Gordon Dennes was born in 1892. He commenced his education at Wingham Superior Public School in 1900. In 1906 he received the certificate for passing the Presbyterian Church’s examination in Catechism. In 1910 he passed the Junior Public Examination conducted by the University of Sydney and he was accepted into the Posts & Telegraphs Branch of  the New South Wales Public Service in 1911. In 1932 he transferred  to the School of Public Health and Tropical Diseases at Sydney University where he was employed until his retirement in May 1957. Gordon Dennes was married twice, first in 1932 to Isabella Sinclair, and then to Elizabeth Anderson about 1951.

Due to his family heritage and growing up in the district, Gordon Dennes held a strong interest in Scottish settlers of the Manning and Clarence River areas. He commenced his research in the 1920s and it was published in the Wingham Chronicle of which he was the editor. In 1934 Dennes adopted the nom de plume of 'Braemar' and began publishing items of interest in newspapers on the North Coast. He was compiling biographies of the Manning River pioneers and ship builders. The Gordon Dennes collection was donated to the Society of Genealogists in 1976 by his wife Elizabeth and consists of 1489 files of newspaper clippings, transcripts of headstones, and transcripts of birth death and marriage certificates.

Image: Unidentified Manning River Pioneers, SAG Manuscript and Image Collection Item 5/134

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