War Depression War: A History of a Catholic Family Part 2 1901-1945

By Gerard Charles Wilson

In 1901, the author’s great-grandparents, James Patrick and Mary Jane Wilson, moved from rural Tallawang near Gulgong to the fledgling suburb of Chatswood on Sydney’s North Shore.

Accompanying them were Bert (the author’s grandfather), Bert’s sister Elizabeth, and his younger brother Leo. Older brother Percy followed later. Bert, Percy, and older brother Tom began a business, building houses from Chatswood through to Hornsby on Sydney’s northern border.

The breakout of the First World War saw dramatic changes. Rowland Wilson, Bert’s nephew, enlisted only to be engaged shortly after his arrival in France in one of the bloodiest battles of the War – the battle over Pozieres. Leo, Rowland’s uncle followed a year later. The author gives an account of their terrible experiences. On the author’s mother’s side, it was his grandfather Steele’s brother, Percy Steele, who endured the same frightening ordeal, carrying a lifelong war wound.

Australians were hardly over the War when the Depression struck, causing many builders to lose their businesses. The Wilsons hung on by the skin of their teeth, improvising as best they could, while the Steeles, always with work with the New South Wales Railways in clerical positions, did much better.

The author provides an engaging account of his parents’ upbringing before they met at Chatswood in 1938. They were from very different backgrounds. The class difference would cause them heartache. The Second World War intervened. His father was a leading sick-berth attendant on HMAS SYDNEY during the great cruiser battles in the Mediterranean. It was a deadly period, but the SYDNEY survived and returned to Australia, where his parents were married in 1941. Tension was never far away between his father and his mother’s parents. Among all these happenings were much drama and excitement.

The book ends with the author’s father building their first house at Lane Cove, a suburb adjacent to Chatswood. Book 3, ME AND PETE, covers the author’s early childhood 1946-1951, the infants school period with the formidable Mercy Sisters.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gerard Charles Wilson
• Release date: Oct 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781876262174

Gerard Charles Wilson

After a lifetime working in the book business (mostly educational publishing) I now concentrate on my writing. One of my formative experiences was living in Holland with my Dutch wife for two and a half years. On returning to Australia, I completed a major in Dutch Language and Literature before a master’s degree in philosophy. My studies and immersion in another culture and language, together with my Catholic faith, form the biggest influences on my writing. But shaping those influences are my mother and father. One could not have more principled parents. My master’s thesis was on Edmund Burke whose thought permeates my writing. My preoccupations are social and cultural from a Catholic and (Burkean) conservative perspective. This reflects my acceptance of the Catholic idea of the reciprocal relationship between faith and reason. My favourite fiction authors are Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Evelyn Waugh. Evelyn Waugh’s style and mastery of English have been my biggest influence – not in vain, I hope. My favourite modern non-fiction author is philosopher Roger Scruton. I spend my leisure time reading and occasionally walking along the nearby shores of Port Phillip Bay. I love opera, musicals, and the ballet (The Nutcracker is my favourite.) I enjoy fifties rock ‘n’ roll and forties big band. Mozart is my favourite classical composer, but I am acquiring a liking for Bach. My novels are in the genre of the ‘Catholic novel’. They are in the style of Catholic novelists Evelyn Waugh, Grahame Greene, and Morris West. I deal with similar political, philosophical, and moral issues. The difference from general fiction is the assumed philosophical framework. Most modern fiction assumes a materialist framework while the Catholic novel assumes a natural law framework (See the ‘Catholic Novel’ page on my website.) Finally, there is always a romantic content in my stories. Love relationships are an incisive way of exploring the human person.