The Tree of Me

My nanna would always tell me stories whenever we visited her place. It's a shame now I can't recall them all. However, I do vividly remember her telling me that her father Michael Ryan was a good runner and often ran in races in  Sydney. Her future father-in-law Harry Dawson was his coach. I've often searched on Trove without luck for some evidence to support this story. Earlier in the week I think I may have hit the jackpot. The difficulty was knowing exactly what to search for in Trove. I was browsing for something totally unrelated when I saw an article about a Carrington Handicap. I now had the possible name of a race. The following advertisement from 1888 indicates that professional footraces (or at least some of them) in Sydney were worth winning. Sydney Morning Herald, 14 January 1888, p. 2 A search for Carrington Handicap and Ryan in the period 1886-1895 (years selected as likely years he would be running) produced many results. Unfortunately the Sydn...

Rupert Dawson (1887 - 1898) Rupert Charles Dawson was the second son of William Henry Dawson and his wife Bridget Mylan. He was born at Callan Park Hospital in 1887. His father was an attendant at the hospital and the family lived in one of the houses in the Hospital grounds. In September 1898 a lot of construction work was going on at the hospital. Rupert and his friends were playing a game and jumping over an open sewer in the course of construction. He missed jumping over the gap and fell in the sewer.  An inquest was held on 5th September, 1898 at Callan Park. THE FATAL ACCIDENT AT CALLAN PARK HOSPITAL Yesterday an inquest was held at the Callan Park Hospital by the Acting City Coroner (Mr Bowden) touching the death of Rupert Charles Dawson, aged 12 years, a son of one of the attendants of the hospital. Dr. Flashman, who saw the deceased shortly after he fell down the sewer shaft at the rear of the institution, said deceased had his skull fractured, but the immediate cau...