Maj A. Clive Mitchell-Taylor
OAM (Ret) JP(Qual)
Assoc Dip Computing
(Distinction),
Assoc Dip Materiel Mngt
MITCHELL, TAYLOR, DOWNES,
WINE & SMEDLEY FAMILIES
This website was to be mostly a means of collecting and displaying family-related information but has lately been overtaken by the military biographies and associated research.
However under "Documents" there are familial links to the Pulleyns of Yorkshire which go back to 1438 through our maternal grandmother Rosa's line and a separate, more recent link to the Housemans.
Margaret A. Wine CMC JP(Qual)
M Ed (Spec Ed) B Ed
Dip Teach (Primary)
Certified Marriage & Funeral Celebrant
Through sister-in-law Stephanie's research we have the links through grandmother Alma Mitchell/Taylor née Stevenson to John Merrick from the 2nd and Elizabeth Russell of the 3rd convict fleet. Through that line I also inherited my inconveniently unused first name. Thanks so much Florence Alma!
Hopefully we'll get back to more family content in time. We do not claim entitlement to any of these Coats of Arms, it's just a concise and decorative means to indicate that much of this site is based upon these (extended) families. Unfortunately I cannot find an equivalent for the Wine or Smedley Families.
Military Biographies
The military service histories are a tribute to our WW1 and WW2 soldiers, and includes our relatives and those of some of our friends and neighbours. We hope that publishing these indicative histories will help our younger generations understand some of the hardships and sacrifices they endured in order to preserve our Australian heritage.
The National Archive of Australia owns all rights to the original service histories on this site and they should only be used for non- commercial research. They are copied here only to avoid them being moved on the NAA site.
While those of european extraction then and now make up the majority of our soldiers, sailors and air personnel, historically there has also been a strong representation of Aboriginal, Islander, Maori, and Chinese men and women in our armed forces supplemented by the waves of other European, African, Asian, Middle Eastern, Sub-Continent, Pacific Island and other immigrants over the years. It's a broad and encompassing heritage, and it has served Australia well.
My intent is to sort events into chronological order, expand abbreviations, explain the meaning of events or missing information and present it all in a way that provides readers with the context necessary to fully understand the records which are relevant to them. Some events are not flattering when taken in today's context. We must acknowledge that they occurred at a time when any of these young men and women could be killed or maimed the next day, and judge them not. Autres temps, autres mœurs.