A masked ball

In April 1919 the Adelaide weekly ‘Critic‘ claimed that because of the chaos Spanish flu had caused nothing could be planned.

Further down the page there was a discussion of plans for a Victory Ball to be held two months off, on 5 June, with a dance for juveniles on the following night. The proceeds were to be in aid of the Cheer-Up Society, an organisation for the aid and comfort of Australian soldiers passing through Adelaide. My great grandmother Mrs A.M. Cudmore, who was on the executive committee, keenly supported this effort on behalf of returned men.

At the Sign of Four O’ (1919, April 16). Critic (Adelaide, SA : 1897-1924), p. 29. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212480508

At first it was planned to hold the Ball in the Exhibition Building on North Terrace, but this was being used as an isolation hospital for influenza patients.

Though a Peace Ball was cancelled in Sydney because of the influenza outbreak, Adelaide’s Victory Ball went ahead at the Adelaide Town Hall.

On the afternoon of the ball Mrs Cudmore supervised a rehearsal for debutantes.

GENERAL NEWS. (1919, June 4). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 – 1931), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5654323

Frock worn by the Mayoress (Mrs. C. R. J. Glover)  FEMININE VANITIES (1919, June 7). The Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 – 1954), p. 9. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63761531

Depicted in the sketch … is the elegant gown worn by the Mayoress at Government House on the occasion of Admiral Viscount Jellicoe’s visit, also at the Victory Ball on Thursday. This frock is composed of supple black satin, with an overdress of tulle, weighted by steel and gold embroidery. The corsage permits a peep of gold tissue between the less diaphonous fabrics with what is at hand. A short length of widish insertion, rather open and bold in design, can be turned to endless account.

In July 1919 there was another ball, the University Ball. This time Mrs Arthur Cudmore had the job of supervising sixty-four debutantes carrying posies tied with ribbons in University colours.

1919 Adelaide: Guests attending a ball (not specified), possibly for debutantes in a hall decorated with garlands of flowers in Adelaide. Image retrieved from the State Library of South Australia PRG-280-1-29-65 and subsequently colorised using the MyHeritage photo colorizing tool.

 

The influenza epidemic, it seems, had little effect on Adelaide social life.

A recent ABC News article recalls the 1919 Adelaide quarantine camp.

15,000 people died in Australia from the 1918-19 pandemic out of a population of 5 million. 40 per cent of Australia’s population was infected by the influenza but its subsequent death rate of 2.7 per cent per 1,000 members of the population was the lowest recorded of any country during the pandemic. Worldwide 50 to 100 million people died. The first Australian case was recorded in January 1919 in Melbourne,
Victoria. The virus spread to New South Wales and South Australia, with these States closing their borders to limit the spread of the virus.

Travellers from South Australia to Melbourne were not allowed to return home to South Australia. Quarantine was offered in association with soldiers who were being quarantined on Kangaroo Island and in two other camps. Eventually several hundred travellers from Adelaide were allowed to travel back to Adelaide on heavily guarded trains having signed declarations that they had taken every precaution not to be exposed. A quarantine camp was set up on Jubilee Oval next to the Torrens River. There were 100 military tents and more accommodation was set up in the adjacent Machinery Hall. About 640 people who had been visiting Victoria and elsewhere were quarantined at the site.

It was said that many people quarantined at Jubilee Oval treated the experience as an extended holiday and, cleared of the infection, were reluctant to leave.

1919 View of the Quarantine Camp, Jubilee Oval, Adelaide Photograph retrieved from State Library of South Australia PRG 1638/2/67

Young men at the Quarantine Camp, Jubilee Oval [PRG 1638/2/68]

Woman at Quarantine Camp [PRG 1638/2/80]

 

Below the well-advertised cheerfulness, however, was an ugly truth. The Spanish flu was extremely dangerous. In South Australia 540 people died of the flu, the equivalent in today’s population of 15,000. No Australians have yet died of COVID-19.

Exhibition Building, North Terrace, Adelaide about 1900. The Jubilee Exhibition Building was just north of the camp and was turned into an isolation hospital.  [State Library South Australia image B 1606] (The building was demolished in 1962)

Source

• How Did the 1919 Spanish Flu Isolation Camp Become a Party? Malcolm Sutton- ABC Radio Adelaide – https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-14/when-quarantine-during-the-spanish-flu-pandemic-became-a-party/11958724

1919 influenza epidemic through my grandmother’s eyes

The COVID-19 outbreak of recent months has been more than adequately destructive and frightening, but the influenza epidemic that followed World War 1 was far worse. In South Australia its progress was recorded in an odd way by my grandmother Kathleen Cudmore (1908-2013), the daughter of an Adelaide doctor.

In 1919, just eleven years old, she composed a hand-written newsletter called ‘Stuffed Notes’ [sic. I think because her toys were stuffed animals], about an imaginary hospital which had many cases of Spanish flu. On 14 March 2018 I blogged a transcription of her newsletter. Oddly enough, or perhaps not, the ebb and flow of cases of influenza she recorded in her newsletter follow much the same pattern as South Australian cases as a whole.

Kathleen and her older sister Rosemary about 1919

 

Looking just at the mentions of Influenza (my transcription retains the original spelling and grammar)

February: There has been one case of influenza which was fatal. But we are glad to say no more cases have been proved influenza.

March: No more cases of Enfluenza have accured.

April: There has been one more case of Influenza. But he is recovering.

May: The are 8 cases of Influenza 2 deaths and 3 dangious cases all the rest are getting better.

June: Five cases of Influenza have accured 1 death and 2 dangirus the other two a getting better the outbreak of Influenza is very bad at present.

July: There are 10 cases of Influenza 3 deaths and 5 dangrous cases. Nurse Wagga is ill with Influenza so Nurse Sambo is taking her place. … Nurse Wagga is is not so very dangious but she is fairly bad.

August: Influenza
Cases = 12
Deaths = 4
Dangious = 3
Mild = 5

Nurse Wagga is quite well now and has gone away for a Holiday a Henly Beach.

We are not removing the Influenza cases to the Isolation Hospital at the Exhibition. As we heard the conditions are not very good.

September: There a five cases of Influenza but they are all recovering.

October: There were no deaths lately and most of the dangerous cases are getting better.

November: No more cases of Influenza have accrued.

Here is a graph of the number of influenza cases in Kathleen’s hospital:

Here is a graph of South Australian influenza cases:

Graph of South Australia influenza notifications, January–December 1919 from Kako, M., Steenkamp, M., Rokkas, P.J., Anikeeva, O. and Arbon, P.A. (2015). Spanish influenza of 1918-19: The extent and spread in South Australia. Australasian Epidemiologist, 22(1) pp. 48-54 Retrieved from the Flinders Academic Commons: http://dspace.flinders.edu.au/dspace/

I once thought that Kathleen’s “Stuffed Notes” had their origin in dinner-time conversation among the adults of her household, but recently I noticed that in early 1919 her father Dr Cudmore had not yet returned from the War, so the dinner conversation was not based on hospital information at the beginning of the year. Perhaps Kathleen followed Adelaide newspaper reports of the local outbreak.

1919 South Australian newspaper articles mentioning influenza by month (retrieved from Trove.nla.gov.au)

Trove Tuesday: Cornish memorial and Ballarat pioneer

Last month, when we visited the St Erth Methodist Church in Cornwall, I noticed that one of the plaques on the wall was a memorial to Francis Tuckfield erected by James Oddie and Benjamin Bonney, passengers on the Larpent in 1849.

A similar plaque was unveiled in the Yarra Street Methodist Church, Geelong in 1906.

A MURAL TABLET. (1906, March 20). Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 – 1929), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article149169675

 

The plaque was to honour Reverend Francis Tuckfield (1808 – 1865) and his wife, Sarah Tuckfield nee Gilbart (1808 – 1854), who threw their house open to passengers from the Larpent who had been afflicted by fever.

Francis Tuckfield, portrait in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia

Sarah Tuckfield, portrait in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia

 

The Larpent had arrived in Geelong on 28 June 1849. Among the passengers was James Oddie (1824 – 1911) with his wife and child. The Larpent’s emigrants had been selected by the Presbyterian minister John Dunmore Lang, a promoter of emigration. During the voyage many passengers became ill with what was thought to be typhoid. Sadly both Oddie’s wife and child died.

James Oddie was among the earliest gold miners arriving at the newly opened Ballarat diggings in August 1851. He became very rich and was later a great philanthropist. He founded the Art Gallery of Ballarat. His portrait hangs there.

James Oddie’s obituary in the Geelong Advertiser of 4 March 1911 stated that Oddie had instituted an annual reunion of passengers of the Larpent and their descendants to meet at Mack’s Hotel, Geelong.

N is for Nellie

One of my first cousins four times removed was Eleanor Mary (Nellie) Niall (1858-1891). She was the first cousin of my great great grandfather James Francis Cudmore (1837-1912).

Her father was James Niall (1823-1877), son of Daniel James Nihill (1761-1846) and Dymphna Nihill nee Gardiner (1790-1866). The Nihill family emigrated from Ireland to Australia in 1835, settling first in Tasmania, then moving to South Australia.

James Niall was an auctioneer and pastoralist. In 1857 he married Eleanor Mansfield (1833-1883) at Trinity Church, Adelaide.

 

They had eight children:

• Eleanor Mary Niall 1858–1891
• James Mansfield Niall 1860–1941
• George Franklin Niall 1862–1875
• Alice Louisa Niall 1863–1876
• Charles Arthur Niall 1864–1888
• Robert Gardiner Niall 1870–1932
• Dymphna Niall 1871–1871
• Margaret Rebekah Niall 1872–1875

Eleanor Mary, known as Nellie, was the oldest.

Her brother James Mansfield Niall (1860-1941), who became a successful pastoralist, was the only child who married and had children.

In 1875, at the age of 13, George died from what was described as “anaemia“. His illness and death were noted by his aunt Rebekah Nihill (1817-1901) in her diary:

2 Jul 1875 : George Niall very ill of swelling in the glands of his throat.

28 Aug 1875 : Rec’d a letter from Nelly Niall telling us dear George Niall died last Tuesday the 24th inst, whilst taking a drink of water. We feel his loss much as he was a very intelligent boy and extremely clever and cheerful.

4 Sep 1875  :  Our brother James and his wife came. They both looked sadly cut up after the loss of their dear children, particularly their dear boy George.

Alice died in 1876 aged 13 of tubercular phthisis, also known as tuberculosis.

Charles died in Sydney as a young man aged only 24. I am not sure what caused his early death.

Robert went on to the land as a grazier and station manager in Queensland. He died in Sydney, unmarried.

Dymphna died aged 5 months of convulsions. According to the diary of her aunt Rebekah Nihill, Margaret Rebekah, known as Rebekah, died when she was 3 of scarletina and diphtheria.

In 1877 Nellie’s father James died at the age of 54. Nellie’s mother died in 1883 aged 45 years.

On 13 November 1891 Eleanor Mary (Nellie) Niall died of typhoid. She was 33. (Typhoid is a bacterial disease, spread by eating food or drinking water contaminated by the faeces or urine of patients and carriers.)

Family Notices (1891, November 14). South Australian Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1889 – 1895), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91566625

 

The authorities kept a close watch on infectious diseases. There was no major outbreak of typhoid at the time, but Eleanor’s death was noted by the South Australian Board of Health, as was one other death from typhoid in the same week.

BOARDS OF HEALTH. (1891, November 20). Evening Journal (Adelaide, SA : 1869 – 1912), p. 3 (SECOND EDITION). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article198423918 (Click to enlarge)

 

Eleanor was buried on 14 November at the cemetery beside St George’s Anglican Church, Magill, a suburb of Adelaide  close to where she had lived.

Advertising (1891, November 13). The Express and Telegraph (Adelaide, SA : 1867 – 1922), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article208577463

The gravestone of Nellie, her parents and some of her siblings at Magill St George cemetery. The photograph is courtesy of “Gravesecrets at your Fingertips!” and reproduced with permission.

 

I am sorry to say that I have not been able to find out more about Nellie and her siblings. She is not mentioned in any digitised newspaper reports that I have seen. I have not found any photograph of her or mention in any family papers I have access to. I know almost nothing about her.

Sources

I am grateful to my cousin Robert Niall for sharing his information about the causes of death of Nellie’s siblings and providing extracts from the diaries of Margaret and Rebekah Nihill, the sisters of James Niall, Nellie’s father.

Related post

• Trove Tuesday : Nihill v. Fox

E is for Eliza

My husband’s great great grandmother – one of them – was Eliza Morley née Sinden (1823 – 1908).

Eliza was born about 1823 in Cuckfield, West Sussex, to William Sinden (c. 1870-1839), a coach driver, and Mercy Sinden née Rose (1779-1852). She was probably the youngest child of at least six.

At the time of the 1841 census Eliza was living with her widowed mother Mercy Sinden at Albourne, Sussex, just over six miles south of Cuckfield.

On 17 September 1848 Eliza married John Morley (1823-1888) at Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, less than a mile east of Albourne.

In 1851 the Morley family was living in Keymer, 2 miles east of Hurstpierpoint. They were living at 97 Railway Terrace. John was a railway labourer. Keymer junction was an important railway junction on the line between London and Brighton. John and Eliza had one daughter, aged one, and soon afterwards, another son, William.

In 1853 they emigrated to Australia, arriving in Melbourne on the Ida, on 12 July. They were assisted passengers, that is, their voyage was subsidized by the Victorian Government.

On 10 May 1853 William, then aged one, died at sea of scarlatina  (scarlet fever, a bacterial infection). There were 26 deaths on the voyage. Eleven were attributed to scarlatina.

In Victoria the family lived at Collingwood, an inner city suburb of Melbourne, until at least 1861. There Eliza had five more children.

In 1862 John Morley was renting a  house in Tucker Road, Moorabbin, then a village fifteen kilometres or so miles south-east of the city centre.

In 1864 Eliza’s seventh child was born in Brighton, a suburb about eleven kilometers south-east of the city.

In 1866 Eliza’s brother George emigrated to Australia and came to live with Eliza’s family. George Sinden (1811-1884) never married and all George’s and Eliza’s other siblings had died. George Sinden died in 1884 aged 73.

In 1888 Eliza’s husband John died from a malignant disease of the stomach after an illness of three months. Eliza, then 65, was living at 7 Evelyn Street, East Bentleigh, with her daughter Anne who had married Henry Sullivan in 1887. Three of Eliza’s seven children had survived into adulthood.

In 1886, in addition to the house in East Bentleigh which was then rented by John Morley, Eliza was renting 2 1/2 acres of land nearby, where she seems to have kept a few cows. In 1890 it was reported that she had been fined 7s 6d plus 2s 6 d costs for straying cattle.

On 23 April 1908 Eliza died after an illness of ten weeks at the age of 85 from cancer of the pharynx  and of asthenia, a medical term for abnormal weakness.  She was buried in Brighton cemetery with her husband John. Their graves are unmarked.

References

• Victoria, Australia, Assisted and Unassisted Passenger Lists, 1839-1923 viewed through ancestry.com
• Public Record Office Victoria; North Melbourne, Australia; Series Title: 2348/PMicrofilm Copy Of Rate Books, City of Moorabbin [copy of VPRS 583] [1862-1900] viewed through ancestry.com
• BRIGHTON POLICE COURT. (1890, February 22). The Caulfield and Elsternwick Leader (North Brighton, Vic. : 1888 – 1902), p. 5. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66871567

Related posts

• Arrival of the Morley family in 1853

Notes from a toy hospital 1919

Among various documents kept by my family is “Stuffed Notes”, the hand-written newsletter of an imaginary hospital, composed in 1919 by my grandmother Kathleen Cavenagh Cudmore (1908–2013), when she was eleven.

Kathleen’s father was Arthur Murray Cudmore (1870-1951), an Adelaide surgeon. Her mother, Kathleen Cudmore (1874-1951), was much involved in charity work.

“Stuffed Notes” seems to be based on overheard scraps of dinner-time conversation, which Kathleen adapted and re-worked into the newsletter of a 50-bed hospital ‘for any diseases, infectious or not’. She herself was Matron.

Kathleen and her sister Rosemary

 

The transcription below retains my grandmother’s spelling and grammar.

Stuffed Notes

The Hospital telephone number has changed from 36 to 4506.

This Hospital is for any diseases infectious or not. There is a nicely equipped isolation hospital for infectious diseases.

Stuffed Notes will be published monthly. The charge is a 1d a year.

The Hospital will hold fifty beds. Children can be kept at the hospital when they are convalescent if parents wish.

The Doctors are

Dr Binks

Dr Bronte

Dr Sam

Dr Bingo

The chief Nurses are

Nurse Wills

Nurse Wagga

Nurse Sambo

Nurse Coon and many others

K.C. Cudmore (Matron)

 

Nowra Public School converted into a temporary hospital for pneumonic influenza epidemic, 1919 (Illustrating hospitals of 1919, photograph from the collection of the Historic Houses Trust)

…..

 

We are pleased to send you this months Stuffed Notes.

There has been one case of influenza which was fatal. But we are glad to say no more cases have been proved influenza.

All the other patients all getting on very well, all but Caecer the Stuffed whos eye is still bad. Bruin has got Typhoid Fever very badly but we think he will not die.

All in the hospital send there love.

K.C. Cudmore

 

…..

 

The Hospital has had one death a little boy died of a injured Spinal Cord. The accindent accured through a motor driven by Mr Jackson of Henly Beach ran into a trap driven by Bellring and Caeser the Stuffed. Both were rendered unconious and taken to the Animal Hospital. Bellring is getting much better and soon will be going home.

All the other patients are getting better

No more cases of Enfluenza have accured.

All the Hospital sends their love.

KC Cudmore

(Matron)

 

…..

 

If you would like all the 1919 numbers of Stuffed Notes in a little book you can do so by writting or Telephoning 4506.

There has been one more case of Influenza. But he is recovering. There are 5 cases of Diphtheria but they are all getting better all but two who are dangirus.

Nurse Wells is going for a holiday so Nurse Wagga is taking her place.

All the patients are improving all but two Bellring and Possy the Stuffed.

The hospital sends their love.

KC Cudmore

(Matron)

 

Ward 11 Keswick Military Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia 1919 Photograph from the Australian War Memorial

…..

 

The are 8 cases of Influenza 2 deaths and 3 dangious cases all the rest are getting better.

The Mayor gave 10 pounds to the hospital on Saturday. The Govenor 5 pounds.

Bellring and Possy are much better and will leave the hospital on Friday. Nurse Wells has come home and will go on with her dutys as before. Dr Binks xrayed Bruin yesterday but found nothing broken only a bone bruised.

All the Hospital sends its love.

K.C. Cudmore

(Matron)

 

…..

 

Five cases of Influenza have accured 1 death and 2 dangirus the other two a getting better the outbreak of Influenza is very bad at present.

One of the convalescent patients, Poggy Quack Quack, was out for a walk with one of the nurses, saw his mother across the street and run to meet her when he was in the middle of the street a motor run over him.

He was taken to the Hospital were he died. It was not the nurses fault for she tried to catch him.

All the Hospital sends thier love.

K.C. Cudmore

(Matron)

 

…..

 

There are 10 cases of Influenza 3 deaths and 5 dangrous cases. Nurse Wagga is ill with Influenza so Nurse Sambo is taking her place. Dr Bingo x-rayed Little Teddy, he has a broken back. He is slowly getting better. Nurse Wagga is is not so very dangious but she is fairly bad.

The Hospital has given 20 pounds for the Navy.

All the Hospital sends thier love.

K.C. Cudmore

(Matron)

 

…..

 

Influenza

Cases = 12

Deaths = 4

Dangious = 3

Mild = 5

Nurse Wagga is quite well now and has gone away for a Holiday a Henly Beach.

We are not removing the Influenza cases to the Isolation Hospital at the Exhibition. As we heard the conditions are not very good.

All the Hospital sends thier love.

K.C. Cudmore

(Matron)

 

…..

 

Septeber

On Monday Bellring was in a tran when it clided with another the two motormen were killed as well as 10 passengers & many injured. The rams caught alight which made the tragedy more awful. Bellring was taken to the Hospital where he is in critical condition between Life and Death. Some times he seems better sometimes worse. every attention is being had to him that can be done & we still have hope of his recovery.

There a five cases of Influenza but they are all recovering.

Nurse Coon has gone for a holiday so Nurse Wells is taking her place.

All the patients send their love.

K.C. Cudmore

(Matron)

Crowd gathers to observe the damage following a collision between a motor bus and an electric tram near Hurtle Square, Adelaide, on 13 March 1915. Both vehicles burst into flames and Walter Simmons, aged 5, received fatal burns. Photograph from State Library of South Australia.

…..

We are glad to say Bellring has received but is not well enough to be discharged.

Little Teddy is back is much better and will go home on Friday.

Nurse Coon is home from her holiday.

There were no deaths lately and most of the dangerous cases are getting better.

Possy has to have his fingers amputated as he slammed it very badly in a door.

All the Patients send their love.

K.C. Cudmore

(Matron)

…..

No more cases of Influenza have accrued. Dr San x-rayed Bellring nothing serious was the matter only a broken arm.

A fete will be held on the 11th Nov at he hospital ground there will be Brand Pies, sweet stalls, work stalls Hoop-la and other stalls

There are 5 cases of measles but none of them are dingoes.

All the Patients are getting much better.

All the Hospital sends their love.

K.C. Cudmore

…..

This is the last number of Stuffed Notes this year, it will soon be Christmas.

We want to give a little present to the children that are in the Hospital at Christmas. we may have a Christmas tree with the presents hung on and wheel it round for the children to see and take the presents off and give them to the children.

All the Patients are a little better.

A happy Christmas to you.

All the patients & staff send their love.

K.C. Cudmore

Christmas tea Keswick Military Hospital 1919. Photograph from the Australian War Memorial

A Christmas party at Parliament House, Adelaide, for soldiers’ children. In the foreground is Mr Samuel ‘Sammy’ Lunn, M.B.E., a well-known worker for soldiers at the Front and, after the war, for returned soldiers and their families. c. 1919 Photograph from State Library of South Australia.

Hannah Fish aged 5 died in 1879

No title (1879, June 3). Avoca Mail (Vic. : 1863 – 1900; 1915 – 1918), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article202422612

On Friday 30 May 1879 a five-year-old girl called Hannah Fish died at Lamplough, a small gold-mining town near Avoca in central Victoria.

Her death was sudden and unexpected, and a coronial inquest was held the next day.

Hannah was the child of an unmarried daughter of William Fish, a miner, who deposed that the thumb of her left hand had become inflamed a couple of weeks previously, that her grandmother had bathed and poulticed it, that within a few days she was retching, and that he had given her four teaspoons of fluid magnesia (magnesium hydroxide in suspension, a laxative and antacid) to settle her stomach. He did not call a doctor or take her to see one: ‘I did not have any medical attendance for her, but would have brought her to the doctor yesterday afternoon had she lived’.

An Avoca doctor called William Selwyn Morris stated that he had seen the body. He believed that the cause of death was ‘inflammation of the absorbent vessels’: her lymphatic system had been overwhelmed by the infection.

A paragraph in the Avoca Mail on the following Tuesday reporting the inquest added the information that there appeared to be severe ‘gathering’ (accumulation of pus) on one of Hannah’s fingers. This rapidly extended to the arm, then to the chest.

Morris offered the opinion that the wound may have been caused by a venomous insect and that he had no reason to believe that ‘violence or [deliberate] injury’ had caused Hannah’s death.

Deposition by William Fish, grandfather of Hannah Fish from Inquest into the death of Hannah Fish held on 31 May 1879 at Avoca. Page 1

page 2 of grandfather’s deposition

page 1 of the deposition by Dr Morris

page 2 of the deposition by Dr Morris

Fluid Magnesia or Magnesium Hydroxide was first patented in 1818. In 1879 it was advertised in many newspapers including the Avoca Mail.

Advertising (1879, May 20). Avoca Mail (Vic. : 1863 – 1900; 1915 – 1918), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article202422481

 

Without knowing more about the circumstances it is impossible to say whether and to what extent Fish and his wife were responsible for the little girl’s death. Two teaspoons twice of a mild laxative seems a culpably inadequate treatment for a spreading suppurating wound, which would most certainly have produced a high fever and great agony. Even if she had been attended by a doctor, it was decades before antibiotic drugs were available and in common use, so the result may have been the same.

The blame for poor Hannah’s untimely death, if we can speak of blame, must be divided somehow between an indifferent universe, a cruel and incompetent God and, perhaps, her callous and careless family.

If William Fish did not do enough to save his dying granddaughter, it is satisfying to learn that in 1893, fourteen years later, a miner called William Fish from Lamplough was fossicking for gold in an old working, and

“… while below in a stooping position the earth above him
gave way and forced his head towards his feet, breaking his back and several of his ribs.”

It took him a day to die.

Hannah Fish (1874 – 1879) was the daughter of Hannah Fish (1856-1891) and was the niece of Alfred Fish (1860-1932), who later married Rachel Young (1865-1918) and also the niece of Alfred’s brother Thomas Fish (1872-1949) who married Rachel’s sister Alice Young (1859-1935).

References

• Inquest from Public Record Office Victoria: VPRS 24/ P0  unit 399,  item 1879/202 Female
• Glossary of 19C medical terms at http://www.thornber.net/medicine/html/medgloss.html
• DISTRESSING FATAL ACCIDENT. (1893, April 14). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13904967

 

No 3 AGH (Australian General Hospital) Lemnos Christmas Day

Remembering two of my great grandfathers who were at Lemnos near Gallipoli for Christmas 1915. The Adelaide Advertiser of 25 December 1915 reported: “The latest report with reference to Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel Cudmore, was at the hospital at Lemnos has been suffering from typhoid fever, is that he is making satisfactory progress under the, care of Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel de Crespigny.”

Anne's Family History

The group includes Colonel de Crespigny, Colonel Green (Sydney), Colonel Stawell, Major Kenneth Smith, Major Sherwin (Melbourne), Major Trethowar (Western Australia), Matron Wilson (Queensland), Major Lockhart Gibson (Sydney), Major Morton (Sydney), and Captain Graham (Sydney).

Photos by A.W. Savage. From The Sydney Mail, 29 March 1916. 

From Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/thrutheselines/6882699310/

 

Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny was my great grandfather.  He enlisted in 1915 at the same time as another of my great grandfathers, Arthur Murray Cudmore, and my great uncle Wentworth Cavenagh-Mainwaring. My post about Arthur Murray Cudmore at http://ayfamilyhistory.com/2013/04/arthur-murray-cudmore-world-war-i_28.html covered their enlistment and voyage from Australia.

 

Daily experiences of the 3rd AGH were reported in the Nepean Times through correspondence from Corporal Gates.

 

…

From Corporal Gates. (1916, January 8). Nepean Times(Penrith, NSW : 1882 – 1962), p. 7. Retrieved December 16, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article86148792

On 4 November, Colonel Fiaschi, who was seriously ill…

View original post 285 more words

Arrival of the Morley family in 1853

My husband’s great grandfather John Morley (1823-1888), John’s wife Eliza née Sinden (1823-1908) and their two children, Elizabeth aged 3 and William aged 1 emigrated to Australia in 1853, arriving in Melbourne on the ‘Ida‘ on 12 July.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE. (1853, July 14). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4794495

Five years before, on 17 September 1848, John Morley, then 25, had married Eliza, also 25 years old, at Hurstpierpoint in Sussex.

John Morley was a railway labourer. In 1851, he and Eliza and their one year old daughter Elizabeth were living at 97 Railway Terrace, Keymer, a couple of miles from Hurstpierpoint. Keymer Junction, which had opened four years before, was an important railway junction on the East Coastway Line to Lewes and the Brighton main line.

In 1854, a year after the Morley’s arrival in Victoria, they were living in Collingwood, a suburb of Melbourne. On 10 March, little Elizabeth Morley died, a few months before her fifth birthday, of tabes messenterica, tuberculosis of the abdominal lymph glands. This disease, rare now with pasteurisation, is an illness of children, caused by infected cows milk.

Drawing of Collingwood in 1853 retrieved from http://www.mileslewis.net/lectures/11-local-history/inner-melbourne-1850s.pdf

 

In the first annual report covering deaths to 1854, the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages of the Colony of Victoria listed tabes mesenterica as one of the diseases of the digestive organs. Deaths from diseases of the digestive organs, including tabes mesenterica, teething and enteritis, chiefly deaths of children, constituted about seven percent of total deaths for that year.

The Report paints a picture of Melbourne and the goldfields struggling with the challenges of the rapid increases in population. Victoria’s population trebled from 1851 to 1854. 78,000 arrived in the year 1853-54, the Morley family among them.

 

REGISTRAR GENERAL’S REPORT. (1855, September 7). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), p. 6. Retrieved August 22, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article154891906

Population for Victoria estimated at 31 December each year from Geoffrey Searle, The Golden Age: A History of the colony of Victoria 1851 -1861, Melbourne University Press, 1977, (Appendix 1 Page 382) reproduced at http://education.sovereignhill.com.au/media/uploads/VICTORIAN_POPULATION.pdf

 

John and Eliza Morley had eight children, only three survived childhood to become adults.

 

Further reading and sources

• REGISTRAR GENERAL’S REPORT. (1855, September 7). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), p. 6. Retrieved August 22, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article154891906
• Vamplew, Wray, 1943- Australians, historical statistics. Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Broadway, N.S.W., Australia, 1987. page 26.
• Population figures as at 31 December for each year from 1851 to 1861 from Geoffrey Searle, The Golden Age: A History of the colony of Victoria 1851 -1861, Melbourne University Press, 1977, (Appendix 1 Page 382) reproduced at http://education.sovereignhill.com.au/media/uploads/VICTORIAN_POPULATION.pdf
• Public Record Office Victoria , VPRS 14, Assisted passenger lists (index) retrieved from https://www.prov.vic.gov.au/explore-collection/explore-topic/passenger-records-and-immigration/assisted-passenger-lists.
• Marriage certificate John Morley and Eliza Sinden Registration England Year 1848 Registration Quarter Jul-Aug-Sep Registration district Cuckfield Volume 7 Page 453
• Death certificate of Elizabeth Morley Victoria 1854 /1143

B is for the barque Bloomer arrived 1854

My husband’s great great grandmother Caroline Ralph (1850-1896) came to Australia at the age of four with her parents, Francis Ralph (1823-1915) and Caroline née Rodgers (1825-1893), and her brother, John Ralph (1848-1882).

The Ralph family arrived in Portland, Victoria on 21 November 1854 on the Bloomer after a voyage of 124 days. They had left Liverpool on 20 July.

Portland looking South by S T Gill March 14th 1856 from the State Library of Victoria Image H12920

The Portland Guardian reported the arrival on 23 November 1854:

This ship Captain Hunt from Liverpool July 20th arrived last Tues 21st inst. bringing 182 government immigrants, under the charge of Surgeon Superintendent Dr. Turner. There were 11 births on the passage and 3 deaths of infants. When the “Bloomer” left Cholera was at Birkenhead, the immigrants in consequence were embarked at Liverpool. The immigrants are almost all from the Southern Countries of Scotland, a large proportion of them are represented as being a superior class of mechanics.

The Bloomer‘s voyage of 124 days was relatively slow. In the Tyranny of Distance, Geoffrey Blainey writes that although the First Fleet took 250 days to reach Australia in 1788, by 1816-20 the average passage was only 140 to 150 days and by 1849 had fallen to about 120 days. However, the coming of the American clippers in the 1850s meant the duration of the average passage continued to fall. In 1852, for example, the Marco Polo completed the voyage in 74 days.

The Liverpool Albion on 24 July1854 (quoted in the Maitland Mercury of 25 October 1854) reported that four ships had sailed in the previous week for Australia:

• the Bee, of the Eagle line sailed for Melbourne with upwards of 390 passengers
•  the Bloomer, of Messrs James Baines & Co’s Black Ball line left with 160 emigrants for Portland Bay
• the Phoenix, of Walthew’s Liverpool line sailed for Melbourne with 370 passengers
• the Marco Polo, also of the Black Ball line left with 616 passengers and 400 tons of fine goods.

The Marco Polo arrived 23 October after a journey of 93 days. The Bee arrived from Liverpool on 24 October after a voyage of 98 days. The Phoenix arrived on 30 October after a journey of 100 days. In 1852 the Marco Polo had completed the journey in 74 days; this 1854 voyage of the Marco Polo was slow apparently because of light and variable winds.

The passenger list of the Bloomer records the Ralph family as coming from Lancaster, though in fact the Ralphs were from Cornwall. Francis was a mason; his religion was Methodist; and both he and his wife could read and write. Francis was 31 and his wife Caroline 28 years old. The children were 6 and 4. In the columns “by whom engaged” and “address” the Ralphs are recorded as “on own account” and “Melbourne”.

Public Record Office Victoria Series: VPRS 14; Series Title: Register of Assisted Immigrants from the United Kindom (refer to microform copy, VPRS 3502) (click image to enlarge)

In addition to John and Caroline born in England, the Ralphs had a further six children in Australia. Elizabeth was born in Collingwood, Melbourne, in 1855. William was also born in Collingwood in 1857. The family moved to Ballarat and Eliza was born there in 1860 as were Christina (who died in 1870) and Francis; the youngest child, also called Christina, was born in Ballarat in 1871.

Their daughter Caroline married Francis Gilbart Edwards in Ballarat in 1870. She died in Brighton, Victoria in 1896.

Francis and Caroline moved with some of the family to South Australia. Their son John died there in 1882. The following children married in South Australia: Eliza in 1883, William in 1885, Elizabeth in 1886, Francis in 1888. Caroline died in South Australia in 1893 and Francis died in 1915.

Further reading

• Russell, Roslyn and National Library of Australia (issuing body.) High seas & high teas : voyaging to Australia. Canberra, ACT NLA Publishing, 2016.  
• This is a very new book on immigration – beautifully illustrated which gives a terrific sense of what it must have been like to travel to Australia. The book includes extracts from diaries of travellers and shipboard newspapers.
• Charlwood, D. E. (Donald Ernest) The long farewell (New ed). Penguin, Ringwood, Vic, 1993. 
• Another book on the experiences of the voyage to Australia.
• Blainey, Geoffrey The tyranny of distance : how distance shaped Australia’s history. Sun Books, Macmillan, 1968. 
• Trace, Keith. “Shipping.” EMelbourne the City past and Present. School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne, July 2008. Web. 1 Apr. 2016. <http://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM01366b.htm>.