Nichols, Ernest

Collection relating to Sergeant Ernest Nichols of the Royal Marines, who served during the period 1879 to 1881 on the screw corvette HMS Wolverine, the flagship of the Royal Navy's Australian Squadron at the time. The main item in the collection is Nichols' original handwritten pocket sized diary with entries from 21 February 1879 up to 2 September 1881, including when HMS Wolverine was based in Sydney, Australia. The majority of the entries are one or two lines in length, stating the date (and in some instances time) of his arrival in cities in Australia, New Zealand, and numerous South Pacific Islands, as well as other Naval ships sighted. Longer paragraph entries are more detailed and provide descriptions of the living conditions of the 'natives', and specific incidents involving conflict with local Islander people and the destruction of thier villages and agriculture. In 1882 the HMS Wolverine was given to the colony of NSW as a training ship for the NSW Naval Brigade. Inside the back cover of the diary is written an untitled, four verse poem, without an author's name. The collection also includes a typed transcript of Nichol's diary, completed by his grandson in 2009, and an original studio photograph of Nichols in uniform, taken in Hobart Town, Tasmania.