Harry Conway from “Penrith”, Christmas Hills died of wounds at Rouen, France on 28 April, 1918.
Conway had certainly the most remarkable background of any serviceman from the-then Shire of Eltham to die in the Great War – born in the Singapore states, educated in India and having served four months Nigiri Volunteer Rifles before he and his mother came to Australia. His father was attached to the Royal Navy Reserve, but appears to have died before Harry and his mother arrived in Australia
His grieving mother Rosamund contained to place In Memoriam notices in the Eltham and Whittlesea Advertiser notices for her son, usually fairly lengthy, but around 1930 she removed much of the prose that usually took up most of the insert and instead referred to Harry as the son “of the late Captain Harry Conway, Royal Navy Reserve”.
The redoubtable Rosamund Manners Norman Conway passed away in Yarra Glen in 1940 at sixty years of age. According to one report, she was the official mail carrier between Christmas Hills and Yarra Glen for several years.
Link to the full history of Harry Conway
Link to ozsportshistory downloads for WW1
