Australian Dress Register

James and Ellen Carlton left Ireland and arrived in the colony on 28 August 1841 on board the ship the Percy. They first appear to have lived in the Nelson Plains area and later moved to Pinebruch, near Dungog. James and Ellen had 13 children. Their 4th son, Vincent, was born on 2 August 1848 and he married Bridget Moylan.

Tom died on 2 April 1976, aged 87 years. 

Born in 1887

Tom was a stock and station agent, or an auctioneer for over 50 years and took over his uncle's cattle auction business in 1933. His uncle was renowned as the best auctioneer in the region.

There were no vets in Dungog until the 1940s and Tom Carlton gelded colts and performed other vetinary work for the community between the 1920s and 1940s. Castrating horses is a difficult procedure to undertake so Tom was performing an important role that could only be carried out by people who had expert knowledge of horses.  There was no anaesthtic used, so horses were tied down in a special method to prevent them kicking the man performing the operation.  The rope would trip the horse over and Tom would then hog tie the horse's legs together. 

He was secretary of the Dungog Show Society for many years and was an active and involved community member.  His obituary notes that 

High jumping was completely different to any events connected with Dresage. The meets would involve setting up a jump for the horses and raising it for each round until heights of over seven feet were regularly reached. Thousands of spectators used to watch these events, which often took place at agricultural shows in both the city and the country and sometimes drew significant prize money. For example, in August 1929 300 pounds was offered at the Brisbane Exhibition for breaking the Australian High Jumping record.  

The 1920s saw a boom in spectator sport, with record crowds attending the major sports including cricket, football of various codes and horseracing. The regulation of working hours and the introduction of the eight hour day along with improved transportation allowed people to indulge in such leisure activities.  

Although horse high jumping was popular in Australia and much of the world in the 1920s and 1930s, it is now banned in most parts of the world due to the inevitability of horse deaths on the track. However, the sport remains legal in South Australia despite intense criticism from the RSPCA.

The wearing of racing silks can be dated back to Roman times when charioteers wore coloured capes as a means of identification and to promote team loyalty. In Medieval times, coloured silks were often worn by knights in jousting competitions and in Medieval Italian cities, coloured silks were worn in racing events. It may be the use of coloured silks in these events that led to the practice of racing silks being adopted in the English speaking world. By the 1700s, horse racing had gained popularity in England and the English Jockey Club made it compulsory for silks to be registered by competitors. These silks usually consisted of silk jackets. By the 1920s, racing silks resembled the outfits worn by jockeys today.       

Julie Duncan, daughter of Tom Carlton

Research of members of the Dungog Historial Society

The Dungog Chronicle - an obituary appeared on 6 April 1976

Other newspapers discovered on Trove

National Museum of Australia website

The silks were displayed in the Sport and Entertainment section of the Dungog Historical Society Museum in 2002-2003 and again in XXXXX

Magenta cotton/silk jacket.

Gold cotton/silk horizontal bands.

Dark blue crepe under the right arm.

The silks were made by Mark Foy's in Sydney. They were possibly made to measure.

The shoulders have been constructed with a dropped back shoulder line. This would have been a 'classic' style by the time these silks were made.

The cotton/silk combination material could well be from Central Asia.

MARK FOY'S LTD

SYDNEY

Four self covered buttons alternating in magenta and gold.

There is stiffening in the collar and in the cuffs.

The gold silk is giving on the left shoulder.

The back of the neck is worn - possibly from rubbing his riding helmet.

There is wear, possibly caused by sweat, around the front of the collar.

The gold bands have many stains in pink and brown. The pink stains are most likely bleeding from the magenta material (the colour has run, partly due to Carlton's sweat)

There are some stains that might be from mud splatter during competitions, as riding silks were never washed.

The overall good condition of the neckline indicates that he would have worn an undershirt.

The right underarm has deteriorated from sweat and has rotted and a patch of crepe has been added by hand and machine some years ago. The damage may be greater under this arm as he used his right hand and arm to grip his swatch.