George Helon Explained

George William Helon
Birth Place:Bridgnorth, England
Nationality:British (birth)
Australian (residence)
Polish[1] (ancestry)

George Helon (born 1965),[2] also known under the pen names George Wieslaw Helon and Jerzy Wieslaw Helon, is an Australian author,[3] businessman, and historian[4] of Polish descent.[5] [6] Helon is on the board of directors of the Polish Nobility Association Foundation.

He has written numerous ethnographic and etymological books, including Aboriginal Australia, The English-Gooreng/Gooreng-English Dictionary, and First Names of the Polish Commonwealth (which he co-authored with William F. Hoffman). He is also the founder and CEO of MedicReady,[7] an international award winning company in Australia that produces accident and emergency medical data first response kits and cards.

Early life and education

George William Helon was born Wieslaw George Helon in 1965 in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, England.[8] [9] [10] His family has noble Polish ancestry, and Helon is a hereditary Count and Nobleman of the Polish Kingdom and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.[11] He was born with a rare autosomal genetic disorder known as Pallister–Hall syndrome, the symptoms of which (including a rare pituitary tumour and gelastic seizures)[12] he has experienced for his entire life.[13] His father, Zbigniew "Alan" Helon,[14] was deported to a Gulag forced labor camp in Mucznaja, Archangelsk,[15] Siberia with his family as a toddler in 1940. Zbigniew eventually emigrated to the United Kingdom where he met his future wife (and George's mother) Elzbieta (Elizabeth)[16] Misiura. In 1970, the family left Wolverhampton to move to Melbourne[9] [17] where Zbigniew had been offered an engineering job at B.S.P. Planning & Design.[18] George Helon attended St Patrick's College in Ballarat, Victoria between 1980 and 1982.[19] [20]

Life and career

Helon published several books of poetry and prose in 1984, including Book of Love and Destruction, Scattered Thoughts, and All for Dreamers.[9] In the 1990 Australian federal election, Helon ran as an independent candidate for the Australian House of Representatives seat in the Division of Ballarat, losing to the Liberal Party of Australia candidate, Michael Ronaldson.[20] [21] In 1992, he moved to Bundaberg, Queensland with his family. In 1994, Helon's The English-Gooreng/Gooreng-English Dictionary was published. In October, the Gooreng Gooreng tribe honored Helon with the tribal name of Buralnyarla (White Owl). In December of that year, the dictionary was presented to the Australian Parliament's House of Representatives by the Federal Member for the Division of Hinkler, Paul Neville, who publicly acknowledged Helon's work[9] [22] In 1997, Helon was a candidate for the Constitutional Monarchists in the Australian Constitutional Convention Election.[23] [24] By that time, he had also been registered as a Justice of the Peace (qualified) in Queensland. In 1998, Helon published 3 books: The Gooreng Gooreng Tribe of South-east Queensland, Aboriginal Australia, and First Names of the Polish Commonwealth.[9] In 2001, Helon was hospitalized for 12 days with gelastic seizures and an inoperable 4.5-centimeter brain tumor associated with his Pallister-Hall syndrome.[13] He moved with his family to Toowoomba in 2002 to be closer to medical specialists.[9] [17] A hereditary Count and nobleman of the Polish Kingdom and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Helon was appointed as the Australian representative of the Polish Nobility Association Foundation in 2005.[11] [25] By 2008, he held titles such as the Marquis de Helon, Knight Commander (KCSG) of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great, Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of the Eagle of Georgia and the Seamless Tunic of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Grand Officer of the Vietnamese Imperial Order of the Dragon of Annam, and the Grand Cross of the Imperial Ethiopian Order of Saint Mary of Zion.[20] [26] [27] Between 2012 and 2013, Helon served on the Toowoomba Regional Access and Disability Advisory Committee.[28] [29] In 2014, the Helon Theological Reference Library (a private theological and biblical library Helon founded) began displaying a 1:3 reproduction of the Ark of the Covenant.[30] [31] On 8 May 2016, he founded MedicReady®,[32] a company in Australia that produces accident and emergency medical data first response kits and cards that contain information about a patient's medical history.[13] In 2018, he was named to The Toowoomba Chronicles "Power 100" list.[33]

Awards

In 2016, Helon received the Freedom of the City of London.[34] [35]

On 17 April 2019, Helon was publicly recognised for his long service as a Justice of the Peace by the State of Queensland when the Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Minister for Justice David Janetzki MP presented him with an award for 25 years of distinguished service as a Justice of the Peace.[36] [37]

Helon was commissioned a Kentucky Colonel[38] on 15 April 2020[39] during the governorship of The Honourable Andy Beshear, Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Appointment as a Kentucky Colonel is the highest civilian honour the Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky can bestow.[40]

Grant of Arms

George William Helon in the State of Queensland in the Commonwealth of Australia was granted Arms, Crest and Badge by Her Majesty’s College of Arms on 7 May 2020 by Letters Patent of Garter, Clarenceux and Norroy and Ulster Kings of Arms.[41] [42]

Escutcheon:Gules an Eagle displayed Argent attached to each foot by a manacle a broken chain the wings surmounting on either side a Scroll palewise Or.
Crest:Upon a Helm with a Wreath Argent and Gules Perched on the top of a Tower Gules a Rufous Owl affronty displayed proper supporting with the wing tips a Boomerang Or. Mantled Gules doubled Argent.
Motto:(Latin) AVORUM HONORI (‘For the Honour of Our Ancestors’).
Badge:A Turtle palewise Azure charged on the shell with a Sprig of Golden Wattle Or.
Notes:In the creation of his Coat of Arms and heraldic ensigns, Helon "worked closely with York Herald (Michael ‘Peter’ Desmond O’Donoghue) over a period of months."[43]

Controversy

On 1 December 2016 Helon ignited a national controversy in Australia after he circulated a picture on Twitter and Facebook featuring nine golliwog dolls placed underneath a sign at a Terry White Chemists in Toowoomba which invited shoppers to "Experience a White Christmas." Helon told the Toowoomba Chronicle "It's a bit of a shocker, I walked past and thought – what?"[44] “I showed a photo to other people and they said, ‘what the hell?’ I don't think there was any ill intent, it was just inappropriately placed."[45]

Australian Aboriginal activist, author and filmmaker Stephen Hagan described Toowoomba as the "most racist city in Australia".[46] Hagan told SBS news that "there's no place for Golliwogs in Australian society now. To me and to all people of colour, it's a depiction of a racist era when black people didn't have any rights."

Terry White Chemists subsequently banned the sale of such dolls from any franchise nationwide and the franchisee "unreservedly apologised" for the "regrettable error".[47]

Bibliography

Publication yearTitleOriginal publisherISBNNotes
1984Book of Love and DestructionSelf-publishedPoetry
Scattered ThoughtsEpigrams
All for DreamersPoetry
1991Free SpiritGeneration TreePoetry
1993By Another Name: A Four Language Guide to Christian Names and Their Foreign EquivalentsPolish Genealogical Society of Australia
1994Polish-German Place Name Changes
Destination Australia : Extracts from the Wuerttemberg Emigration Index
The English-Gooreng Gooreng-English DictionaryGurang Land Council
Index to the Newsletters, Journals, and Bulletins of the Polish Genealogical Society of America, 1979–1993Polish Genealogical Society of AmericaCompiled with Rosemary A. Chorzempa
1998The Gooreng Gooreng Tribe of South-east Queensland: Its Traditional Tribal Territory, Clan Divisions and Proper NamesCentre for Historical, Aboriginal and International ResearchMap
Aboriginal Australia: Register of Tribe, Clan, Horde, Linguistic Group, Language Names and AIATSIS Language Codes – including Synonyms, Misnomers and Approximate Locations
First Names of the Polish Commonwealth: Origins & MeaningsPolish Genealogical Society of AmericaWritten with William F. Hoffman
2022First Names of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: Origins & MeaningsLanguage and Lineage PressWritten with William F. Hoffman

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:%22chamber/hansardr/1994-12-06/0064%22
  2. Book: Arnold . John . The Bibliography of Australian Literature: F-J to 2000 . 2004 . University of Queensland Press . St Lucia . 0702235008 . 401 . 2 January 2019.
  3. Book: Who's Who of Australian Writers . 1995 . D.W. Thorpe . 1875589201 . 304 . Second . 2 January 2019.
  4. Book: Carrington . Lois . OZBIB: A Linguistic Bibliography of Aboriginal Australia and the Torres Strait Islands. . 1999 . Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University . Canberra . 978-0-85883-515-3 . 103, 247, 272 . 2 April 2019.
  5. https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:%22chamber/hansardr/1994-12-06/0064%22
  6. Book: Beiga . Mark . Materials in the National Library of Australia on Poles in Australia : compiled on behalf of the Polish Historical Institute in Australia . 1998 . Polish Historical Institute in Australia . Canberra . https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20021209130000/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/32080/20021210-0000/www.polonica.org.au/phia/index.html . dead . 2002-12-09 . 18 December 2018.
  7. News: Harris . Meghan . Toowoomba man's medical kit wins international award. . 30 May 2021 . Toowoomba Chronicle . 1 January 2021.
  8. Web site: October 2020 Newsletter (No. 62) - College of Arms .
  9. News: George W. Helon – Biography. AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource. 27 January 2015 . 11 October 2018.
  10. Book: Niewenhuizen . John . Spearritt. Peter. Arnold. John. Who's Who of Australian Writers . K G Saur Verlag Gmbh & Co . Subsequent . 1 September 1995 . 978-1875589203.
  11. News: Miller. Merryl. George digs into family history to claim past . The Toowoomba Chronicle. 22 November 2005 . 11 October 2018.
  12. Personal Stories. Pallister-Hall Syndrome – it's no laughing matter! . Genetic Support Network of Victoria . Winter 2018 . 18–19 . 2 March 2021.
  13. News: Harris. Meghan. Toowoomba man with rare disorder creates life-saving kit . The Toowoomba Chronicle. 7 July 2017 . 11 October 2018.
  14. Web site: Record Search Helon . National Archives of Australia . 12 December 2018 . NAA: A2562, 1970/2966 . 10.
  15. Web site: O Indeksie . Instytut Pamięci Narodowej . 18 December 2018 . Warsaw, Poland . pl . Nazwisko = Helon; Imie = Zbigniew . 19 April 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190419105237/https://indeksrepresjonowanych.pl/int/wyszukiwanie/94,Wyszukiwanie.html . dead .
  16. Web site: Record Search Helon . National Archives of Australia . 12 December 2018 . NAA: A2562, 1970/2966 . 6.
  17. News: Nobleman lived life of courage, honour. The Toowoomba Chronicle. 14 April 2012 . 11 October 2018.
  18. Web site: Record Search Helon . National Archives of Australia . 12 December 2018 . NAA: A2562, 1970/2966 . 11.
  19. Book: Naughtin . P.C. . History and Heritage: St Patrick's College Ballarat 1893–1993. . 1993 . Board of St Patrick's College Ballarat. . 0646121863 . 400 . 2 January 2019.
  20. News: Liston. Lorrie. Where Are They Now – George Helon . St. Patrick's College. 13 September 2016 . 16 December 2019.
  21. Web site: COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA LEGISLATIVE ELECTION OF 24 MARCH 1990 . Adam Carr . 11 October 2018.
  22. News: Gooreng Gooreng Dictionary. Parliament of Australia. 4,068. 6 December 1994 . 11 October 2018.
  23. Web site: 1997 Constitutional Convention Electoral Results ans Statistics . Australian Electoral Commission . 2 April 2019 . Canberra . 39.
  24. Web site: The Monarchy and Republicanism – The European Perspective . Queenslanders for Constitutional Monarchy . 11 October 2018.
  25. News: Old Boys in the News. The Shamrock. July 2006 . 11 October 2018.
  26. News: Old Boys in the News. The Shamrock. May 2008 . 11 October 2018.
  27. News: Masters. Megan. Polish aircraft disaster suspicion. The Toowoomba Chronicle. 21 April 2010 . 11 October 2018.
  28. News: Calcino. Chris. One step to go for Disability Advisory Committee . The Toowoomba Chronicle. 5 December 2012 . 11 October 2018.
  29. News: Committee targets review of disabled car-parking numbers . The Toowoomba Chronicle. 12 February 2013 . 11 October 2018.
  30. News: Liston. Lorrie. Old Boys in the news . St. Patrick's College. 2 August 2016 . 16 December 2019.
  31. News: Backhouse. Andrew. Ark of the Covenant comes to Toowoomba . The Toowoomba Chronicle. 4 December 2014 . 11 October 2018.
  32. Web site: MedicReady . IP Australia . Australian Government . 18 December 2018.
  33. News: Miko. Tara. Compassion critical for city influencers. The Toowoomba Chronicle. 17 August 2018 . 11 October 2018.
  34. News: List of Applications for the Freedom. City of London. 3 March 2016. 11 October 2018.
  35. News: Helon. George W.. The Freedom of the City of London: a peculiar privilege to die for! . The Toowoomba Chronicle. 16 November 2016 . 28 February 2021.
  36. Web site: Toowoomba man recognised for his long service as a Justice of the Peace. . David Janetzki MP . 24 April 2019 . 17 April 2019.
  37. Web site: Hinze . Hayley . 25 Years Recognised . Highlife Downs Magazine . Queensland Magazines. . 24 April 2019 . 23 April 2019.
  38. Web site: Honorable Order of KY Colonels . https://ghostarchive.org/iarchive/s/instagram/CKmYM-qHxO1 . 26 December 2021 . registration. KYColonels . 27 February 2021.
  39. Web site: Commonwealth of Kentucky . Brevet of Commission . George Helon . 27 February 2021.
  40. Web site: Adams . Michael . Secretary of State . Official Website of the Commonwealth of Kentucky . 17 July 2020.
  41. Web site: The Arms, Crest and Badge of George William Helon . College of Arms . 17 September 2020.
  42. Web site: October 2020 Newsletter (no. 62) . College of Arms . 27 October 2020.
  43. Web site: My Personal Coat of Arms Expounded. . George Helon . 17 September 2020.
  44. Web site: Backhouse . Andrew . White Christmas 'golliwog' display labelled racist. . Toowoomba Chronicle. . News Corp Australia. . 24 April 2019 . 1 December 2016.
  45. Web site: Paola . Sheshtyn . Terry White Chemist under fire for golliwog display. . Australian Journal of Pharmacy. . 24 April 2019 . 1 December 2016.
  46. Web site: Toowoomba accused by activists of being Australia's most racist city after chemist shop display. . The New Zealand Herald . New Zealand Media & Entertainment. . 24 April 2019 . 2 December 2016.
  47. Web site: Soldani . Bianca . Offensive 'white Christmas' display sparks calls for Golliwog boycott in Australia. . SBS Australia . 24 April 2019 . 1 December 2016.