
This issue takes readers from the battlefields of Waterloo to the entrepreneurial adventures of “Mademoiselle Rose” of Snails Bay; from a century-old tug-of-war between Hunters Hill’s beloved trees and the telegraph department, to the launch of a major digitisation project that will bring 6,000 historical photographs to the public.

This issue pays tribute to a much-loved President, follows a Japanese imperial gift from the court of the Mikado to a Woolwich sitting room, and uncovers a mystery hiding in our own collection — seven men in the harbour and the yacht that connected them. We also revisit life behind the gates of Gladesville Hospital, and find an unexpected echo of W.B. Yeats in a Hunters Hill garden.