NAME Charles Bertram Towers
BORN Abt. 1887
DIED Abt. 1965
MILITARY SERIAL NO. 4246
UNIT 17th Battalion
ENLISTED Sydney 16 November 1915
DISCHARGED Sydney 26 April 1919 – Medically Unfit – Severe gun shot wound to arm.

Chares Bertram Towers had a small holding of five acres – the property ‘Barcona’ located at Rona Street, Peakhurst. On 4 April 1921 he wrote about difficulties he was having meeting his instalments. He had started market gardening and got along for eight months till his last crop was ruined by disease and dry weather.[1]

He requested an advance to pay his instalments, until his crops came in ‘as they showed promise of satisfactory yields’.[2]
His request for financial help was refused.[3] He wrote again later in the month request money to pay for five or six hundred feet of galvanised piping, ‘as you can’t grow vegetables without water’.[4] He asked again before 5 September 1922 for financial assistance to repair his cart, and this was also refused.[5]

Footnotes

[1]SRNSW: Lands Department; NRS 8058, Returned Soldiers loan files;  [12/7240 No. 7347] Charles Bertram Towers, C B towers to the Deputy Commissioner of Repatriation 4 April 1921.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid, Deputy Commissioner Department of Repatriation 8 April 1921.

[4] Ibid, C B Towers to the Director SS Branch 23 April 1921.

[5] Ibid, E.P. Fleming to C.B. Towers 6 September 1922.

Sources used to compile this entry:

State Records NSW: Lands Department; NRS 8058, Returned Soldiers Settlement loan files; [12/7240 No. 7347] Charles Bertram Towers.

National Archives of Australia: B2455, First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers (Charles Bertram Towers) online: http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/imagine.asp?B=8392699&I=1&SE=1.