August 2016

Contents

• Guest column and meeting notices - page 1Archives volunteer Warren Musgrave reflects on Society work and introduces the August Moss Vale presentation.
• Biography files and volunteer work - page 2Musgrave describes preparing thousands of biography files for scanning; the Secretary outlines his academic career.
• Moss Vale presentation and northern villages tour - page 3Introduces David Baxter’s local-history presentation and a proposed Hill Top and Balmoral tour.
• Archives report - page 4Linda Emery reports on the archives open day, collection accessions and progress identifying soldiers in the Poppy Seed Project.
• McCleery coachworks and the rotary hoe - page 5Philip Morton traces the McCleery family business, the young Cliff Howard and Everard McCleery, and the company’s wartime work.
• McCleery’s wartime production - page 6Recounts a 1915 sulky-building demonstration and military tool-cart work, and the wartime service and death of Everard McCleery.
• Factory fire and later engineering - page 7The McCleery history continues through the 1919 factory fire, Howard’s subsequent engineering and the family’s later history.
• Society information - page 8Contact, opening, membership and committee information printed in August 2016; details may have since changed.

Issue highlights

• Warren Musgrave describes preparing some 3,500 biography files for scanning and the discoveries made while reading them (pp.1-2).
• David Baxter’s planned Moss Vale presentation included the 1957 film This is our Town; a proposed tour followed the old railway through Hill Top and Balmoral (p.3).
• Archivist Linda Emery reports a donated 1913 proposal for a cement mill near Moss Vale and progress identifying soldiers in the Poppy Seed Project (p.4).
• Philip Morton follows McCleery & Sons from coachbuilding into sawmilling and wartime manufacturing, including a 1915 sulky-building demonstration for the war fund (pp.5-6).
• The article recounts Everard McCleery’s flying service and death in 1918, the 1919 factory fire, and Cliff Howard’s later rotary-hoe engineering (pp.6-7).

Original Society source