Category Archives: Cudmore

The tristate tour February 2021 part 2

14 Sunday Feb 2021

Posted by in Cudmore, South Australia, Victoria

≈ 2 Comments

See previous post for the first part of our trip.

On Thursday 9 February the weather was warm reaching 37 degrees (98 degrees Fahrenheit). We took a two hour paddle steamer ride on the Murray through lock 11 and downstream.

We admired the Murray River Flag which dates from the early 1850s; there are three variations. Our paddlesteamer flew the Upper Murray River Flag with the  darker blue bands on its flag, representing the darker waters of the river’s upper reaches. At lock 11 we saw the Combined Murray River Flag.

  • Many years ago we spent a night on the paddle steamer Coonawarra as all other accommodation options in Mildura were full.
  • approaching lock 11
  • Below the Murray River Flag the pole marks the heights of various floods. The 1870 flood was the highest recorded at Mildura.
  • the Mildura weir

In the evening we visited a local distillery and after sampling several types we purchased a gin infused with saltbush.

  • The distillery is housed in the Mildura Settlers Club

The next day Friday 12 February we drove to South Australia. Because of the pandemic we needed to apply for permits to enter South Australia and also to return to Victoria.

Trip to South Australia

The Sturt Highway passes along the boundary of Ned’s Corner, a property once owned by the Cudmores. Ned’s Corner Station is now owned by the Trust for Nature who bought the property in 2002 when it was very degraded from drought and overgrazing. The Trust claims the 30,000 hectare property (74,000 acres) is the largest freehold property in Victoria and also the biggest private conservation reserve in the state.

  • looking over the property at Ned’s Corner
  • saltbush

My great great grandfather James Francis Cudmore (1837 – 1908) managed Paringa, 208 sq. miles (531 km²) near present day Renmark from 1857. Paringa was first leased by James’s father Daniel from 1850 as well as a number of other stations. In 1860 James Cudmore leased Ned’s Corner, further up the Murray. From these properties he overlanded sheep to Queensland and took up leases there. In1867 he married Margaret Budge. James and Margaret had 13 children; my grandfather Arthur Murray Cudmore was their third child born at Paringa in 1870.

In 1870 James Cudmore and Kenneth Budge, his wife’s brother, bought Gooyea (later Milo) on the Bulloo, Queensland. In October 1871 Kenneth Budge was in charge of a mob of 600 cows and 16 bulls travelling from Paringa, a Cudmore station, to Dowling’s Creek, at Gooyea. A herd of cattle this big could travel only about ten miles a day, so the journey from Paringa to Gooyea would have taken nearly three months.

In 1876 James Cudmore enlarged Ned’s Corner in partnership with Robert Barr Smith and A. H. Pegler. By the end of the 1870s 130,000 sheep were being shorn at his stations on the Murray.

James Mansfield Niall (1860-1941), a first cousin to James Francis Cudmore, worked at Paringa Station as a young man before moving to central western Queensland. His great grandson has been kind enough to share some of James Niall’s reminiscences.

In 1876 I went up to Paringa Station on the Murray, and took a position there as bookkeeper. I had to travel by train to Kapunda, thence by coach to Blanchtown, Overland Corner, to Ral Ral. We travelled most of the night and all day for some 3 days. The coachdriver on the later stages was a man named Lambert. Lambert had been fined the previous week for over-carrying the Paringa mailbag, and when he learned I was going to the Station he did not hesitate to abuse me at every opportunity. I was practically only a schoolboy, and I put up with it until we got to Ral Ral, where a blackfellow met me leading a horse on which I was to ride out to the Station. Lambert on seeing the horse flogged it with his whip, upon which I told him that I had had enough of it, and that he could give me a hiding, or I would give him one. (Other passengers on the coach were John Crozier – late of St Albans near Geelong – Fred Cornwallis West, and Dr Wilson of Wentworth). Lambert and I had a fairly lengthy fight, and I beat him very badly, although he broke my nose, from which I am suffering even today. John Crozier enjoyed himself immensely watching the fight from the box of the coach, calling out ”Go it young un”, a term with which he always greeted me when I met him in the Streets of Melbourne 40 years afterwards. Dr Wilson patched up my nose. We had travelled most of the night in the Coach without meals, I only had sixpence in my pocket, and I hadn’t the effrontery or courage to ask the shanty-keeper at Ral Ral to give me a meal without paying for it, so I bought the nigger a nip of rum with the 6d and rode out to the Station. There I remained for probably 18 months, when in 1878 Mr Kenneth Budge (who was manager of Gooyea Station in Queensland) died suddenly from heart disease getting out of bed, and my first cousin, J F Cudmore, on whose Station I was working, hurried me off to Queensland, without notice, to go up and take control.

Ned’s Corner Station is closed to visitors because of the pandemic.

When we crossed the South Australian border we were inspected for both quarantine and bio-security; you cannot bring fruit into South Australia.

  • biosecurity inspectors checked the car
  • Covid quarantine check – our permits to enter South Australia were in order
Overlooking Pike Lagoon with the Murray in the distance, near Paringa

At Renmark we had a very pleasant lunch from the Renmark Club overlooking the river.

  • The Renmark Club overlooks the river
  • The Renmark Irrigation trust building and one of the original pumps imported by the Chaffey brothers
  • The Ozone theatre
  • Renmark Hotel
  • Flood levels at Renmark. The 1956 flood was higher than the 1870 flood at Renmark whereas upstream at Mildura the 1870 flood was higher than the flood in 1956
  • the paddle steamer ‘Industry’ at Renmark

After lunch we visited Olivewood, a National Trust property which was originally home to the Chaffey family who pioneered irrigation in the region.

  • A Furphy water tank in the grounds at Olivewood
  • avenue of palms leading to Olivewood
  • Olivewood

My interest in visiting Olivewood was to see the plaque from the grave of my 3rd great grandmother Margaret Rankin nee Gunn (1819 – 1863). The plaque had been stolen from the grave but was found in 1994 and is now cared for by the National Trust at Olivewood. Margaret’s husband Ewan Rankin was an overseer at Bookmark station – the station no longer exists as it is under present-day Renmark.

brass plaque from the grave of Margaret Rankin

There is a link between Olivewood and Paringa as while George Chaffey was siting for Olivewood to be built he stayed at Paringa House, the Cudmore home. There was a painting of the house at Olivewood.

  • A painting of Paringa House on display at Olivewood
  • Paringa House was briefly associated with the Chaffey family and also Breaker Morant

Harry Harbord (Breaker) Morant (1864-1902) probably did not live at Paringa House but worked on the station before enlisting in the army.

Paringa station, Murray River about 1890 by Frederick Needham from the collection of the State Library of South Australia SLSA reference B 62050

Paringa House is now run as a bed and breakfast. The land around the house has been sold off and some of it now forms part of the township. We caught a glimpse of the house from across the river standing on the bridge.

a glimpse of Paringa House from the bridge across the Murray

My great grandfather Arthur Murray Cudmore was born 11 June 1870. Later that year there were enormous floods and the old house was destroyed. The present house was built after the flood. The 1870 flood was measured at 11.65 metres (38 feet) at Mildura but was a very slow flood. In September the flood had reached the verandah at Mildura Station.

bridge across the Murray at Paringa
A black stump at Paringa, claimed to be the largest in Australia. A 600-year-old river red gum tree trunk and root system had been hanging over the bank of the Murray River near Chowilla Station, upstream from Renmark. The old tree apparently had fallen into the river during the flood of 1917 and, becoming a navigation hazard, it was later dragged back on to the riverbank where it had lain ever since. The eight tonne stump was transported to Paringa downstream by river in a journey taking five days.

We paused for afternoon tea at Paringa and drove back.

On the way to Mildura we received news of another lockdown for the whole of the state of Victoria due to the pandemic. We made the decision to return home that evening. We were only cutting our holiday short by one night and the restrictions were that most businesses were to be shut and you could not travel further than five kilometres from home. We did not wish to experience the lockdown in Mildura. So we packed our bags and headed south stopping for dinner in Birchip. We were fortunate to have a holiday between lockdowns.

Birchip Hotel
Drive home to Ballarat via Birchip
  • driving south
  • beer garden at Birchip Hotel
  • Birchip main street
  • looking away from the sunset
Looking away from the sun at sunset

Sources

The tristate tour February 2021 part 1

14 Sunday Feb 2021

Posted by in Cudmore, Victoria, Wentworth

≈ 2 Comments

Greg and I took our first holiday in a year to Mildura to visit some family history places nearby. A combination of illness and various lockdowns due to the Covid pandemic had prevented any travelling away from home overnight in the last twelve months. We decided to take the opportunity of some free time to meet with a cousin and see some of the places we had only read about.

Tuesday 9 February we drove north to Mildura via Warracknabeal. We travelled through the Wimmera region and the scenery matched that captured in the recent film ‘The Dry’ which I had seen only a few weeks ago.

The drive north from Ballarat to Mildura via Warracknabeal

We came upon some painted silos at Rupanyup, part of a 200 kilometer series of portraits of local people painted on grain silos from 2016. A few kilometers further on we paused to admire the pretty weatherboard St John’s Lutheran Church in Minyip.

  • Rupanyup painted silos
  • St John’s Lutheran Church at Minyip
  • there are unpainted silos in the Wimmera

We had a terrific lunch at Warracknabeal at The Creekside Hotel in a very nice beer garden beside the Yarriambiack Creek. The hotel’s staff were very Covid-conscientious with masks, check in, sanitiser, and ordering lunch via an online webpage retrieved by a QR code; we even managed to order a jug of iced water and 3 glasses for the table, free, through this page.

We planned to have lunch at the Warracknabeal Hotel but it was closed. The hotel had been owned by the great grandfather of a friend and passed down to our friend’s father who finally sold it. Our friend commented “Wheat all sown and harvested by Collins St contractors so pubs shut.” Sadly the hotel seems to have been stripped of its wrought iron which had still been in place in 2010 but was gone by 2019. The hotel was registered on the Register of the National Estate but that register was closed in 2007 and is no longer a statutory list and is maintained on a non-statutory basis as a publicly available archive and educational resource. It seems a pity that heritage buildings are not better protected.

  • The Warracknabeal Hotel
  • Town Hall
  • The Creekside Hotel Warracknabeal
Yarriambiack Creek at Warracknabeal

Yarriambiack Creek was fairly full and attractive to look at. There was a park across the creek with some cages of birds and an enclosure of kangaroos.

Painted silos at Brim, Roseberry, and Lascelles

Our trip north continued with more silos and a stop in Ouyen. Ouyen had been famous for its vanilla slices having hosted a competition from 1998 to 2011 initiated by Jeff Kennett, the then premier of Victoria. Kennett acted as guest judge until 2005. In 2011 volunteers relinquished the competition to another small town. This afternoon the bakery and many other shops were closed and there were no vanilla slices to be bought.

  • former Ouyen Court House
  • empty shop Ouyen
  • Ouyen main street
  • Hotel Victoria at Ouyen
Ouyen

Wednesday 10 February we visited the Australian Inland Botanic Gardens just across the Murray River in New South Wales and also the confluence of the Murray and Darling Rivers at Wentworth. When we visited the confluence last in 2010 you could see the muddy Darling joining the clearer Murray. This time the two rivers were a similar colour.

Trip into New South Wales
  • a Mallee tree
  • the roots of a Mallee tree
  • Dip tins used for drying sultana grapes
  • Murray lily, Crinum flaccidum
  • Sturt’s Desert Pea, Swainsona formosa
Australian Inland Botanic Gardens

  • Murray Cod carved into tree trunk
  • viewing tower at the confluence
  • confluence of the Darling on the left and the Murray on the right
  • lock 10 near Wentworth
Junction Park at Wentworth: viewing the confluence of the Murray and Darling Rivers. Lock 10 slightly downstream.

  • old Wentworth gaol
  • Wentworth Post Office
  • Royal Hotel Wentworth
Wentworth

On Wednesday afternoon we visited Avoca Station and met one of my fourth cousins, AL, and her mother, JA, my third cousin once removed. JA’s grandfather (AL’s great grandfather), George Agars (1864 – 1943) was the son of Margaret Alice Agars nee Cudmore (1842 – 1871) and grandson of Daniel Michael Paul Cudmore (1811 – 1891) and Mary Cudmore nee Nihill (1811 – 1893).

George’s mother Margaret died in 1871 at 29 from an ear infection. George was brought up by his grandparents Daniel and Mary Cudmore. He was educated in Adelaide to become an accountant for his Uncle Dan at Avoca Station. George later became an irrigation pioneer in Mildura when the Chaffey Brothers arrived from Canada. My cousin commented “He did not do that well on the land and should have followed his dream of being a writer and poet.”

The current owners of Avoca Station are Barb and Ian Laws who have owned the property for 21 years. They bought the house with 104 acres. 

The property was established on the west bank of the Darling River in 1871 by Daniel Henry Cashel Cudmore (1844 – 1913), the fifth of nine children of Daniel Michael Paul and Mary Cudmore. Daniel H  purchased the western half of Tapio Station on the Darling from Messrs. Menzies and Douglas, and named it Avoca, said to be  after his father’s hometown in Ireland; however Daniel Michael Paul Cudmore was born in Tory Hill, Limerick near Adare, 230 km west of Avoca.

Avoca Station had frontages of ten miles (16 km) to the Murray and twenty-five miles (40 km) to the Darling. Other properties in the area were acquired and in 1885 Daniel Henry and two of his brothers, Milo Robert (1852 – 1913) and Arthur Frederick (1854 – 1919), managed 709,000 acres including Avoca and Popiltah Station to the north of Avoca. 120,000 sheep were shorn at Avoca in 1888 with new Wolseley shearing machines. The wool clip was transported by paddle steamer from the woolshed downstream via the Darling River to the Murray River. Daniel Henry retired in 1895 to Victor Harbour. Avoca Station was sold in 1911.

The homestead was built in two stages. In 1871 the first stage was constructed of cypress pine drop logs. Many of the outbuildings are believed to have also been built at this time. In 1879 a second stage stone wing of the homestead was added.

Avoca homestead. The surrounding area is in drought. The two buildings: the stone 1879 extension on the right and the 1871 log building on the left. The rooms are in the 1879 part of the house.
Most of the outbuildings were built in 1871. In the office stencils to mark wool bales hang on the wall alongside rabbit traps; a display of emu eggs is compared with onewhite ostrich egg

I have previously written about Ernest Osmond Cudmore (1894 – 1924). He was the second of four sons of Milo Robert Cudmore and a cousin of my great grandfather Arthur Murray Cudmore. In 1908 Ernest was holidaying at Avoca when he jumped from a horse as he feared he was about to collide with a portion of the stable. He broke his leg and it was badly shattered; the bone did not set and his leg had to be amputated below the knee.

the stables

Sara Kathleen de Lacy Roberts (nee Cudmore) (1883 – 1972), the daughter of  Arthur Frederick Cudmore, was another cousin of my great grandfather Arthur Murray Cudmore. In 1971 Kathleen Roberts was interviewed by a granddaughter of Milo Robert Cudmore, Helen Bewsher nee Cudmore (1928 – 2001). Kathleen lived at Avoca as a teenager and young adult from 1895 until her marriage in 1909. She was educated at boarding school in Melbourne and travelled to and from school via train and the paddle steamer, Trafalgar. Her recollections of Avoca, when she was 88 years old in 1971, were as follows:

One cook, one housemaid, one nurse at Popiltah. No Aborigines in the house at Popiltah, one at Avoca. A camp of 30 as stockmen. 

The Avoca vegetable garden was on the river. A huge steam engine, between the vegetable and flower gardens, pumped river water to them. In the hot weather this was done at night and made a terrible noise. A Chinaman worked full time on these gardens and would come to the kitchen door every morning to enquire on what vegetables were required that day. All the linen was made at Avoca, the girls spending their time sewing, making visitors’ beds and preserving.

Staff of 10 men at Avoca, jackaroo and overseer. 

Bred horses there – had about 100. Every second year, one of the men spent two or three months breaking in – always gently.

reminiscence of Kathleen Roberts nee Cudmore
An old corrugated iron pump house which had a belt driven pump to draw water from the river. This pump that was installed for irrigation in 1963; before 1963 a steam driven pump existed on this site. Daniel H. Cudmore installed pumps to irrigate lucerne and other fodder crops adjacent to the homestead. Parts of the irrigation system were established early, and irrigation is mentioned in records in the 1880s. The Avoca vegetable garden was on the river. A huge steam engine, between the vegetable and flower gardens, pumped river water to them. In the hot weather this was done at night and made a terrible noise.

The river is just below the house. The garden and the surrounding country is suffering from drought.

1911 sale poster on display at Avoca Homestead

Ian and Barb Law, the present owners of Avoca, gave us afternoon tea and showed us around the property. It was delightful to meet them and our cousins too.

Sources

Remembering my paternal grandmother on her birthday

27 Saturday Jun 2020

Posted by in golf, Kathleen, Trove

≈ 3 Comments

My grandmother Kathleen Cavenagh Cudmore was born 27 June 1908, 112 years ago today. She was the second daughter and second child of Arthur Murray Cudmore (1870-1951) and his wife Kathleen Mary née Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1874-1951).

My father wrote in a memoir of his mother:

Kathleen was always most attached to her father, who was a considerable sportsman: he played Australian football as a young man at league club level, his family background made him a good horseman and a good shot, and he was a talented golfer. Kathleen played golf from an early age, rode horses in competition, and also learnt fencing and played hockey. She remarked in a later interview that when she was young she would often play golf in the morning and go riding in the afternoon – or riding in the morning and golf in the afternoon. … She played regularly with the professional, Willie Harvey, at Royal Adelaide Golf Club.

Various sporting photos (1929, December 14). The Register News-Pictorial (Adelaide, SA : 1929 – 1931), p. 20. Retrieved June 27, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article53431470
THE SPORTS GIRL. (1930, March 15). The Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 – 1954), p. 16. Retrieved June 27, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63837630
“ASSOCIATES from the Kooyonga and Royal Adelaide Golf Clubs held their annual competition for the Cudmore Challenge Cup at Seaton yesterday.Some of the competitors photographed daring the match. Left:—Mrs. G. de Crespigny driving off” from (1934, June 2). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 – 1954), p. 20. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article35110345

In 1934 Kathleen won the South Australian Women’s Golf Championship.

Ladies Golf Championship of South Australia: cup won by Kathleen Champion de Crespigny 1934
Adelaide’s Attractive Young Matrons … No. 3 (1935, October 15). News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 – 1954), p. 7. Retrieved June 27, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129295857
FOURSOMES TO MESDAMES ASTLEY—DE CRESPIGNY (1938, June 9). News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 – 1954), p. 11. Retrieved June 27, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article137464087 WALKING TO THE EIGHTH TEE-The finalists In the women’s foursomes golf championship of Australia, who met over 36 holes at, Seaton today. They are (from left), Mrs. F. Monfries and Miss May Douglas, who were opposed to Mrs. G. de Crespigny and Mrs. J. F. Astley.
Kathleen playing golf with her friend May Douglas (1904 – 1999)

Kathleen still played golf socially when I was a child and I remember playing with her at the Royal Adelaide Golf Club at Seaton in the 1970s.

Related posts

H is for Hendon

09 Thursday Apr 2020

Posted by in A to Z 2020, Kathleen

≈ 4 Comments

In 1932 my grandmother Kathleen Cudmore (1908 – 2013) watched and filmed the air show at Hendon, an aerodrome 7 miles north of London.

0b4cf-kathleenfilm1932hendonairshowb26ded-kathleenfilm1932hendonairshowceb6c9-kathleenfilm1932hendonairshowd43a2e-kathleenfilm1932hendonairshowe

Among experimental aircraft in the display were a Westland-Hill Pterodactyl flying wing, a tail-less aeroplane, and a gyrocopter.

The Hendon aerodrome is now the site of the Royal Air Force Museum London.

I have another small connection with Hendon. On 24 July 1801 one of my fourth great grandmothers, Ann Plaisted née Green (1801 – 1882), daughter of Charles Green and Sarah Green née Young, was baptised at St Mary’s Church there.

AtoZ map H

Hendon aerodrome is now the site of the Royal Air Force Museum seven miles north-west of London city and marked with an x

Related post

A masked ball

25 Tuesday Feb 2020

Posted by in Adelaide, Cudmore, illness and disease, Trove Tuesday

≈ 2 Comments

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.

Influenza Critic April 1919

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.

Influenza Victory Ball rehearsal 4 June 1919

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

1919 Victory Ball frock worn by Mayoress

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 ball SLSA PRG-280-1-29-65-Colorized

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 quarantine PRG-1638-2-67

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

1919 quarantine PRG-1638-2-68

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

1919 quarantine PRG-1638-2-80

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.

Adelaide Exhibition Building 1900 B-1606

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

1919 influenza epidemic through my grandmother’s eyes

24 Monday Feb 2020

Posted by in 52 ancestors, illness and disease, Kathleen, Through her eyes, Trove

≈ 10 Comments

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 Rosemary

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:

Stuffed Notes Influenza graph

Here is a graph of South Australian influenza cases:

Influenza South Australian notifications 1919

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.

Influenza South Australian newspaper articles 1919

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

Deckchairs on the Mooltan

23 Sunday Feb 2020

Posted by in CdeC Australia, Cudmore, Sepia Saturday, World War 1

≈ 8 Comments

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt is a 1939 photograph of four men sitting in deck chairs on a ship bound for the Congo.

I have something similar.

Among my paternal grandmother’s photographs is a casual shot of her father, Arthur Murray Cudmore, her future father in law, CTC de Crespigny, and Bronte Smeaton, another Adelaide doctor, in deckchairs on RMS Mooltan sailing to Lemnos in the Aegean, near Gallipoli, in 1915. Both Drs de Crespigny and Cudmore held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel: de Crespigny was Registrar and Secretary and Cudmore a consultant surgeon of the 3rd Australian Hospital.

07d0f-cudmorearthurmurray1915withtrentdecrespigny

Arthur Murray Cudmore with Trent de Crespigny [centre] & Bronte Smeaton [left] in 1915 at sea. Picture from my grandmother Kathleen née Cudmore’s scrapbook. (Kathleen later married the son of Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny.)

23ae9-mooltan1915awmc01009

18 May 1915 Crowds of well-wishers farewell Australian Army Medical Corps (AAMC) personnel who have just embarked on the transport HMT Mooltan at Port Melbourne railway pier. Australian War Memorial image id C01009 retrieved from http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C01009/

My great grandfathers served at Lemnos with the Third Australian General Hospital receiving sick and wounded soldiers from Gallipoli.

In January 1916 the hospital closed. De Crespigny was put in charge of the 1st Australian General Hospital at Heliopolis. The staff of the hospital sailed for Marseilles in 1916 from Alexandria.

On 24 March 1916 Alice Ross King received her orders to sail to France. She and her fellow nurses from No. 1 Australian General Hospital waited on the pier at Alexandria, weighed down with the booty from a final shopping spree. One nurse had a canary in a cage. A captain was told to make sure all the nurses were on board the hospital ship Braemar Castle.‘Not knowing the AANS he told us to form a double row to “number off”,’ Alice recounted.‘He wanted 120. Each time he got a different number. He was terribly worried. Finally our big [commanding officer] Col De Crespigny came down the gangway to see what was the matter. In his tired voice he called out, “Sisters! Form a fairly straight line. Left turn! Get on board.” “Oh! Sir,” said Matron, “they are not all here.” “Then they’ll be left behind,” said our CO. Our first hard lesson! We had always been fussed over [and] spoilt before,’ Alice wrote, with a shade of overstatement. (Rees, Peter. The Other Anzacs: Nurses at War 1914-1918. Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 2008. Retrieved from https://epdf.pub/other-anzacs-the-nurses-at-war-1914-1918.html)

I never knew my great grandfather Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny, and my impression of him is derived from what my father can remember and other people’s memoirs. But this story, of him of directing people to get on with it, sounds characteristic. It certainly brings him to life for me.

Another shipboard anecdote is set in the journey home. My great grandfather, supposedly averse to brisk exercise, did his rounds of the deck very very slowly. But he met a satirical suggestion about his speed with a rapid retort:

de Crespigny slow walk 1941

The TALK OF THE TOWN (1941, January 11). The Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 – 1954), p. 7. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55761367

Both my great grandfathers arrived back from the war on Tuesday 13 May 1919 on the HMAT Dunluce Castle.

Dunluce Castle Cudmore 1919

Dunluce Castle de Crespigny 1919

Personal Notes. (1919, May 17). Observer (Adelaide, SA : 1905 – 1931), p. 12. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article164132088

Dunluce Castle AWM 1915

Soldiers line the deck of the hospital ship HMAT Dunluce Castle in the harbour in Malta about 1915. Image from the Australian War Memorial P05382.015

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Mary Cudmore née Nihill (1811 – 1893)

20 Thursday Feb 2020

Posted by in 52 ancestors, Adelaide, Cudmore, Limerick, Nihill, Tasmania, Through her eyes

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My third great grandmother Mary Cudmore née Nihill (1811 – 1893) was born near Adare, County Limerick, Ireland, to Daniel James Nihill (1761 – 1846) and Dymphna Nihill née Gardiner (1790 – 1866). Mary was the oldest of their eight children, seven of whom were girls.

Mary Cudmore nee Nihill

Mary Cudmore née Nihill probably photographed in the 1850s

For some period, Mary’s father Daniel James Nihill, was employed as a schoolmaster at Cahirclough (Caherclogh), Upper Connello, about ten miles south of Adare. Daniel’s father James owned a large stone farmhouse near Adare called ‘Rockville’. Daniel and his family lived with James Nihill and cared for him until his death in 1835. The house and its associated estate, Barnalicka, were then passed to the daughters of Daniel’s older brother Patrick Nihill (died 1822).

[Rockville House, now known as Barnalick House, operates as bed-and-breakfast tourist accommodation.]

91c24-rockville001

On 15 January 1835 Mary married Daniel Michael Paul Cudmore who was from a village near Cahirclough, called Manister.

The Limerick Chronicle of 24 January 1835 reported the marriage:

At Drehedtarsna Church, in this County, by the Rev. S. Lennard, Daniel Cudmore, Esq. son of the late Patrick Cudmore, of Manister, Esq. to Mary, eldest daughter of Daniel Nihill, of Rockville, near Adare, Esq.

The Cudmores were poorer than the Nihills. Daniel’s parents had separated and his father had died in 1827 . About 1822 their mother, a Quaker, sent Daniel and his older brother Milo to be educated by fellow Quakers in Essex, England. In 1830, when Milo finished his apprenticeship to a baker and flour dealer, Daniel and Milo returned to Ireland.

Daniel seems not to have trained for a trade, but his mother found a position for him with John Abell, a family friend, who ran a hardware store in Rutland Street, Limerick. There he gained a working knowledge of the hardware business, which perhaps proved useful to him in his later career.

In January 1834 Daniel Cudmore sought permission to emigrate as an assisted immigrant to New South Wales, proposing that he would undertake to ‘explore the interior of New Holland’. His application was turned down. A newspaper notice in the Freemans’ Journal of 15 April 1834 made it clear that assisted emigration was available only to young and married agricultural labourers who intended to take their wives and families with them.

Daniel had known Mary Nihill for a some time. In 1833 he wrote a poem to her:

To Mis N—-l
Dear Mary, since thy beaming eye
First raised within my heart a sigh –
Since first thy tender accents clear,
More sweet than music, charm’d my ear,
My heart beat but for thee, love.

This heart which once so blythe and gay,
Ne’er owned before Love’s gentle sway,
Now bound by Cupid’s magic spell!
O! Words would fail were I to tell
The half I felt for thee, love.

Though far from Erin’s vales I stray’d,
I never met so fond a maid;
Though England’s fair ones vaunt their gold,
With all their wealth their hearts are cold –
I leave them all for thee, love.

And should Australia be my lot,
To dwell in some secluded spot,
Content and free from want and care,
Would’st then my humble fortune share? –
My hopes all rest on thee, love!

The handwritten original is in the possession of one of my cousins. It appears that ‘Australia’ in the last verse was added well after its composition. This suggests that Daniel had decided to emigrate but had not yet decided where.

In 1835, as Mary’s grandfather James Nihill approached the end of his life, Daniel Nihill, perhaps recognising that he could have no expectations, and with little to keep him in Ireland, decided to emigrate to Australia. By their marriage, Mary and Daniel Cudmore qualified for assistance. On 11 February 1835 they left on the “John Denniston” for Hobart Town. Mary’s mother and two of her sisters travelled with them.

Six months later, after the death of Daniel’s father James in July, Daniel Nihill and Mary’s other sisters followed.

On his arrival in Hobart Daniel Cudmore applied for a teaching position. However, a review of his application found that it was not written by himself. Mary had written the document on his behalf. Nevertheless, such was the shortage of trained people, Daniel was engaged as a teacher and clerk at Ross, in the Midlands, seventy miles north of Hobart.

On 22 July 1836 Mary gave birth to her first child, a daughter called Dymphna Maria, at George Town, where Mary’s parents were teachers. George Town was a small settlement on the Tamar River thirty miles north of Launceston.

By the end of 1836, however, Daniel had moved back to Hobart, where he found work at De Graves Brewery, later to be known as Cascade Brewery.

A year later Daniel and Mary decided to try their luck in Adelaide, which had been proclaimed a colony on 28 December 1836. Daniel arrived on 15 April 1837. Mary, leaving her 14 month old daughter in the care of her mother, travelled on the “Siren” from Launceston to Adelaide with her father and sister Rebekah. Mary was pregnant, and on 11 October 1837 gave birth prematurely to a son, James Francis, on the “Siren” off Kangaroo Island.

On 3 December 1837 visitors from England, who were friends of Daniel’s mother Jane, called on the Cudmores. They wrote:

… at a hut we saw an elderly man sitting at the door, reading, we found it was the dwelling of Daniel Cudmore, son of Jane Cudmore of Ireland…and the old man was his father-in-law. D. Cudmore has greatly improved his prospects temporally by removing from Tasmania, where he was an assistant in the undesirable business of a brewer; he is here occupied in erecting Terra Pisa buildings and both himself and his wife are much respected.

Cudmore Daniel and Mary

Daniel Michael Paul Cudmore and his wife Mary probably taken in the 1850s

Daniel acquired his first block of land in North Adelaide in December 1837. By 1838 he was a partner in a new brewing company. Daniel farmed at Modbury, ten miles north-east of the main Adelaide settlement. In 1847 he inherited property in Ireland. This he sold to take up a pastoral lease in South Australia. In the 1850s and 1860s he acquired more pastoral leases in Queensland and New South Wales. Mary Cudmore appears to have had an active involvement in the management of the Cudmore properties. In 1868, for example, it was she who gave the instructions for the sale of a farm called Yongalain 1868.

Beside the two children mentioned above Mary Cudmore had 7 more:

  • Mary Jane Cudmore 1839–1912
  • Margaret Alice Cudmore 1842–1871
  • Daniel Henry Cashel Cudmore 1844–1913
  • Sara Elizabeth (Rosy) Cudmore 1846–1930
  • Robert Cudmore 1848–1849
  • Milo Robert Cudmore 1852–1913
  • Arthur Frederick Cudmore 1854–1919

Mary Cudmore nee Nihill AGSA

Mary Cudmore née Nihill (1811-1893): portrait in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia donated by her grandson Collier Cudmore

In 1862 Daniel Cudmore bought and extended a villa in the Adelaide Hills
at Claremont, Glen Osmond, five miles south-east of the city. There he
retired with Mary. Daniel died in 1891, she in 1893. They were buried in
the Anglican cemetery at Mitcham. In his retirement he had published a
volume of poetry, including the poem he wrote to Mary in 1833.

Claremont, Glen Osmond

The Advertiser TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1893. (1893, March 7). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 – 1931), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25351396
Grave of Daniel and Mary Cudmore Mitcham (St Michaels Anglican) Cemetery
Grave of Daniel and Mary Cudmore Mitcham (St Michaels Anglican) Cemetery

The theme of this week’s post is ‘prosperity’. It is pleasing to suppose that beside Daniel and Mary’s material success, they prospered as a couple, joined together, through richer and poorer, for fifty-six years.

Related posts

Sources

  • In the 1990s James Kenneth Cudmore (1926 – 2013), my second cousin once removed, of Quirindi New South Wales, commissioned Elsie Ritchie to write the Cudmore family history. The work built on the family history efforts of many family members. It was published in 2000. It is a very large and comprehensive work and includes many Cudmore family stories and transcripts of letters and documents. (Ritchie, Elsie B. (Elsie Barbara) For the love of the land: the history of the Cudmore family. E. Ritchie, [Ermington, N.S.W.], 2000.)
  • P. A. Howell, ‘Cudmore, Daniel Michael (1811–1891)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cudmore-daniel-michael-6335/text9913, published first in hardcopy 1981
  • Gunton, Eric Gracious homes of colonial Adelaide (1st ed). E. Gunton, [Adelaide], 1983.

Further reading

  • Cudmore, Daniel.  A few poetical scraps : from the portfolio of an Australian pioneer : who arrived at Adelaide in the year 1837  Printed by Walker, May &Co Melbourne 1882

Trove Tuesday: 1905 Bushfire precautions

17 Tuesday Dec 2019

Posted by in Cudmore, Trove Tuesday

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Daniel Henry Cashel Cudmore (1844 – 1913) was my 3rd great uncle, one of the sons of my 3rd great grandparents Daniel Michael Paul Cudmore and Mary Cudmore née  Nihill. Like his father and brothers he was a pastoralist, settling stations on the Darling River above Wentworth, New South Wales.

At least one obituary of D.H. Cudmore mentioned that he was an authority on fighting bush-fires.

In 1905 D.H. Cudmore published his advice on bush-fire precautions.

1905 bushfire precaution a1905 bushfire precaution b

1905 bushfire precaution c

BUSH-FIRES. (1905, January 14). The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 – 1954), p. 10. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25371805

The technology we now have to fight fires has not made preparation less important nor has it provided a magic bullet to quell fires.

Cudmore DH obituary

DEATH OF MR. D. H. CUDMORE. (1914, January 3). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15468590

B-72282 Cudmore Daniel Henry

Mr Daniel Cudmore, probably an enlargement from a carte de visite image. Approximately 1870. Retrieved from the State Library of South Australia [ image B 72282]

Further reading

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A memorial window in Glenelg

05 Tuesday Nov 2019

Posted by in Cudmore, Glenelg, religion, Trove Tuesday

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Some time ago, idly browsing digitised newspapers on Trove, I noticed a reference to a stained-glass memorial window at St Peter’s Church Glenelg in memory of my great great grandparents James Francis Cudmore (1837 – 1912) and Margaret Cudmore née Budge (1845 – 1912).

Last week, in Adelaide for a short holiday, we drove to Glenelg and had a look.

St Peters Glenelg West Window 20191030

The West Window – the left hand light is in memory of James Francis Cudmore and his wife Margaret who both died in 1912. It shows the Raising of the Widow’s Son.

Cudmore window unveiling 1915

CONCERNING PEOPLE. (1915, August 16). The Register (Adelaide, SA : 1901 – 1929), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59413619

The left light (panel) of the window, unveiled in August 1915, depicts the story of Jesus raising the son of the widow of Nain from the dead. The episode is recorded in the Gospel of  Luke 7:11–17. Nain was a small village, a day’s walk from Nazareth.

11 And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people.

12 Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a
dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her.

13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.

14 And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.

15 And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother.

16 And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people.

17 And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judaea, and throughout all the region round about.

The subject of the west window is Jesus’ triumph over death. It has three lights, depicting His three resurrection miracles. The others show the raising of Jairus’ daughter and the raising of Lazarus.

The church of St Peter’s at Glenelg is on land set aside by Colonel Light in 1839. The first church of St Peter’s was built in 1852. In 1880 the first church was demolished to make way for a larger structure. Its foundation stone was laid 18 January 1881, with the new building consecrated 19 May 1883.

The architect of the 1881 building was Edmund Wright, who also designed the Adelaide Town Hall in 1863, the Adelaide Post Office in 1866, and the South Australian Parliament House in 1874. He also worked on Paringa Hall, a house built for James Francis Cudmore between 1880 and 1882 at Somerton, South Australia, a few kilometres south of St Peter’s Church.

The first record I have found in the digitised newspapers of the Cudmore involvement with St Peter’s was a report in the Adelaide Evening Journal of 1 February 1883: “We understand that a liberal offer has been made by Mr. J. F. Cudmore (in addition to previous gifts) to have the internal plastering of the building [St Peter’s Church, Glenelg] executed at his expense.” The report of the consecration of the new building in May 1883 included a mention that J.F. Cudmore was on the building committee.

In July 1883 the South Australian Register reported “Two very handsome gas standards, about eight feet high and containing seven lights, have been presented to the Church by Mrs. J. F. Cudmore. The lower part of each is nicely designed and supports a spiral brass standard carrying an elegant crown of jets. These additions to the Church are very handsome indeed, and with the memorial window enhance the effect of the interior arrangements, which are in themselves in thorough good taste.”

In the evening of 27 December 1883 and on the following day a bazaar in aid of the church was held. The Advertiser reported :

The stalls, four in number, exclusive of a Christmas tree and the inevitable bran pie, were very nicely arranged under the management of Mr. J. F. Cudmore, and were covered with articles of use or ornament. The ladies who presided were Mesdames Cudmore and Winnall at one, the Misses Bonnin at another, Mesdames Simms and Ferguson at the third ; and Mrs. West and the Misses Phillipson at the fourth. The Christmas tree was under the supervision of Mrs. Fisher, and the bran pie under that of the Misses Young, whilst Mrs. Douglas managed the refreshment stall. A considerable number of visitors were present during the evening, and the stalls were very well patronised …

So it appears that my great great grandparents did not merely attend St Peter’s Church. They were active members of the congregation.

In July 1889, Mrs Cudmore was helping with the annual social and an associated sale of goods. In October 1891 Mrs J.F. Cudmore was in charge of a Fancy stall when the ladies of St Peter’s Church held a Jumble Sale to wipe off the debt of the Church mission-room.

There was a large attendance at a dramatic and musical entertainment in August 1893 at St Peter’s schoolroom. Among the performers Miss Rosa Cudmore was reported as making a very pretty page boy and there was a piano duet by the Misses Cudmore. James Francis and Margaret Cudmore had 13 children including 7 daughters, 2 of whom died young. Rosa was born 1879 and about 14 years old in 1893. Her two older sisters were Violet born 1872 and Dorothea born 1876 and perhaps they were the pianists.

At the 1894 annual strawberry fete in aid of St Peter’s Church there was a good trade reported at the refreshment stall conducted by Mrs R. Smith, the Mayoress, and Mrs Cudmore, assisted by a large number of young ladies.

In 1896 Mrs J.F. Cudmore was on the committee to raise funds to renovate the schoolhouse. At a fundraising ball Mrs Cudmore was in the first set of lancers with Mr W. Bickford. [William Bickford 1841 – 1916 was the father of Reginald Bickford 1880 – 1945 who married Rosa Cudmore in 1910.]

In 1899 Mr J. F. Cudmore was reported as being on the committee to organise additions to the church.

In 1904 Mrs J.F. Cudmore was one of five seatholders selected to act in conjunction with the trustees and the Bishop of Adelaide to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the Rev. Canon Green.

In 1907 Alexandrina Budge Cudmore (1882 – 1942), fifth daughter of James and Margaret, married Hugh Crawford at St Peter’s Church Glenelg. In 1910 Rosa Cudmore (1879 – 1954) married Reginald Bickford at St Peter’s and later the same year Dan Cudmore (1881 – 1966) married Kathleen Pile at the same church. The following year in 1911 Mary Paringa Cudmore (1887 – 1952), their youngest daughter, married Arthur Toll at St Peter’s.

Both James Francis Cudmore and his wife Margaret died in 1912 within 5 months of each other. In 1913, in accordance with the wishes of the late Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Cudmore, of “Paringa Hall,” a copy of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” was presented to St. Peter’s Church, Glenelg. The painting is by an Italian artist, Giovanni Grinaschi [Grignaschi]  (1839 – 1905) who seems to have produced a number of versions of this copy. The Cudmores are said to have bought the painting from the artist in Milan in 1890.

St Peters Glenelg Last Supper 20191030

“Last Supper” painting

The painting is still hanging in the church accompanied by a plaque inscribed “To the Glory of God and loving memory of JAMES FRANCIS CUDMORE of Paringa Hall, Glenelg, who died 17th August 1912 and MARGARET his wife, who died 1st December 1912”.

St Peters Glenelg altar 20191030

Looking towards the altar with the “Last Supper” on the left

Sources