Our facebook community are so good. On the weekend I was contacted and sent a picture of a old metal chest with the name MAJ C Boland Royal Derwent Hospital, New Norfolk, Tasmania, Australia painted clearly on the top. The person who posted me the picture was after the provenance for herself and the owner. So the mystery started. I posted the picture in our Facebook Group, our Facebook Page and another local New Norfolk Facebook Group and asked for help. I had a couple of hints at whom people thought it maybe and at one stage we thought it might have belonged to a previous patient at the Hospital. As is our policy with respecting patient\resident privacy, I almost chose to stop the hunt there.

I went back to the picture and after one of the group members suggested there was a Doctor with that name there in the 60’s I realised that the MAJ was the abbreviation for Major. With this new information and a possible military connection I investigated further and was able to find a connection to a Dr Boland in New South Wales in 2003 and also with the The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 2008 after his death. With more information I was able to find Dr Boland’s eulogy, which had been thoughtfully written by his daughter.

Click to read DAD’S EULOGY which included Dr Boland’s family history at New Norfolk, Sandy Bay and finally Sydney. The owner of the case is planning to print out the eulogy and keep it with the old trunk. Mystery solved!