Harold Wilson's land purchase - 1944

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My mother, Patricia ROMERIL (nee WILSON) was the family historian for our extended family - she kept all her research papers (doing it in the "olden days" as my grandchildren say)!  The paperwork and documents date back to the 1940s.  She has aerogramme letters sent to Family History Societies in England. Mum also used carbon paper whenever she wrote letters!  So ..... I have boxes of letters that I am slowly transcribing.  I am slowly going through boxes of paperwork.

Last night I came across a (1944) Pass Book from Arthur Rickard & Co Ltd. Bradbury House, 55 York Street, Sydney.  The company was put into voluntary liquidation in 1930.  



In 1904 Rickard registered a real estate firm and his advertising urged families to "buy rather than rent", availing themselves of "Rickard's Easy Terms".  My grandmother took up the offer and purchased land in July 1944 in Narroy Parade, North Narrabeen, on behalf of my uncle.  He was 20 years old at the time and serving in the Army.
The purchase price of the land was 70 pounds, plus 1 pound stamp duty, with a deposit of 30 pounds. Monthly instalments were 2 pounds and the land was fully paid by June 1945. 


The passbook states:  PARTICULARS OF TITLE may be obtained from Vendors'Solicitors Messrs. Norton, Smith & Co., 39 Hunter St. Sydney (5th Floor attention Mr. L. G. Rowe).  

I remember my Uncle "Hocka" and his family living in their home on the property for many years. 
I wonder if my grandmother purchased land for her other 2 sons who were also serving overseas during the war"

Source - Peter Spearritt, 'Rickard, Sir Arthur (1868–1948)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rickard-sir-arthur-8206/text14357, published first in hardcopy 1988, accessed online 28 June 2021.













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