Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Stanley (Stan) was the oldest of 5 children of John and Mary Jane Halliday; the remainder being Charles, Olive (my Grandmother), Walter, then Mavis. Stan was born in 1879 with all children being born at ‘Hilltop’ a market garden near Stirling in the Adelaide Hills. Stan gave his youngest sister, Mavis her nickname of Trilby from the fashionable Trilby hat of the era, but it became a name which stuck for the remainder of her life.

‘Hilltop’ was a market garden, mainly run by Stan and Charles as their father was away for much of the time. Vegetables such as carrots, swedes, turnips etc were grown and were washed in a spring fed creek. The day before Market day Stan and the other boys plus Ollie washed and bunched the vegetables in the waterhole on their property before loading the dray ready for an early start the next morning for the market, regardless of the season. Understandably, it was just freezing cold in the middle of winter! First they had to cut flax leaves and split the leaf into approximately ¼ inch (10mm) strips with their thumb nails, then get into the water hole, wash the vegetables, count the correct number of vegies in a bunch, then tie with the cut flax, finally loading all of the produce onto the dray.

At the outbreak of World War I, although Stan and his brothers were still running the market garden, he decided he should volunteer for the army. He was still single and aged 37 years. His sister, Ollie had married William Holmes at the church of Epiphany in Crafers. Subsequently, both her sons, Ralph and Bryan were born, being delivered by their grandmother, Mary Jane Halliday at ‘Hilltop’. (Both sons later also served during WWII.) With Stan being wounded by a gunshot to his right leg on the 29th September, 1917, when Bryan was born on the 7th of November, 1917 he was named Stanley Bryan in honour of Stan.

Fortunately, Stan recovered in a regal setting at Balmoral Castle before being repatriated home. He became engaged on the 13th of April, 1918 then later married Ethel Annie (Cordes) in 1920 when she was 31 years old. Following a split in the family Charles and Walter left to go to Peterborough to work in the Railways. Trilby remained home to live with her mother in one half of the house while Stan and his wife lived in the other half. They had no children. Stan died on June 18th 1953 aged 74 and is buried in the Stirling cemetery, SA.

After the death of her mother, ‘Hilltop’ passed to Trilby who remained a spinster, dying aged 93 in 1991; she subsequently left the property to the Stirling Council as a Reserve for the children of the district. Sadly, the council instead voted to sell the property to pay off some debts. Fortunately a group Friends of the Halliday Reserve were able to influence the Council to make Hilltop Halliday Reserve as Trilby wished.
Information provided by Kaye Lee, (great niece) based on written memoires of my father, Bryan Holmes who was named after Stan.