Another loss for Bomber Command
WORLD War II survivor Keith Stevens once remarked that he did not get too upset when things went wrong in business, or life, because of the situation he found himself in after being shot down during ...
Author Archives: Peter McCullough
Eileen Francis passes away at 99
EILEEN Elizabeth Clarke was born in Somerville on 5 January, 1916 at the private hospital run by Sister Hodgins. In 1940 she married a Hastings fisherman, Norman Herbert Francis, who died in 1999.Eil...
Casualties on the Home Front
LONG before the extensive and frightening casualty lists monopolized the Melbourne papers in the years 1914 – 1918, there were occasional casualties which occurred in a training context. The town of ...
A new honour for a Bomber Command veteran
LATE in 2014 Keith Stevens, DFM, a long-time resident of the Village Glen at Rosebud, was informed that the President of the Republic of France had awarded him the highest level of chevalier (or knig...
Montague Romeo: rejected four times but paid the supreme sacrifice
MONTAGUE Romeo was born in Hastings to Charles and Katherine (nee Howard) Romeo in 1894. He first enlisted in Hastings on 11th September, 1914 but was discharged on 5th October, 1914 as being “unlike...
The Western Front – where the Bartrams rest
1. BULLECOURT – Arnold Roy Bartram, KIA 13th May, 1917. BULLECOURT was the scene of two costly battles for the AIF, the first beginning in the bitterly cold dawn of 11th April, 1917 when, after a nig...
A tragic year for the Bartrams
Frankston’s Avenue of Honour In her book “Echoes from the Front”, Val Latimer tells how as early as 1917 a committee was formed to honour all those from the Frankston District who served in World War...
Back on the tools at 85
EXPERIENCED tradesman Alan Mott of Hastings recently placed a small advertisement in The News for Al’s Jobbing Shop. There appeared to be nothing unusual about this until you discover Mr Mott is aged...
