serviceman

Impressive view ✌️

Tom Ah See, a Chinese man born in about 1840, married Aboriginal woman Margaret (Maggie or Maggy) Dunn at the Taroom Court House in May 1885. Ah See worked as a gardener at Ghinghinda in the Shire of Banana, west of Bundaberg. Ah See and Maggie had seven children. Following Ah See's death, Maggie married Aboriginal man Peter Rouse. In 1915, Tom and Maggie Ah See's second son, William Ah See, enlisted in the 41st Infantry Battalion and served in France. On 5 November 1915, Tom and Maggie Ah See's second son, William Ah See, enlisted in A Company of the 41st Infantry Battalion. Prior to enlistment he worked as a carpenter on Morella Station, via Roleston [sic]. After training at the Enoggera Army Camp in Brisbane, William was sent to France. However, he was hospitalised several times with influenza, bronchitis and bronchial asthma. He was eventually evacuated to England for medical treatment and then classified as medically unfit. William arrived back in Australia in September 1917. Photographs of the soldiers of A Company 41st Battalion appeared in The Queenslander on 29 July 1916. William's photograph was incorrectly captioned 'V. Ah Lee'. In October 1919, Brisbane newspapers including The Telegraph reported that William Ah See, 'a half-caste Chinese', sought to dissolve his marriage to Evelyn Mary Ah See on the basis of her 'alleged misconduct' with George Ferber, also a World War I soldier, with whom Evelyn had a child. A decree nisi was granted, 'to be made absolute in three months'. Source: harrygentle.griffith.edu.au/biographies/ah-see/