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Family information.
JEAN HARRIS, Vol 1.DRYSDALE, Ingrid Amelia: nee FOLLANDDRYSDALE, WILLIAM (1854–1930), stonemason, was born in Alva, Scotland, on I January 1854, the son of
Alexander Drysdale, a railway ganger, and Margaret, nee Morrison. He arrived in Darwin in 1893, accompanied
by his two sons, William Morrison and Alexander Stewart. He had been commissioned in Victoria to carry out
the masonry work on the new Commercial Bank building on the corner of Smith and Bennett Streets. He was also
responsible for the building of, among others, the Church of England in Smith Street (constructed of stone quarried
from the Nightcliff foreshore), the original foreshore stone foundations of the Darwin wharf (still in existence),
the concrete steps from Cavenagh Street to the Darwin wharf (partly destroyed by the 1942 bombing), the AWA
Wireless Station in Darwin (also demolished by the bombing), and the stonework on the railway bridges from
Darwin to Larrimah.
He left Darwin for Melbourne in 1926, and died there on 29 May 1930, of carcinoma of the liver and general
debility. He is buried at Boomdara Cemetery, Kew, Victoria.
He married Florence Bower and fathered five daughters and two sons. He was 170 centimetres tall, of stocky
thickset build, with blue eyes and straight brown hair. He was a Protestant.
Members of the sixth generation of the Drysdale family still live in Darwin. Drysdale Street in Parap is named
after him.
Family information.
MAY BEARD, Vol 1.DRYSDALE, WILLIAM MORRISON (BILL) (1884–?), stonemason, blacksmith, carrier, teamster, lighthouse
keeper and railway worker, was born on 21 July 1884 at Melbourne, Victoria, the son of William Drysdale and
his wife Florence, nee Bower. He came to Darwin with his father and younger brother Stewart. He attended the
school run by Mrs Pett. As a child, and later as a young man, he participated in several sports, the chief of which
were athletics, cricket and bicycle racing, doing quite well in all three.
After leaving school he worked for his father as an apprentice stonemason, but he did not like this occupation,
and went to work as a blacksmith. In the 1901 census he was recorded as a blacksmith at Pine Creek.
Later he was in partnership with his brother Stewart and Anders Johnson as carriers and teamsters. The partnership
was dissolved in July 1914.
Bill, brother Stewart and their father were lighthouse keepers at Point Charles Lighthouse for a few years.
Drysdale also worked on the Palmerston to Pine Creek railway and in 1910 was stationed at Burrundie.
On 6 September 1902 he married Blanche Bennison, the daughter of Leslie Samuel Bennison and his wife
Rose, nee Lane.
In the early 1930s Drysdale left Darwin to seek medical attention in Queensland, sailing on Changsha, and died
there on an unknown date. His two daughters, Florence and Dorothy, and several grandchildren survived him.
Family records.
JOY DAVIS, Vol 2.DUGUID, CHARLES (1884–1986), medical practitioner and supporter of Aboriginal rights, was born on
6 April 1884, the first of seven children, to school teacher Charles Duguid and his wife, nee Kinnier, in the small
fishing town of Saltcoats, Ayrshire, Scotland. The family’s comfortable financial circumstances allowed Duguid to
attend high school in Glasgow after completing his primary education in the village school. He commenced studies
at the University of Glasgow as an Arts student in 1902 but inspired by his maternal grandfather, Robert Kinnier,
he took up medicine from which he graduated in 1909 with a distinguished academic record.
After a year assisting in both rural and city practices and having done some teaching at the Glasgow University,
Duguid signed on RMS Omrah as ship’s surgeon for a return voyage to Australia. On the outward voyage he met
and became engaged to Irene Isabella Young, who was returning to her home in Melbourne. Duguid resolved to
return to settle in Australia, where entry into medical practice was freer and he sailed for Australia in March 1912
on the immigrant ship Wakool. For over a year he practiced in country Victoria before he and his wife established
themselves in Melbourne some months before the outbreak of the First World War. By 1916 he had enlisted in the
Australian Army and was serving in Egypt amidst the carnage of the battle of Gaza. After months of harrowing,
non-stop work amongst the severely wounded, Duguid was directed to attend those who had so far survived their
injuries on the journey home aboard a transport ship. He did not return to overseas duties but continued his military
duty in Adelaide until the close of the war.
In 1919 Duguid travelled to Scotland with his wife and the first of his three children to apply for a Surgical
Fellowship, which he was awarded after a year of intense study and practical work. Permanently settled on a
property at Magill on the outskirts of Adelaide, he established a noted surgical practice with his principal operating
centre at Adelaide’s Memorial Hospital. Duguid continued to keep abreast of the latest surgical developments and
undertook post-graduate work in Britain in 1927 and again in 1937. Even with a thriving medical practice Duguid
found time for numerous charitable works and was prominent in the Returned Services League and Legacy.