Home

East Melbourne Historical Society

Drop-down menu

  • Articles
  • People
    • Notable Women
    • WW1 soldiers and nurses
    • WW1 nurses
  • History
    • Milestones
    • Buildings
    • Community
    • People
  • Gallery
    • Maps
    • MMBW plans
    • Abortion battles
    • Bishopscourt
    • Bishopscourt garden
    • Bomb shelter
    • Buildings
    • Cairns Memorial Church
    • Early Melbourne
    • Football
    • Jean Campbell
    • Lanes
    • Margaret McLean
      • Family and home
      • Female suffrage
      • Clippings - Australia
      • Clippings - Britain
      • Clippings - USA
    • Personalities
    • Yarra Park
      • History
      • Desecration
    • Yarra River
  • Catalogue
    • Browse and Search
    • Catalogue table view
    • Site images
  • Images
  • Society
    • Activities
    • Newsletters
    • Tributes
      • John Barrie Wykes
      • Wynne McGrath
    • Publications
      • Heritage Matters
      • What's in a Name
    • About
Home
    • Home
    • Search
    • Forum
    • Contact

People of East Melbourne

This is a list of biographies of residents of East Melbourne.

This project started to commemorate the soldiers and nurses who went to Europe to serve in World War 1. But it has grown from there to cover biographies of any and all residents of note.

Along with many of their fellow Australians people from East Melbourne flocked to enlist. Many were heroes. Many lost their lives or suffered horrific physical or mental injuries. At home family and friends worked, endured and suffered consequences that were sometimes terrible and persisted long after the war.

Major-General Michael O'Brien gave us a starting point with a list of East Melbourne people who served in WW1. He spoke to the Society in April 2013 to give us some context to the period and to help the EMHS prepare for its own commemorations of this most devastating period in our history.

Everyone can participate by gathering or documenting information:

  • Photos, memorabilia and family records
  • Stories in books, newspapers and on-line
  • Memorial plaques in churches and public places
  • War memorial, church, national and state archives

You can refine the list by applying the various filter criteria and go to a particular detailed biography by click on the title.

HUTCHISON, George

Biographical notes: 

George Hutchison enlisted on 19 June, 1916. He was a married man, having wed Elizabeth May Lott, known as May, in 1916.  He gave their address on his enlistment form as 131 Powlett St., East Melbourne. Their son, Darken Charles Hutchison was born the following year in 1917, while his father was away at war.

  • 2712 reads

HYLAND, Francis William

Date of birth: 
1897
Biographical notes: 

Frank Hyland was onle a boy when he joined up, eighteen years and five months old. He was a junior telephone mechanic, in training with the Electrical Engineers Branch of the PMG,  and living at 18 Berry St., East Melbourne.

  • 2749 reads

IPSEN, Carl Frederick Hendrik

Date of birth: 
1892
Biographical notes: 

Carl Frederick Hendrik Ipsen was the son of Danish born Carl Hendrik Ipsen and English born Bessie Jemima, nee Westmore.  He was born in Abbotsford in 1892.

Departure of Barambah on 27 June 1916
Wellwishers cheering the troops aboard the Barambah
Ipsen with unit at Bray
Ipsen as teacher at Geelong College
Ipsen with unit at Bray.  He is the one looking up
  • 4343 reads

JACK, Robert Duncan

Date of birth: 
1893
Biographical notes: 

Killed in action at Armentieres in 1916. Robert Duncan Jack was the son of Robert Hunter and Julia Jack.  He was born in Caulfield in 1893.

  • 3611 reads

JACOBSON, William

Date of birth: 
1879
Biographical notes: 

When William Jacobson was born on 20 April 1879 in Launceston, Tasmania, his father, Charles (1835-1904), was 43 and his mother, Margaret, nee Carswell, was 34 . William was the eldest of four children, Janet (b. 1881), Arthur (b.1884) and Ada (b.1886).

  • 3007 reads

JACOMB, Robert Arthur

Date of birth: 
1886
Biographical notes: 

Robert Arthur Jacomb came from a well established East Melbourne family. Robert Elwall Jacomb and his wife, Anne, had first lived in Victoria Parade and then, as their family grew, at 53 Powlett St from the 1860s. Robert Arthur Jacomb was born to their son, Robert Ker Jacomb, and his wife, Louisa, in January, 1886, at Brighton Beach.

Letter about Jacomb's family
  • 3563 reads

JAMES, Charles Frederick

Date of birth: 
1884
Biographical notes: 

Charles Frederick James was born on 17 March, 1885, and was baptised at St. Peter's Anglican Church, Eastern Hill. He was the son of Lewis James and his wife, Sophia, nee Friedlein. At the time of his enlistment, Charles James was 31 and 11 months old, working as a Public Servant and living at 53 Park St., Moonee Ponds with his wife, Alice Montgomery James.

  • 2975 reads

JAMES, George Edwin

Date of birth: 
1886
Biographical notes: 

George Edwin James was born in Birmingham, England c.1886.  He arrived in Melbourne shortly before the war broke out and took up residence in East Melbourne.  At the time of his enlistment on 17 August 1914 he was living at 125 Gipps Street, where at that stage one could rent furnished or unfurnished rooms with breakfast optional.

  • 3412 reads

JAMISON, Robert Gibton

Date of birth: 
1865
Biographical notes: 

Robert Gibton Jamison, known as 'Skipper', enlisted late in the war and never got to serve at any of the battle fronts. The son of John and Ellen, nee Eades, Jamison. Robert was a clerk, living at 8 Lisson Grove, Hawthorn. On 26 June, 1907, he had married Rita Pilbeam at the Rowe Crescent Congregational Church, Albert Park, and the couple had one child, born c.1913, James Pilbeam Jamison.

  • 2744 reads

JENKYN, Frederick

Date of birth: 
1884
Biographical notes: 

Frederick Jenkyn had two lives as a volunteer and gave 874 days of service to Australia in World War 1. He first enlisted on 16 July, 1915, and gave his occupation as Hospital Assistant. He was at that time 30 years and eleven months old, single, with his next of kin his father, living in East Melbourne.

  • 2684 reads

JOHANNSEN, Henry Niemen

Date of birth: 
1889
Biographical notes: 
Henry (Harry) Neimen Johannsen was the second son of John and Mary Anne Johannsen and one of a large family of eleven children.  He was born in Allendale in c. 1889.  At the time he enlisted on 6 October 1916 he gave his occupation as a tailor.  According to newspaper reports he had been working at the firm of Lyons and White in Ballarat.
  • 3387 reads

JOHNSON, Bessie Shircliffe

Date of birth: 
1886
Biographical notes: 

Bessie Shircliffe Johnson was born on 2 July 1886, in the Fitzroy area of Melbourne to Webb Johnson (1863-1890) and his wife Kate (nee Ryan, no dates). Formally registered as Elizabeth at her birth, she was the sibling of Kate/Catherine Mary (born 1883) and Ryan (born 1889).

Bessie Johnson (second from right) 14 AGH 1917 (AWM P00812.022)
London War Hospital Epsom c1916 (AWM AO1927)
Ward at 14 AGH (AWM P00228.062)
  • 6285 reads

JOHNSON, Edwin Campbell

Date of birth: 
1892
Biographical notes: 

Edwin Campbell Johnson was the second son of Alexander Campbell Cusac Johnson and his wife, Ella May, nee Young. He was born on 13 May, 1892 in Adelaide and baptised at St. Mary Magdalene's, Adelaide. At the time he enlisted, on 1 May, 1916, he was 24 years and 4 months old, working as a clerk.

  • 2817 reads

JOHNSON, Frederick

Date of birth: 
1897
Biographical notes: 

This is a story of two soldiers, not one, Frederick Johnson and his brother Ralph. They were the children of Hubert Thomas Coster Johnson and his wife, Alice Maud Mary Ivey. A third child, Alice, born 1893, died at the age of eight. The eldest child, Constance, born 1891, died in 1972. Frederick Johnson was born in 1897 and his younger brother, Ralph, in 1898.

  • 2691 reads

JOHNSTON, David Robertson

Date of birth: 
1889
Biographical notes: 

David Robertson Johnston was the son of John Johnston and his wife, Margaret Bolton Johnston. He was one of eleven children and had served a four year apprenticeship as a draper in his birthplace, with J. Falconer of Aberdeen. By 1915, he was living in East Melbourne, at 49 George St. and working as a draper.

  • 2755 reads

JOHNSTONE, Stanley Watson

Date of birth: 
1887
Biographical notes: 

Stanley Watson Johnston or Johnstone, was born in Dundee, Scotland in 1887, but little else is known of him. His father was Andrew Johnstone, but this is the only fact in his early life, other than that he served four years as an apprentice at Gourlay Brothers, presumably in Dundee. He was 27 years old in 1915 and gave as his next of kin his wife, Mary Frances, nee Hunt.

  • 2970 reads

JONES, David

Date of birth: 
1889
Biographical notes: 

When David Jones was born on 19 April 1889 in Eaglehawk, Victoria, his father, Henry, was 34 and his mother, Jane, was 34. He was their fourth son and one of eight children. Henry Jones died in 1897, aged 43, when David was nine.

  • 2684 reads

JONES, Francis Joseph Roy

Date of birth: 
1875
Biographical notes: 

Francis Joseph Roy Jones enlisted on 8 November, 1917. He was reasonably old for a new recruit, 40 years and 3 months. He was, by occupation, an Assistant Surveyor, 5' 8" tall and Roman Catholic by religion. Who his parents were is not known; he gave as his next of kin a friend, Mrs. Maggie Scheicowski, living at 159 George St., East Melbourne. 

  • 2657 reads

JONES, George

Date of birth: 
1896
Biographical notes: 

George Jones, born on 18 October, 1896, was the youngest of five brothers, at least three of whom enlisted for the 1st World War. There was George Henry, born 1877; Henry Joseph and Samuel Albert, born 1878; David,  born 1889. In 1887, a sister was born, Alice Catherine, followed by Emily Caroline in 1883 and Daisy Amelia in 1891.

  • 3211 reads

JONES, Norman Fletcher

Biographical notes: 

Norman Fletcher Jones enlisted at the age of 28 years and 10 months

Occupation at the time was as a Printer

He was Single

Next of Kin: Mother -  Mary Jones who at one stage resided at 134 Powlett Street East Melbourne before moving to Western Australia

Enlisted 11 March 1916 being 5'6" blue eyed, brown hair

  • 3217 reads
  • « first
  • ‹ previous
  • …
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • …
  • next ›
  • last »

User login

  • Join EMHS
  • Request new password
  • Privacy
  • Membership
  • About
  • Contact
  • Guidelines