Phelan and Atkin Family History

The First World War claimed the lives of several members of the Phelan and Atkin family trees, however not as many suffered the same fate in the Second World War - in fact it may have only been one: Dad's first cousin George Kennett Charles Gilbert Clark, known as Ken. The name 'Kennett' was likely bestowed in honour of Ken's (and Dad's) uncle Harry Kennett Cowan, who was one of those to be tragically killed in the preceding war. Harry, also known as Ken, and his brother Charles Cowan both paid the ultimate sacrifice in the First World War; I will write about their wartime experience in a future post. Ken Clark was the son of Harold and Essie Clark (nee Cowan) and was employed as a window dresser at the time of his enlistment, on 20 May 1940 at Brighton, a month after his 25th birthday. His initial posting was to the 2/14th Battalion and he embarked at Sydney on 19 October on the Aquitania , arriving in the Middle East on 25 November. He spent over a year there, but...

Welcome to my first post in a very long time! Despite Covid seeming to be the perfect opportunity to power ahead with my research and blogging, I actually found myself concentrating on other projects. I hope to get back into the research soon, but I did have this post sitting around as a draft from when I was researching my Phelan ancestors: it is about a family link to an American World War II Flying Ace, James Mugavero: James Dennis Mugavero was born on 3 July 1920 in Port Huron, Michigan. He grew up there and attended Port Huron Junior College before enlisting in the U.S. Army following the United States’ entry into World War II. He applied for pilot training, was accepted, and was sent to Arcadia Field, Florida, for Primary Flight Training, with Basic Flight School at Bainbridge Field, Georgia. He subsequently earned his wings and commission as a Second Lieutenant at Marianna, Florida on 1 October 1943. Following additional training in the P-47, Lieutenant Mugavero was sent to the ...

From the personal file of AC2 Brian Joseph Phelan (Service no 450649), obtained from the National Archives of Australia: Three days after turning 18, Brian Joseph Phelan filled out an application form to join the Royal Australian Air Force. Character references were provided by the Mayor of South Melbourne, and the Staff Superintendent of the Ministry of Munitions (where Brian had been working for 18 months). Brian underwent a series of tests on 1 June 1944: at his medical examination he was recorded at 67 inches (170cm) and 140 pounds (63.5kg); his complexion was described as dark, eyes brown and hair dark. Vision results differ between eyes: his right had a visual acuity of 6/9, left 6/6. In his aptitude test, he scored ‘very good’ for numerical calculation, capacity for plans and designs, and mechanical aptitude; ‘good’ for general intelligence and borderline ‘average’/’good’ for speed and accuracy at routine. Overall he was considered ‘educationally qualified’ for A...