Gunning & District Historical Society

Gunning to Newnes and Beyond: Roy Irwin Alchin by Garry Smith Roy Irwin Alchin with Grandson Garry Norman Smith 1949 Roy Irwin Alchin (1897-1976) was born in Gunning on 23 January 1897, the son of Edward Alchin (1863-1941) and Elizabeth Ann Alchin (nee Bailey) (1872-1964). Roy’s great grandfather, Ambrose Alchin, had come to the Gunning district in the late 1840s with his family - wife Ann and their children. The British Parliament approved the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act in 1901. In that same year Roy was a four-year-old boy playing around the family home near the common in Gunning. Little is known about Roy’s childhood but it is known that in the year of Federation, Roy made the newspaper when he badly fractured his leg while running around the house. “ Goulburn Evening Penny Post”, Saturday 16 March 1901, 7 (via TROVE) Roy grew up in a strictly Methodist household; at the age of ten years Roy and his sister Myra took par...

Herbert and Horace Alchin did not remain onlookers from home.  They went and helped.  (Australian World War 1 recruitment poster; State Records of SA) Edward “Ned” Alchin (1865-1940) and Sophia Jane Alchin (nee Smith) (1870-1960) had seven children, three at Dalton, one at Inverary and three at Crookwell. Two of these children were Herbert and Horace. Brothers Herbert Alchin (1893-1968) and Horace Alchin (1896-1954) enlisted in World War 1 on 7 August 1917 in the 17th Battalion. Both lads served in France and Belgium. Both suffered illness and Herbert was wounded but the brothers came back to Australia to resume their lives at Crookwell. On 20 October 1917, just ten days before embarkation and with only one-day’s leave, Herbert married Violet Philadelphia May Waye – known as May – at St Bartholomew’s Church of England, Crookwell. She was born at Yarra near Goulburn. Herbert and May Alchin had two children. Herbert and May Alchin (Collection of Gary Smith) ...