These plans were associated with Mr Andrew Wood, a contract builder who worked in the 1920s and built many Californian bungalows in Surrey Hills and surrounding suburbs. Andrew Wood was born in Chiltern in 1861 to Andrew and Ellen Wood (MS: Green). His father had emigrated from Falkirk, Scotland. As a young man Andrew worked as a carpenter in the mines in South Africa (c 1899). He married Eleanor Agnes Stuchbery in Hamilton, Victoria in May 1901. They had 5 children - Doris (M Roberts), Robert Andrew, Donald Allen, Jean (M Cowan), and Gwenyth (M Bray). The first 2 children were born in Hawthorn; the other 3 in Surrey Hills. The family home at 286 Canterbury Road, Surrey Hills (on the corner of Middlesex Road) was built by Andrew. Andrew died in 1940; Eleanor died in 1977, aged 100 years. After Eleanor's death the house was sold and demolished. Surrey Lighting was established on the site. Gwenyth May Wood (3 May 1917, Surrey Hills - 5 Jan 2004) married Leslie David Charles Bray (1921-1983). Gwenyth was the donor's mother. Andrew, Eleanor and one son Robert are buried in Box Hill Cemetery - B-071-0028. .1: Specifications & plans for the kinder hall, Howard Street, Mont Albert for the Mont Albert Methodist Church, May 1925 .2 Plans for a proposed villa, 48 Payne's Paddock, Highfield Road, Canterbury for Mr E H Sillifant, dated 22/4/1920 .3 Plans for a timber villa for Mrs J A Burchell at Riversdale Road, Surrey Hills, stamped 9/5/1922 .4 Plan of a garage at Victoria avenue, Canterbury; stamped 14/2/1922 .5 Building permit & receipt from City of Hawthorn re Lot 16 Homebush Crescent; dated 7/4/1925 .6 Plans for a concrete house at Camberwell for Mr H W Field andrew wood, builders, box hill cemetery, kindergartens, mont albert methodist church, building plans, highfield road, ernest horatio sillifant, victoria avenue canterbury, lot 16 homebush crescent, californian bungalows, h w field

Ernest Buckmaster (1897-1968) was born in Hawthorn. He was not a strong boy and was taken by his grandparents to help on their mixed farm at Box Hill until he was fourteen. He attended the local state school. In 1913 he was apprenticed to James Beament, a signwriter and amateur artist. After he was rejected for military service, Beament encouraged him to join the Victorian Artists Society and to enrol at the National Gallery Art School. On 24 August 1945 he was appointed an official war artist, commissioned to paint the Japanese surrender in Singapore. He completed twenty-five pictures for the Australian War Memorial. Lothian published his book 'The Art of Ernest Buckmaster' in 1951. REF: ADB entry. Thomas Carlyle Lothian (1880-1974), publisher and publishers' representative, was born on 7 May 1880 at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, eldest child of John Inglis Lothian, bookkeeper, and his wife Lillias Charlotte, née Smith. He arrived in Melbourne in July 1888, John having come to represent the publishing firm of Walter Scott. In 1912, on his father's retirement, he formed the company of Thomas C Lothian Pty Ltd. Following the outbreak of war, he formed the Lothian Book Publishing Co. Pty Ltd (from 1924 the Lothian Publishing Co. Pty Ltd). By 1918 he had published more than half of his total of some 230 titles, including, in 1916, his two most ambitious productions, Elves and Fairies, illustrated by Ida Outhwaite, and The Art of Frederick McCubbin.A black and white photograph of a man, wearing glasses and a suit coat, shirt and tie.thomas lothian (mr), ernest buckmaster (mr), windsor crescent, surrey hills, john lothian (mr), house names, york street, greenhaze, mont albert road, barton street, 'st abbs', 'tantalton'