I am forwarding this message from a local aquaintence who has the following question: ********************************************************************************************************************************************************* I am carrying out research into the Westham area of Weymouth and am trying to find out if the Westhaven Infant/Junior School site was part of the 2nd command depot for Australian soldiers during WW1. Do you know if a map of the depot exists? ********************************************************************************************************************************************************* Can anyone help him? I think he has tried all the obvious places locally - museums, Record Office. libraries, Land Registry, so is looking for specific information rather than a suggestion of places to try (he is a local author and researcher so knows all the normal respositories!) If you can help please reply to the list or direct to me Thanks Helen Jones, Weymouth, Dorset http://www.melcombe.freeserve.co.uk List Admin Rootsweb Eng Dorset & Scammell Lists, and British Genealogy Eng-Dorset, Surnames & Forenames list
Hello Helen I cannot say with any measure of certainty but I thought most of the Australians were based further over at Charlestown. The area on the opposite side of the road to the two schools was used as an airfield but I think that was established between the wars. As an old Westham lad I cannot recall ever hearing of an Australian base where the schools are - it was the Grammar School playing fields immediately before the Junior School was built in about 1954. Like I said though, I am not basing this on any fact so may very well be wrong. One possible unthought of source might be the local court records and court reports in the Southern Times. With such a large number involved it is not surprising that the Australians "conflicted" with the law fairly frequently! I know I have seen a number of ST reports of cases when I have been researching ST of 1917, 18, 19 etc including one absolutely hilarious one of a court case concerning an altercation between group of Aussies and a well known Weymouth character called Cy Knott who was still going strong as a "tramp about town" over 40 years later. Hope this helps. Ray Collins Weymouth, Dorset ----- Original Message ----- From: "Helen Jones" <hsj@melcombe.freeserve.co.uk> To: <ENG-DORSET-LIFE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 7:42 PM Subject: [DOR-LIFE] 2nd Command Depot, Westham, WW1 > I am forwarding this message from a local aquaintence who has the following > question: > **************************************************************************** **************************************************************************** * > I am carrying out research into the Westham area of Weymouth and am trying > to find out if the Westhaven Infant/Junior School site was part of the 2nd > command depot for Australian soldiers during WW1. Do you know if a map of > the depot exists? > **************************************************************************** **************************************************************************** * > Can anyone help him? I think he has tried all the obvious places locally - > museums, Record Office. libraries, Land Registry, so is looking for > specific information rather than a suggestion of places to try (he is a > local author and researcher so knows all the normal respositories!) > If you can help please reply to the list or direct to me > Thanks > > Helen Jones, Weymouth, Dorset > http://www.melcombe.freeserve.co.uk > List Admin Rootsweb Eng Dorset & Scammell Lists, and > British Genealogy Eng-Dorset, Surnames & Forenames list > > > ==== ENG-DORSET-LIFE Mailing List ==== > The Dorset Museum homepage can be found at: > http://home.clara.net/dorset.museum > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 >