Person:Edward Hurn (2)

The following information was supplied by Kenneth George HURN, son of Edward.

Edward Harry, known as Ted, put his age up to enlist in the Great War (1914 - 1918) and he enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy. During his service he was sent to England to be trained up in the new weapon, the Submarine. There is a photograph in the Chronicle for Jul - Dec 1917 of the ship's company of South Australians in HMAS Australia in England - Squadron Commander Lt Ramsey-Smith.

Edward met his brother George on Salisbury Plain where George was a gunnery instructor on the Lewis machine gun, having survived the Gallipoli campaign in 1915. A photo exists of Edward in Navy uniform seated before four Australian soldiers who are standing behind. When asked if it was in deference to the senior service for the sailor to be seated, Edward replied that it was because he was too drunk to stand.

Edward never saw his mother again because she died soon after her eldest surviving son, George, was killed in the battle of the Somme in 1918 and she thought that Edward was lost at sea in a submarine accident.

Edward, after the first war ended, was in Scapa Flow off Scotland where the German fleet was anchored before it was scuttled. He escorted E1 and E2 submarines from England to Australia. He arrived back during the big Influenza epidemic in Melbourne in 1919.

Edward married Melva Hay in 1925 but unfortunately she died during a pregnancy in May 1927. Edward paid for her funeral plot in Cheltenham cemetery which has been used since by other members of the Hay family.

Edward swapped passports with a German Sailor in an Australian City??? Edward left Australia and the German adopted his own name and continued to live in Australia. Taxation queried lack of taxation returns when Edward reappeared in Australia 1938.

Edward went to Hamburg in Germany just after Hitler took power (1933) but was not able to tour the town because they were kept to the wharf area.

Edward and a friend paddled a kayak down the River Murray in 1933 taking some months to complete the journey. They took just two days to navigate and paddle from Victor Harbour to Outer Harbour - this was some feat.

Edward had an old Amalcar (torpedo body) which was burnt near Broken Hill. The dates of this are unknown.

After the death of Melba his first wife, or maybe before, Edward went tree felling and land clearing north of Adelaide for 5 pound an acre.

He also worked on the Ghan railway line at Finke for a short period.

Edward and Mavis Smyth met through a lonely hearts advertisement placed in the local paper: " An American Gentleman would like to met Australian Lady re Matrimony". Mavis stated that Edward had developed a noticeable Yank accent. Edward married for the second time in 1938 to Mavis Myrtle Smyth and together they had two sons, Kenneth George and Edward Albert. (George for Edward Harry's father George Hurn, Edward for his father and Albert for Mavis' father Albert Cann Smyth - where Kenneth came from is unknown at this time.)

Edward was supposed to have been in the United States of America soon before he met and married Mavis Myrtle but exactly when this was is yet to be determined.

Edward enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy for the second time at the outbreak of the second world war and was assigned to minesweeping duties based out of Melbourne, Victoria. For the years 1939 to 1946, the family lived at 2 Jolimont St, Jolimont, near the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

In 1947, Edward took his family away from the cold damp climate of Melbourne because of the ill health of Edward Albert, their second son and took them all to a silver lead mine 20 miles (32 km) east of the northern township of Blinman in South Australia. Ken wrote that he didn't remember much of the train journey from Adelaide, but did remember the train stopping for the evening meal at Quorn and everyone crossing the road to one of the many hotels in Quorn which supplied food and drink to the travellers. After tea, they moved off again and were "put" off the train at Parachiln, a siding, at three in the morning. The train guard told them that the light in the distance was a hurricane lantern on the front door of the hotel and that they were to take it and find themselves an empty room upstairs (the empty rooms had their doors open) and to see the publican in the morning. That morning when Ken awoke and looked out the window, he saw the treeless plain of the mid north. Later in the morning they were collected and taken into the township of Blinman some 20 miles (32 km) east where they took on supplies and then went to the mine, another 20 miles east.

The family lived on this mine for about 6 months until they moved back down to Adelaide for a time. They lived in Glenelg where the family started to purchase a brick house in Hardy St, Glenelg three streets south of Cliff St, but had to give this up because the damp climate affected Edward Albert Hurn's lungs. While there, Ken writes that he used to go over to the milkman's house to buy milk in Meridith St across the paddock. Their house was the last one built in the street for some years - nowadays (1996) the whole street is full of houses.

The next location they resided in for any length of time was in Angaston in the Barossa Valley where Edward Harry had work in the Brighton Cement works. It was there that Ken became aware of the existence of other branches of the Hurn family as there were three families of Hurn living over the back of Bald Hill. Anecdotally these Hurns were very distantly related, being descended from a German branch of the Hurn family some 600 years prior.

After the stay in Angaston the family moved to Port Augusta where Edward Harry had work in the construction of the new power station south of the town. The family remained in Port Augusta from 1955 to 1957 when they moved to Adelaide and bought a greengrocers store with the accident compensation Edward Harry received for a car accident where he lost his right elbow joint after being sideswiped by an oncoming vehicle.

The greengrocers store was at 119 Payneham Rd, St Peters, right across the road from the St Peters telephone exchange where Kenneth George worked for four years. The store is now (1996) occupied by a jeweller after the greengrocers business failed because another green grocer opened up within 20 metres. The family moved to 13 Park St, Hackney.

Here Kenneth George was married to Antonia Porter whose parents had a shop at 23 Park St Hackney and the couple made their first home at 3 Park St Hackney.

Later the family moved to 81 Fourth Ave St Peters in a large house owned by the Lutheran Church and two families shared this large house.

Finally the children and their spouses left the family home and the couple of Edward Harry and Mavis Myrtle moved to 40 First Ave, Woodville Gardens, where ultimately Edward died early on 7th of July 1983. Mavis Myrtle survived Edward and at this writing (Dec 1996) was still there at the age of 89 years.