stands a better than even chance of remaining incognito, if a proposition of this type strikes one’s fancy. We will all recall the high calf muscles, hairless body and soft well manicured hands and feet. Not to mention the light tan (sun lamp?) to the legs which might have been used as a sensual feature for a stage routine…..Any takers for this possible new line? if so, be aware that this could rule out suggestions of SM’s paternity for Robin.
If we entertain an idea like that, wouldn’t we expect different contents in his suitcase? They seem a bit at odds with that sort of lifestyle, don’t they? And even if they don’t, wouldn’t you expect somethink like high-heeled shoes or a blouse in the suitcase?
Or would we then assume that the case was planted by the same person(s) who dressed him up in male clobber?
What suitcase would that be mate? I didn’t see one listed amongst the furniture and stuff that were offered up for sale at 90A Moseley St. in December ’48. Although in another port left at Adelaide rail, I did notice a pair of girlish looking slippers, a make up brush, uni-sex tartan scarf, bobby pins, some sewing utensils &c. I’ll concede that some items in that case certainly appeared a little masculine in form, but it has been suggested that the particular suitcase was shared, if indeed it had anything to do with miss SM’s wardrobe at all.
The Railway Station suitcase. What I’m (trying to) saying is that if we have a regular drag queen, it seems difficult to link his posessions to such a lifestyle
What lifestyle would that have been? If only we had become aware of one to work with; Sounds like what we have, is a catch 22 situ, unless of course the suits from Angas Street, seeing a possible threat to social morality, took the proper course as they saw fit. That is to say they dutifully turfed some of the more socially sensitive items of apparel from SM’s assumed cloakroom stash, thereby re assuring Adelaide’s staid denizens that all was well.
What do we know, if anything at all, about Detective Harold Strangway’s period as chief investigator of the Somerton unsolved death case for seven, apparently non productive weeks, up until 8th January, ’48, at which time the brief was unaccountably taken over by a much junior detective, in Snr. Const. R.L. Leane. We know that neither he nor anyone on his team, including Det. Canney, is known to have made any submissions in the matter, either verbal or by instrument in writing and nor was he quoted on progress of his related
inquiries, by the press, to my knowledge…Harold had been a detective, even prior to Commissioner R.L. Leane Snr’s appointment in ’22 and the pair must have been close for him to have survived Leane’s 1928 corruption purge. He was apparently an efficient general crime, street suit (the real deal), married with family and well connected, possibly helped along by his own ‘odd fellow’ social links. During the war until ‘45 he was the SB designate attached to Finsbury military munitions facility and then he went back to CIB duties. Of course we pick him up here initiating enquiries with Brighton Police Const. Judas Moss for our Somerton beach odyssey. I believe Harold gave up policing in the mid fifties and likewise his ghost, about 1975 at the fair age of eighty or so…This is probably all repeat info., but not to worry it’s good reference to an important thread which I need to get back to for various eye witness descriptions or, more’s to the point,lack thereof!…
Still trying to nut out a reason for the white tie, Dome? Perhaps we can assist in that regard.
speaking of coincidence, this is interesting:
https://historical.ha.com/itm/books/signed-editions/-jack-london-the-kempton-wace-letters-new-york-the-macmillan-company-1903first-edition-/a/6048-36521.s
Check the pictures.
milongal: Are you suggesting it was the great Jack London and not William Jestyn Moulds OBE that signed off on verse 70 in Alf’s ROK…Peteb and Gordon would be deeply disappointed having their all Australian nominee beaten by a New York Yankee. Very interesting if true; very interesting indeed, indeed.
Just interesting that it’s the same verse (or half of it)…..life imitates art or something
JS,
Prosper’s family were related to the Beaumonts.
Byron: I Presume you’re referring to Thomas Lawson Harkness, Jessica’s brother, of which we have any amount of evidence re wife Clarissa? and the Peg Beumont line. If on the other hand we’re talking about the Thomson family proper, that would be something out of left field, but I see nothing in that mob which links in with Max’s forebears. PS. Jim Beamont was still living at Glenelg last I heard.
The Beaumont children … I have a trove of documents on that case, courtesy of xlamb, and a comprehensive collection of emails, photographs and witness accounts, all of them waiting to see the light of day.
Byron: Seeing as you’ve hit on Nick’s ‘The Beaumont connection’, and without my having to repeat myself overly, I’d implore you, or anyone else still interested, to go back to that site and check on what I have to say about a family who lived at 4/6 Chapel St. Glenelg named Snoswell, namely Bronte Mourilyan bn. 1922 and his dad Cleveland bn 1888?. Bronte who was RAAF ww2 and Cleveland (Frank) ww1 50 btn ww1 (same as Jim’s dad William). Junior who would have been 44 at time of the disappearance, was engaged to Jim’s spouse Nancy before the latter RTA’d from BCF Japan in 1947 and Bronte ended up marrying four times. the family were of a religious sect (Congregational) who were set up opposite the sprawling home and it’s setting would have been an ideal short cut home from the kid’s last sighting on 26/1/66. Now go to a present day overhead view (on line) and check out the block which to me has the appearance of a citadel. I’ll trust your intuition from here on, though there is a lot more which you can deciminate from S.A. geni and the other similar on line sites. Nobody including Sapol appears to be aware of these details.
Peteb: Then do yourself and your troop of sleuths a favour and put Ruth’s stuff on your own grandstanding site. At CM we’re doing our best to respect the wishes of Jim Beaumont, the only close remaining family member, with fact as opposed to fancy God willing.
Do you have any idea at all as to where the bodies of those children might be, John Sanders?
Peteb: good luck if you’re using xlamb as a (mint) source for all that.
Could be anywhere or nowhere Pete. Most certainly not at the bottom of Max’s well, so you and your petitioning recovery team including Misca, Ellen, Gordon, Clive, Ruth may as well remove the back hoe from his farm gate and pick another unlikely dump site to postulate over…ps. Forgot Byron (nice lead in by the way).
No problemo, I’ve changed tack anyway. It’s like the Australian who was one of the successful Zodiac team said, ‘you can try 650,000 times but it’s the one that works that makes it worthwhile.’
Peteb: Don’t blame yourself in falling for the ancient McIntyre curse, just so long as it’s now put aside and you can ‘change tack’ by getting another cunning stunt up and running with a little help from your fiends.
The humungously wealthy Duffield pastoral family of early S.A. were numerous and difficult to put a finger on individually, due to there being so many of the muthers. They include a celebrated playwrite and of course Walter Duffield the world renowned astronomer, plus some kin that may not have been so highly esteemed. I set out to place Prosper’s sometime partner Duffield from his Port Lincoln days, which is how I came to be over here. Anyhow for the benefit sceptics like me with valid reasons to doubt the Ronald Francis @ Freeman ROK version pedaled by Feltus, I’m on the hunt for a more viable alternative. I was actually thinking of bus conducter and self confessed ROK finder man Leslie Wytkin and a yet to be identified brother-in-law, of which I’m still eager to track down. All that I’ve come up with so far is a Ronald Francis Duffield @ Francis Ronald @ Donald who after having a degree of marital strife in ’48, came good a few years later with aquisition of a brand new bartered bride. I’ll hold on for now but if any punters wish to follow this new line of enquiry, please be my guest. PS Only commonality gleaned so far is that Les and Ron were born in the same year 1906 and hailed from the Mount Barker region in Adelaide Hills. If it helps the original Wytkins were Poles whose patriarch Thomas settled around Clare in 1857 from memory.
Now we’re cooking with gas thanks to Byron (his stuff is often overlooked). So car dealer William Sherwood Duffield, bn. 1902 former blue orchid police, qualified engine engraver (handy) of Hamley Bridge, but lately Somerton was a brother of Ronald Francis and Lindsay Gordon with dad Francis Henry. Let’s see if there be any brother-in-law possibilities with Les Wytkin (only child) through either wife May nee Hole (married?) or Edith nee Middleton whom he deserted around ’48/’50. Few hours work with this one and not overly confident.
Seems I somehow forgot to press the go button on a facinating development re Bill Duffield and his S.A. car business success story, ‘secrets of the used auto trade’ submitted for favour of registration for publication, first on 15/6/49. What a crying shame, for that must be put on hold for now, in light of this morning’s uplifting ABC news of the up coming big dig at West Terrace.
Punters laying off on PT’s Somerton mate Bill Duffield; then how’s about a flutter on Ronald Francis Freeman (bn. 1919) of Kensington/Brighton, a late starter in the Feltus brother-in-law stakes. I’m not taking bets, but could be a rough chance on name value and may also have had Ties to T. KEANE [sic] based on his having been in uniform during WW2.