Jennison Coach - the "Wildeshott" Caravan

[Don Ricardo]

Dec 10, 2016 18:22:19 GMT 10 Gypsy Bruce said:

Hi Don,
thanks very much for your reply. Sorry about my delay in responding. I have had a better look at my Gypsy, and this forum etc...

I am trying to put together a people-history of the SS Zealandia. Most shipping histories focus on sort of board-room level stuff, not on the passengers, crew etc, let alone the person who commissioned the ship.
I am searching for Zealandia stories like the Wildeshott one, and would love to include that and the photos in the history too. The ship had an amazing life pre WW1, as a troopship in WW1, as a very popular coastal steamer in the inter-war years and again as a troopship in WW2 beofre she was bombed in the first air raid on Darwin in 1942. Will write a note to Jennison too.
cheers and thanks Bruce...

Hi again Gypsy Bruce,

I've replied to your comments about your Gypsy caravan on a new thread that I have created here (just click on the blue link). I thought it was better to separate out the discussion about the Gypsy from the discussion about the Wildeshott and the TSS Zealandia. Hope that's OK?

The social history of the Zealandia you are proposing sounds fascinating, and well worth doing. I am sure that Jennison will be interested to hear more about your project. Do you have a personal connection with the ship?

Interestingly enough, my wife's grandfather worked at the John Brown & Co shipyards on Clydebank, and may possibly have been there around 1910 when the Zealandia was being built (he would have been 16). Talk about six degrees of separation!

We took a cruise on the River Clyde earlier this year, and saw where some of the shipyards were. There's not much to see now. Amazing - and a bit sad - how such a thriving industry can so totally disappear, and so many, many jobs with it. They say that over a period of 200 years, 20,000 ships were built on the Clyde, and at one point 25% of the world's ships were built there. So the Zealandia was the product of a proud tradition.

Do tell us more about the Zealandia as you move forward. For us vintage vanners, the ship is tied forever with the Wildeshott caravan, but at this stage we know quite a bit more about the former than the latter. We know where the Zealandia was built and by whom for starters! Hopefully one day we will find out more about the history of the Wildeshott van as well.

Don Ricardo

[Gypsy Bruce]

hi Don. Thanks very much for your reply. Amazing that your wife's grandfather worked at the same shipbuilding yard at the same time!! My great grandfather was the supervising engineer over-sighting the building of ships, tugs and paddlesteamers for Huddart Parker the Australian shipping company. The Zealandia was the last ocean going ship, and the PS Weeroona was the last paddlesteamers he built. He accompanied many of them on their delivery voyage. 
I will gradually put up some more info on this forum about the Zealandia as I get used to doing posting here. 
Cheers. Bruce. 

[Jennison]

Indeed very interested with anything you turn up. I understand the zealandia had not long separated from being escorted by the Sydney which was famously sunk shortly thereafter as well. I have some interesting official documents on the Sydney in my military collection. I will go through the file again
Regards
Jenno

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

Back in April 2008, forum member Jennison showed us some photos of an intriguing caravan from his grandfather's photograph album. Jennison's grandfather was John Jennison who designed and built Jennison caravans from the early 1930's until his death at the beginning of the 50's. (Jennison caravans then continued to be built under the control of Richard Pym.)

The caravan in the photos was a coach-style van, and the notes on the back of the photos referred to the van as the 'Wildeshott caravan', and indicated that it belonged to 'Mr & Mrs Coles'. The word 'Wildeshott' could also be seen sign written on the side of the van near the door:



In addition to the photos of the van itself, John Jennison's collection included a couple of pics of the Wildeshott van being loaded on to the TSS Zealandia on its way to Tasmania on 8 February 1939:



In this photo you can also see some words sign written on the rear of the van, which after some clever work by a couple of forum members, was deciphered as 'Jennison Coach'.

This van has continued to be a bit of a mystery since 2008. The van looks nothing like any other Jennison caravans, we have not found any other references to 'Jennison Coach' caravans, and we have not been able to find out who 'Mr and Mrs Coles' were. In addition a few of us spent quite a few hours trying to work out what 'Wildeshott' meant - was it a word in another language? Afrikaans...Dutch...some other European language? Was the van imported from the United States...New Zealand...South Africa...Europe? Every line of enquiry seemed to end up with a blank.

Some more photos of the Wildeshott van and the discussion about its origins can be seen higher up this thread.

BUT...one of our vintage van historians and sleuths has at last come up with some answers to the mystery. Griffin has recently discovered the following article published in the Sydney Sun on Sunday, 12 February 1939 (page 26):


(National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article229481439 )

The article tells us that the Wildeshott van was indeed built by John Jennison's company, Jennison Caravan Cruisers Pty Ltd, for Mr and Mrs C E H Coles, to Mr Coles' design.

We are told that Mr Coles was a "sportsman" - clearly one of the "huntin and fishin" variety - because the head of the first tiger Mr Coles had shot in India was displayed on the wall of their caravan (as one does! ).  And on top of that, Mr Coles had shot a further 30 tigers during his sporting career (probably helps to explain why tigers are now an endangered species!).  It's tempting to think that the Coles' van may have been been called the Wildeshott because Mr Coles was a 'wild shot', but maybe not! 

The article states that since his retirement from business, Mr Coles and his wife '...had devoted their time to sport and travel'.  Not only that, but because the trout fishing in NSW in February 1939 was disappointing, Mr (and presumably Mrs) Coles had '...left during the week to seek better sport in Tasmania'.  It seems that the Wildeshott caravan went with them.  Remembering the above article was published in the Sun on 12 February, that ties in directly with John Jennison's photo of the Wildeshott being loaded on to the TSS Zealandia a few days before, on 8 February 1939, destined for Hobart.

So we now know a quite a bit more about the Jennison Coach/Wildeshott van itself - who it was built by, who designed it, and some of its fittings as described in the article.  But we don't know much about the Coles, apart from the fact that Mr Coles was a "sportsman" and 'retired from business'.  Or maybe we do...

The following is an extract from The Pioneer Mail and Indian Weekly News, published in Allahabad, India, on Friday, 2 July 1920 (page 46):


(Source:  Google Books)

The paragraph outlined states:  'On being released from Military duty Mr C E H Coles, Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector, is granted leave for six months or the amount due, under article 26...of the Civil Service Regulations and the Government of India.  Finance Department letter No 168 CSR dated the 24th February, 1919, with effect from the 1st June, 1920.'

Now we don't have any direct confirmation at this point that the Mr C E H Coles, Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector in the Indian Civil Service in 1920, was the Mr C E H Coles who designed the Wildeshott van, but the initials are the same, and a Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector in India would presumably have had a bit of time to shoot tigers.  How many 'C E H Coles' who had spent time in India could there be?  Maybe we can find out a bit more about C E H Coles as time passes.

Thanks to Griffin for unearthing the article from the Sydney Sun, and to Jennison for alerting me to Griffin's discovery, which was originally posted on the Our Touring Past website.  It is fantastic to find out a bit more about the Wildeshott van, and its origins.  Well done to both of them.

Don Ricardo

[murray]

Feb 2, 2018 22:48:14 GMT 10 Don Ricardo said:

...left during the week to seek better sport in Tasmania'.  It seems that the Wildeshott caravan went with them. 

Don Ricardo

Explains the tassie tiger shortage in 1939 !! 

Will keep an eye out for the van though 

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

There is one further little footnote on the history of the Jennison Coach/Wildeshott caravan that I thought some of you might be interested in.

As we know from the history higher up this thread, the Wildeshott van was transported from Sydney to Hobart in 1939 on board the TSS Zealandia, departing on 8 February, so that the owners Mr & Mrs C E H Coles could do a spot of fishing in Tasmania. Photos of the caravan being loaded on to the ship are shown above, and the photo below is of the ship itself:


(Source: www.theclydebankstory.com/image.php?inum=TCSM00146)

During World War II, the Zealandia was used as a troop and cargo ship, and carried a cargo of guns, ammunition, and an anti-tank company to Darwin shortly before the bombing of the town and harbour by the Japanese on 19 February 1942. The Zealandia was one of the ships sunk during the bombing.

After the war, Darwin Harbour remained littered with shipwrecks which impeded its use until 1959 when work began to clear the wrecks. The company contracted to undertake the salvage, somewhat ironically in some ways, was the Japanese company Fujita Salvage - led by Mr Ryugo Fujita - which won a worldwide tender for the work.

As it happened, however, Mr Fujita was a Christian who personally wanted to make some reparation for the damage done by his country during the war, and from something I read, I think did the work virtually at cost.

One of the ships that was salvaged by Mr Fujita was the Zealandia, and he had some of the brass from the Zealandia fashioned into 77 crosses. The crosses were then presented by Mr Fujita and the Japanese Ambassador to the Darwin Memorial United Church at its opening on 23 July 1960 as a sign of peace and reconciliation.

Not knowing anything of this story previously, Dona Ricardo and I visited the Darwin Memorial (now) Uniting Church during a trip last October:



We were touched to read about Mr Fujita's gift to the church, to make the connection with the Zealandia and the Wildeshott caravan, and to see the crosses, which have been used to decorate the pulpit, communion rail, and the ends of the pews:





So we may not know what happened to the Wildeshott van after its voyage to Hobart aboard the TSS Zealandia, or where it might be now.  But we can have a direct connection to the ship, and therefore an indirect connection to the Wildeshott, through the crosses in the church that were fashioned from the Zealandia's fittings.

Don Ricardo