Oral History Digitised By National Library – Crews Family

I found an interview with Clarence Victor Crews on the Trove website.  I bought a copy of the interview which was then digitised and sent to me on a cd in mp3 format.  This is some of my notes I took while listening to the interview and some newspaper articles I’ve found.

Clarence was my second cousin three times removed.  He was born in Littlehampton, South Australia in 1881.  Clarence’s father Frederick Albert Crews was a Cobb & Co and John Hill & Co driver.

Frederick Albert Crews

Clarence was 88 years old when this interview was recorded in 1969 in Canberra. This is what it says on the Trove website about the interview.

“Mr Crews, talks about his father Fred Crews, a reinsman with Cobb & Co. and John Hill & Co. in South Australia. He discusses each photo and tells something of his father’s life history.”

This recording is really more of a conversation than an interview.  Clarence reminisces as he goes through some photos with Carol Kiss the interviewer.  He doesn’t speak much at all about himself it’s almost all about his father, people they knew and the properties they owned.

He recalls that his mother Louisa Wigzell ran the Littlehampton Post Office and this is where his parents met when Frederick was the mail coach driver.  Louisa’s parents Jesse and Jane Wigzell had a general store/grocer in Littlehampton also.

Some of the other mail routes Frederick Albert Crews drove were Terowie to Broken Hill, Adelaide to Kadina and Adelaide to Kingston however specific dates weren’t mentioned in the interview.

The Crews family went to Western Australia circa 1894 where Frederick ran a carting business with a partner before buying his first station Outalpa.

As far as I can tell Clarence worked on his father’s sheep properties for most of his life.  He made it to 91 years old passing away in 1973 shortly before his 92nd birthday.

Frederick Albert Crews

It was well worth buying this recording as it hadn’t been previously digitised.  Now I have a copy and it’s available for others to obtain also.  I’m not sure what the charges would be as I paid for the digitisation as well as the cd.  If anyone can give me any further information about the Crews family please leave me a comment!!

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