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| Ronald Alfred Smith |
Today I would like to share a sad story from our family tree. Ronald Alfred Smith was my husbands uncle and he was born 25 November 1921, the first son of Alfred Smith and Jessie Taylor. His father was a returned soldier who had fought at Gallipoli and the family lived in a modest home in the Marrickville and Tempe areas of Sydney. 
Sadly at the young age of 13 Ronnie as he was called met with a devastating accident. He was in his first year of high school attending Tempe Junior Technical School and was playing football in his lunch break when he was hit in the head by a stone thrown from somewhere in the playground. He finished the afternoon at school and when he returned home that afternoon fell ill, and was rushed to Marrickville Hospital.
The doctors realising that he was suffering from a depressed fracture of the scull raced him to the Children's Hospital for surgery, but unfortunately he did not survive.
His family were devastated and his mother Jessie did not get over his sudden death. He was always in her thoughts and she spoke of him all the time. I remember chatting to her in her later years and she always went back to the story of the son she had lost.
His story has lived on through three generations of the family and has been used to reinforce the dangers of throwing stones to each generation of children.
Such a sad story Diane. That is a great photograph of young Ronnie with the calf.
ReplyDeleteYes it is a shame it is so damaged. I think this was one of the few photos they had of him when he died and they used it to make a large portrait of him (the picture that is at the top of the blog).
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