Access to Prisoners Ages in Adelaide S.A. 19

[Ettie]

Is there any way I can obtain the age of a prisoner in Adelaide in 1935 please. This would enable me to ascertain whether the man I seek bearing the correct name is the one I seek

[Hugh Thompson]

Hi Ettie, also you could check the newspapers for his arrest and court case as they usually have their ages mentioned.
Hugh.

[judyg]

Hi Ettie,

I have all the South Australian Police Gazettes from 1862 - 1947. If you can supply his name I will see what I can find.

Cheers
Judyg

[Ettie]

Harold Victor Sparks born 1893 Bristol England. Newspaper report The Advertiser delaide 6 December 1935 to be imprisoned for 5 months no age given.

[Coromandel]

Hello Ettie

The Adelaide Advertiser of 8 August 1935 says that Harold Victor Sparkes (manufacturing chemist, of Sydenham Road, Norwood) was 42 years old. This perhaps is his own description of himself: some of the other newspaper reports of 1935 call him a 'salesman, of no fixed abode'. Not quite the same!

In 1941 a 47 year old Harold Victor Sparkes pleaded guilty to stealing a tweed overcoat belonging to James Bates of Emerald; this is reported in the the Morning Bulletin (published in Rockhampton, Queensland) of 2 September 1941.

[Coromandel]

This looks like him again! The Sydney Morning Herald of 22 February 1930 reports that Harold Victor Sparkes, 36, salesman, who had been charged with 'having fraudulently embezzled £1/7/6 from the Burgin Electric Company Limited, by whom he was employed', was acquitted.

and again in the Melbourne Argus, 6 February 1935 . . . this time acquitted of stealing a ring. Here he is described as a 39 year old inventor, 'formerly of Irwell Street St Kilda and recently of Sydney (NSW)'. He conducted his own defence.

[Coromandel]

An index to the South Australian Police Gazette, 1936, has this entry:

Sparkes, Harold Victor, alias Arthur Grayson, alias T. Bryon, alias Robert Waring, discharged, 130; suspected of larceny on Dorothea Louise Howard, 291.

The above is taken from p.62 of this PDF file:

https://www.
unlockthepast.com.au/sites/default/files/samples/AU5103-1936s.pdf

[judyg]

Hi Ettie,

If you can give me a few hours I will PM you with a lot of details on him including his mug shots. I have to go out for most of the day but will get on to it asap

Cheers
Judyg