Obituaries

Richard Norman Hamilton Denton

1928 - December 2021

When Richard Denton finished his secondary education in the 1940s he responded to two job vacancies advertised in the Sydney Morning Herald, one at an accounting firm and the other as a wool broker. The wool broker never responded to his application but the accountant did, so Denton started work at R.A. Irish and Michelmore […]

George Hubert Wilkins

1888 - 30 November 1958

By Judy Chant George Hubert Wilkins, known as Hubert, has to be Australia’s most unrecognised adventurer of all time. During his remarkable life, he was a pioneer aviator, war correspondent, explorer and secret agent. Born in 1888 at Mount Bryan East, South Australia, Hubert was the thirteenth child of farmers Henry and Louisa Wilkins. As […]

Captain Nora Heysen

1911 - 2003

By Judy Chant With self-portraits you can be alone with yourself and not have to worry about another person . Born on 11 January 1911 at Hahndorf, South Australia, Nora was the fourth of eight children born to Hans and Selma Heysen. Her father Hans was one of Australia’s most renowned landscape painters in the […]

Paul Christopher Lloyd

16 August 1943 - 5 May 2021

By Nigel Hopkins Like many of Australia’s finest journalists, Paul Lloyd was a man of many parts. Even those who knew him well often did not know all there was to know about him. For many, he was an accomplished journalist, a writer of thoughtful features and leading articles, in a career that took him […]

Gordon B. Schwartz

23 June 1922 - 28 March 2021

By Michaelangelo Rucci It was one of those typically scorching 40-plus summer days that tested everyone’s nerves, more so as deadlines were approaching in The Advertiser sports department during the early 1980s. Gordon Schwartz, the long-serving deputy sports editor, opened his top drawer – and as was his wise daily habit – began to peel […]

Sydney Dick Chant: from Everleigh railway yards to revolutionary Shanghai

1885 - 12 June 1947

By Judy Chant Sydney Dick Chant (1885 – 1947), known as Syd, was the second of six children born to Richard George Chant and Matilda Martha McKenzie on 27th February 1885, in Sydney NSW. He was baptised at St Peter’s Church of England, East Sydney. In 1993, the heritage listed stone church was absorbed by […]

Bryan John Charlton: Champion press photographer

8 October 1950 - 30 January 2021

By Michaelangelo Rucci When English actor Paul Eddington – of Yes Minister, Yes Prime Minister and The Good Life fame – was asked how his epitaph should read, he replied: “He did very little harm”. This was Bryan Charlton, of sports photography fame in Adelaide – and for a little time in Eddington’s London in […]

Lizzy Punch

31 January 1875 - 30 October 1955

By Judy Chant My only memory of my maternal Great Grandmother is that of a seemingly grumpy, white-haired woman, lying in bed in a darkened bedroom at the back of my Grandma’s house at Wiley Park. As a three-year old child in 1955, quietness was mandatory so as not to disturb this old woman, who […]

Colonel Muir Purser Decorated veteran of WW1

7 January 1887 - 14 October 1970

By Judy Chant The eldest of four children born to William Henry Purser and Amy Elizabeth (nee Doyle), Muir was born on 7 January 1887 at Maryborough, Queensland. The family moved to Sydney and at the age of twelve years, Muir joined Cleveland Street Superior Public School’s detachment of the Cadet Force. The first Cadet […]