R.B.Williams, USSCo, Dunedin 1907 & the Koonya

[Tjapaltjarri]

I am hoping some kind soul can find me a bit more information on this man.

40+ years ago I bought this postcard in a bric-a-brac shop in Lower Hutt and it has always intrigued me.

It purports to have been sent to the above man from the Steam Ship Koonya - then towing Shackleton's Nimrod for the 1907-8 Britsh Antarctic Expedition.

The Koonya belonged to the Union Steam Ship Co (NZ) and I assume that some of its crew remained for this hazardous voyage - so it would not be unusual for them to have used the opportunity to send a message from the expedition when the Koonya went off tow inside the Antarctic Circle.


I showed the item to Stanley Gibbons in the Strand - and their view was that it was a fake as the postmarks on the stamp do not extend to the card itself. But I found mention of the man and his son, R.E. Williams in a NZ newspaper online. The son went to London to study the Wool Trade in 1910.

Many thanks, Howdie

Moderator Comment: Image cropped and/or re-sized for easier viewing,
saving space, and for better RootsChat performance..

Please try for a maximum width of 500-700 pixels.
see Topic: Adding images to Posting & Profiles
1) Resizing and cropping your image file:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,130922.0.html

[Lucy2]

 But I found mention of the man and his son, R.E. Williams in a NZ newspaper online. The son went to London to study the Wool Trade in 1910.

Hmm ... interesting.   

I'm assuming that you don't have christian names for either of these WILLIAMS men  .... but can you supply us with the link to the NZ newspaper article you mention ?

Lu

[Tjapaltjarri]

Nope, No Names and no R.E. Williams born NZ or Australia on the 1911 UK census Here's the link.

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=GRA19100402.2.30.2&l=mi&e=-------10--1----0-all

As I see it, In their haste having many other things to do they ran around to the purser's office - grabbed a handful of postcards - cancelled all the stamps as a sheet and then tore them off (roughly, it would seem judging by the portion of adjoining stamp at the top)and stuck them down. The card is contemporary. And the Kooonya was on a circular run from Sydney to Port Clamers, other NZ ports and back to Sydney so the fact that the card is of an Australian scene does not surprise me.

Howdie

[jorose]

There might be a couple of different R. B. Williams. Here's one who was related to the U.S.S:

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t101882-200.html
http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=194057
 (details of Frank Bernard Williams, died in action, WWI,  son of Robert Bernard Williams, Union Steam Ship )

http://bdmhistoricalrecords.identityservices.govt.nz/Search/
 - in NZ there are John Tyndall Lockyer(1886), Frank Bernard Rushbrook, Robert George Baskerville, and Gladys Amy (1890),  children of Robert Bernard and Amy Williams.  They married in 1885.

This is probably Robert in the 1861 census (note his father's middle name of Lockyer, and I believe his  mother's maiden name to be Rushbrook).
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kayhin/61571.html

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=TS18851230.2.8&srpos=1
 - and yes, that is the same person, because here is the marriage.

ETA: On NZ archives Archway there is a will entry for Williams, Robert George Baskerville, listed as 'wool expert'.
http://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/

[Tjapaltjarri]

Wow,

That is amazing and gives some really good sources as well.

I note on Wikipedia that The top of the rise includes several larger homes, notably including Belmont, built in the 1860s for politician and newspaper editor William Cutten. So R B Williams would seem to have been a man of some note in the Union Steam Ship Company. I cannot imagine him writing a card to himself and sticking a used expedition stamp on it as a gimmick.

Very many thanks for all of that wonderful information.

As far as the card is concerned, I am really not worried that it has no philatelic value - it's just my good luck talisman, relating to Ernest Shackleton and his extraordinary adventures.

Best regards,

Howdie (in the chatroom)

[Tjapaltjarri]

Regarding the philatelic history of the card I think on reflection that perhaps Stanley Gibbons were correct and that it came in a packet - hence the multiple cancellations - and that one of these was removed and put on the card that came with the packet to commemorate the Koonya's achievement of being the first steel hulled ship to enter the Antarctic Circle. But clearly R.B.Williams was connected in some small way with Ernest Shackleton's 1907-09 expedition and the release and preparation of the Koonya from her regular tour  to be able to tow the 'Nimrod'.

Howdie

[Tabitha22]

Hi there, I've just begun researching my family and came across this post, I am a decendent of Robert Bernard Williams from Dunedin (my 2nd Great Grandfather).
Could I please copy the pictures that you have posted here to add to my records?

Thanks
Tabitha

[Tjapaltjarri]

Delighted to meet you Tabitha.

If you make a few more posts on Rootschat  you will be able to make and receive private messages. My cousin and his wife live in Dunedin so I could post them to him but we would need to fix a way of arranging collection otherwise.

Kind regards,

Howard

[Tabitha22]

Hi Howard,
Sorry, I was just asking for permission to copy and use the photos you posted in this thread.
But if you would like to part with the original I'd happily receive it and pay for the postage etc.