Watercolour of SS Ashburton, 1913

Edwin Charles Garbett was born in Melbourne, Victoria on 15 March 1889. He came to Western Australia by cattle ship in 1897 and moved around the southwest and attended many different schools before settling in Midland in 1904. He attended Chidlow Wells School and in 1907 he won a Midland Junction Technical Education scholarship in mechanical drawing, forming part of his apprenticeship in diesel engineering with the WA Government Railways Workshop in Midland.

After Edwin completed his apprenticeship, he moved to Sydney to work on ships, before sailing on a steamer to England. Edwin documented this trip in detail, drawing the workings of the ship’s engine in pencil on various scraps of paper. On arrival in England, he found work as a fitter with a railway company and again, describes their locomotives, illustrating them and recording information.

Edwin returned to Western Australia and continued his work as a fitter at the Midland Railway Workshops before enlisting with the 2nd Light Railway Company on 24 March 1917, his service number was 1909. Edwin undertook further training as a blacksmith and fitter at Broadmeadows in Melbourne before sailing aboard the “Ascanius” in May 1917. He was stationed at St Lucia Barracks, Borden in Hampshire and promoted to 2nd Corporal where he was paid 8/- per day as a fitter. He sailed from Southampton to France in September 1917.

Edwin sent postcards home, stating he was “somewhere in Belgium” is 1917 and from December 1918 until February 1919, he was stationed at Courtrai near the French border with 2nd Australian Light Railway Operating Company. After the Armistice, Edwin was granted leave from June to August 1919 to do a design course at A.H Clarkson Ltd, advertising specialists located in Fleet Street, London. Following this, he returned to Western Australia and his job at the Midland Workshops. Edwin died, aged 42, in 1932, from pneumonia and pleurisy.