Life Savers and Hitler Youth

Harry Hay, swimmer and coach (pictured), gave an interesting talk about the Berlin Olympic Games to the members of the Queenscliff Surf Life Saving Club on 9 December 1936. The magazine Surf in Australia reported his speech in its January 1937 issue. Mr Hay, it stated, had attended five Olympic Games as competitor and coach, and he believed the Berlin Games surpassed all others. “Mr Hay was particularly impressed with the Hitler Youth Movement. He was given access to several camps. There are no unemployed in Germany today, every lad being drafted into the Youth Camps for 12 months’ training. Without a certificate from the Camp no lad could find work in Germany. Any boys who would not find work were taken into the military... Mr Hay’s comment that these camps could well be instituted in Australia is not without ultimate possibility. Mr Hay remarked that in Australia there are too many loafers living on the Governments, and we are regretfully compelled to agree with him.”
Evidently Goebbels’ propaganda had found a credulous dupe in Mr Hay. Some of the Queenscliff Savers were to get a close hard look at Hitler’s forces in the not-too-distant future.
Surf in Australia, in its April 1937 issue reported remarks made at the Manly Jubilee official dinner by Brigadier-General Lloyd, MLA, who asserted that the physical fitness of Australian youth was pitiful. The only remedy for this disgraceful state of affairs was to be found “in the introduction of the Fascist plan of development.” Sensibly, the magazine dissociated itself from his views.

A drunken midwife

An account of an inquest held in Manly in 1858 could almost have been written by Dickens. Philip Cohen, proprietor of the Pier Hotel at Manly (pictured) gave evidence that he had met the nurse or midwife, Mrs Margaret Picken, on her way home to North Harbour, ‘shouting and much-intoxicated’. He asked her about Mrs George Birch, who had been expecting a child. Mrs Picken answered “She was pretty well, considering.”
“Considering what?” asked Cohen.
“Considering she was lying in labour from Sunday evening to Tuesday morning, and I had to kill the child to save the mother.”
Cohen, outraged, reported the case to the Coroner, and Mrs Picken was arrested.
The inquest heard from Mr George Birch (publican of the New Brighton Hotel) that his wife’s confinement had been a difficult one, and that Mrs Picken had not been intoxicated at any time; his wife had said Mrs Picken had done her best; there had been no doctor in attendance.
Despite this, however, the Sydney Morning Herald reported (Monday 9th August 1858) that a verdict of manslaughter was given against Margaret Picken, and she was committed to Darlinghurst Gaol to await trial.
But before the comparison with Sarah Gamp from Martin Chuzzlewit is drawn, it should be noted that the newspaper carried a correction the following day – a verdict of manslaughter had not been brought, and the inquest had been adjourned! A considerable error by the newspaper, made worse by its failure to subsequently report whether Mrs Picken was brought to trial or not. But perhaps the most illuminating aspect of the story is how rudimentary medical care was in early Manly, despite its proximity to Sydney.

Mafficking at Manly

Ivanhoe Park saw an outbreak of ‘mafficking’ on 30th May 1900. To ‘maffick’ is to celebrate uproariously, and the verb is a jokey backformation from ‘Mafeking’, the British garrison in South Africa, which had held out against a Boer siege for many weeks. (Giles Foden’s novel Ladysmith gives a marvellous fictional evocation of the period.) When the garrison was relieved, it was treated throughout the British Empire as a great victory, and the rejoicing led to wild scenes in London.

In Manly, the Fire Brigade led the ‘victory’ parade. The brass bands played, and marched through Manly to the Oval, where Mayor Fletcher (pictured) made a rousing speech from a raised platform. Rev Anderson Gardiner, the blind minister of St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, also spoke to the large crowd, telling them “victory had been achieved, conquest had been made, and gladness and joyousness was all around.” The mafficking continued with a ‘creditable display of fireworks’. The Oval was a sea of coloured lights and ablaze with rockets.

Dead reckoning

There are more people in Manly Cemetery than we thought. Examination of the funeral notices in the Sydney Morning Herald, now available online via the National Library of Australia’s newspaper digitisation project, reveals quite a number of 19th century individuals whose burials took place at Manly cemetery, whose names were not recorded on the Burial Registers, and who were consequently not known to be there! Among the names so far unearthed are: Charles Artlett, George Evans, Father Keane, James Nasmith, Thomas Penny, Robert Selby, William Smart, John Swadling and Crawford Whealey. in some cases additional information is available in the funeral notices. Charles Artlett, for example, was the licensee of the Aquarium Hotel on the Corso, and John Swadling was the Past Provincial Grand Master of the Loyal Rose of Australia Lodge. This all helps to build up our picture of Manly before Federation.