by Alan G Henderson PSM AM*
Harry Worthington was the only child of Robert and Isabella Worthington, hoteliers in Echuca during the 1890s. Harry studied veterinary science in Melbourne and returned to practice in Echuca before enlisting in 1914 and serving in the Australian Army Veterinary Corps in the Middle East. Soon after his return from World War One in 1920 he acquired a farm in the Deniliquin district and in 1923 married Ida Henderson.
Hoteliers in Echuca
Robert and Isabella Worthington were married in Cheshire in 1884 and Harry was born the following year on 4 December. The family emigrated to Victoria in 1889 and travelled to the river port town of Echuca to acquire the license of the Southern Cross Hotel from Isabella’s brother James Hulme.
The Southern Cross Hotel was in the east of Echuca and its lively customer base included employees of nearby sawmills and brickworks. The business, including a store and postal agency enjoyed a few years of prosperity followed by a significant deterioration in economic conditions which impacted on some of the nearby businesses. As Echuca’s centenary historian, Susan Priestly observed
From the spectacular heights of the eighties’ boom Victoria plummeted down into the depths of the 1893 depression, a descent so merciless that it profoundly affected people’s outlook towards strict and sober conservatism.[1]
The economic consequences of the end of the 1880s boom were compounded by the federation drought with rainfall in Echuca well below average for eight years from 1895. Regrettably ‘sober conservatism’ did not apply in all cases. In December 1894 Isabella gave ”notice to publicans and others that I have … obtained a prohibition order from the Echuca bench of Magistrates against supplying any intoxicating liquor to Robert Worthington of Echuca East.”[2] A month earlier, Isabella had applied for the hotel license to be transferred from Robert’s name to her own.[3] The Worthington’s were also selling assets, including forty acres a couple of miles outside Echuca and two houses for removal from a block opposite the Southern Cross Hotel.[4]
Revenue increased under Isabella’s management but the Southern Cross was among twenty hotels that lost their licenses under the Local Option Act in November 1897. ‘The Local Option Act 1890 gave citizens the right to decide whether hotels in their district should be closed, and by 1900 Echuca had reduced its total by half.’[v] In July 1898 Isabella was awarded compensation for the loss of her license and surprisingly, in December she was granted a license for a wine bar at the Southern Cross.[6]
In February 1898 Robert Worthington died aged fifty, ‘from general break up of the system’, according to a report in the Bendigo Advertiser.[vii] In 1894 Robert had been described as ‘suffering from illness’ by a witness explaining the reason for Robert’s ‘shaky’ signature on his Will. His debt-free estate bequeathed to Isabella was valued at £400, including a block of land with a five-roomed cottage.
In 1900 Isabella, aged forty, married John C Young from nearby Barmah. John Young, aged forty-four was a widower with three children. He was a civil servant involved with the management of State forests which required frequent transfers within the State. Isabella’s younger brother William H Hulme took over the license of the Southern Cross Hotel.
Harry’s Practice in Echuca
Harry Worthington was fourteen when his mother remarried. Presumably with Isabella’s steady support and that of her relatives, including her younger brother William H Hulme, Harry concentrated on his studies through the depression, drought and family turmoil posed by his father’s alcoholism and death in 1898. Harry featured among those awarded prizes by the Mayor at the end of the first year of Miss Brown’s new school in 1894 and he subsequently attended the Echuca Grammar School. The Grammar School had been established in 1873 and from 1881 was co-educational. In Victoria prior to 1905 secondary school education (post Year 8) was confined to private schools. Harry completed his schooling in 1902 and then enrolled at the Melbourne Veterinary College, graduating with honours in 1907.[8] The Melbourne Veterinary College had been established in 1888 and was effectively taken over by the University of Melbourne in 1909.[9]
At age twenty one he was registered by the Veterinary Board of Victoria in June 1907 and returned to establish ‘Harry’s Practice’ in Echuca. Initially he had consulting rooms in Millewa Chambers at 509-11 High Street, as well as at his private residence, Glenn Bowden in Crossenvale, in the southern part of Echuca. The fact that Harry’s mother, Isabella was born in Bowden, Cheshire, would explain both the name of his residence, Glenn Bowden and one of his race horses, Bowden Bells.
It has been estimated that by 1910 there were about seventy-five veterinary surgeons practicing in Australia, including at least twenty five in regional Victoria.[10]
Harry’s practice probably focused on horses. At least in the latter decades of the nineteenth century, veterinary surgeons ‘… had been trained primarily to deal with horses, examining them for soundness, advising on their purchase, or treating them for various ailments or injuries.[11] During the initial years of Harry’s career the number of horses was increasing strongly in Australia from about 1.9 million in 1907 when he was first registered as a veterinarian and peaking at about 2.5 million in 1914, the year he enlisted for overseas service. Harry’s interest in horses went well beyond the professional. As an amateur he rode at picnic race meetings at Echuca, Deniliquin, Hay and in 1921, an Oaklands Hunt Club meeting at Moonee Valley.
He also had success as an owner at these events including riding his own horse Bowden Bells to win the Murray Plate, the first event on the program at the 1911 Echuca picnic races. He was still riding winners at the Echuca picnic races in 1925. Harry was the honorary veterinary surgeon for the Echuca Race Club and the Moama Jockey Club and later, for the Southern Riverina Picnic Turf Club and the Deniliquin Jockey Club. He was also a successful competitor in Echuca and Moama agricultural show thoroughbred and sulky events. On one occasion in 1911 he lost a protest and second place prize money for entering the same horse in both a hack and a single buggy event. Harry had his share of equestrian mishaps, sustaining concussion in a fall at the second jump in the District Hunters’ Plate in 1907 and being thrown from his gig in 1911 when the wheel was fouled in the train lines in Echuca.
A Vet at War: Middle East Campaign[12]
Britain declared war against Germany on 4 August 1914. The carnage among Australians in the First World War was horrific, with about 330,000 departing Australian shores and about 215,000 casualties, including around 60,000 killed. As Les Carlyon asks, ‘Why did Australia do it?’ He suggests a couple of reasons.
No-one in the Australian winter of 1914 envisioned casualties of 215,000. No-one in Britain, Australia or New Zealand envisioned the suicide of nations. For another thing, Australians saw themselves as transplanted Britons. A war against England was a war against them.[13]
The latter sentiment applied literally to Harry Worthington. He was born in England and in 1914 his mother aged in her mid-fifties had lived more than half her life in England. There also may have been professional factors in his willingness to enlist.
Practically all the country veterinary surgeons … held a commission in mounted infantry regiments, and, as large numbers of horses were required by the A.I.F for artillery and transport as well as light horse units, the call on veterinary personnel was great indeed.[14]
Harry enlisted on 16 November 1914 and initially was appointed as a Veterinary Officer in the Sea Transport Service supporting the 9th Light Horse Regiment. This regiment was formed in Adelaide and trained in Melbourne between October 1914 and February 1915. Approximately three-quarters of the regiment hailed from South Australia and the other quarter from Victoria. As part of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade, it sailed from Melbourne on 11 February and arrived in Egypt on 14 March 1915.[15]
Immediately following enlistment in November Harry departed for Adelaide, farewelled by many friends at the Echuca railway station. Again, on 22 December 1914, the day before travelling to Melbourne he was farewelled by a gathering of friends at the Union Club Hotel and presented with a case of gold mounted pipes by the Mayor of Echuca. Hopefully his mother, by then resident in Melbourne, also was able to farewell Harry because she died aged fifty seven in November 1915. [15]
Harry, with the rank of Captain, was subsequently appointed officer in charge of the 8th Mobile Veterinary Section, again supporting the 9th Light Horse Regiment, within the 3rd Light Horse Brigade. This assignment proved merciful in two respects. First, members of the 9th Light Horse Regiment were deployed to Gallipoli without their horses so the Mobile Veterinary Section was not required to accompany them. Second, following Gallipoli, the 9th Light Horse Regiment became part of the Australian forces fighting the Turks in the Middle East rather than campaigning on the Western Front in France and Belgium.
Unlike their counterparts in France and Belgium, the Australians in the Middle East fought a mobile war against the Ottoman Empire in conditions completely different from the mud and stagnation of the Western Front. The light horsemen and their mounts had to survive extreme heat, harsh terrain, and water shortages. [16]
The Middle East campaign began in 1916 with Australian troops participating in the defence of the Suez Canal and the allied reconquest of the Sinai peninsula. In the following year Australian and other allied troops advanced into Palestine and captured Gaza and Jerusalem; by 1918 they had occupied Lebanon and Syria. On 30 October 1918 Turkey sued for peace.[17]
Harry Worthington and importantly for him, horses in the Middle East had to endure ‘extreme heat, harsh terrain and water shortages’ but he was serving in a support role in a theatre of war where the casualty rates were comparatively low. Over 8,000 Australians lost their lives at Gallipoli and a staggering 46,000 on the Western Front but in the Middle East less than 1300 lost their lives. [18]
Harry was one of a total of 125 veterinarians serving overseas managing the care and treatment of over 36,000 horses shipped from Australia to Egypt. [19] He started well:
… [O]n the voyage to Egypt of the 9th Australian Light Horse Regiment on the Karoo … during February 1915, the greatest care was taken for the comfort of the horses. The horses were stalled between decks and each horse was given twenty minutes’ exercise daily if the weather was suitable and then groomed thoroughly. When warmer climates were reached the Veterinary Officer, Captain Worthington, selected horses to spend extra time on deck. Captain Worthington and Major C Reynell cared for the horses at all times and were rewarded by bringing 400 horses safely to Egypt with a loss of only two animals.[20]
Extracts from some of Harry’s letters home, including to his uncle William H Hulme were reproduced in Echuca and other papers. In a letter published in 1916 he expressed his admiration for the fighting qualities of his Indian allies, as well for the qualities of the Germans, whose officers were commanding the enemy troops.[21] In 1917 he recorded the dismay of the troops, himself included, with those at home who had voted against conscription for overseas military service.
We heard in an unofficial way that conscription was turned down and I can tell you it all made us feel down in the dumps. Some very unpleasant things were said about those who voted ‘No’ and those that should be here. But now it is over we don’t care a cuss whether they come or not, for the difference they will make in the eventual issue is nil. But the apologetic tone that we have to show when mixing with the British officers is the part that hurts most for you know we consider ourselves a good deal better than the average, and it does not take a one-eyed man to see it either. I better not start on them, but let others continue the argument.[22]
The responsibilities of Mobile Veterinary Sections, comprising about twenty men, included advising on the care of horses, treating sick and injured horses and operating hospitals to care for those more seriously injured, and ‘at times of stress they may have anything up to 250 sick and wounded horses upon their hands’.[23]
In 1918 Harry was promoted to the rank of Major and in July and August, in the absence of Major Frederick Murray-Jones, he was appointed Deputy Assistant Director of Veterinary Services within the Australian Mounted Division. It was during this appointment that he prepared for the consideration of the Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster-General a report on the ‘Fodder Issue’. The opening paragraphs were expressed in forthright terms, probably reflecting recent frustrations as an officer in charge of a Mobile Veterinary Section.
Attention is drawn to the unsatisfactory issue of forage that has taken place from time to time: nutritive ratios, appetising qualities or necessary quantities being seldom taken into account. No objection could be taken to an irregular issue for an odd day or so but when this is continued over considerable periods it shows a decided lack of scientific and economical feeding.
The forage question has always been an exceedingly vexed one. Complaints to Veterinary Officers – who are looked upon (and rightly so) as the authority for change of unsuitable diet, – are continually being made.
Unfortunately under present methods of distribution Veterinary Officers are practically helpless in the matter.[24]
Major Worthington’s report illustrated these problems by way of example and expressed concern that insufficient account was being taken of either the impact of sudden changes in the range of foodstuffs available or of variations in climate and workload. He included a lament that the typical response given at rail-head depots to such complaints was: ‘take what is available or go without.’ The war diary for the 8th Mobile Veterinary Section records an increase of two pounds of grain in the daily ration per horse in late August. It is a matter for speculation as to whether this simply reflected increased availability or to some extent, a response to Worthington’s report.
Harry was mentioned in dispatches by General Sir Edmund Allenby, Commander-in-Chief, Egyptian Expeditionary Force for services rendered during the period from 19th September 1918 to 31st January 1919. Brigadier-General Granville Ryrie, Commanding Officer of the Australian Mounted Division also wrote that ‘this officer has carried out his duties in a very satisfactory manner being keen, energetic and capable’. The period commencing 19 September 1918 was significant.
In six weeks between 19 September and 30 October 1918, the Australian Light Horse was part of an army that captured 360 guns and 75,000 prisoners and moved the front forward 560 kilometres. … Both the Anzac Mounted Division from the Jordan Valley and the Australian Mounted Division on the coast were to play important parts in the destruction of three Turkish armies and in the capture of Damascus. The only troops to fight from Romani to Damascus were three Australian Light Horse Brigades: the 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade.[25]
The reference to battles ‘from Romani to Damascus’ covers the period from 4 August 1916 to 2 October 1918 and as part of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade, Harry Worthington was one of the veterinarians that supported troops fighting throughout this period. One sign of the consequent fatigue and vulnerability is that Harry was admitted to hospital in October for several weeks with malaria. In 1918 ‘[a]lmost every veterinary officer would succumb to malaria’. [26]
The military historian Michael Tyquin has entitled his recent history of the Australian Army Veterinary Corps: Forgotten Men. The essence of veterinarians’ role is captured in a description of their Canadian counterparts:
The glamour … and heroic side of warfare … did not lie within the province of the veterinary corps… its duty, by virtue of its non combatant character, having been to remain in the rear where it could best perform its appointed function of constantly helping to maintain the mobility of the combatant units and to repair some of the ravages of the battlefield. [27]
In late December 1918 Harry was again appointed to the position of Deputy Assistant Director of Veterinary Services within the Australian Mounted Division. Initially he was in Tripoli, organizing the classification of animals; destroying aged horses and selling the hides; auctioning donkeys and captured horses at the Tripoli markets; and disinfecting saddlery and other equipment. Interspersed with these mopping-up operations there were occasional horse race meetings. By March 1919 they had returned to the Moascar depot close to Ismailia on the Suez Canal.
In late December 1918 Harry was again appointed to the position of Deputy Assistant Director of Veterinary Services within the Australian Mounted Division. Initially he was in Tripoli, organizing the classification of animals; destroying aged horses and selling the hides; auctioning donkeys and captured horses at the Tripoli markets; and disinfecting saddlery and other equipment. Interspersed with these mopping-up operations there were occasional horse race meetings. By March 1919 they had returned to the Moascar depot close to Ismailia on the Suez Canal.
The distinguished official war artist George Lambert described the Moascar depot in March 1918 as: ‘Miles and miles of tents and desert, thousands of sweating, sun-bronzed men and beautiful horses’[28] but by July 1919 there were ‘still tents, a mile or so … but the tents are slowly coming down, the incinerators are throwing off long, low lines of blue smoke …’[29] Several famous large paintings as well as numerous small paintings by Lambert adorn the walls of the Australian War Memorial. The Memorial also holds Lambert’s pencil portrait of Harry Worthington probably sketched when they were both at the Moascar depot in mid-1919. Harry may have previously met Lambert behind the lines during the war artist’s visit to Palestine in the first half of 1918.
In July 1919, Harry embarked at Port Said on the Tagus for the journey to the United Kingdom where he enjoyed several months leave. During this period he visited the Royal Veterinary College at Camden in London. As well, in conjunction with his friend and veterinary colleague, Stanley Mountjoy from Kerang in Victoria, Harry arranged another meeting with George Lambert in an English pub.[30] They would have had much in common beyond their Middle East experience.
Lambert developed a great love of horses during his childhood and spent his youth as a station hand in outback Australia. As war artist, he took the opportunity to paint the men and horses that reminded him of home. The Australian light horsemen greatly respected Lambert’s knowledge of horses and his riding skills.[31]
In addition to the common equestrian interests of Lambert and the vets, he would have been a lively dinner companion because the official war historian Charles Bean described ‘Lambert, with the golden beard, the hat, the cloak, the spurs, the gait, the laugh and the conviviality of a cavalier'[32]
Regrettably the dinner did not occur and Lambert wrote to apologise. The second page of his letter included a pencil sketch of a mounted horseman. It was understandably a treasured item of correspondence and many years later, Harry’s widow, Ida deposited it with the Australian War Memorial. The letter explained
Dear Major Worthington
Knowing the erratic nature of the artist you will I hope be lenient with me for not having explained before the mix up of the other day when I was due to dine with you & Major Mountjoy. Briefly what happened was this. I was rather vague the morning after our last meeting and I thought that my friend & I were due to meet you at the restaurant. I learned afterwards that we should have called at the Regents Palace Hotel. We reported at the Restaurant several times & finally had dinner there & a bottle of fair wine to console ourselves. I’m awfully sorry & feel rather absurd to have muddled it so.
… I do hope you & the other two shining lights are not clearing out for Australia until I get back to town as I should feel very much upset if I missed seeing you again & making up for the muddle of the other night.[33]
It is likely that the convivial Lambert was not the only Australian to endure some ‘rather vague’ mornings in England as they awaited a birth on a ship for the journey home. In mid-November 1919 Harry embarked on the Ypiringa for the voyage to Melbourne.
Married Farmer: Deniliquin
Harry disembarked the Ypiringa in Melbourne on 4 January 1920 and returned to Echuca. In contrast to his Australian Army Veterinary Corps colleagues, most of whom pursued their veterinary careers either in private practice or government, Harry decided to become a farmer. In a closer settlement land ballot in December 1920 he acquired 751 acres, about 16 miles from Deniliquin on the north side of the Deniliquin-Finley road.[34] It is a matter for speculation as to why a man who had witnessed the misery of the Federation drought would opt for the vagaries of a pastoral career having previously established a successful veterinary practice and more recently enhanced his professional reputation by serving meritoriously in the Australian Army Veterinary Corps. It is possible that he was conscious of the potentially debilitating impact of the malaria infection on his health. A more solitary farming career might avoid the constant demands of clients in a private veterinary practice or the responsibilities of a senior position in government service.
Harry named his property Ramleh and eventually acquired adjacent allotments to the north increasing the area to 1591 acres.[35] The town of Ramleh in Palestine was occupied by Australian forces late in 1917. Harry almost certainly visited the town, now known as Ramla but the personal significance of the place for Harry is not known. Perhaps Ramleh just impressed Harry in the same way it did the war artist George Lambert who observed that
Looking back for a moment one realises the richness of the foothills and the long stretch of agricultural soil that makes up what is known as the Palestine Plain. It was a shock, but an amusing one, to learn that the rich lands about Ramleh and Lud had been for a long time given over to the cultivation of a special kind of barley for a well-known Scottish distillery.[36]
According to family hearsay, on a train journey in the early 1920s probably from Echuca to Deniliquin, Harry Worthington engaged in prolonged conversation a fellow passenger John H Henderson of Warragoon, Deniliquin. At the end of an amicable discussion, Harry asked John H Henderson, twenty years his senior, whether he had any daughters? Indeed he did and in June 1922 the engagement of Harry and John and Alice Henderson’s eldest daughter, Ida was announced. Harry aged thirty-seven and Ida Henderson aged twenty-six were married in Melbourne in June 1923 by Reverend Finlay McQueen who had also presided at the wedding of Ida’s parents at Kyabram thirty years earlier.
Harry and Ida resided at Ramleh and in addition to growing wool, market reports reveal regular sales of fat lambs, sheep for mutton and a few cattle. As well as his grazing operations Harry continued riding as an amateur at race meetings in the 1920s and maintained his connections with Echuca as the Honorary Veterinary Surgeon for the race club and show society. During their years farming together at Ramleh Harry and Ida endured the calamity of the Great Depression, with wool prices collapsing in 1929-30. In the six years 1929-30 to 1934-35 average wool and wheat prices were around half the level they had averaged in the previous seven years. At a personal level, however, a greater tragedy and emotional strain for them was that Ida endured multiple miscarriages, as well as the death of an infant son in October 1929.[37]
In addition to the disappointment of not having children, the impact of the Great Depression and below average rainfall through most years in the mid-1930s, Harry was not in good health. He died aged fifty six in 1942. The obituary in the Pastoral Times stated that his health ‘had been very unsatisfactory for a long period …’[38]
Harry’s widow, Ida moved to live in Melbourne later in the 1940s but she returned to live in Deniliquin in 1955 when she married Bennie Burge, a retired farmer. To commemorate the memory of Harry Worthington, Ida donated £1,500 to the University of Melbourne to fund the Harry Worthington Prize. The prize is awarded annually on the recommendation of the Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Science to the final year student showing the greatest aptitude in the study of the diseases of cattle and/or sheep.[39] At least for a select group of University of Melbourne veterinary science graduates Harry Worthington is not a ‘forgotten man’.
Harry Worthington’s ashes are housed in a memorial niche at the Springvale Botanical Cemetery. Ida Burge died in 1985 and her ashes are close to Harry Worthington’s in the same cemetery.[40]
* Note: Nephew of Harry Worthington
Endnotes
[1] Priestley, Susan, 2009, Echuca: A History, page 174. This publication is an extended and revised edition of Priestley, 1965, Echuca: A Centenary History.
[2] Riverine Herald, 15 December 1894, page 3.
[3] Riverine Herald, 28 November 1894, page 2.
[4] Riverine Herald, 21 August 1895, page 3; and Riverine Herald, 7 July 1897, page 3.
[5] Priestley, page 209.
[6] In the Riverine Herald of 29 May 1895, it is reported at page 4 that Isabella transferred the license for the Southern Cross to William J Mc Guinness. If this is correct, at some later point it must have been transferred back to Isabella Worthington.
[7] Bendigo Advertiser, 9 February 1898, page 3.
[8] ‘Rural Topics’, The Australasian, 27 July 1907, page 5.
[9] Seddon, H R, 1964, The Development of Veterinary Science in Australia, page 18. In Michael Tyquin, 2011, Forgotten Men: The Australian Army Veterinary Corps 1909-1946, note 2, page 427 it is stated that the College was taken over by the university in 1908.
[10] Seddon, pages 18-19.
[11] Seddon, page 17.
[12] Harry Worthington’s military service records can be accessed at the National Archives of Australia website http://www.naa.gov.au/ and follow the steps: the collection; search the collection; record search; name search; insert Worthington, World War 1; among 67 Worthingtons select Worthington H at item barcode number 3444939 (see barcode numbers on the right hand side); finally view digital copy.
[13] Carlyon, Les, 2001, Gallipoli, page 106.
[14] Seddon, page 19.
[15] Australian War Memorial at http://www.awm.gov.au/units/unit_10565.asp
[16] Australian War Memorial at http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/ww1/
[17] Australian War Memorial at http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/ww1/
[18] Australian War Memorial at http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/ww1/. Casualties for Middle East kindly provided by Dr Jean Bou, author of Australia’s Palestine Campaign. Middle East: killed in action 574, died of wounds 288, died of disease 420, total deaths 1282; total casualties including deaths 4062.
[19] Bou, Jean, 2010, Australia’s Palestine Campaign, page 73.
[20] Parsonson, Ian M, 2005, Vets at War, page 51 citing T H Darley, 1924, With the Ninth Light Horse in the Great War, page 4.
[21] Riverina Herald, 3 March 1916, ‘Fighting the Arabs’, page 3.
[22] Echuca and Moama Advertiser and Farmers’ Gazette, 23 January 1917, ‘Letters from the Front: Disgusted with the Noes’, page 2
[23] Parsonson, page 126.
[24] The report is available in the Unit War Diaries for the Assistant Director Veterinary Services, Australian Mounted Division accessible online at the Australian War Memorial (AWM) website at http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/AWM4/27/11/ . The quoted extract from the report is at page 5 of the PDF version of the diaries for July 1918.
[25] Australians in World War 1, Australian Light Horse: Palestine 1916-1918, Second edition, September 2008, published by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Canberra, page 21.
[26] Tyquin, Michael, 2011, Forgotten Men: The Australian Army Veterinary Corps 1909-1946, pages 206-207.
[27] Tyquin, page 13.
[28] Lambert, Amy, 1938, Thirty Years of an Artists Life, page 79.
[29] Lambert, page 131.
[30] Kerang is about 100 kilometres north west of Echuca.
[31] Display panel text for ‘A favourite charger with groom, Anzac Mounted Division,’ painting by George Washington Lambert, First World War gallery, Australian War Memorial.
[32] Terry, Martin, ‘Lambert, George Washington Thomas (1873–1930)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lambert-george-washington-thomas-7014/text12197.
[33] Undated letter (1919) from George Lambert to Harry Worthington, Australian War Memorial, Collection 3DRL/3799
[34] ‘Important Land Ballots’, The Independent, 17 December 1920, page 2
[35] The latter figure is drawn from Harry Worthington’s probate documents. In Bradley A Chalmers, The Sunlit Plains Extended: A Centenary History of the Conargo Shire, 2007, page 204 it is stated that ‘old Ramleh Estate’ comprised 1785 acres.
[36] Lambert, page 86.
[37] The Argus, Death Notices, 26 October 1929, page 13.
[38] Pastoral Times, 17 March 1942.
[39] See details at http://fvas.unimelb.edu.au/study/scholarships/prizes/the-harry-worthington-prize
[40] Harry’s ashes are housed in niche 270, Tristania Wall 1B and Ida Burge’s ashes are in niche 267.