My corner of the world, Victoria in southeastern Australia, is hot and dry. Its natural landscape is largely open eucalypt forest, much of it cleared to grassland for pasture. With vicious hot northerly winds blowing in from the barren interior, summer time means bushfires, some of them catastrophic. In 1851 fires burnt out 20,000 square miles, a quarter of the state; in 2009 fires destroyed 2000 square miles and killed 173 people.
From the 1890s to her death in 1904 my 3rd great grandmother Charlotte Crespigny nee Dana (1820-1904) lived at Eurambeen, a large sheep station in central Victoria, 58 kilometers from our town, Ballarat, and 9 kilometers west of Beaufort. On the station were her daughter Rose Beggs (1858-1937) and Rose’s husband Frank (1851-1921).
On 9 February 1900 Charlotte wrote to her daughter Ada about a bushfire that threatened to burn through Eurambeen:
… Ethel went with Tedo to the Ararat Races. She staid at [?]. Frank was going to take Con and Arthur and then at the last minute changed his mind. He is so afraid of a fire breaking out. After tea last night a great fire was seen near Tedo’s paddocks and there was no end of commotion. The horses had to be hunted up and the men, old Gibbie and Frank, set out for it, Con on his bicycle, Tedo’s men too, one of the farmers burning off a large paddock of stubble nearly a yrd high, with a heavy wind. The brute never gave any notice. Poor Rose stood out by the tank for hours in fear of its coming on the run and the men had to remain until it was all safe. There is a fire on the Mountain now.
Ethel Davidson (1878-1985) was a niece of Frank Beggs, the daughter of his sister Clamina Davidson nee Beggs.
Con was Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny (1882-1952), Charlotte’s grandson, Rose’s nephew, my great grandfather.
Arthur Mitchell Hale (1878-1961) was a first cousin of Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny through his mother Annie Frances Crespigny nee Chauncy.
“Old Gibbie” is William Gibton, related by marriage to the Beggs family.
By ‘Mountain’ Charlotte meant Mount Cole, just north of Eurambeen. According to the Melbourne ‘Argus‘ a house and several haystacks were burnt down. Five thousand acres of cleared land was lost, and at Eurambeen, 130 acres of grassland.
Last week, 124 years later, bushfires were burning through Mount Cole again and Eurambeen was once more under threat. A thousand bushfire fighters have been brought in, supported by 25 water-bombing aircraft. Eurambeen is considered to be safe. The fire on Mount Cole and beyond is still burning.
One of my family’s heirlooms is a (roughly) 1:10 model Bretonschooner, named Ariel.
She was built by my 3rd great grandfather Philip Robert Champion Crespigny (1817-1879), who lived at Saint Malo in Brittany from 1849 to 1851. He was probably helped by a local boat-builder or by a fisherman out of season.
Ariel is mentioned in a 1903 letter by Philip’s wife, Charlotte Frances Champion Crespigny nee Dana, in Australia. The model was passed to their daughter Rose Beggs nee Champion Crespigny, then to Rose’s great-nephew, my grandfather, Richard Geoffrey Champion de Crespigny (1907-1966). She is now in the care of Geoff’s son Rafe, my father.
My father has written about the model yacht:
Ariel: an essay
Rafe de Crespigny
Personal reminiscence
My first recollection of Ariel is from the time I was a small boy in the 1940s, staying at our family’s beach house near Adelaide. My room had a simple hanging cupboard, and on the top was this large model ship. Her paintwork was black above and green below the notional water line, with a white strip between the two, and white upper-works. The hull is constructed in true style, with a metal keel supporting ribs and planks, and a deck with two hatches. Stays for the masts are held by linked pairs of wooden blocks, and there are racks of belaying pins along the side-rails to fasten the sheets for the sails.
Some time in the late 1940s, after my father Geoff had come back from the war, he spent several weeks refurbishing her, including a new fore-mast and new sails, and over the next several years, into the early 1950s, we sailed her quite frequently during the summers. Measuring 1.9 metres [six feet three inches] from bowsprit to stern, and 1.4 metres [four feet seven inches] from the keel to the top of the mainmast, Ariel is rigged as a two-masted schooner with mainsail and foresail, triangular top-sails, and a staysail, jib and flying jib. She sailed remarkably well, sometimes in rough and windy weather, and on occasion with all sails furled and relying only upon the staysail.
The keel of Ariel was not quite heavy enough to keep her steady when she was fully rigged, but two small sacks of ball-bearings served as ballast and gave her more stability. She also leaked, and had to be pumped out after – and occasionally during – each cruise – with a metal kerosene pump.
I had a collection of toy sailors, officers and men, who were glued to her decks, and my mother Kathleen, very patiently, sewed signal flags for her. I got to know a lot of signals, but the most commonly used hoist comprised the five letters of her name.
By the 1950s, the hull was beginning to deteriorate and was admitting increasing quantities of water. I caulked her, with wood and [then new] plastic glue, which slightly improved her seaworthiness. In consequence, however, the original hull colouring was lost, and she was painted overall in green, while her sails, which had become discoloured, were dyed a pale red. The sepia photograph above was taken at that time; both flags and [with care] the men can be seen in the picture. There is also a film from the same period, and a screenshot appears below.
My father died in 1966, but our son Mark, born in 1963, remembers sailing Ariel when he visited Adelaide to stay with my mother and her second husband George Symes. He and George were close, and George had been a keen sailor in India before the war.
After George died in 1981, however, there was small opportunity to sail the Ariel, and though she remained fully rigged for a time, she was eventually reduced to storage in the garage. My mother let me bring her across to Batemans Bay when we built a new house there in 1996, but there was no time or occasion for either Mark or me to do any work on her, and we have another large pond yacht, Sturm, which the children were able to use.
We spent a deal of time looking for someone to restore Ariel, but all possibilities came to nothing until Mark, through the Modellers Shipyard, got in touch with Lex Wilson of Turramurra early in 2007. We sent her up to him in January, and he finished the work in May. Ariel is now fully rigged on a stand in our hallway; and though her old flags are gone we have plans for some replacements. One must accept, however, that her seafaring days are most probably ended.
An attempt at history
The history of Ariel can be traced quite reliably from the beginning of the twentieth century, but before that it is confused and doubtful.
It is fairly certain that she came into my father’s hands from his “Aunt Rose” [Helen Rosalie nee Champion de Crespigny], who was born in 1858 and married Frank Beggs of Eurambeen and later St Marnock’s near Beaufort in Victoria. They had no children, but for many years my father Geoff visited them for holidays, and when she died in 1937 the Ariel was left to him. One of her ribs is cracked, and the damage was said to have occurred as she was being brought across to Adelaide by rail.
Rose was the youngest daughter of Philip Robert CdeC, who was born in 1817, came to Australia in 1852 and was appointed a magistrate in Victoria. His eldest son, also Philip, my father’s grandfather, was the eldest brother of Rose [who was strictly speaking my father’s great-aunt]. The wife of Philip Robert, and the mother of Philip, Rose and three other children, was Charlotte Frances nee Dana, who was born in 1820 and died in 1904.
In a letter to her eldest daughter Ada on 24 November 1903, sent from the Beggs’ property Eurambeen East, near Beaufort, Charlotte Frances, then aged eighty-three, wrote:
I have made such lovely Flags for the ship and it stands on a very pretty oval table in the hall. You have no idea how well it looks now it is cleaned, painted and revarnished.
This is surely a reference to Ariel. My father’s cousin Phil, born in 1906, recalled seeing the ship at St Marnock’s, both on display in the entrance hall and sometimes sailing on the dam.
There was a legend that Ariel was built by Philip Robert CdeC while he was in Australia, and that there were three other models, some even larger, but there is no firm record or reference to them. After his arrival at Melbourne, from 1853 to 1869 Philip Robert was magistrate in Talbot and Amherst, north of Ballarat and the site of a major gold rush, and during the 1870s he was transferred to Bairnsdale, Bright and Ararat. In 1876 he was taken ill and retired, and he died at Brighton in 1889, after suffering from general paralysis for thirteen years. It seems most unlikely that he had leisure – nor indeed the experience and the skills – to build such a large-scale model [or models] during a little over twenty years of active life in Australia.
In 1998, while Christa and I were in France, we noticed a piece in the weekend edition of the newspaper Figaro describing a festival of sailing ships at Douarnenez in Brittany. Situated on the bay of that name near the end of the Breton peninsula, the commune of Douarnenez in the department of Finistère is noted for its collection of traditional boats; and the leading ship in the photograph is very like Ariel.
The majority of ships in the Breton tradition have square-rigged top-sails, as the other two ships of the picture, and pure schooners are less common, but Ariel appears to reflect that second heritage.
This theory becomes a good deal more likely in the light of family history, for Philip Robert CdeC and Charlotte Frances nee Dana had been at St Malo in Brittany before they came to Australia. Charlotte had formerly been married to John James a solicitor of Gloucestershire, but she ran away with Philip Robert, and their first child Ada was born in 1848 and christened at St Servan, just south of St Malo and now a suburb of that city. In May 1849 Philip and Charlotte received a passport from the British consul at St Malo to travel to Paris, and they were married there at the British Embassy in July. Six months later, in January 1850, the birth of my great-grandfather Philip was registered at St Malo.
Apart from the excursion to Paris, therefore, Philip and Charlotte were living in the area of St Malo for two or three years. They sailed for Australia from Southampton in December 1851, but probably spent only a short time in England before that voyage – there may still have been potential for difficulty from the divorce.
It seems very likely, therefore, that Ariel was built at St Malo in the late 1840s. Her design reflects that of ships from the region, and Philip, of independent means but in semi-imposed exile with someone else’s wife and one or two small children, may well have occupied part of his time with an interest in sailing and, in the winter, in model boat-building. It is probable that he had professional help, for in the off-season many fishermen or sailors could turn their hands from regular major repairs to such smaller-scale craftsmanship for visitors. Ariel may be the result of a simple commission, though it is pleasant to think of Philip being personally involved in her construction. It may also be that he did have more than one model at that time, but only Ariel could be brought with the family, and the others never came to Australia.
It is perhaps a little surprising that a couple with small children, seeking a new life in a strange and uncertain land, should have found room amongst their baggage for a fair-sized model yacht. They travelled in some comfort, however, with a cabin of their own and accompanied by a female servant, and there must have been space in the hold. Though Philip’s appointments as a magistrate took him and Charlotte to many different parts of Victoria, the model ship would have served as a souvenir of the first years of their marriage, and Charlotte was pleased to have it on display fifty years later. From fragments of evidence, then, and a deal of guess-work, Ariel is now 170 years old. And she’s come a long way.
Yesterday Greg and I visited the grave of my great great aunt Ada de Crespigny (1848-1927) in the Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery, Melbourne.
Some years ago when we were visiting the grave of Greg’s great grandparents Henry and Anne Sullivan, in the Methodist section of Cheltenham Memorial Park, we also visited what we thought was Ada’s grave there. It was unmarked. This surprised me. Why was Ada was buried in a grave with no headstone or marker, not with other members of her family in Brighton cemetery, five miles north, closer to where she had lived?
Here was the solution. Ada was buried in Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery, not the Memorial Park.
The inscription reads:
Sacred to the memory Of Ada Isadora Charlotte Died 29th November 1927 Eldest daughter of the late Charlotte Francis And Philip Champion de Crespigny
Heaven’s morning breaks And earth’s vain shadows flee.
The epitaph is from the last verse of the hymn “Abide with Me”.
Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery is well kept. There was a good map, and it was easy to find our way about. (I had obtained the location of her grave through FindAGrave.)
I still don’t know why she was not buried with her family at Brighton cemetery, but her grave in Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery is a fine grave and the cemetery is peaceful and pretty.
Family lore has it that my great grandfather, Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny (1882-1952), fond of his aunts Ada and Viola (Ada Isadora Charlotte Champion Crespigny (1848 – 1927); Viola Julia Constantia Champion de Crespigny (1855 – 1929)), was sorry that as single gentlewomen, of limited education and with little opportunity to make their own way in the world, they were forced to remain financially dependent upon men.
He insisted that his own daughters should have a university education, and indeed Nancy graduated from Melbourne University and Cambridge. Margaret also gained a Melbourne University degree.
In November 1847, discovering she was pregnant by her lover Philip Champion Crespigny, my 3rd great grandmother, Charlotte James nee Dana, deserted her husband and her daughter Charlotte Constance and fled to France. Philip and Charlotte’s daughter Ada Isadora was born out of wedlock in Paris on 15 May 1848.
Isadora Ada Charlotte was baptised with the surname ‘D’Estrée’ at St Servan near St Malo on 4 July 1849. This was an attempt at concealment: Ada’s parents were hiding there from Charlotte’s husband John James, who attempted to sue Philip over Charlotte’s desertion.
Ada apparently felt the stigma of illegitimacy all her life; her great-nephew Francis Philip (Frank) Champion de Crespigny (1918-2010) remembered her as “Mad as a snake; never got over it.”
In a letter from her father, probably written when he was away in Melbourne about 1860, Philip Crespigny addresses Ada as Mouse
[MELBOURNE?] [undated, about 1860] Dearest little Mouse A little bird has just told me that you have been a dear good little girl, and I shall therefore get the prettiest present for you I can. Tell Loup [Philip] that I shall not forget to buy him something too, and if the little bird tells me he has been very good, I will get whatever I think he will like best. I shall be back very soon after you get this letter, so mind be very good children and be very kind indeed to dear Mama. I will not forget something for Bab and Polly. Goodnight darling Mouse. I hope soon to give you all a great big kiss. Your most affec Father, P C C
Ada was at this time about twelve years old, and the nickname “Mouse” may indicate that although she was the eldest she was quiet and shy. “Loup,” in contrast, from the French for a wolf, refers to Philip, who turned ten in 1860 and appears always to have been energetic. Philip was known in the family as Loup or Loo for much of his life. “Bab” and “Polly” are presumably the two youngest children; Viola, turning five, and Rose, two.
Some fifty letters to and from members of the Crespigny/CdeC family during the nineteenth century were collected by Ada and passed to her nephew, my great grandfather Constantine Trent. The letters are now held by the State Library of South Australia. They have been a great source of insight into the lives of members of the family. (The letters feature in Charlotte Frances Champion Crespigny nee Dana (1820-1904) and her family in Australia).
Ada spent her teenage years near Talbot, in the Victorian goldfields where her father was a magistrate. We know she learned the piano and there are several newspaper reports of her performing in concerts in 1867.
In 1869 Philip Crespigny, Ada’s father, was transferred from Talbot to Bairnsdale. Ada accompanied him to keep house. In a letter to his ten-year-old daughter Helen Rosalie, written at Bairnsdale one month after his departure from Talbot, Philip airs a small complaint about Ada’s tidiness:
2 March, 1869 My own darling little Rose, I must apologise for not answering your dear little letter before. I am so very glad to hear that Vi and you have been such very good children and taken such care of your poor Mother in that dreadful sale and the other miseries since we left. Poor dear little love, how delighted I was to hear of the narrow escape you had! – from the falling tree I mean. Vi will soon be going to Inglewood and your poor Mother will have no one but you. What care you will take of each other! How I long to be with you. You would laugh if you could see poor Ada and I keeping house together. When we first commenced I thought I could have it all my own way and make her tidy and so forth – but hitherto she says she will begin tomorrow! But tomorrow never comes. I much fear I shall be beaten in my attempts at making her tidy! Now good-bye, my own darling, with love in which Ada joins me. Your most affectionate Father P C Crespigny
Ada, at the time of this letter aged 21, spent most of her life helping her father and later her brother with housekeeping, though it seems from this letter that at least, in the early days she herself was not very tidy.
Ada Champion de Crespigny from the album of her sister Rose Beggs nee Champion de Crespigny (1858-1937) The photo on the left is thought to have been taken about 1874-1877 and on the right about 1878-1882
This photograph is annotated on the back by Rose’s husband Frank Beggs: Miss Ada de Crespigny on Malahide at Eurambeen East Malahide was afterwards sold to Admiral Bridges Trawalla for ladies hack where he lived his natural life FB
Ada’s sister Rose and her husband Frank lived at Eurambeen East from about 1882 to 1908. The horse was probably named after the place in Ireland near Dublin from where the Beggs family emigrated. Admiral Bridges was at Trawalla, eighteen kilometers east from Eurambeen on the other side of Beaufort, from 1887 to his death in 1917.
In the Australasian (Melbourne, Vic.), Saturday 19 September 1891, page 5:
Mr. Francis Beggs, Eurambeen, Beaufort, requests permission to supplement our correspondent's report of the Ararat show by stating that his colt Saint Marnocks, by Macgregor-Nightlight, took first prize at Ararat in the class for two and three year old thorough-breds, and also Messrs. Briscoe's special prize for the best thoroughbred stallion in the yard. In the light-weight hack class his horse Malahide, by Macgregor, took first prize.
Malahide was 3 years old in September 1891 so the photograph was probably taken in the early 1890s. A horse would generally not be ridden until its third year, maybe longer as riding sidesaddle like this takes even more training than basic astride. The horse looks fully mature so I would guess that this photo was taken no earlier than 1892.
Ada died on 29 November 1927 in a private hospital in Vale Street, East Melbourne, following four days from intestinal obstruction and toxaemia. She was buried on 30 November at Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery.
I was surprised to discover that she was not buried with other members of her family, including her parents, brother and sister, who are buried in Brighton cemetery, about 9km north of the Cheltenham cemetery. Ada’s usual residence at her time of death was Hampton Street, Brighton, which is closer to Brighton Cemetery than Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery.
Today is the 82nd anniversary of the beginning of the siege of Tobruk in 1941. My grandfather Richard Geoffrey Champion de Crespigny (1907 – 1966), known as Geoff de Crespigny, who served in the Second Australian Imperial Force as a doctor, was in Tobruk for nine months through the siege. His long enforced stay there earned him the nickname of `The old man of Tobruk’. He was mentioned in dispatches. Below is an extract from his diary.
5 Apr
The threat of attack by German and Iti forces has been growing the last few days, and today we felt the effects, as people started to return from forward area with various stories. Hundreds of sick are to be sent to 4 AGH. Luckily a hospital ship is expected soon.
6 Apr
The “flap” is on. The hospital took in about 400 patients in the last 24 hrs, and units and base personnel are streaming in. The air is full of rumours, and German patrols have been playing old Harry with our L of C [lines of communication], people leaving all at news of them and making for Tobruk.
2/3 CCS turned up again, less some equipment, and the rear party of the hospital likewise. An enemy patrol was captured just SW [southwest] of Tobruk. At one stage it was feared that an armoured column (Hun [i.e. German]) was on its way here direct across the desert. Since we had nothing to stop tanks, things looked sticky and it appeared to be more than likely that we would all become POW. Felt a bit disturbed, naturally, but there was nothing to be done about it. Talk of sending the nurses away on an awful little cargo boat, but the patrol turned out to be only a patrol, and it was decided, very wisely, to send them by Hosp[ital] Ship next day. I went about a bit on Alice [his motorcycle] on sundry commissions.
7 Apr
DDMS and DADMS Cyrcom [Colonels Walker and Furnell] turned up – very fed up at the nature of the rout which seems to have been quite complete, and we have lost much valuable equipment and personnel as POW. The 9 Div[ision: infantry] have done very well but were hopelessly under-equipped to withstand AFVs [armoured fighting vehicles: i.e. tanks, armoured cars etc] and the 2 Arm[oured] Div[ision], much of it in Iti tanks, had a hiding alas.
A hospital ship arrived and I went to 4 AGH to tee things up. Then to the wharf where no sign could be seen from the ship. She turned out to be the Vita – a hospital carrier, with accommodation for only 240 pts [patients], and we had over 400 and the nurses to go! Prepared to get all possible aboard, but matters held up as the ship’s launches broke down. Eventually got a large number aboard using various craft – the nurses went in a schooner! 18 Bde [Brigade] arrived, and I saw Gregory Bruer on the docks.
8 Apr
Arose early and got the remainder of the sick and the baggage aboard. We put 324 and the nurses onto the poor little chap.
Had a confab with McQuillan of 2/4 Field Hygiene Section as to functions. All POW labour has gone and we have to use Libyans, which makes things rather difficult. There are still many tales of the flap. The opposition is closing in, and all our troops that got away are now in Tobruk area. Heard, to my distress, that Roy Binns and his co[ompan]y of 2/8 Field Ambulance were captured. Also it appears that we have lost two generals, and poor old Colonel Godding, who stayed with us at HQ, was also captured. At the same time there have been remarkable escapes.
9 Apr
An air raid early in the morning. Nothing much happened. Rode out to POW cage to see about cleaning it. Frieberg [Fryberg] is to superintend. Did some more beetling about in the afternoon, and in the evening went to the hospital. When nearly home found a shoe heel missing, so returned and found it where I had started the bicycle. Nearly back again when the fireworks started and I spent a perfectly horrid ¾ hour lying in a shallow depression and hoping no AA stuff would land on me. Some bombs fell moderately close. Made one dash for it but was forced to ground again. Eventually got in, and went to the docks to inspect damage. There was an enormous hole on the dock – a 500 lb bomb it was thought.
10 Apr
A horrid dusty day, and spent most of the time indoors. Hoped to get out to the POW cage but dust prevented it. There was a lot of artillery fire all day. Ours we think! At 1800 hrs there was a fierce air raid, the objectives being apparently the two hospitals at town and beach – no other places attacked and it seemed quite deliberate. Chambers and Schwartz were killed and Row from 2/2 CCS severely wounded, and there were a number of casualties among patients and staff. Eric Cooper had an amazing escape, as a bomb fell within feet, and didn’t go off. We all felt very sick about it. Another raid in the evening, but no damage although bombs fell.
The effect of a thousand pound bomb on a small ship lying at wharf in Tobruk harbour. Australian War Memorial Accession Number 007578 Maker Hurley, James Francis (Frank); Place made North Africa: Libya, Cyrenaica, Tobruk Area, Tobruk; Date made 7 May 1941
Tobruk. The town seen from the harbour beach. Australian War Memorial Accession Number 007510 Maker Anderson, Alan Frederick; Place made North Africa: Libya, Cyrenaica, Tobruk Area, Tobruk; Date made c April 1941
Tobruk. Unloading stores from a transport ship at Tobruk Harbour. Thanks to the navy Tobruk’s sea communications have been kept open. Australian War Memorial: Accession Number 007501; Maker Hurley, James Francis (Frank); Place made North Africa: Libya, Cyrenaica, Tobruk Area, Tobruk; Date made c April 1941
My great great grandfather Philip Champion de Crespigny was born on 4 January 1850 in St. Malo, Brittany. He was the son of Philip Robert Champion de Crespigny, who later became a police magistrate and goldfields warden in Australia, and his wife Charlotte Frances née Dana. Philip junior was the second of their five children.
Philip Champion de Crespigny had a long career with the Bank of Victoria from 1866, and he became the bank’s General Manager in 1916. Early in his career, however, he resigned from the bank to travel in the Pacific islands with his cousin George Dana.
On 28 July 1871 George Dana’s two partners, James Bell and William Ross, were murdered by natives on Tanna island. George Dana gave evidence at the inquest and conducted the burial service. Philip Crespigny is not mentioned in reports, perhaps because was not on Tanna at the time. Many years later he recalled to his grandson Philip George de Crespigny (1906 – 2001) the uneasy feeling of being moored in the evening on a small ship just offshore, with a strong sense of hostile eyes in the jungle a short distance away.
With his cousin George, and Henry Bell (brother of James who was murdered), Philip Crespigny, age 21, is recorded on the passenger list of the Gem when it returned from New Caledonia to Melbourne on 4 October 1871.
Philip decided that the life of an island trader was not for him and decided to return to the bank. He regarded himself as very fortunate in being allowed to rejoin, for it was a general rule that a man who had left that service should not be employed again.
One portrait was taken at the studios of J. Botterill in Melbourne between 1869 and 1874 and the other by Bardwell studio in Ballarat, possibly at the time of his marriage to Annie Chauncy in 1877. The studio of J. Botterill was at 19 Collins Street from 1869 and moved to the Bee-Hive Chambers, Elizabeth Street in 1874, the second copy of the portrait is a reprint of the first taken in the early 1870s.
My great great aunt Helen Rosalie Champion Crespigny, called Rose, was born on 15 October 1858 at Daisy Hill, later known as Amherst, near Talbot, Victoria to Philip Champion Crespigny and Charlotte née Dana, the youngest of their five children.
On 3 February 1876 she married Francis Beggs in Ararat by license, according to the rites of the Church of England. Rose was 17 and her father provided his written consent to the marriage. Rose lived in Ararat, where her father was the Police Magistrate. Francis Beggs was 25, a squatter living at Eurambeen. Eurambeen is about 40 kilometers south-east of Ararat.
Marriage certificate of Francis Beggs and Helen Rosalie Champion Crespigny
BEGGS-CRESPIGNY. — On the 3rd inst., at Christ Church, Ararat, by the Rev. Canon Homan, Francis Beggs, eldest son of Francis Beggs, Esq., of Eurambeen, to Helen Rosalie, third daughter of P. C. Crespigny, Esq., P.M., Ararat.
[The marriage notice seems to be in error. The Anglican Church in Ararat was then known as Trinity Church, later Holy Trinity.]
Photographs from the albums of Rose Beggs née Champion Crespigny and Charlotte Champion Crespigny née Dana. The annotations are
The photograph album compiled by Rose Beggs includes photographs of them taken at the time of their wedding. The photographer was Johnstone, O’Shannessy & Co. of 3 Bourke Street, Melbourne. Perhaps they travelled to Melbourne after the wedding and had their photographs taken then as a memento. Or perhaps a photographer from the studio was visiting Ararat at the time.
Frank died in 1921. Rose Beggs died on 28 March 1937 in North Brighton,Victoria. They had no children.
DEATHS.
BEGGS -On the 28th March at her residence St Marnocks, Hampton street, North Brighton, Helen Rosalie, widow of Francis Beggs, of St Marnocks, Beaufort.
BEAUFORT.-The death occurred at North Brighton of Mrs. Helen Rosalie Beggs, widow of the late Mr. Francis Beggs, the original owner of St. Marnock's Estate, Beaufort. She lived in the district many years and was closely associated with the local branch of the Australian Women's National League. The burial took place in the family burial ground at Eurambeen Estate.
A few weeks ago I received an email from my father’s cousin, the son of my great aunt Nancy Movius nee Champion de Crespigny (1910-2003), offering me the custody of several collections of photographs:
“We have unearthed three Victorian photo albums that my mother seems to have brought from Adelaide with her. They came to light when we moved out of our house by the seaside, and are filled with deC's and others among our forebears. We are no longer living in space sufficient to store them safely. You should have them for your archive. It would be a shame not to have them preserved and I am happy to ship them to you. Please say you want them and furnish an address.
The three albums have arrived, a most exciting event. They include more than 200 photographs, most of them cartes de visite, with some cabinet cards.
Pages of cartes de visite. Not all the photos are identified.
Cabinet cards of Rose and Frank Beggs
Cartes de visite, first produced in the 1850s, were small photographs. They were usually made of an albumen print, with the thin paper photograph mounted on a thicker paper card. Cabinet cards, of a larger format, date from the 1870s.
One the albums is inscribed “Rose from her brother Loo”. Loo or Loup was the pet name for my great great grandfather Philip Champion de Crespigny (1850-1927). Rose (1858-1937) was his youngest sister. She married Frank Beggs. This album has an index to people in the photos, and my great aunt Nancy has also annotated some of the photographs.
The second album has no inscriptions nor annotations.
The third album has been partly annotated by Nancy, who refers to the album as belonging to Charlotte Frances Champion de Crespigny nee Dana. Charlotte was my third great grandmother, the mother of Philip and Rose.
Rose Beggs nee CdeC on her wedding dayCharlotte CdeC nee DanaPhilip CdeC (Loo)
I think that Rose gave the albums to Nancy, her great niece.
Most of the photographs are new to me. It is marvellous to be able to see photographs of people I had previously only known as names. I look forward to sharing the photographs, and perhaps some of the stories that go with them, in forthcoming posts.
My great great grandfather Philip Champion de Crespigny (1850 – 1927) was General Manager of the Bank of Victoria.
One of my cousins recently obtained a photograph of the staff of the bank in 1917 from the Historical Services Curator of the National Australia Bank (which was formed by the amalgamation of the Bank of Victoria with the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney in 1927 and the National Bank of Australasia in 1982).
Staff of the Bank of Victoria in 1917
The photo appears to have been taken on the roof of the bank’s head office in Collins Street. There are no names with the photo, but clearly recognisable seated at the centre is Philip Champion de Crespigny.
[Crespigny] joined the service of the Bank of Victoria in June, 1866, as a junior clerk. After spending a few years in country districts in service of the bank he was promoted to the position of manager at Epsom, and he filled a similar position at other country towns. Subsequently he was placed in charge of the South Melbourne branch of the bank. At the end of 1892 he was appointed assistant inspector, and he continued to act in that capacity until 1908, when he took the office of chief inspector. In 1916 he became general manager of the bank in succession to Mr George Stewart.
At the time of his first marriage, to Annie Frances Chauncy in 1877, Philip de Crespigny was the manager of the Bank of Victoria branch at Epsom five miles north-east of Bendigo. His oldest son Philip was born there in 1879. In early 1882 Philip moved from Epsom to Queenscliff, a small town on the Bellarine Peninsula, 30 kilometres south-east of Geelong. The Bank of Victoria was at 76 Hesse Street. Philip’s son, my great grandfather Constantine Trent, was born at Queenscliff in March 1882. Philip’s wife Annie died at Queenscliff in 1883.
In 1886 Philip transferred to be manager of the Elmore branch, forty kilometres northeast of Bendigo. In 1887 he was appointed manager of the South Melbourne branch. In 1888 he became Assistant Inspector of Branches, and was appointed Inspector of Branches in 1908. In 1916 he became the bank’s General Manager.
Another obituary, in the Melbourne Herald of 11 March 1927, notes that Philip was remembered for his “ability as a financial expert [and this] was known throughout Australia. During the war period, he gave his services freely to the Government, his advice having been of the greatest value to the country.”
A 1918 photograph of the Bank of Victoria’s office in Collins Street shows an advertisement for the 7th War loan.
Today in 1849, 173 years ago, my 3rd great grandparents Philip Robert Champion Crespigny and Charlotte Frances Dana were married at the British Embassy in Paris.
The official residence of the British ambassador to France since 1814 has been the Hôtel de Charost, located at 39 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, just a few doors down from the Élysée Palace. It was built in 1720 and bought by the Duke of Wellington in 1814.
Hôtel de Charost, residence of the British Ambassador, view from the garden. Image retrieved from Wikimedia Commons, photographed by user Croquant in 2010 CC BY-SA 3.0
The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; General Register Office: Foreign Registers and Returns; Class: RG 33; Piece: 69 retrieved through ancestry.com
Philip was recorded as bachelor of Boulogne-sur-mer. Charlotte was a spinster of Albrighton in the County of Salop. Her previous marriage had ended in divorce. This was not mentioned on the registration.
The marriage was performed by Archdeacon Michael Keating, witnessed by a Fred Shanney or Channey. I do not know who he was.
Soon after their marriage Philip and Charlotte Crespigny emigrated to Australia.
Charlotte Frances Champion Crespigny née Dana (1820 – 1904) photographed probably in the late 1850sPhilip Robert Champion Crespigny in 1879