c1876 Lieutenant Stack

 

An Officers’ tunic in red wool with rifle green collar and cuffs which are embroidered.  The curved wire shoulder Epaulette has two gold stars signifying his rank as Lieutenant.  Centre fastening is piped in cream grosgrain with eight metal buttons emblazoned with a St George Cross.

George Bagot Stack, the sixth of thirteen children, was born in 1846 in West Maitland.  George’s parents were the Rev. William Stack and his wife Martha (nee Bagot). The Rev. William Stack B.A. was educated at Trinity College Dublin and ordained in that city.  He married Martha Mary Bagot in Ireland and the couple emigrated to Sydney in 1837.  

 

As a young man George joined the Balmain Volunteer Rifle Company in 1860. He was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd Regiment, NSW Volunteer Infantry on 17th May 1871, and promoted to Lieutenant on 17th August 1876.  In his later career, George worked as a civil engineer in the NSW Government’s Architect’s Office. 

He married Laura Emma Elizabeth Jacques in Balmain in Sydney in 1881.  They had two children, Edith Jacques b1882 (known as Dita) and Walter Jacques b1884.  George was made an Honorary Major on his retirement on 16th January 1894 and received a Volunteer Officer’s Decoration (V.D.). Major Stack died on 7th October 1930 in Orange where he was buried in the Church of England cemetery.  A memorial was erected to him in St Peter’s Cemetery at Campbelltown.