Spotlight On ... A Timeline for My Grandparents

Memories of my maternal and paternal grandparents are few, and that's because I really only knew them for a few short years. 

George Thomas Connors
1880 - 1966
(photo courtesy of Carmel Ryan)

 My paternal Grandfather George was 79 years old when I was born  and died when I was 6 years old.

Grace Olive Brown
1885 - 1974
(photo courtesy of Carmel Ryan)

 My paternal Grandmother Grace was  74 by the time I was born, and Grace  passed when I was 14.  

 They lived at the other end of my home  state and visits only happened every   couple of years until Grace died.

James O'Donnell
1887 - 1974

My maternal Grandfather James was 72 years old when I was born, and passed away when I was 14.

Sarah Mary Josephine McCane
1894 - 1970

My maternal Grandmother Sarah was 65 when I came into this world, and Sarah passed when I was 10.

By the time I had celebrated my 15th birthday, my grandparents had all passed on and the memory-making times were ended.  I was left with just a few scant memories of elderly people, and to be honest, had not given them much thought for quite a long time.

In recent years though, since I began researching my family tree, I have started reflecting on the times and historical events that shaped my grandparents lives, and have often wished I had had more time with them to talk about the things that made a mark on their thinking and experience of the world.  

All four were born within a 14-year time period at the end of the 19th century - between 1880 and 1894 - and they lived for six or seven decades into the 20th century.  

My paternal grandparents:   George lived until he was 86.  Grace lived until she was 89.

My maternal grandparents:  James lived until he was 86.  Sarah lived until she was 75.

All lived what could still be considered quite long lives, and would have seen some incredible changes to the world they knew.

Here are some of the events that shaped world and Australian history during their lifetimes:

(pictures are taken from the National Museum of Australia's 'Defining Moments In Australian History' timeline).

1880s

• Irish-born bushranger Ned Kelly had achieved notoriety stealing animals and money. To some he was a hero, as he passed on money to the poor, but unfortunately he also killed a number of policeman, which meant he was seen a vicious criminal to others.
• Ned Kelly was hanged at Melbourne Goal in 1880. 
• Australia had defeated England in a cricket match that had been held on English soil for the first time in 1882.  This match led to the birth of a cricket series known as "The Ashes" played between Australia and England, which has been a significant event throughout the decades since. My grandfathers would have eagerly followed the Test Cricket series throughout their lifetimes.
• The Australian Women's Suffrage Society was formed in 1889.  Their aim was to obtain the same rights for women as for men, including the the right to own property. It's amazing to think that the movement to secure voting rights for women only began around the time both my grandmothers were born!

1890s

• South Australian women were granted the right to vote in 1894, followed by the women in Western Australia in 1899.
• The Australian Olympic Committee was founded in 1895.
• "Waltzing Matilda" was first sung in public in 1895 in Winton, Queensland.
• Edwin Flack was the first athlete to represent Australia in the Summer Olympics, held in Athens in 1896.
• The 1890s Depression occurred after the land boom bubble of the 1880s burst.  Overseas investment dried up, banks failed and unemployment soared. The formative childhood period of my grandparents happened during these Depression years and their day-to-day life at this time would have been quite austere.  Long into their adult years, they all lived 'working class' lives, making do with what they had.

1900s

• Australia became a federation in 1901.
• Edward Barton (later Sir Edward Barton) became the first Prime Minister of Australia.  He was elected in 1901.
• The original design of Australia's national flag was first flown in 1901.
• Women in Queensland, where my maternal grandmother was born, were granted the right to vote in 1905, when my maternal grandmother was 10 years old. I wonder if she was made aware of this major change for women by her own mother at the time?
• Women in New South Wales, where my paternal grandmother was born, had been granted the right to vote in Federal elections in 1902, when my paternal grandmother was 17. I imagine my paternal grandmother would have been well aware of this meaningful change to basic rights for women in her home state.

1910s

• The Royal Australian Navy was founded in 1911.
• The first national census was conducted in 1911.
• The Australian Capital Territory was proclaimed in 1911.  
• Canberra, in the ACT was officially named as the capital of Australia in 1913.
• Australia sent women to the Olympic Games for the first time in 1912.
• Australian soldiers landed at ANZAC Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey.
• Australia suffered heavy casualties in the Western Front Battle of the Somme.
• The Australian 4th Light Horse Brigade launched the last cavalry charge in modern warfare to capture Beersheba from the Ottoman Turks.
• First World War ended in 1918 - 60,000 Australians dead. Two of my paternal grandfathers' brothers served in WW1, and only one returned home.  My grandfather George's youngest brother died in the Somme, in France in 1916.  Three of my maternal grandmother's uncles served in WW1.  Two returned home, but one died in Belgium in 1917.  All my grandparents' lives were impacted by the war in some way.

1920s

• Australia's own airline, QANTAS, was founded in 1920.
• Edith Cowan became the first woman elected to an Australian Parliament.
• Vegemite was first produced in 1923.
• Construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge began in 1923.
• Australian pilots Bert Hinkler and Charles Kingsford Smith completed successful first ever flights in 1928 - Bert Hinkler flew from Britain to Australia, and Charles Kingsford Smith flew from the United States to Australia.  
• My maternal grandparents began their married life in the early 1920, whilst my paternal grandparents celebrated nearly 15 years of marriage.  My maternal grandparents were about to start their family, with their first son born in 1922, followed by the birth of another four children by the end of the 1920s.  My paternal grandparents already had a family of six children by 1920.  Sadly, they would lose two newborns in 1921 and 1922, before welcoming twin boys in 1924 and their last child in 1929.

1930s

• New South Wales batsman Don Bradman scored a world record first-class individual innings of 452 not out in a 1930 Sheffield Shield match against Queensland.
• In the 1930 Third Test at Leeds, against England, Don Bradman scored 100 before tea, 100 before lunch, and 100 by the end of the day's play - 309 in total. I would think that both my grandfathers raised a glass or two in celebration that day!
• Legendary horse, Phar Lap, wins his only Melbourne Cup race in 1930.
• The Sydney Harbour Bridge was opened in 1932.
• Sir Charles Kingsford Smith disappears during a flight in 1935.
• The last thylacine (commonly known as the Tasmanian Tiger) dies.
• Victoria is devastated by the Black Friday bushfires in 1939.
• Australia enters the Second World War in September of 1939.  The thought of having to live through another war must have weighted heavy on all my grandparents.  My paternal grandparents would have immediately thought about the possibility of some of their sons having to go off to war!   They had sons aged 31, 28, 25 and 15.  Thankfully, my maternal grandparents had sons who were considerably younger at the time, and they no doubt breathed a sigh of relief that they could remain safe at home.

1940s

• A team of scientists, under Howard Florey, develops penicillin in 1940.
• In 1941, three divisions of the newly formed 2nd Australian Imperial Force join operations in the Mediterranean.  After initial successes against Italy, the 2nd AIF suffered defeat against the Germans in Greece, Crete and North Africa.
• In April to August of 1941, an Australian garrison (known as the Rats of Tobruk) halt the advance of Hitler's panzers for the first time during the Siege of Tobruk.  One of my paternal grandparent's sons (my uncle) served in WW11 and was one of the Rats of Tobruk.  His war service impacted the remainder of his life, and would have been keenly felt by his parents (my paternal grandparents) and his siblings. 
• Singapore falls in 1942 and 15,000 Australians become Prisoners of War of the Japanese.
• Japanese air raids on Australia occurred in 1942 and 1943 - almost 100 attacks on sites in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland.  No doubt my maternal grandparents in particular would have been extremely concerned about the possibility of Japanese air raids impacting their place or residence, as the lived in north Queensland and would have heard about raids in places nearby.  
• The bombing of Darwin in the Northern Territory saw the largest attack on Australia by a foreign power.
• In May of 1942, the U.S. and the Royal Australian Navy halt the advance of the Japanese towards Port Moresby, in the Austalian Territory of Papua.
• During July to November of 1942, Australian soldiers halt the Japanese march on Port Moresby in what became known as the Battle of the Kokoda Trail.
• Australia wins its first Oscar in 1943, with cinematographer Damien Parer honoured for his 'Kokoda Front Line!' documentary.
• 1945, Nazi Germany and Japan surrender.
• Australia becomes a founding member of the United Nations in 1945.
• Australia becomes a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
• Holden starts manufacturing its first Australian designed and built car in 1948.
• The Nationality and Citizenship Act is passed in 1949.  The Act established Australian citizenship marking the end of Australians being identified as British subjects.

1950s

• Australian troops are sent to the Korean War in 1950, to assist South Korea.
• In 1952 the first nuclear test was conducted in Australian by the United Kingdom, off the coast of Western Australia.  By this time my paternal grandparents were now grandparents, whilst grandparenthood (is there such a word?) was not far off for my maternal grandparents.  I have no doubt they would have reflected on what sort of world their grandchildren would witness.   
• Television was launched in Australia in 1956.
• The 16th Summer Olympics was held in Melbourne in 1956.
• Construction of the Sydney Opera House began in 1959.  It would eventually cost $102 million.   

1960s

• Robert Menzies' Commonwealth Electoral Act of 1962 provided that all indigenous Australians should have the right to enrol and vote at federal elections.
• The Beatles' 1964 world tour reached Australia.
• Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, announced in 1964 the reintroduction of compulsory military service for men aged from 18 to 25 years old.
• The first troops were sent to the Vietnam War in 1964.
• The Australian currency was changed to dollars and cents in 1966, with the Australian dollar replacing the Australian pound.
• In 1967, the constitution was changed to allow Aboriginal Australians to be included in the population count 
• Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared in 1967 while swimming.
• Australia signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1968.

1970s

• In 1970, more than 200,000 people participate in the largest demonstration in Australian history, against the Vietnam War.
• Neville Bonner becomes the first Aborigine to become an Australian member of Parliament in 1971.
• In 1972, the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission rules that women doing the same job as men have the right to be paid the same wage.
• The first Labor government since 1949 is elected under the leadership of Gough Whitlam in 1972.
• The Sydney Opera House is formally opened by Queen Elizabeth 11 in 1973.
• The Vietnam War ends in 1973. 
• The White Australia Policy (established back n 1901) is officially dismantled.
• "Advance Australia Fair" is recognised as Australia's national song in 1974, but not as the national anthem.

By the mid-70s, all my grandparents had passed.  They had lived through the very end of the 19th century, and over half of the 20th century and had witnessed some quite extraordinary world-changing events including World War 1 and World War 11, the rise of nuclear weapons, space exploration, as well as fantastic technological and scientific advances.  

Their birthplace, Australia, changed significantly in their lifetime with the development of nationalism and decolonization.  Australia was becoming a nation that was standing on its own two feet, developing its own national identity, and no longer regarding itself as just another colony of the British Empire. 

At the start of their lifetimes, Australia could have been characterized as an overwhelmingly Christian nation with inhabitants born almost exclusively in Australia, the United Kingdom or Ireland.  So much has changed since then.