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...

Hazel Doris Alchin with nephew Garry Norman Smith By Garry Norman Smith Hazel Doris Alchin is arguably the oldest living direct descendant of Ambrose Alchin (1800-1877) and Ann Alchin (nee Waters) (1799-1858). This image is of a woman who recently turned 95 years old. Hazel is from two long lines of pioneer families: the Thompsons of West Pennant Hills and the Alchins of Oolong Creek and Gunning. Roy Irwin Alchin (1922) and Doris Irene Thompson (1919) While Hazel’s father, Roy Irwin Alchin (1897-1976) was born at Gunning, she has never actually visited the town.  (l-r) Daphne, Doris, Hazel, Roy, Joyce & Ellen Alchin c1938 Charles Alchin and Mary Alchin (nee Stear) Roy married Doris Irene Thompson (1902-1990) in 1922 at Dural, New South Wales; Hazel was born that same year at Dural. Hazel and her four sisters lived their early lives in The Hills District. Her grandparents, Edward Alchin (1863-1941) and Elizabeth Ann Alchin (nee Bailey) (1872-1964), ...