The One-Legged Tennis Player

The library was  recently made aware of a remarkable photograph of a local man playing in a tennis tournament in 1935... using one leg! The man was Fred Morgan from Campbelltown. The tennis tournament was the Lawn Tennis Country Carnival at Rushcutter's Bay.

Fred would play using a crutch which he used under his left armpit. When serving he discarded the crutch altogether. The newspaper reports described his poise as "superb, and he possessed a service which many players would envy. He hops into the court after his delivery, and effects many fine half-volleys and volleys. Needless to say, his balance is materially affected when his crutch is discarded, and this interferes with his volleying". Apparently his strength was his forehand drive.

Fred Morgan was the son of George and Amy Morgan. It was this family that Morgan's Gate was named after (see an earlier blog post on Morgan's Gate). Not much is known about the rest of Fred's life other than he was born in 1910 in Campbelltown, lived in Chamberlain Street and later moved to Manly where he died in 1952 at the young age of 42. In 1936, he was listed as a hairdresser in Campbelltown.

Thank you to Michael Veness for alerting us to the photograph.

Photograph is from the State Library of New South Wales picture collection.

Written by Andrew Allen

Gated Campbelltown

Think Narellan road is a pain? Early last century, a night trip to Camden meant waking up Mrs Mortimer so that the gate might be opened for you to cross the railway track.

In the days of sulkies, drays and even into the 1930’s and the era of the motor car, both the North and South ends of Campbelltown were barred by gates in order to regulate road and rail traffic.

Gatekeeper George Morgan attended the North Gate, with his ‘old walking stick and a cheery goodnight to those going or coming.’ The crossing was a well-known black spot to locals. A newspaper article of 1926, entitled ‘Morgan’s Gates Again’ reports that the driver of a Hudson Motor car travelling along Queen Street failed to see the closed gates until it was too late, ploughing through Mr Morgan’s fence and into his garden. The occupants suffered no injuries.

Tragically, Irene Ruby Orontess Scattergood was not so lucky dying in an accident at the gate in 1925.

Irene Scattergood in the back row on the left at Campbelltown South Public School c 1917.

Photo: McMahon Collection

It was this accident that began the crusade of the Local Member of State Parliament Mr Andrew Lysaght. He requested the Main Roads Board and the railway department construct an overbridge. ‘There is no money’ came the answer.  Mr Lysaght had a big say in the Lang Government and so with additional labour from council workers the original Morgan’s gate overbridge was opened for traffic on the 7^th March 1930.

 Plan of the proposed overbridge 1926

Mortimer’s gate had not quite so many accidents. It was tended by H Mortimer and after his death his wife Emma. A ‘blanket around her shoulders’ on cold days, she helped travellers on their way until her death in 1923 aged 58.

Afterwards the job went to the railways. A gatekeeper’s box stood by the gate with a coal stove to keep them warm in winter. Connected by telephone to the signal box at Campbelltown station three men maintained three shifts around the clock.  James Ashford worked with two one armed men,  Joe McGarrity who could still hold a cigarette with his stump and Hilton Charles Rumery, victim of a shunting accident.

 

Bibliography

Thanks to Fred Seers and Norm Campbell

Campbelltown Ingleburn News 22.1.1926

Campbelltown Ingleburn News 27.08.1937

Campbelltown: the Bicentennial History – Carol Liston

Memories of South Western Campbelltown NSW 1931-38 Fred Seers 1990

Norm Campbell – Oral History, Campbelltown Library

Written by Michael S