Drinks and nibbles will be served at 5.00 pm, before the talk at 5.30 pm.

John Patience, Convict No. 2 – Mattie Turnbull Fremantle History Centre, Ground Floor, Walyalup Civic Centre 151 High Street, Fremantle 6160 Tuesday 28 May 5.00 pm.

It is remarkable that the John Patience story has not yet been told. By this, there are many, many ‘stories’ of convicts who were imprisoned in Fremantle Prison at the same time as John Patience. No doubt many of us became familiar with the awful goings on and the remarkable experiences of those imprisoned. In today’s world, we can now actually visit the circumstances in which they were punished.

The May presenter, Mattie Turnbull, is the mother in law of a direct descendant of John Patience who has not had an opportunity to acknowledge his personal history. This history has many tangents, several of which were sad, but ultimately were by and large ‘successful’. This ‘success’ was achieved as he was awarded a ‘Ticket of Leave’ quite soon after his imprisonment. This decision was not due to ‘good behaviour’ or some such criterion; and the presentation will offer the politics and the story of this success.

John Patience was convicted of burglary and sentenced to 14 years transportation in 1848 in Dorset in the South of England. These were strange times in the colonisation by the British across the world and the John Patience history is a valid part and parcel of these times, and to further spark interest, the John Patience story was Convict Number Two to Western Australia!