Oswald Clive Nash: Australian Gangster

Oswald Clive Nash was born 24 Feb 1905 in Bodangora, NSW, Australia, to Thomas James Nash (1876-1952) & Daisy Steel (1877-1968).







John Walter Ford & Oswald Clive Nash
Jun 1921

Australia

Mug shot of John Walter Ford and Oswald Clive Nash, June 1921, possibly North Sydney Police Station, Sydney.    Special Photograph no. 407. A week after the photograph was taken the pair, both aged 16, appeared in North Sydney Police Court on break, enter and steal charges, for which they were put on bonds to be of good behaviour for twelve months.  This picture is one of a series of around 2500 "special photographs" taken by New South Wales Police Department photographers between 1910 and 1930. These "special photographs" were mostly taken in the cells at the Central Police Station, Sydney and are, as curator Peter Doyle explains, of "men and women recently plucked from the street, often still animated by the dramas surrounding their apprehension". Doyle suggests that, compared with the subjects of prison mug shots, "the subjects of the Special Photographs seem to have been allowed - perhaps invited - to position and compose themselves for the camera as they liked. Their photographic identity thus seems constructed out of a potent alchemy of inborn disposition, personal history, learned habits and idiosyncrasies, chosen personal style (haircut, clothing, accessories) and physical characteristics."    31311    1921    New South Wales. Police Dept.  City of Shadows at the Justice & Police Museum, Sydney, November 2005-January 2007.  Glass plate negative:







Oswald was married twice:

Married 1923 in St. Leonards, NSW, Australia, they divorced in 1928
Fanny Dawson
1904–1954
Son
Rex Nash
1925–1988


Married 1941 in North Sydney, NSW, Australia 
Irene Ellen Lithgow

1915–1994

Oswald died 30 May 1997 in Berkeley Vale, NSW, Australia 

Here is his Find A Grave Memorial

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/135159688

The time and age of our history and those who made it, sure can be something. I am sure the gangsters in Australia weren't much different than those here in America. Booze, guns, drugs, stealing, it's all the same no matter where you live. I sure do love his mugshot.


Comments