Stories & Histories

In 1968 a young New Zealand couple, Bruce and Jan Rosemergy, on a grand tour of Europe – complete with an Austin Minivan – arrived at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, where they found something very special.

Kenneth McKenzie was 79 years old when war was declared in August 1914, so he was never a candidate for active service. Yet less than six months into the war he found a way to be useful when the NSW Red Cross Society launched an appeal for walking sticks for wounded soldiers.

Rouse Hill House contains a number of objects that reveal the close relationships between the families associated with the house and the Pearce family, particularly Norman Pearce and his fiancée, Kathleen Rouse.

Billie Child was one of the lucky ones. Although he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, he never embarked for overseas service.

Charles Beresford Cairnes was one of a number of members of the extended Rouse family who served with British rather than Australian forces during World War I.

At the end of October 1915 Kathleen Rouse farewelled family friend Jack Tyson, who was off to Melbourne to enlist. The grazier had agisted stock from his property near Hay on George Terry’s Box Hill during the drought, and was a frequent visitor to both Rouse Hill and Box Hill.

Deeply affected by the news of the death of her fiancé, Norman Pearce, in August 1916 Kathleen Rouse embarked for England on the Tainui with her friend Jill Louche to join the war effort.

This photograph of Lewis Tod Solomons, known as Tod, was found in an album owned by Alice Rouse, nee Hayle (1846–1919), wife of William Charles Rouse, which also contains a photograph of his father. The Rouses had a home in North Sydney near the Solomons family.