by Rodney Hammet, 6 May 2021, from Bulletin 3 of 2021

Henry or Harry Cue of 157 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe had already been injured during World War 1 before sustaining a broken shoulder from this accident in May 1921.

Sydney Morning Herald; Mon 30 May 1921, p. 10

A Glebe boy born in 1890, Harry was the third of five children to William (1864-1896) and Elizabeth Ann Nolan (1863-1929) and unfortunate to lose his father when only five in 1896. [Astute readers will have calculated that Harry born in 1890 would have been 31 on 1921, not 38 as reported in the newspaper. My research has confirmed this is the correct Harry and that he was born in 1890.]

His widowed mother was in 1896 left with son William (1886-1957), Joseph (1888-1938) Harry (1890-1969) and baby (Martha 1896-1897). Another son John had died in 1895 aged only two. Also in 1895, Joseph aged seven was severely injured when knocked down by a horse-drawn cab and trampled at the corner of Raglan St and George St, Waterloo.1

This was Glebe and the inner city during the 1880s and 1890s – very tough for those at the margins of prosperity. Elizabeth married again, to widower Clifford Barton in 1898 having a further two boys with him, adding to the three surviving children from his earlier marriage. Clifford died in 1907 aged 49 having spent a month in 1899 at Her Majesty’s pleasure for fraud and uttering.2

Harry Cue lived at 157 Glebe Point Rd, at the lower end of Glebe’s most famous row (photo: Adam.J.W.C)

Harry, a sheet metal worker, and his older brother William, a stove fitter, were both already married when enlisting for World War 1 in 1916. They both served in France, each was wounded in action.3 Joseph was possibly not able to enlist due to his childhood injury. Harry lost his left leg as a result of a gunshot wound to his knee in April 1917, and was repatriated to Sydney in early 1918 as medically unfit. William returned in 1919.

Harry became a fruitier or greengrocer after the war with a shop at 157 Glebe Point Rd.4 At the time he was injured in 1921 the family was in the process of relocating to Chatswood where he had a shop first in Thomas St then in Victoria Ave. Harry and Annie Brown had married in Glebe in 1910 from which came Isabell (1911-1983), Ronald (1913-1997) and Spencer (1915-1982). Both boys enlisted for World War 2 in about 1940 and returned safely.

Harry died at the Concord Repatriation Hospital in May 1969 at the age of 79, not a bad innings for someone who had had so many injuries. Irish born Annie died in 1961 aged 69.

[1] SMH; Wed 27 Nov 1895, p. 6; [2] Ancestry.com; NSW Goal Records & The Australian Star; Wed 15 Mr 1899, p. 6; [3] National Archives of Australia; WW1 Service Records; 4 Sands Directory.