Garnet Preston

Garnet Clarence Eden Preston was born 1893 at Eden, New South Wales, son of Edward Preston and Margaret Neal. He was one of twins, his brother being Alfred Stanley Thomas Andrew Preston. The name ‘Garnet’ was taken from the surname of a close family friend, while ‘Eden’ reflected his mother’s birthplace.

Preston enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 19 March 1915 and served with the 18th Battalion. He fought at Gallipoli and later in France, where he suffered concussion and a serious knee injury from shrapnel. Although doctors recommended amputation, Preston refused, and he carried the injury for the rest of his life. His later service was spent in England, where he was often absent without leave as he would spent much time away visiting his future wife. Despite this, he was awarded the 1914–15 Star, British War Medal, and Victory Medal, and was discharged from the AIF in October 1919.

In October of 1916 Preston married Mabel Lillian Hersey in Surrey, England. Their first child, Roland, was born in England in 1919. The family returned to Australia shortly afterwards, settling near Leeton, where Preston was granted a soldier-settler’s block.

The Great Depression forced Preston to sell his land, and for many years the family lived an itinerant life across New South Wales. Life was rough, with homes built from timber and sugar bags and bark huts made from split logs. Preston worked as a miner and prospector, mining tin near Ki-Kiora, gold around Weethalle, and shipping ore by rail to Sydney for sale.

By the 1950s Preston was working at Lightning Ridge and nearby fields, and by the 1960s was an opal cutter at Glengarry.

Around 1940 the family moved to Sydney, first at Ashfield and later Earlwood, where Preston and his wife had a small shop. Mabel Preston died in 1960. Garnet Preston died on 8 July 1967 at Concord, New South Wales, aged 74.

Article: Research by Russell Gawthorpe and Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: Lightning Ridge Historical Society oral history; KelNeal63, ancestry.com.au; ‘Stole Ore’, The West Wyalong Advocate, 1 March 1932, p. 4.