Concentration Camp Guard - 33rd BATTALION AIF - AMTS
Driver: 3127 Allan Gordon Stanley SPARK.
Born: 13th August 1894. Stanmore, New South Wales, Australia. Birth Cert:20610/1894.
Married: 1916. Scone, New South Wales, Australia. Marriage Cert:16407/1916.
Wife: Cecelia Francis Spark. nee: Chalkley. (1891-1968)
Died: December 1967. New South Wales, Australia. Death Cert:20/1968.
Buried: 22nd December 1967. Rookwood Cemetery, New South Wales, Australia. M2 - C, 540 Catholic Section.
Father: Stanley Herbert Spark. (1846 – 1929)
Mother: Caroline Mary Spark. nee: Farrell. (1852-1908)
INFORMATION
Allan Gordon Stanley Spark served with the 34th Infantry and served at the German Concentration Camp at Liverpool before enlisting with the AIF on the 10th November 1916.
German Concentration Camp Hat Badge
Holdsworthy Concentration Camp
Allan was fist allocated to the 18th Battalion until the 18th December but was re allocated to the 24th Reinforcements 1st Battalion for the next months before being re allocated again the the the 7th Reinforcements, 33rd Battalion AIF on the 17th January 1917. The Reinforcements proceeded overseas for England from Sydney on board A68 "Anchises" on the 24th January and disembarked at Devonport England on the 27th March 1917 where they proceeded to the 9th Training Battalion at the Durrington Army Camp.
Here the Reinforcements settled down to hard training, which included Route Marching, Trench Digging, Bomb Practice, Musketry and General Camp Routine. After 4 weeks of training, Allan was transferred to the 62nd Battalion but ended up in Hospital a few days later suffering from Laryngitis. Upon his discharge from Hospital he was Taken on in Strength with the Australian Mechanical Transport Section at Tidworth and promoted to Motor Driver on the 26th July 1917.
Records show that Allan was admitted to the Tidworth Infirmary on the 20th December 1917 suffering from a Broken Left Leg, Injuries to his Right Leg and Head. From these injuries it appears that Allan may have had a Motor Vehicle accident as his condition was reported as "Seriously Ill" and he remained in hospital for some time.
After he was discharged from hospital, Allan was Struck Off and returned to Australia as Medically Unfit for Active or Home Service and was discharged from the AIF on the 12th March 1919.
Allan's British War Medal: 68622 to DVR 3127 A G S SPARK. 33 BN AIF was acquired in June 2018 and is now in the Harrower Collection. This was his only entitlement of World War 1.
Family Information
Allan was a married 22 year old Musician from Sydney, N.S.W. upon enlistment. His wife Cecilia was listed as living in the care of Mrs C Carey of Park Street, Hamilton via Newcastle, N.S.W. Allen served for 4 years with the Public School Cadet Forces before enlisting with the 34th Infantry, and served with them for 3 years including 3 months at the German Concentration Camp at Holsworthy. Allan lived at No: 1 "Silverton Flats" at Pine Hill, Double Bay, N.S.W. in 1959 and was a retired Chemist when he died in 1967 and is buried in the Catholic Section of the Rookwood Cemetery with his mother. His brother and father are buried in the Church of England Section of Rookwood Cemetery.
His parents Stanley and Caroline Spark were married in 1879, Queensland, Australia and had 4 children
Kathleen Mary Smith (Spark) (1880-1969) Rodney Bueno Stanley Spark (1902-1972) Alexander Francis Stanley Spark (1882 – 1943) Allan Gordon Stanley SPARK (1894-1967)
Brother
Alexander Francis Stanley Spark (1882 – 1943)
Alexander Francis Stanley (Frank) Spark (23 October 1882 – 12 July 1943), was born in Cassilis and died in Randwick. He was a stretcher bearer with the 3rd Australian General Hospital in World War I. He served in Egypt during 1916 and was medically discharged due to asthma and chronic bronchitis on 7 March 1917. He was a carpenter before the war and later became a farmer. He is buried in the Church of England Cemetery Rookwood with a World War I services headstone adjacent to his father’s grave (section 09, grave 2941). He married Margaret Adeline (May) Lomas, (26 May 1891 – 9 Feb 1976) in January 1916 at Woollahra, soon after enlisting in the army. After he was discharged from the Australian Military Forces they lived at 12 McLean St Paddington. In about 1930 (during the Depression) they moved to Concord and lived with May's brother Percy.
Father:
Stanley Herbert Spark (1846 – 1929)
Stanley Herbert Spark (31 December 1846 – 16 August 1929), 2nd son of A B Spark, became a manager with the Australian Joint Stock Bank (later to become the Australian Bank of Commerce), serving at Stanthorpe, Tenterfield and Cassilis. For the last 36 years of his life he was accountant for Elliott Bros, a pharmaceutical and medical instrument manufacturing company in Balmain. He married Caroline Mary (Carrie) Farrell (1852 – 21 Jan 1908) in 1879 in Queensland. She was the daughter of Kate and Michael Farrell, a publican. Stan and Carrie initially lived at Cassilis, west of Muswellbrook but had moved to Greenbank Street Marrickville by 1894. In 1915, Stanley (now a widower) was living at 290 New Canterbury Road Petersham. He died at North Sydney and is buried in the Church of England Cemetery Rookwood with no headstone (section 09, grave 2940).
Mother;
Caroline Mary Spark. nee: Farrell. (1852-1908)
Grandfather;
Alexander Brodie Spark (1792-1856)
Alexander Brodie Spark was born in Elgin, Scotland on 9 Aug 1792, and died at Tempe, Sydney on 21 Oct 1856. He is buried at St Peters Anglican Church with no remaining headstone or clear record of his grave site.
Alexander was raised and educated in Elgin but travelled to London in order to seek employment opportunities. From June 1811 he worked as a clerk in an accountancy firm (Tod's counting house) and having literary inclinations as a young man founded a small literary society in London. In 1817, still with Tod, he was captivated by his work in the shipping department. He undertook a tour of Europe in 1820 and spent some time in Italy with William Wordsworth (the major English Romantic poet), his wife Mary and sister Dorothy.
Grandmother;
Frances Maria Spark nee: Biddulph. (1807-1887)
Frances Maria was born in Tamworth, Staffordshire on 5 October 1807 and christened on 18 May 1808. The family migrated to South Africa when she was 12.
She met Dr Henry Wyatt Radford in South Africa probably while he was on leave from India. There is a record of their appearance at Matrimonial Court on 5 June 1823 at Graaff Reinet, Cape Colony. They were married on 2 July 1823 in the local Church of England. This was 3 months before her 16th birthday.
They came out to Australia on the Greenock, arriving in January 1824 and having been given a grant of land settled in the Hunter Valley and started a family. Alexander Spark knew the family between 1824 and 1829, having property in the area and selling some land to Dr Radford during this period.
The Radfords returned to India in 1829 with the 62nd Regiment and suffered terrible hardship. They lost 5 children during this time – two to cholera, the two older boys drowned in the shipwreck of The Lady Munro in October 1833 whilst returning to Sydney to go to school at The Australian College (founded by Rev John Lang). A daughter was burnt to death in a fire.
The Radfords returned to the Hunter Valley in October 1834 and Dr Radford died in 1836. Frances Maria was a widow at the age of 28 and had 3 young children (5 already having died).
She moved to Sydney and in June 1837 there is a record of her living at Miller's Point. She then rented a two story house in Elizabeth Street, Hyde Park and is recorded as living there in November 1837 and April 1839. She then moved to Erskine Villa, Newtown. Erskine Villa, built by the Rev George Erskine in 1830 subsequently gave its name to the suburb Erskineville. She did not own the property but rather had a landlady (this is mentioned in Spark’s letter of proposal). The landlady was possibly the Rev Erskine's widow - he died in 1834.
Frances Maria was financially independent although it was nearly eighteen months before Dr Radford’s will was finalized. The original will was lost with The Ceres when it was wrecked in September 1836 en route from Newcastle to Sydney. Alexander Spark and Leslie Duguid (Spark's neighbour and general manager of The Commercial Bank of NSW) assisted with administering the will on 7 June 1837. It is likely that Alexander Spark looked after her interests. She often attended functions with him and moved in the same social circles. They became good friends over the next few years. This culminated in their exchange of typically early Victorian proposal and acceptance letters on 9 April 1840. Spark's letter was prompted by his understanding that Frances Maria was about to be evicted. This may have been a ploy by Frances Maria and her landlady to encourage the reluctant bachelor. They were married 18 days after he proposed, 3 days before she supposedly had to leave Erskine Villa.
Alexander Brodie and Frances Maria were married on 27 April 1840 in St Peters Anglican Church. They lived at Tempe House on the Cooks River, the country estate of A B Spark. They had 6 children
1. Alexander Brodie (Alick) (30 Apr 1841 – 21 May 1912) 2. Frances Maria Ann (Fanny) (7 May 1842 – 25 May 1908) 3. Mary Gordon (18 Sep 1843 – 4 Oct 1893) 4. Edith Burnet (16 Sep 1845 – 22 April 1920) 5. Stanley Herbert (31 Dec 1846 – 16 Aug 1929) 6. Florence Sophia (23 Feb 1850 – 22 June 1932)
Alexander Brodie Spark died from heart failure on 21 October 1856 and was buried at St Peters Anglican Church.
Frances Maria and the children had to leave Tempe House. They moved to 69 Old South Head Road after Tempe House was sold to the Maguire Brothers in 1859. (Caroline Chisholm leased the estate from 1863 to 1865 and set up an educational facility for young ladies called Green Bank. Tempe was sold to Frederick Gannon in 1884 and then to The Sisters of The Good Samaritan in 1885).
There was a name change to part of Old South Head Road and the address became 69 Oxford Street in 1875. The house was located near the intersection of Riley Street. In 1877 Frances Maria may have been running a Ladies School from the Oxford Street address. In 1879 Frances Maria moved to “Glenara” 172 Victoria Street North, Darlinghurst and stayed there until her death in 1887. Her younger daughters probably lived there with her. In her will she left a number of valuable shares in the Australian Gas Light Company to her three younger daughters and properties to her sons and eldest daughter, including shares in a private school in Newcastle.
Great Uncle;
Colonel Robert Spark (1824-1852)
Robert Spark was born July 24, 1788 and died on the February 20, 1852. He is buried at Elgin, Moray, Scotland, United Kingdom.
Military Records
Under Construction: 08/06/2018.
