In 1924, Harry Gordon Gracie, a 24 year-old bank teller, was asked by
the Treloar family of Tamworth to accompany their son, Bill, whose doctor
had advised treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, United States.
Bill
apparently suffered from an ailment which the Australian specialists felt could not
be adequately dealt with in Australia. Thus he was sent to one of the
world's centres of learning and healing, the Mayo Clinic.
Harry's trip lasted six months. The pair left Sydney in August 1924 and
headed across the Pacific Ocean via New Zealand and Tahiti to San Francisco
where they stayed and toured for a couple of weeks. They then travelled
overland for Bill's treatment in Rochester where they stayed for four
weeks. Following this they went on to New York (overland via Chicago and
Buffalo) and then London for 2 months. While in London Harry visited Paris
before returning to Sydney via the Suez, leaving Bill in Cornwall to continue
his recovery.
This website attempts to restore some of Harry's memories using letters
and postcards written by Harry, and photos taken by Harry and Bill. There are also
many links to web sites containing information relevant to his experiences (mostly
contemporary).
Most of the letters were addressed to his father Arthur Gracie, "Abergavenny",
French St, Artarmon, NSW, Australia. This is now a mixed residential and
industrial suburb five minutes on the freeway north of the Sydney Harbour
Bridge (although the bridge was not opened until 1932). Sadly all of the
stamps have been removed (although thankfully they have been carefully
removed and the envelopes remain).
To start your journey through these letters I can see no better way
than Andrew's tantalising introduction followed by
the Premier's letter of introduction.
If you find that these pages load too slowly then
you may prefer the text only versions. By viewing
the text only versions you will not get any of the links or photographs.
Also, not all proof reading corrections have been made to the text only
versions.
You may also be interested in
how the letters made it to the web.
For the record, Harry and Bill remained friends, both living into their
70s.
Continue to:
List of Letters,
List of Cities etc,
Search
This website is dedicated to Nancy Louise Byrne (née Gracie)
eldest
daughter of Harry and Kath Gracie
(16 Dec 1929 - 14 Apr 2001)
© Most images and all text are owned by
the estates of the Gracie and Treloar families.
No part of this site may be used
or reproduced without consent.
300dpi images are available on request
for non-profit purposes.
Click here for Andrew's contact details.
Click here for Sam's contact details.
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