GOWTY GENEALOGY - 1817 onwards

FIRST GENERATION - AUSTRALIA
George Gowty
Born 1817 in Norfolk, England. His parents were Barziallai GOWTY and Mary CATERMOLE.

George was the first Gowty to land in Australia, circa 1838-40
He died 1887,Geelong.
George was a Blacksmith/ wheel wright and operated  blacksmith shops in  O’Connell St, and Lt Malop Street, Geelong, Victoria, Australia. He was also on the Cowies' Creek school board.


He married Caroline Eldridge
Born 1829 in Middlesex, England. Her parents were John Eldridge and Rosanna ?

Caroline and her family immigrated to Australia in 1841

She died 1 October 1903, Hope Street West Geelong and is buried at the Eastern Cemetary Geelong.
Spouse Father: John Eldridge 1800
Spouse Mother: Roseanna

At the age of 16, she married George Gowty on August 12 1845 at Scots Presbyterian Church Geelong

Her occupation is listed as being a Nurse / Home Duties

They had 10 children;. 

Barzillia John GOWTY 1846 - 1926

Charles Henry GOWTY 1848 - 1876

William GOWTY 1853 (lived 4 days)

Caroline GOWTY 1854 -

Maria GOWTY 1856 -

George Edward GOWTY 1858 - 1939

James Samuel Gowty 1860 -1949 Born Cowies Creek Geelong. Died Lorne Victoria
Sarah GOWTY 1862 -1866 (died age 4)

 Unnamed Female (live 1 day)

Frederick William GOWTY 1866-1945

All Australian Gowtys' are believed to be descendants of George and Caroline.


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SECOND GENERATION James Samuel Gowty Born 1860, Cowies Creek, Geelong Victoria. Died 1947, Lorne, Victoria. He married Mary Hart in Geelong 1884 Mary Hart was born 1862, Geelong. She Died 1940, Geelong West, Buried, Geelong West. Spouse Father: Josiah Hart 1840 Spouse Mother: Elizabeth Grenville 1840

 They had 11 children:

James Hart Gowty 1885 - 1897

Frederick Johnny Gowty 1886 - 1950  Enlisted WW1

Mary Elizabeth Gowty 1887 - 1900

Alfred William Gowty 1890 - 1952, father of Raymond Miles Gowty & Ernest George Gowty

Charles Christopher Gowty 1891 - 1953 enlisted in WWI

Ernest Harold Gowty 1893 - 1917  Killed in Action, Fricourt Wood, France WW1. Buried Bancourt British Cemetery, France

Florence Emily Eunice Gowty 1895 - 1955

Ada Caroline Gowty 1897 - 1976

Norman James Gowty 1902 - 1903

Horace Henry Gowty 1903 - 1981

Leslie Gowty 1906 - 1906

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THIRD GENERATION

Alfred William Gowty
Born 1890, Geelong, Victoria, Australia
Died 1952, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Married Pearl Langley North, 1915 Geelong, Victoria
Pearl Langley North was born 1893, Warracknabeal, Victoria
She died 1952, Geelong Victoria
Spouse Father: Samuel North
Spouse Mother: Anne Langley Denyer

They had 2 children;

Raymond Miles Gowty 1916 - 1979
Ernest George Gowty 1918 - 2001

 

    Ray               Pearl            Ern         Alf

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FOURTH GENERATION
Ernest George Gowty
Born 1918, Geelong Victoria Australia
Died: 2001 Drysdale, Victoria Australia

Married Nancy Beard 1946, Geelong Victoria
Nancy Beard was born 1918 in Geelong, Victoria
She died1987 Geelong. Buried Highton Cemetery, Geelong
Spouse Father: George Beard
Spouse Mother:  Martha Douglas Barclay

1946

They had 3 children

Geoffrey David Gowty, 30 June 1947
John Samuel Gowty, 21 September 1949
Robyn Ann Gowty, 8 September 1952



   Robyn  John  Geoffrey (1968)

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Summary of Australia's participation in First World War 1914–18

First World War 1914–1818

Australian troops in the Lone Pine trenches.  C550

Summary

Australia’s involvement in the First World War began when Britain and Germany went to war on 4 August 1914, and both Prime Minister Joseph Cook and Opposition Leader Andrew Fisher, who were in the midst of an election campaign, pledged full support for Britain. The outbreak of war was greeted in Australia, as in many other places, with great enthusiasm.

The first significant Australian action of the war was the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force’s (ANMEF) landing on Rabaul on 11 September 1914. The ANMEF took possession of German New Guinea at Toma on 17 September 1914 and of the neighbouring islands of the Bismarck Archipelago in October 1914. On 9 November 1914 the Royal Australian Navy made a major contribution when HMAS Sydney destroyed the German raider SMS Emden.

On 25 April 1915 members of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) landed on Gallipoli in Turkey with troops from New Zealand, Britain, and France. This began a campaign that ended with an evacuation of allied troops beginning in December 1915. The next year Australian forces fought campaigns on the Western Front and in the Middle East.

Throughout 1916 and 1917 losses on the Western Front were heavy and gains were small. In 1918 the Australians reached the peak of their fighting performance in the battle of Hamel on 4 July. From 8 August they then took part in a series of decisive advances until they were relieved in early October. Germany surrendered on 11 November.

The Middle East campaign began in 1916 with Australian troops taking part in the defence of the Suez Canal and the allied re-conquest of the Sinai Desert. In the following year Australian and other allied troops advanced into Palestine and captured Gaza and Jerusalem; by 1918 they had occupied Lebanon and Syria and on 30 October 1918 Turkey sued for peace.

For Australia, the First World War remains the costliest conflict in terms of deaths and casualties. From a population of fewer than five million, 416,809 men enlisted, of whom more than 60,000 were killed and 156,000 wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner.

An Australian digger uses a periscope in a trench captured during the attack on Lone Pine, Gallipoli, 8 August 1915.  C647

History
When Britain declared war against Germany in August 1914, Australia, as a dominion of the British Empire, was automatically also at war. While thousands rushed to volunteer, most of the men accepted into the Australian Imperial Force in August 1914 were sent first to Egypt, not Europe, to meet the threat which a new belligerent, the Ottoman Empire, posed to British interests in the Middle East and the Suez Canal.

After four and a half months of training near Cairo, the Australians departed by ship for the Gallipoli peninsula, along with troops from New Zealand, Britain, and France. On 25 April 1915 the Australians landed at what became known as Anzac Cove, whereupon they established a tenuous foothold on the steep slopes above the beach. During the early days of the campaign the allies tried to break through Turkish lines, while the Turks tried to drive the allied troops off the peninsula. Attempts on both sides ended in failure and the ensuing stalemate continued for the remainder of 1915. In fact, the most successful operation of the campaign was the large-scale evacuation of troops on 19 and 20 December. As a result of a carefully planned deception operation, the Turks were unable to inflict more than a very few casualties on the withdrawing forces.

After Gallipoli the AIF was reorganised and expanded from two to five infantry divisions, all of which were progressively transferred to France, beginning in March 1916. The light horse regiments that had served as additional infantry during the Gallipoli campaign remained in the Middle East. By the time the other AIF divisions arrived in France, the war on the Western Front had long been in a stalemate, with the opposing armies facing each other from trench systems that extended across Belgium and north-east France, all the way from the English Channel to the Swiss border. The development of machine-guns and artillery favoured defensive over offensive operations, and this compounded the impasse that lasted until the final months of the war

Troops of 53rd Battalion wait to don equipment for the attack at Fromelles, 19 July 1916. Only three of these men survived.  C612

While the fighting continued throughout 1916 and 1917, the Australians and other allied armies repeatedly attacked the German trenches, preceded by massive artillery bombardments intended to cut barbed wire and destroy defences. After these bombardments, waves of attacking infantry would emerge from the trenches into no man’s land and advance towards the enemy positions. The surviving Germans, protected by deep and heavily reinforced bunkers, were usually able to repel the attackers with machine-gun fire and artillery support from the rear. These attacks often resulted in limited territorial gains followed, in turn, by German counter-attacks. Although this style of warfare favoured the defensive armies, both sides sustained heavy losses.

In July 1916 Australian troops were introduced to this type of combat at Fromelles, where they suffered 5,533 casualties in 24 hours. By the end of the year about 40,000 Australians had been killed or wounded on the Western Front. In 1917 a further 76,836 Australians became casualties in battles such Bullecourt, Messines, and the four-month campaign around Ypres known as the battle of Passchendaele.

Australian wounded infantrymen at the first battle of Passchendaele, near Zonnebeke railway station.  C43141

In March 1918 the German army launched a massive Spring Offensive, hoping for a decisive victory before the industrial strength of the United States could be fully mobilised in support of the allies. The Germans initially met with great success, advancing 64 kilometres past the Somme battlefields of 1916, but eventually lost momentum. Between April and November the stalemate of the preceding years began to give way. When the German offensive failed, the allied armies began their own counter-offensive combining infantry, artillery, tanks, and aircraft to great effect, demonstrated in the Australian capture of Hamel on 4 July 1918. Beginning on 8 August, this offensive contributed to further Australian successes at Mont St Quentin and Péronne and to the capture of the Hindenburg Line. In early October, after the fighting at Montbrehain, the Australian divisions withdrew from the front for rest and refitting; they were preparing to return to the fighting when Germany signed the Armistice on 11 November.

3rd Australian Light Horse Regiment machine-gunners in action at Khurbetha-Ibn-Harith, near Palestine, 31 December 1917.  C53724

The Australians in the Middle East fought a mobile war against the Ottoman Empire in conditions completely different from the mud and stagnation of the Western Front. Mounted troops of the Australian Light Horse and the Imperial Camel Corps endured extreme heat, harsh terrain, and water shortages, yet casualties were comparatively light, with 1,394 Australians killed or wounded in three years of fighting.

The desert campaign began in 1916 when Australian troops took part in the defence of the Suez Canal and the allied action to take back the Sinai Desert. In the following year Australian troops participated in a British push into Palestine that captured Gaza and Jerusalem; by 1918 they had occupied Lebanon and Syria and were riding into Damascus. On 30 October 1918 Turkey sued for peace.

Australians also served at sea and in the air. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN), under the command of the British Royal Navy, made a significant contribution early in the war, when HMAS Sydney destroyed the German raider SMS Emden near the Cocos–Keeling Islands in November 1914. The Great War was the first armed conflict in which aircraft were used; some 3,000 Australian airmen served with the Australian Flying Corps in the Middle East and France, mainly in observation capacities or providing air support for the infantry.

HMAS Sydney at full speed, ten minutes after the ceasefire was ordered in her battle with the German cruiser Emden.  C1412

Australian women volunteered for service in auxiliary roles: as cooks, nurses, drivers, interpreters, munitions workers, and farm workers. While the government welcomed the service of nurses into the armed forces, it generally rejected offers from women in other professions to serve overseas. Australian nurses served in Egypt, France, Greece, and India, often in trying conditions or close to the front, where they were exposed to shelling and aerial bombardment as well as outbreaks of disease.

The effects of the war were also felt at home. Families and communities grieved for the loss of so many men, and women increasingly assumed the physical and financial burden of caring for families. Anti-German feeling also emerged with the outbreak of the war, and many Germans living in Australia were sent to internment camps. Censorship and surveillance, regarded by many as an excuse to silence political views that had no effect on the outcome of war, increased as the conflict continued. Social division also grew, reaching a climax in the bitterly contested (and unsuccessful) conscription referendums of 1916 and 1917. When the war ended, thousands of ex–servicemen and servicewomen, many disabled with physical or emotional wounds, had to be re-integrated into a society keen to consign the war to the past and resume normal life.

29TH BATTALION 1915 -1918

29th Battalion  WW1

Earnest Harold Gowty enlisted in 29th Battalion, 6th Reinforcements on July 22, 1915

At Broadmeadows training camp 1915

The 29th Battalion was raised as part of the 8th Brigade at Broadmeadows Camp in Victoria on 10 August 1915. Having enlisted as part of the recruitment drive that followed the landing at Gallipoli, and having seen the casualty lists, these were men who had offered themselves in full knowledge of their potential fate. 

The 8th Brigade joined the newly raised 5th Australian Division in Egypt and proceeded to France, destined for the Western Front, in June 1916.
 The 29th Battalion fought its first major battle at Fromelles on 19 July 1916. The nature of this battle was summed up by one 29th soldier: "the novelty of being a soldier wore off in about five seconds, it was like a bloody butcher's shop". Although it still spent periods in the front line, the 29th played no major offensive role for the rest of the year.

In early 1917, the German Army withdrew to the Hindenburg Line, allowing the British front to be advanced. The Germans, however, made selected stands to delay this advance and the 28th Battalion was involved in defeating a counter-attack at Beaumetz on 23 March. The battalion subsequently missed the heavy fighting to breach the Hindenburg Line during the second battle of Bullecourt as the 8th Brigade was deployed to protect the Division's flank. The only large battle in 1917 in which the 29th Battalion played a major role was Polygon Wood, fought in the Ypres sector in Belgium on 26 September.

Unlike some AIF battalions, the 29th had a relatively quiet time during the German Spring Offensive of 1918 as the 5th Division was in reserve for a lot of the time. When the Allies took to the offensive again, the 29th fought in a minor attack at Morlancourt on 29 July, and then in August and September took part in the great advance that followed the battle of Amiens. The 29th fought its last major action in September when the 5th and 3rd Australian Divisions, and two American divisions attacked the Hindenburg Line across the top of the 6-kilometre-long St Quentin Canal tunnel; the canal was a major obstacle in the German defensive scheme. The offensive of 1918, however, had strained the AIF almost to breaking point. On 12 October the 29th Battalion was disbanded to provide reinforcements for other 8th Brigade units.

AUSTRALIAN WAR MUSEUM- CANBERRA - Roll of Honour

AUSTRALIAN WAR MUSEUM - CANBERRA

EMPLOYMENT

Ernest Harold Gowty was employed as a Cement Tester at the Fyansford Cement Works prior to enlisting.  He could be one of faces in the photos below.

 A brief history time line during the period of EHG's employment;

1911    An expansion program started with introduction of a new rotary kiln

1912   Original limestone quarry located in a hillside at Batesford 5.6 km away from the Works. 

Official opening of Australian Portland Cement Company's extensive works at Fyansford, with an aerial ropeway to the Batesford quarries.

1915   Further expansion took capacity to 40,000 tonnes per year

 

Fyansford plant

 installing the rotary kilns

 Batesford Quarry

 remains of the plant as it stands today

  employee photos in taken in the early 1900's Where is Ernest Harold??

 

GEELONG IN EARLY 1900

The Geelong Ernest Harold would have known, growing up

 The first Gala Day, 1916, to support the war effort

 Blakistons Transport, Brougham Street

Moorabool Street 1914

 Malop Street

Moorabool St 1915

 Fyansford Cement Works, where he worked. 

Note the Fyansford Monier Bridge in the foreground

The Fyansford Monier Bridge was designed and built by John Monash in 1900.  He can be be seen on the far left of the photograph with his wife. 

John Monash went on to become General Sir John Monash who was given credit for winning the WW1 in France in 1918 when he was in command of the Allied forces

  Aberdeen Street Baptist Church, where he sang in the Choir

Electric  Trams started operating Geelong in 1912

Electric Light came to Geelong in 1900with the arrival of the Electric Lighting  supply Company of Australia Ltd.

EDUCATION

It was recorded in his army records that Ernest Harold Gowty attended the Flinders State School in the early 1900’s

FLINDERS NATIONAL SCHOOL- HISTORY

The Matthew Flinders School was built as the Flinders National Grammar School in Little Ryrie Street, Geelong in 1856-7.

The initiative of a group of prominent citizens of Geelong in 1854 to provide non-secular education for children resulted in its construction, at a time when the majority of existing schools were either privately owned or specifically denominational.

The Government granted the land, and money was raised for the construction of a National School by a committee formed for this purpose. This included Dr Alexander Thompson who was reportedly responsible for the first school in Port Phillip at the corner of William and Little Lonsdale Streets in 1838, before himself settling in Geelong.

Local architects, Backhouse and Reynolds, were responsible for the design, and the foundation stone was laid by Major-General Macarthur, the Acting Lieutenant-Governor, in December, 1856.

Not satisfied with naming it the Geelong National School, it was at this ceremony that Macarthur asked permission to name it the Flinders National Grammar School, inspired by the explorer of Corio Bay.

This school was conducted as a boys school until 1864 when girls were first enrolled.

Increasing attendances necessitated extensive additions in 1880 and the school became officially known as the Flinders State School.

A further name change occurred in 1940 when it became the Matthew Flinders Girls' School, and in 1950 it was the first Victorian government school to enter pupils for the Girls' School Leaving Certificate. At this time it became known as the Matthew Flinders Girls' Secondary School.

The original cement rendered masonry building comprised a dominant central tower with bell cast roof, flanked by wings, themselves linked by arcading. The symmetrically composed main facade incorporated quoining, a heavily rusticated base and under eave brackets. Italianate in design, extensive additions in 1880 maintained this style, increasing the height of the central section, including the tower, which incorporated a platform with iron balustrading. Details were retained and duplicated at this stage. Internal alterations, including significant window changes in the side wings, were made in 1915-6 and substantial flanking wings were added in 1956 to celebrate the centenary of the school. All these subsequent additions have been sympathetic, and the main facade retains the original, Italianate character. A substantial three- storey wing was constructed to the south of the main building in 1974.

Matthew Flinders School is of architectural significance as an important work of Geelong architects, Backhouse and Reynolds and as one of the finest of the early National schools constructed in Victoria. Despite subsequent alterations, the character of the original building has been retained.

Matthew Flinders School is of historical significance due to its association with the early development of education in Geelong and the specific education, within the State system, of girls from the mid 20th century.

It is also historically significant for its associations with prominent educationalists, such as Alexander Thompson, who established the school and George Morrison, the second headmaster, who established the Geelong College in 1861 and was its first principal.

Important students include;

Professor William Charles Kernot (1845-1909), the first professor of engineering at Melbourne University in 1883,

Theodore Fink (1855-1942), politician and educationalist

Sir Harry Brookes Allen (1854-1926), who became the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Melbourne University in 1886.