Walter is my second cousin, twice removed. I am very proud to have this man as my blood relative. In the book, The Passionate Bibliophile , written by his widow, Jean, she said Walter’s great-grandfather was a failed burglar.

Indeed, Thomas Horner Stone (our common ancestor – my great-great-great-grandfather) was a convict: he managed to avoid the noose when caught coming out of a dwelling with 38 yards of silk and 15 yards of silk velvet. His trial was held at the Old Bailey, followed by transportation to New South Wales, arriving 1832.  Thomas Stone was one of the first men to buy a house block in Condobolin. Jean Stone reports Thomas had a good collection of books in his home, though she doubted he could read.

“Walter William Stone (1910-1981), bibliophile, bibliographer and publisher, was born on 24 June 1910 at Orange, New South Wales, eldest of five children of New South Wales-born parents Walter Phillip Stone, bookmaker, and his wife Maud Ellen, née Baker. The family moved to Sydney, where Walter attended Parramatta High School. For a few years from about 1930 he was a clerk in the solicitor’s practice of his uncle, James Baker. He then worked as a rent collector and a door-to-door salesman, and at anything that was available. These early years had a profound effect on his political views. Socialist politics were always important in the Stone family and Walter had become a member of the Auburn branch of the Australian Labor Party in 1928. …”

Want more? Go to the Australian Dictionary of Biography website.

Citation details
Alan Ventress, ‘Stone, Walter William (1910–1981)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/stone-walter-william-15729/text26917, published in hardcopy 2012, accessed online 30 May 2014.
This article was first published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 18, (MUP), 2012