Stanley Bowden Burtinshaw was born in Lismore on 2 March 1890 to John Bowden Burtinshaw and his wife Elizabeth née Cottee.

After he left school, he joined the clerical division of the railway service at Lismore and then was transferred to the Chief Accountant’s Office, Pitt Street Sydney.

While employed there he commenced his studies in dentistry, commencing practice at Campbelltown.

He came to Young in 1923, joining in partnership with his brother John who had started his dental practice at ‘Toledo’ on Lynch Street opposite the Post Office in 1919.

That partnership was dissolved when John moved to practice at Macquarie Street Sydney in 1929, the same year he married Nellie Fitzgerald Moore of Chatswood.

Prior to his practice as a dental surgeon, Stanley had been a champion cyclist.

He first appeared on the Sydney club track races in 1911.

World War I, unfortunately, intervened and Burtinshaw was not able to represent Australia at the Berlin Olympics in 1916 as he had dreamed.

During his cycling career he won every State title and every Australasian title.

The AIF rejected him when he tried to enlist during the War as he had an ‘athlete’s heart’ and it was this heart condition which brought about his retirement from cycling.

In 1928, Stanley married Mary Ethel (Mollie) Taylor, the daughter of Herbert Taylor of ‘Bullaworrie’, Young.

Their son, Herbert Michael John, was born in 1934.

In March that year, a fire destroyed his practice and his residence, including 3000 pounds worth of dental equipment, ‘one of the finest in the country’.

By July, Stanley resumed his dental practice next door to the School of Arts on 29 Lynch Street.

Stanley was also interested in racing horses.

He was the Honorary Secretary of the Young School of Arts, a member of the Burrangong Tennis Club, and a Vice President of the Young and District Schools Athletics Association.

In his obituary it was noted that he was ‘a great supporter of all sports, being patron of various town clubs at different times’.

Stanley retired from his dental practice in 1947, selling it to Peter Smith.

He then took up farming on his wife’s property, ‘Bullaworrie’.

During World War II, he and his wife Mary organised functions on their property to raise funds for the Monteagle Branch of the Australian Red Cross.

On Tuesday 11 January 1949, Stanley was driving into Young along the Grenfell Road ‘when his car ran off the road, and he died of injuries shortly after the ambulance arrived on the scene.’

His wife Mary and son Michael were passengers and were taken to the Sacred Heart Hospital.

First Mary, then Michael, died in 1965.

The Young Historical Museum displays Stanley’s business plaque.

Karen Schamberger - Young Historical Museum