Box 05, Box 06X, and Box 07: Fry family papers of Dene Barrett Fry, ca.1899 - 1917

MLMSS 1159 ADD-ON 2076/Boxes 5, 7
MLMSS 1159 ADD-ON 2076/Box 6X

file

ca.1899 - 1917

128434

Dene Barrett Fry was born in Sydney in 1893. A keen amateur naturalist since boyhood, he joined the Australian Museum as a cadet in 1908 and studied zoology at Sydney Technical College; he was a member of the Linnean Society of NSW and the Australasian Ornithologists' Union. He left the Museum in 1914 to study science at Sydney University and was appointed Junior Demonstrator in Zoology in 1915, but left the University in May to enlist with the Australian Imperial Forces. After one voyage to England and Egypt with the Army Medical Corps he transferred to the Infantry in 1916. He trained at Liverpool and Duntroon and left Sydney in August 1916 with the reinforcements to the 3rd Battalion on board the transport "Wiltshire". Dene Fry was killed in action at Hermies, France, 9 April 1917.

ca.1900 - 1917; Letters received; correspondents include : his father Arthur Fry (ca.1900-1917); his mother Carrie Fry (1917) [he did not receive the last letters from his parents as they arrived in France after his death; they were returned to the family]; Heber A.Longman, assistant curator and later director of the Queensland Museum (1912-1915); Thomas Bancroft (1912-1913); W.B.Alexander, Keeper of Biology at the Western Australian Museum (1914-1915); Launcelot Harrison (1915-1916). With letter, 22 January 1910, from Dene Fry to Allan McCulloch at the Australian Museum, written from Narrabri where he had been sent to collect specimens. (Call No.: ML MSS 1159, ADD-ON 2076/BOX 5)
ca.1899 - ca.1907; 'Dene's School Work, Stories, Drawings', including : poems, english compositions, school homework books, watercolour sketches of birds and plants, and other pencil, pen & ink and watercolour sketches. (Call No.: ML MSS 1159, ADD-ON 2076/BOX 7)
1907 - 1916; Papers re : employment at The Australian Museum; studies at Sydney Technical College and Sydney University; military training; including letters, testimonials, certificates. (Call No.: ML MSS 1159, ADD-ON 2076/BOXES 6X,7)
1907 - 1917; Miscellaneous papers and printed material, including : book review by Dene Fry, 1907, of 'Australian Insects' by ? Froggatt; 'Ornithologists on the Great Barrier Reef. Expedition to Masthead Island', newspaper article by Dene Fry, 1910; note book kept after enlisting with addresses, record of letters sent, and some diary entries; 'Soldier-songs from Anzac / written in the firing line by Signaller Tom Skeyhill', George Robertson & Co., [1916]; 'Description of aphantophryne, a new batrachian genus from New Guinea; with comparative notes on the pectoral musculature', paper by Dene Fry reprinted from the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of NSW, Vol. xli,1916. (Call No.: ML MSS 1159, ADD-ON 2076/BOX 7)