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Thomas Henry Roberts

Thomas Henry Roberts c.1873 or 1874. Courtesy State Library of NSW

Retired teacher, Thomas Henry Roberts of 21 Brunswick Avenue, Strathfield died in 1961 aged 88. But his life began far away on the goldfields of Hill End and Tambaroora, NSW in 1873 when he was born into a goldmining family. When Bernhardt Holtermann, of the Star of Hope Mining Company, discovered the largest specimen of reef gold at Hawkins Hill in 1872, he commissioned photographers, Merlin and Bayliss to photograph his find. Holtermann’s nugget weighed 630 pounds – the largest single mass of gold ever discovered. The specimen was crushed a week later. Its gold content was approximately 93 kg.

Bernhardt Holtermann with the Holtermann nugget, Hill End, 1872. Photographed by the American & Australasian Photographic Company. Courtesy State Library of NSW

Hill End was booming, with a population of about 7000 people, all hoping to strike it rich. In partnership with Holtermann, the itinerant photographers of the American & Australasian Photographic Company continued to photograph the town and its people, with the aim of promoting the colonies overseas and encouraging migration to Australia. This astonishing collection of photographs, documenting the goldmining history of Hill End, is now in the State Library of NSW and includes Thomas Roberts’ baby photo.

American & Australasian Photographic Company, Hill End. Courtesy State Library of NSW

Gold miners and their shack, Hill End/Tambaroora, NSW c.1870s. Courtesy State Library of NSW

Family and home at Tambaroora, early 1870s. Courtesy State Library of NSW

Merlin’s mobile photographic studio in Mudgee Road, Tambaroora. Courtesy State Library of NSW

Roberts went on to become a school teacher in regional NSW from 1901. In 1906 he married Eliza Christie in Orange and became the schoolmaster at Store Creek, a railway siding about half way between Wellington and Orange, where the general ‘store’ was located.

In 1906, a visitor to Store Creek described the school in the Wellington Times: ‘The Store Creek School is a cosy, clean, convenient and creditable building, and creditable to the department. Mr Roberts, the teacher, speaks well of the pupils, and is highly pleased with progress and educational results. I hope some day the department will have all schools as well appointed and comfortable.’

In 1908 Thomas Roberts suffered from typhoid and was hospitalised in Orange. In January 1916, aged 42, he enlisted in World War I (SERN: 615), joining as a recruit of Carmichael’s Thousand. Son, John Henry Roberts was born the same month that Thomas enlisted, and Eliza was left to care for six children during his absence. Roberts embarked in May of that year, serving with the 36th Battalion. He was appointed lance corporal during August 1917 before being medically discharged in early 1918 due to ‘premature senility.

After his return from the front line, he was posted to Robertson, NSW as Headmaster in 1918, as reported by the Southern Mail. ‘During the past two years Mr Roberts has been teaching lessons of practical patriotism in France and can, (if he will) speak at first hand of the fighting at Messines and Armentieres. He arrived back (Invalided) in Australia only a few weeks ago, and has lost no time in again getting into harness.’

Thomas Roberts spent 16 years in Robertson and youngest child, Nancy was born there in 1919. He also founded the Robertson-Kangaloon Returned Soldiers League and was given an appreciative farewell when he left to take a promotion at Goulburn North Public School in 1934. At the gathering he was presented with a travelling rug made by returned soldiers with the badge of the AIF in one corner and his name ‘T.H. Roberts’ and the date ‘8. 1. 34.’ He had also served as President of the Robertson School of Arts.

He spent only a few years in Goulburn, retiring from teaching in July 1937. Thomas moved to the city, for the first time in his life, shortly before the war and settled with Eliza at 17 (now 21) Brunswick Avenue, Strathfield. Both their sons served during World War II. John Henry Thomas (Service No: 421938) was killed in a Beaufighter aircraft accident in the UK in 1944, aged 27.

Eliza Roberts died in Strathfield on 29 October 1948 and Thomas died in 1961.

 

by J.J. MacRitchie

Local Studies Advisor

 

References

Glitter restored – The Holtermann ‘Nugget’ – The Australian Museum Blog

Hill End & Tambaroora Gathering Group | Hill End & Tambaroora Gathering Group (heatgg.org.au)

A modern vision : Charles Bayliss, photographer, 1850-1897 (nla.gov.au)

Wellington Times 24 May 1906 p.3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/137915924

Wellington Times 20 January 1908 p.2 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/141593157

The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate 4 February 1916 p.4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/77604424

36th Australian Infantry Battalion | Australian War Memorial (awm.gov.au) 36th Australian Infantry Battalion | Australian War Memorial (awm.gov.au)

Southern Mail (Bowral) 7 May 1918 p.2 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/113384421

Southern Mail (Bowral) 12 January 1934 p.3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/118950812

Southern Mail (Bowral) 25 July 1930 p.2 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/128539353

Sydney Morning Herald 1 July 1937 p.4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/17386540

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