Posts in this category focus on information pertaining to Prison warders and their families within St Helena Island Penal Establishment or people associated with the management of the prison and prisoners.
The St Helena Island Community is excited to announce that we have received from Griffith University, the Harry Gentle Research Centre’s Visiting Fellowship. We look forward to conducting in depth research into the wives and children of St Helena Island. Continue reading We’ve received a Harry Gentle Resource Centre Visiting Fellowship at Griffith University!
Is data your thing? Or stories? For me it’s always the story, which is why it’s so amazing that this whole blog post is going to be about data and databases. And I’m going to be seriously enthusiastic about them because we’ve never had digitised data relating to St Helena Penal Establishment in any format that is searchable. And now The St Helena Island Community … Continue reading Is data your thing?
It’s a numbers game. My last post focussing on the importance of the 14th September 1921 showed how 30 prisoners were transferred on that one day to Brisbane Prison. Our new research shows that the same fate befell the warders, with 12 warders also leaving on the same day. In fact, by the 14th September 1921, St Helena Penal Establishment staff had been reduced from … Continue reading One day in September on St Helena Island -Warders
I think history is like a large jigsaw puzzle – the 5,000 small piece kind. In the box, the puzzle is a jumble of indistinct colours and shapes and there is no clarity. Yet, when you begin to join some pieces together, a picture starts to emerge, and the more pieces that you are able to join together, the clearer the picture is. When researching … Continue reading History is like a box of jigsaw pieces
The turquoise waters and white rock faces of Walkerville are reminiscent of the Aegean Sea surrounding the Greek Isles. But standing in the southerly most point of Victoria, Australia, we’re 15 000 kms and a hemisphere away from the warm lazy waters of the ancient land of Greece. In Walkerville, the story of the landscape is written in limestone and the remnants of that story … Continue reading Landscapes shaped by lime
What did Christmas and New Year Celebrations look like on a prison island? Roast beef and Plum Pudding were a feature of even St Helena Penal Establishment’s Christmas celebrations . Continue reading ‘All I want for Christmas’ at St Helena Penal Establishment.
St Helena Island was John Aebli’s first and last appointment to a Penal Establishment. He began a new career as a warder at St Helena in 1900 and finished his penal career 20 years later in the same place it began. John, it seems, was a late starter in many areas, being 37 years old when he married his wife Anna, 38 on appointment in … Continue reading A Swiss storekeeper for St Helena Island
The St Helena Community is slowly piecing together the historical record of families who lived on the island during the time of the Penal Establishment. Today we meet the Aebli family. Continue reading More women for St Helena Island – the arrival of the Aeblis
100 years ago, Frederick McMunn became the 13th St Helena Penal Establishment prison warder to die whilst employed on the island. Though he lived on St Helena Island at the time of his death on the 21st October 1920, he died in hospital in Brisbane. (1) Frederick was a prisoner warder, a miner, a bachelor and a unionist. He was also brother and brother-in-law to … Continue reading All in the family – siblings on St Helena
Bob Jnr and Fred Murrie’smother Charlotte (nee McMunn) was one of the few women on St Helena Island in the 1910’s. Becoming Senior Warder in 1913 meant Bob Murrie Senior was allocated a small cottage, and was one of the few warders given permission to have his wife and children living with him on St Helena Island. This Mother’s Day, let’s celebrate the contribution of … Continue reading 100 years ago – celebrating the St Helena Island mothers
