Ilfracombe Find

Mrs M is getting fed up with hanging around waiting for the next specialist doctor appointment and so am I. Today I came in and she had a pile of old junk lying in the sink. I asked where she got it from. She said she just dragged a sealed box out of the other room and thought she'd sort through it. I recognised this item from our last trip to Queensland.



I had found it with the White's GMT outside the site of the old Ilfracombe Hotel.



It had been bundled into a finds bag and never saw the light of day until today. We never cleaned it or attempted to see what was written on it. The words appear to be J A. SMITH, HUGHENDEN.



Could this be the J A. Smith?

Nice find Phil, I'd be surprised if it wasn't him.

Funny how one post can get the interest piqued..
Found this also.

My reading of the shield is that it says "JAs. SMITH", rather than "J A SMITH", 'Jas.' being the old-fashioned abbreviation for 'James':


The soldier's next of kin is his father, listed as J Smith senior, so they might both be named 'James':


This is confirmed by the son abbreviating his father's name as 'Jas.' on the enlistment form:


Hence, it seems also possible that the shield refers to the father, rather than the son. In either case, because of the location of the find, I'd guess it commemorated a sporting achievement of some kind.

Checked Trove and found two things

Dad passed away and has a son called J A Smith

? Smith from renfrew park (which is in one of the above articles) won an award for Cattle breeding

Maybe that is a cattle breeding award

I used to drive past the Albany Creek Crem a couple of times a week on a 4 week job I had around Apr/May just a few weeks ago.

Great find - great discovery :Y:

Wow what a nice find mate... And interesting what it showing up from the history books.. :Y:

You blokes amaze me, thanks for all the effort. The shield seems quite inexpensive. It feels like it's made of lead. You've got Mrs M going now, she'd like to find the family to see if somebody is interested in having it

There are two crematoriums in Albany Creek, one private and one council, directly opposite each other on Albany Creek Road.
Which one do you think it might be? Not knowing when either commenced operations however, thinking about it, more than likely the council one.
Mackka