Tidbury Havill EDWARDS - The Black Sheep

[Eupham]

Hi All,

I have a 65 year old mystery that has yet to be solved. Tidbury Havill Edwards was born in Braeside, Ontario, Canada on 20th April 1921 and came to Australia as a 2 year old with his parents, grandparents and sister and lived in Bankstown, Sydney. He served in the Australian Army during WWII and went A.W.L more times than you've had hot meals. Tidbury's mother lost 3 brothers during WWI, his father served in WWI and WWII and his brother was killed in WWII. Tidbury hurt his leg jumping off a tram yet told everybody it was a war injury to get sympathy and the odd free beer. His father found out about this and confronted Tidbury and the pair had a falling out. A few day later Tidbury's sister and her husband gave him a lift to central station in Sydney where he boarded a train for Pukapunyal in Victoria. The last thing Tidbury said was "Tell mum I will see her one day, I'll turn up like a bad penny". The family never saw or heard from Tidbury again. Is there anyone out there who can help find out what happened to Tidbury.

Cheers.
Eupham 

[ennael]

what was Tidburys' mother and siblings names if they are not living  please?

Leanne

[Eupham]

Tidbury's mother was Florence May Edwards nee Gibbings, his father was William Alfred Edwards and his brother that died in WWII was William John Edwards. He has 2 sisters living who have no idea what happened to him after 1945.

Cheers
Eupham 

[cando]

Hi Eupham

Don't you think it odd that Tidbury was going to Puckapunyal - an army base and  military training area? 

I have searched all the available death records but can't find anything. Of course he could still be alive.

Cheers
Cando

[rpoole]

Hi Eupham and Cando.

As far as I know, digitised images of war records are not released until after the death of the person, and given the decision to release the images of Tidbury's records was made in 2003 one can pesume he died sometime prior to that date.    What is puzzling is that there is no date of death placed on his war records before they were released for public viewing as is the norm.

 Aussie Bob

[tropicalj]

No  that is not  the case Bob 
you can apply  to have any world war 2 record digitalised it does cost you about $25  I  did with my grandfather. 

I  thought someone researching the family  must have obtained the record

Jenn

[rpoole]

Thanks Jenn,

Always pleased to learn.    I guessed instead of checking first.     Seems convoluted logic that such sensitive issues of living persons are made freely available to the public when us self publishers have to struggle with the privacy laws when doing family histories.   

Bob

[cando]

Hi Bob...a bit of the blurb from the NAA website..  The records on the site are not searchable by search engines such as google.

http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/recordsearch.aspx
Searchable records include documents, photographs, posters, maps, films and sound recordings. Generally, 30 years after a record is created, the public can access it.

Privacy Laws.....no comment

Have you published your book? 

Cheers
Cando

[rpoole]

Thanks Cando,

That was the site I used to check the access details after Jenn's post. If Tidbury is still living I hope he has changed his haircut from the one in his photo      Google brings up the records and Photos, haven't tried maps or sound recordings yet.

I am in the final edit stage of my book. It is on Tasmanian families: Poole, Buxton, Radford and Pyke.  I have 11 direct line convict ancestors.      Is it ok to put details of the book Launch on the Convict Thread? or what site should I post it on?   I'm not quite sure of the protocol yet.   any suggestions would be welcome.

Bob