Guest Post: The Tale of Raymond Winstone (1896-1954)

Over the summer, I have had the help of two wonderful students at Cardiff University who have used their detective skills to compile short biographies of some of the book owners in my Edwardian book collection. Here, Llio Mererid shares the story of Raymond Winstone - a working-class boy from Breconshire in Wales - which she managed to piece together from archival records.

Raymond Ivor Winstone was born in Breconshire, Wales in October 1896. He was the son of former pupil teacher Emily Martha (nee Edwards) and local house painter and plumber John Arthur Winstone. Raymond was the third of four children, with Cyril John and Reginald Stanley his older brothers and Constance Emeline his younger and only sister. The family lived just outside the small village of Gilwern near Abergavenny, only a short country walk from the Hope Baptist Sunday School in the village. It was here at age 13 that Raymond was awarded the fiction adventure novel The Gorilla Hunters: A Tale of the Wilds of Africa by R. M. Ballantyne for good attendance.

Little did Raymond know that no less than 2 years later, he was to embark on his own adventure to another continent on the other side of the world as what could very well have been part of the Home Children child migration scheme. This scheme sent children from poor backgrounds in the UK to colonies all over the world, including Australia, where they were told that a better and more promising life was waiting for them.

The evening before their departure for London, their teacher Miss Amy Rosser held a final get-together for them with fellow members of their Sunday School Class. Music was played and games were played to accompany the refreshments and the boys were said to have been showered with good wishes from their school friends as they left. In addition, they were both gifted beautifully bound Bibles each from the Hope Baptist Church as a token of respect, esteem and good wishes from their fellow worshippers.

The following morning, aged 15, Raymond and his brother Reginald Stanley made their way to London in order to board the steamer Rimutaka. They were shipped over with 711 other Government immigrants. Despite a small outbreak of measles and challenging weather on the journey, the vessel arrived safely in Brisbane, Australia on the 12th of March, 1912.

Excitement of arriving on a new continent would not have lasted long, with quite possibly hard laborious work awaiting the brothers on the other side of their journey. Then, in 1916, news of their father’s death back in Wales reached the two brothers. This news would have been met with grief and worry for the rest of the family, but certainly having each other for support during this difficult time would have been a lifeline. Sadly, only a year later, his elder brother and Australian travel companion Reginald Stanley caught typhoid fever and passed away at the age of 23, overwhelming Raymond with the feeling of sadness and loneliness once more.

To have his only reminder of home taken away from him would have been devastating for Raymond. Over the course of the next few decades, he lived a lonesome life, residing in several boarding houses in the Brisbane area of Spring Hill. He worked as a painter and house decorator just as his father had been back in Wales, possibly helping him to feel a deeper connection and belonging to his homeland and his family.

In 1949, at the age of 52, Raymond fell 110ft from the Story Bridge into the Brisbane River. Despite being almost run down by a coal lighter in the river, the only physical injury was a bruised left ankle. It is unclear how the incident occurred, but a newspaper article in the Sunday Mail states that there were no eye witnesses and Raymond was unable to give any satisfactory answers when rescuers picked him up from the river. He was said to have been very quiet in his boarding house residence in the days prior to the accident, which suggests that this incident was no accident and Raymond was possibly looking for a way out of his Australian unhappiness.

The boarding house named Lancaster House at 32 St Paul’s Terrace, Brisbane where he returned after his incident was where he lived out his final days in 1954. The house is situated on a corner opposite St Paul’s Presbyterian Church which housed the only swung bell in Brisbane. Having lived in such close proximity to the Church, there is no doubt that Ray would have heard the perfect acoustics of the bell tower on many occasions and perhaps would have attended regularly as he did as a youngster at the Hope Baptist Sunday School in Gilwern, Breconshire.