Who's been sleeping in my house - this Friday!

So be sure and watch the ABC this Friday (29 March) at 8pm as the ABC series Who's been Sleeping in my House?  makes its way to Paddington (and Cambridge Street).  There have been a few reviews (here's the link to the SMH) and we are pretty excited to see what actually makes it onto the small screen.  I might even be able to wangle an interview with the residents!

Pigeon mail on Cambridge Street?

The following article is from the SMH of 25 March 1901.  On first reading I was wondering why carrier pigeon messages warranted reporting in the SMH.  Were they novel?  But then it twigged it had something to do with the military.  You might be, as was I, wondering what military expeditions were afoot in 1901.  The answer is the Boer War, and in 1901 it was the 5th rotation of NSW troops off to South Africa.  The 'British Princess' and 'Ranee' were carrying much of the 3rd NSW Mounted Rifles.  They were more troubled by disease than the Boers, losing 32 to illness and 7 to the enemy out of their 1,000 strength.  They returned to Australia on 2 June 1902.  If you are interested here is a link to more of the 3rd NSW's history.  They had some nice kit back in the day.

Now I am not sure if the birds were meant for Victoria Barracks and were just intercepted at Cambridge Street, or if a local pigeon enthusiast hired out a few of his birds for government work.  However the system worked it appears a Mr A Bassetti, who lived at 13 Cambridge Street, received a number of birds back from the military transport 'Ranee'.  One from Capt. Copeland and another from Capt. Stokes. I couldn't really find out much more about our correspondents except for confirmation of their service.  At least the odds were in their favour that they made it back.  As for Mr A. Bassetti the Sands Directory records the main resident as a J. B. Bassetti.  This family was better known for its pub rather than its pigeons, being the proprietors of the Solferino Hotel on Sutherland Street.  The Solferino, which opened in 1878, is better known today as the 'Four in Hand'.  Gee you can learn a few things here!!  

Monty Noble

Montague Alfred Noble, otherwise known as MA Noble if you've seen the grandstand named after him at the SCG, was a pretty handy cricketer.  He rose from the Paddington club to captain Australia at test level and at the time was only one of two men to record the "double", 1000 test runs and 100 test wickets against the English. He was named Wisden cricketer of the year in 1900. You can read more about him in his Australian dictionary of biography entry here.

Of more interest to the Cambridge Street resident is just what connection Noble has to the street.  Well, according to the Sands Directory his mother, Maria, lived at 41 Cambridge Street from 1893 into the 1900's.  His brother Henry, "a well-known Anglican clergyman", lived just down the hill at 59 Cambridge Street.  Now the Sands doesn't give the full list of occupants of a house but I assume that MA Noble, who was born in 1873, would have lived with his folks until he got married (which he did in 1914).

Paddington was a veritable cricketing academy in the day, with 3 players from the district club representing Australia.  In addition to MA Noble, we had wicketkeeper JJ Kelly (whose address I am yet to track down) and legendary batsman Victor Trumper (who lived at 112 Paddington Street).  Noble and Trumper both also turned out for the Paddington Baseball Club.