Percival Eynon...Subiaco Resident And Sunday Times' Essay Competition Winner (1932 and 1933).
One of the exciting things about researching and writing a blog on history is the journey that it can lead me on to find out more about the residents and houses in Subiaco.
Recently I was following up a lead provided in an article from the State Library of Western Australia on their Facebook page about the winners of the Sunday Times Crossword Competition in the early years. One of winners was a student from Thomas Street State School who had won a $1000, a lot of money for a young student and their family at that time.
While I didn't find any information on this student and their family I did find out about another Subiaco resident Percival Eynon who lived at 133 Bagot Road in 1932 and won Sunday Times essay competitions. The first competition Percival won was on the public advantages of the Sunday Times crossword puzzles. He won 3 pounds. That essay is copied below. The essay raises the importance of these competitions during the Depression.
The second Sunday Times essay competition Percival Eynon won was in 1933 on "How Western Australia Would Prosper Out of Federation". The essay was published on 26 February, 1933. He won 3 pounds for that effort too.
So who was Percival Eynon and where did the family live. Percival was a senior clerk in the Railways Department. The residence the Eynon family lived in Bagot Road, Subiaco is known as Eynon House and is one of cultural significance and listed on the Western Australian State heritage webpage. The page contains information about it's significance, history, physical description and integrity and authencity.
The page wrote the following about the Eynon family within the history of the house...
"...133 Bagot Road then became the long-term family home of Percival and Ida Eynon, who settled here with their adult children, Llewellyn (Lynn) and Gwenyth. Percival was a senior clerk in the Railways Department and Ida was the sister of Edmund Henry Hall, MLC (1928-1947) and MLA (1947-1950).
This provided them with a certain social status, but they still needed to supplement their income by taking in boarders during the 1930s. For example: SUPERIOR Accommodation, suit business people at 133 Bagot-rd, Subiaco.
When Percival was nearing retirement, Gwenyth Eynon travelled to England to complete her “art of speech studies”. Ida went to visit Gwenyth in 1937 and Percival joined them in 1938. While this was described as a holiday, Percival and Ida did not return to Perth until 1947 (possibly being held up by war time travel restrictions).
During their absence the house was let out to Miss Rhoda Sturcke, who also placed numerous advertisements for board and lodging. For example: SINGLE Room. comfortable, with board, reasonable tariff. 133 Bagot-rd. Subiaco.
By the late 1940s Percival and Ida had moved back into the house and, following Percival’s death in December 1957, Ida remained here until at least 1963..."
The article is from Trove, the database of the National Library of Australia. No copyright infringement intended.
Sunday Times, 1 May 1932.
LUCKY CIRCLES AT THE ANZAC DAY PARADE
If die persons whose portraits appear in the Lucky Circles present their copies of this paper at The Sunday Times" office on or after Tuesday next they will each receive TEN SHILLINGS. Each week "The Sunday Times" distributes £1 in this manner. Last week's winners were Mr. P. Carroll, of Gosnells, and Miss Joyce Kennedy, of 108 Tower-street, West Leederville.
Our Essay Competition
ON THE PUBLIC ADVANTAGES OF THE SUNDAY TIMES CROSSWORD PUZZLES
THE PRIZE WINNERS
The Sunday Times is extremely grateful to the 175 competitors who sent in essays on "The Public Advantages of The Sunday Times' Crossword Puzzle Competitions."
Many of the essays were of a high standard, and the task of finally reducing them to the prize-winning three was a difficult one.
A large majority of the essayists displayed a keen appreciation of the many public benefits accuring from the crossword competitions as now conducted, and there was a striking unanimity among the writers in their view that the competitions had the effect of dissipating the feeling of depression in countless numbers of homes, even where prizes had not been won, and that the creation of employment and trade had been of considerable dimensions.
The adjudication resulted as follows:
FIRST PRIZE, £3.
P. R. EYNON, 133 Bagot-road, Subiaco.
SECOND PRIZE, £2.
THOMAS GEORGE RETALIC, Glenellen Farm, Babakin.
THIRD PRIZE, £1.
E. E SHILLINGTON, 34 St Leonard-avenue, West Leederville.
THE WINNING ESSAY
It is a maximum of military strategy that attack is the best mode of defence, and the same is true of polemics. Therefore, to prove the beneficence of "The Sunday Times" Crossword Competitions, we do well to neglect the purely defensive task of answering objections until we have advanced positive arguments in their vindication. Defensive tactics will then be largely unnecessary, for if we stress the advantages of the system the objections will answer themselves.
Taking, first, the economic view, we observe that the disease now afflicting the body politic is not so much financial anaemia as defective circulation; not the absence of money, but its stagnation. Until money resumes its normal flow, depression will continue, and while no one is foolish enough to claim that crossword puzzles will restore prosperity, it remains true that anything which, by honest means, promotes the circulation of money, helps to mitigate the present troubles. The slightest breeze is welcome to a ship in the doldrums.
It is obvious that these competitions provide a certain amount of direct employment for otherwise idle hands. Their indirect efforts by way of increased demand for the paper conducting them, with consequent additional printing, labor, etc are probably of greater extent. Various distributing agencies share to these effects, and the general results are seen in more wages earned, received, and again circulated. The great majority of the competitors must, of course, content themselves without a monetary prize, but the pleasure of participation is some recompense for their trifling outlay, while for the prize-winners the event often means salvation from ruin or from dire distress. In nearly all cases nowadays it means relief from more or less serious embarrassment.
Apart from these considerations, the educative value of the puzzles must not be underrated. Few of us are so well informed that a course of them could not extend our vocabulary and widen our general knowledge. Many youngsters leave school with a smattering of two or three languages, but a very imperfect knowledge of their own. It is not suggested that competitions of this kind can fulfil the functions of literature, and so repair this defect; yet they may, and do, cater to some extent for many whom literature does not attract.
But it is when viewed as a medium of entertainment that the crossword puzzle assumes its most characteristic I aspect. True, there is a plenitude of other diversions available, but some of these are expensive, some objectionable, and some purely sectional in their appeal. Nearly all of them take the participants away from their homes, with the result that the lack of home life is becoming almost a national reproach.
From each of these objections the crossword puzzle is notably and entirely free, being inexpensive, harmless, open to everybody, and a distinct addition to the amenities of the family circle.
On the whole it is not extravagant to claim that these competitions increase the sum total of human happiness. By their agency many a harassed soul is gladdened, many a load of , debt or worry is lifted, many crosswords are saved, and many greater puzzles (of a financial nature) are solved. Nor are these things accomplished at the cost of ruin or unhappiness to anyone. The objection is sometimes raised that the prize winner receives something for nothing or at any rate for very little as though that were essentially an evil. But the same might be urged against many of nature's richest blessings, for whenever we breathe pure, fresh air, or enjoy the glorious sunshine, we receive "something for nothing."
The photograph of 'Eynon House' is from the City of Subiaco Heritage Place Record. No copyright infringement intended. 
