I gave the talk this month as our scheduled speaker had to pull out, but hopefully we will have his talk later in the year. My story, “Dan the Dreamer”, was based on a Civil Court case in 1917 where the authenticity of a will was challenged. Initially no will was found but one of the sons, Dan, “allegedly” has a dream where his late father appears and tells him where the will is. Much of the information came from newspaper reports of the trial and the judge’s summing up. The judge in his summing up declared he had a dilemma, although this was a civil trial, if he found in favour of one party it followed the other party was guilty of a criminal offence, either perjury or forgery. The case was also unusual in that the burden of proof rested with the defendant. The trial lasted 5 full days and the newspaper reports of the trial went to 5,000 words and the judges summing up over 7,000 words.
It was not until after 2023 when the 1920 Property Rolls and the 1921 census was available that the outcome could be assessed. The case divided families in the town with many choosing not to have any future communication with one or other brother. Spoiler alert — fortunately there were no criminal charges and both brothers continued in albeit separate businesses, providing services to the community and for their respective families. One of the businesses passed down another two generations and only closed in 2021.
The talk highlighted just how different society was then and generated some good discussion on the differences, in terms of how people were treated, how businesses were run and how the law has changed.
Next month we will have 3 or 4 short talks on different topics. If anyone wishes to contribute another please let me know as I am happy to hold my proposed contribution for another time!! In April the speaker will be one of our new members Bob Bridges. Later in the year we will have another session with tables of 5 or 6 where everyone can talk to their small group about a photo or object they have. Start thinking about what objects you could talk about.
Rob Green