History of the New England newspaper press 12 - Hard Times: the early life of David Drummond

David Drummond 1907: For Drummond, his arrival in Armidale one cold day in 1907 marked the start of the rest of his life.

This is the twelfth in a series on the history of the media and especially the newspaper press in New England, the fifth column on the emergence of the NSW Country Party 

Following the reformation of the NSW Progressive Party in October 1919, the Farmers and Settlers’ Association (FSA) executive asked its branches to look for suitable candidates for the forthcoming state elections. 

One Sunday in October, the young Inverell sharefarmer David Drummond delivered the sermon at the Church on Thomas Browning's property at Arrawatta. Inverell stock and station agent Ray Doolin was a member of the congregation. 

We were looking for new candidates ..., young men for preference ... I was so impressed with his earnest delivery and voice, I said to Bowling, "Dave is one of the candidates we are looking for." Next day I got a few together, Tom Bowling, R.J. Higgins, A. Macfadden, and went out to the farm. Drummond was working on shares

Drummond was surprised. The previous year he had declined an invitation to run because he felt that he was not ready. This time he told the delegation that he would give them an answer after he discussed it with Farmers and Settlers’ members and his friend Arthur Cosh.

A few days later after talking to Cosh, Drummond said he would stand and then accepted nomination from the Mt. Russell Branch of the FSA.

In some ways, Drummond was a surprising candidate. He was young, very serious, deaf and lacked formal education.

Drummond was born on 11 February 1890 at Lewisham, Sydney, fourth son of Scottish parents Morris Cook Drummond, stonemason, and his wife Catherine, née McMillan.

Catherine died in 1892. Morris married again, with a daughter now added to the family. Then in 1896 Morris died, leaving the family in financial distress.

In 1901, Drummond was awarded a Presbyterian Church scholarship to study at Scots College. While at Scots he suffered an illness that left him deaf. 

Drummond lost his scholarship and, with age falsified from twelve to fourteen, began working in May 1902. In October he came into the custody of the New South Wales State Children's Relief Board as a ward of the state 

Initially Drummond was sent to a farm home at Pokolbin established to manage problem children. There conditions were quite unpleasant. 

“Thus began my practical education in child welfare”, Drummond later wrote. “It included a knowledge of spies who urged lads to run away and then betrayed them to those in control. There were good reasons for running away, but I trusted no one.”

The farm home was closed and, apart from a brief period back at school, the lad worked on farms around the Hunter.

Then one cold day in 1907, the seventeen year old Drummond arrived in Armidale carrying all his possessions in a cheap carry-all. To Drummond, this day marked the start of the rest of his life. 

Note to readers: This post was prepared as a column for the on-line edition of the Armidale Express. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020