WAR VETERANS' HOME, NARRABEEN, SYDNEY.
Architects: Fowell, McConnel and Mansfield. , Builder: A. W. Edwards.
The home, which has been designed to accommodate 100 War Veterans, is being constructed under the joint auspices of the State branch of the Returned Soldiers' League and the Legacy Club, the foundation stone being laid last Anzac Day by the Governor, Lord Wakehurst. The main block is of two storeys with a lower ground floor on the north side, and contains administration offices, recreation, billiard and dining rooms and a kitchen to serve 100, which will be the number the home will ultimately accommodate.
The remainder of the buildings will be separate cottage blocks scattered around the attractive grounds of 11 1/2 acres overlooking Narrabeen Lakes; the site was made available by the Warringah Shire Council. Two of the ultimate ten cottage blocks are being built under the initial contract, which it is understood is in the vicinity of £15,000. WAR VETERANS' HOME, NARRABEEN, SYDNEY. (1938, September 7). Construction (Sydney, NSW : 1938 - 1954), p. 5. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article222852810
The land for the village was actually resumed by the state government from the family of James Wheeler for the project- and had been suggested as a suitable site by the council - a dispute over payment went on for years afterwards. The Warringah Shire Council took land to build a road to it - which also started an ongoing but ultimately unsuccessful battle by the Wheelers that went on for years. That council also took their quarry for its own use as well.
Two decades later:
Land can be resumed for veterans
Resumption of land by the N.S.W. Government for a war veterans' home, was upheld by the Full High Court yesterday. The Court rejected an argument by the owners of the land, at Narrabeen, that the resumption was not for a public purpose. The owners, Alice Ann Wheeler and Alan George Wheeler, claimed that the Government had exceeded its powers in declaring a war veterans' home a public service. The Court ruled that the Minister who sanctioned the resumption of the land, had the power to declare that the acquisition was for a public purpose. Land can be resumed for veterans (1956, February 24). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 7. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article72537842
At the Warringah Shire Council Meeting held on June 24th 1947 a letter from the Furlough House Committee, (dated 13/6/1947) is requesting the Council's co-operation in connection with the visit of Field Marshall Montgomery to Furlough House on 13th July by having King and Albert Streets and the frontage to Ocean Street cleared, and suggesting that the reserve opposite Furlough House be made a Memorial Park. Council Resolved That this work be carried out; and (b) that the matter be referred to the Parks & Reserves Committee.
He would also, of course, visit Narrabeen's War Veterans village, where he would meet more children:
Montgomery Diplomatic On Hat Gift
SYDNEY, Sunday. - Field Marshal Lord Montgomery promised to-day that he would give the Australian High Commissioner in London (Mr. Beasley) his "Digger hat" covered with the badges of the units which served under him in the Middle East.
''I will ask Mr. Beasley to send it to thie National War Museum, at Canberra," he said. "If I gave it to one of the States, there might be somle trouble."
Lord Montgomery said he obtained the hat from an Australian quartermaster's store to wear in the desert, until he became accustomned to the heat. The New Zealand unit wanted to replace it with a New Zealanld hat. He refused to do this, and allowed the unit to pin its badge on the hat. Other units followed the example.
MRS. ISABEL Harkness, of Vincent-street, Balmain, who claimed she had been a childhood playmate of Lord Montgomery, in Tasmania, dashed past the police barrier and shook hands with him as he was leaving St. Andrew's Cathedral this morning.
Mrs. Harkness showed Lord Montgomery a letter card. "We were playmates in Tasmania," she said. "We called him Bertram. I called him that to-day, but I don't know whether he recognised me. He wanted to keep the letter, which was written by his mother to my mother. I wouldn't let him." ****
"Try Again"
A YOUTH who waited .near the Cathedral steps with an autograph book, was warned by military police not to approach the Field-Marshal's car. The youth obeyed the direction, but said he would try again.
Posed With Children
JUNIOR LEGATEES almost knocked the Field-Marshal off his feet when they surged around him at the War Veterans' Home. Narrabeen, this afternoon.
After Ron Soutar, 9, had conducted the Ceremony of Remembrance, the children gathered around Lord Montgomery. He told them to sit on the grass and then he spoke to them. He posed for photographs with Ron Soutar and a group of children and promised to autograph copies of the pictures for them.
'The children cheered delightedly when he said: "Now go about your business."
Ron Soutar, whose father was killed in Borneo, said he had been delighted to conduct the ceremony before Lord Montgomery. He admitted he felt a little nervous.
Montgomery Diplomatic On Hat Gift (1947, July 14). Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954), p. 1. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article140324042
POLITICS AND SOLDIERING 'Do Not Mix' Says 'Monty'
Hundreds of children from Junior Legacy mobbed Field Marshal Lord Montgomery when he visited the War Veterans' Home at Narrabeen.
SYDNEY, Monday: The Chief of the Imperial General Staff (Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery) told a gathering of politicians, service chiefs, public service heads and community leaders today that politics and soldiering did not mix.
''I KNOW no soldier who has made a good politician and know of no politician who has made a good soldier,' he said.
Today was the last day of Viscount Montgomery's Sydney visit, and cheering crowds greeted his every appearance- His 'secret' shopping tour remained a secret only a few minutes and enthusiastic crowds were waiting on the footpath when he emerged from a city store. Crowds estimated at 10,000 were present In Martin Place when the field Marshal placed a wreath on the Cenotaph. The cheering crowds which showered him with confetti also lined the streets, and packed buildings along the route of his drive to the Town Hall for the civic reception and later to the Hotel Australia for the State luncheon.
Thousands also witnessed his departure from the city to Mascot for his flight to Brisbane. At the State luncheon the Premier (Mr. McGirr), who presided, described Viscount Montgomery as e great ambassador to Australia. The Premier presented him with a book of views of New South Wales.
'Liable to Pressure'
In his reply, Viscount Montgomery said the Germans had professionalised the trade of war and France had specialised it. Politics bad become professionalised by democracy. It was very important that fighting men should realise the relationship between politics and soldiering.
'Today the soldier has become the servant of the statesman and his allegiance is to the State,' he added. 'Being a servant of the state, the soldier was very liable to be subject to political pressure.
'If he is clever he avoids It and he has to be strong enough to resist difficult pressure when he knows that he is being asked to do . something which is not capable of being done.
'He must also know that there occasions when political considerations will be paramount.'
Speaking at a civic reception earlier, Viscount Montgomery said ' that the idea of discipline properly understo»d was the basis of civil life in the same way as it was the basis of military life. An Army must become an integral part of the life of the nation, find must be accepted as such. Military training must not only make men good soldiers but must fit them to become good citizens.
He added that family life should be the basis of all training. A good boys' club movement was also an indispensable element in the training of youths.
The basis of all .discipline was self discipline, added Viscount Montgomery, who said it might come from within or It might be imposed from without. Whatever its source, it involved the idea of control and self restraint and Implied a life ordered and bounded by certain voluntarily Imposed limitations.
Conception of Duty
'This conception of duty underlines the whole of Christian teaching and should be impressed on every child from nursery days.' Viscount Montgomery said no changes in the methods of warfare would affect the fundamental truth that discipline was the backbone of the army.
Crowds gathered all along the six-mile route from the city to Mascot, where the field marshal left by plane at 5 p.m. for Brisbane. He was farewelled at the airport by the Minister for Supply and Shipping (Senator Ashley) representing the Federal Government, the State Premier (Mr. McGirr) and the G.O.C. Eastern Command (Lt.General Berryman). No title (1947, July 15). Daily Advertiser (Wagga Wagga, NSW : 1911 - 1954), p. 1. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144834997
****Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein KG, GCB, DSO, PC, DL (17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976), nicknamed "Monty", was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and the Second World War.
Montgomery was the fourth child of nine, to a Church of Ireland minister, Henry Montgomery, and his wife Maud (née Farrar). The Montgomerys, an Ulster Scots 'Ascendancy' gentry family, were the County Donegal branch of the Clan Montgomery. The Rev. Henry Montgomery, at that time Vicar of St Mark's Church, Kennington, was the second son of Sir Robert Montgomery, a native of Inishowen in County Donegal in the north-west of Ulster, and a noted colonial administrator in British India. Sir Robert died a month after his grandson's birth. He was probably a descendant of Colonel Alexander Montgomery. Bernard's mother, Maud, was the daughter of Frederic William Canon Farrar, the famous preacher, and was eighteen years younger than her husband.
After the death of Sir Robert Montgomery, Henry inherited the Montgomery ancestral estate of New Park in Moville, a small town in Inishowen in the north of County Donegal in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland. There was still £13,000 to pay on a mortgage, a large debt in the 1880s (equivalent to £1,825,976 in 2023) and Henry was at the time still only an Anglican vicar. Despite selling off all the farms that were in the townland of Ballynally, on the north-western shores of Lough Foyle, "there was barely enough to keep up New Park and pay for the blasted summer holiday" (i.e., at New Park).
It was a financial relief of some magnitude when, in 1889, Henry was made Bishop of Tasmania, then still a British colony, and Bernard spent his formative years there.
"MONTY'S" TIES WITH TASMANIA
Schoolmates Recall. Famous Visitor. As Determined Lad "Monty the mischievous," the young son of Bishop H. H. Montgomery, remembered by a few of his old school pals of 1892-1899 as a determined lad, to-day returns to Hobart, the city of his early days, as Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery, Chief of the Imperial General Staff.
IN HIS FIRST WORDS on arrival in Australia Lord Montgomery referred to his cradle days in Tasmania. He said that he was looking forward to his visit with tremendous eagerness. He felt he was an Australian, a Tasmanian.
"I came to Tasmania when a baby in arms and spent my early years here," he said. "They were the very impressionable early years, when the foundations of character are laid There is no doubt that the foundations of my character were laid in Australia."
Always playing soldiers, Bernard, the young Montgomery was influenced to become a soldier at Hobart. While Watching Tasmanian troops marching to the ship to embark for South Africa, he conceived the idea of a soldiering career. He promised himself that he would grow up to be a soldier, and a good soldier, so that perhaps some day he could have an army of his own. Little did he know then that the realisation of his ambitions was to be heralded in many quarters as the salvation of the Allies.
.... "MONTY'S" TIES WITH TASMANIA (1947, July 5). Examiner (Launceston, Tas. : 1900 - 1954), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52595984
