A Brush

ARMOUR: A BRUSH WITH HISTORY

Below is one reader's story of his 'brush with history'
when, as a small child on a school outing, he got to try on Ned Kelly's
armour! He also shares with us his ancestor's brushes with history.
Quite an interesting narrative!

A BRUSH WITH HISTORY

Following the end of WWII (1946), while on a school (Richmond Central)
excursion to the Exhibition Buildings in Melbourne, Victoria, I saw and
felt something that gave me a lifetime interest in the saga of Ned
Kelly.
We were being shown through the building by a caretaker (I assume). He
had an enormous bunch of keys that impressed me no end. As he was
ushering the class through what appeared to be a storage room, I noticed
a pile of metal objects and several old guns in a corner. Naturally, I
stopped to look and asked the guide what it all was. He told me "Ned
Kelly's armour". I went straight over to it and started trying to lift
it but at 6 or 7 years old, it was heavier than me! The caretaker
asked if I'd like to try it on - would I! He hung it over my
shoulders and it rested on the floor back and front. Then he put the
helmet on my head. I was too small to see through the slit properly, but
I can still feel the absolute thrill tingle through me. The gun was
unusual as, from memory, it seemed to have interchangeable barrels, one
smooth bore, the other rifled. It seemed - again from memory - to be
very short; I put it up to my shoulder and it fitted me. The
revolver was run of the mill and the man said it was supposed to have
been retrieved from a water barrel at the Inn after the siege. That's
about all I can remember about that day.
During the War, I was lucky enough to be staying on an Aunty's farm near
Yundool. She knew the Kellys, apparently fairly well when she was a
child. In 1880 she was 12 or 13 years old - she died in the early 1960's
aged 90-something years old. She used to tell me about running to meet
the coach from Melbourne and asking the driver "Is there any news of
Ned?"
I had a Great-Uncle who was in the Victoria Police Force at the time of
the Kellys. He fell from his horse somewhere north of Kilsyth and was
killed. The family reckoned he was looking for the Kelly Gang at the
time, but I don't know, I'm rather skeptical!

Regards, Paul Boxshall.