Tragedy strikes

Inquest file held at PROV VPRS 24/P0/1005 1921/390

 

 

 

 

There's always an element of sadness in death. Yes, that may be the most obvious statement one could make. However, hear me out. People often say that they don't want their passing to be mourned, that they would like a celebration worthy of the life they lead.
So, quite a while ago when a story was passed on to me that my great grandfathers twin brother died due to an accident as a child, I didn't think much of it. Yes, it was an incredibly sad thought that a child could die, a twin could be taken away by an accident and the fact that a child had pre-deceased their parents, however it was long ago and really did not affect me in the present.
 

VPRS 24/P0/1005 1921/390

Last week I decided to look further into the Taylor side of my tree and inevitably not far up in the branches came upon my great grandfather. I thought I would look at him more thoroughly, but without a will and not much else to go on except stories and/or myths which have flitted down like leaves, I bypassed and went onto the other members of his family. Here, Arthur Rossmore Taylor re-appeared. Starting from the end of his life I ordered the inquest into his death to view at the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) reading room. Arthur was my great grandfather Henry's twin brother and from what I can gather from his birth registration number, it was likely he was the younger of the two. Henry and Arthur were born in 1908 to George and Eva Taylor, a grazing family who resided in Victoria's Western district, in places such as Bambra and Birregurra.
Being such a long time ago, I assumed I'd be immune to the effects an inquest would have on me. Boy, was I mistaken. 

In 1921, at the age of 12 years and 11 months old Arthur was riding on his pony accompanied by Mr McLaughlin, a partner of his father's on the farm.

Lionel with his grandmother Eva 'Ning' Taylor

Casually riding bareback and with no more than a canter in his stride Arthur fell from the horse, hitting his head. Mr McLaughlin proceeded to carry an injured and dazed Arthur to the house where his mother tended to his injured head and put him to bed. Arthur was restless, fever-some and had a lack of appetite, however by the next day he seemed to have improved and asked for some food. It was shortly after this he lost consciousness and subsequently passed away. Dr Hope was summoned, and regrettably had to pronounce the young boy dead on arrival.
What struck me most about this inquest, was apart from the utter devastation the family must have felt that their son and brother had passed away and the fact that maybe they should have called for the doctor earlier, was the fact that the inquest reports included handwritten reports from Arthur's father George and Mr McLaughlin. George had just lost his son and had to sit down and write out minute by minute in detail the events of the day and the circumstances leading to his death. They would then have to go and bury their son and brother. 

Baby Mandy with Eva Taylor, mother of Arthur & Henry, c. 1961

So when I say that there is always an element of sadness in death, what I am referring to, is that regardless of the time that has passed, and in this case, close to a century, most people would be affected by the death of someone so young and the circumstances surrounding his passing.

Lionel with his father Henry. Henry's twin brother Arthur died of an accident in 1921.

Walking for a cause

Sorry for the hiatus, but life has been busy the last few months. I have returned to study and am neck high in historical matter. Attending the Family History Feast at the State Library of Victoria in conjunction with National Family History Month. I have also started my first real full-time historian job, which I absolutely LOVE! So life is busy.



1920s glamour

I can hear you all asking how the 1920s dinner party went. Well, wonder no more. The soiree went off without a hitch; all guests were gussied up to the nines and looked spectacular. We were suitably fed and watered and danced the Charleston to the wee hours. All in all it was a wonderful night.

 

A worthy cause

Anyway, I am not here to detail the night’s events. However, I am here to share another story with you.



My family. Walking for Parkinson's disease.

Tomorrow will be a special and significant day for my family. Tomorrow is the annual 'A Walk in the Park'; a fundraising event to help raise funds to provide support services for people affected by Parkinson’s disease. The event, which is run by Parkinson's Victoria is a leisurely 4km walk from Federation Square in Melbourne and will hopefully raise much needed funds.

There are hundreds, thousands of charities doing great work around Australia and the world, and it can be an overwhelming thing to be faced with a plethora of different organisations asking for money for the work they do. But Parkinson’s is close to my heart.

Sadly, in May last year my grandfather Lionel passed away. Lionel was a gentle and kind soul. He was also living with Parkinson’s disease. In life and death people have spoken fondly of my grandfather, of his gentle nature and kind heart. It’s a wonder the poor man didn’t go mad, surrounded by women his whole life, three daughters and three granddaughters, who all loved and adored him. Luckily for him, the numbers began to balance with the inclusion of two sons-in-law.

Lionel was born in Winchelsea, western Victoria in 1931. The first child for Laura and Harry Taylor, he was then closely followed by his younger brother Arthur. The two boys were best friends and got up to great amounts of mischief together on the land. Harry was away for long periods of time, working as a shearer throughout parts of Victoria and New South Wales. It was up to Laura to raise the two boys as a single mother through the 1930s and 40s Australia. By about the age of four, Laura moved with her two sons to Bambra to live with her sister and brother-in-law on their property. The boys attended Bambra School and were so close in age that they were in the same class. By 1944 the family had moved back to Winchelsea and then on to Terang where both Lionel and Arthur attended secondary school. It was then on to a tertiary education for both boys, Lionel going on to do a shearing machine course and Arthur to teachers college.

Lionel was a car and motor enthusiast. He spent much of his younger years involved with the Western District Car Club in Geelong. Through his passion and talent he started an apprenticeship at Winkler’s Motors in Geelong. It was from Mr Winkler that many years later Lionel took over ‘S. G. Winklers’ in Star Street, Geelong and spent his years realising his passion of fixing and selling anything from Fiat’s to whipper snippers, anything with a motor. Always dressed in his blue greasy overalls, he would appear every morning and afternoon wheeling his motor mowers to and from the workshop for people to peruse.

In retirement, my grandparents Lionel and Judy would travel. Overseas, around Australia and up the highway, the pair would travel far and wide to explore the world and always come back to see their children and grandchildren. As well as travel the pair was involved in a number of groups. Amongst other things Lionel was a committed Masonic Lodge man, as well as volunteering his time and services to the Andrew Love Cancer Centre in Geelong. He was a devoted family (and car) man and will always be remembered fondly for his love of a good whisky, the sounds of Acker Bilk and tinkering with anything that required fixing (or not).

So, tomorrow we will be walking in memory of Pa and hoping to raise awareness and funds for Parkinson's Victoria and the amazing work that they undertake.

If you would like to know more about Parkinson's Victoria or donate to the cause.

Flappers and fellas



Graduating from UNE, April 2013

Wow, I really have been under the radar for the past couple of months. Life has been busy for this genealogist. Finally graduating from the University of New England with my Advanced Diploma in Local, Family & Applied History, I had the urge to expand my knowledge and recently enrolled in the Bachelor of Historical Inquiry and Practice through UNE, which I will begin in a few short weeks. Fruitless job hunting efforts (anyone in need of a genealogist??), helping out at a friend’s cafe, archiving decade’s worth of accounting work, waitressing at the odd wedding and assisting with the overwhelming job of packing up and relocating the Geelong Heritage Centre. All the while trying to organise dinner party with a 1920s theme. It has been busy!!

Amuri's recipe books from
 throughout the 20th century

It’s all about The Great Gatsby. And hey, if Baz Luhrmann can pull it off, surely I can host the 1920s-esque dinner party of the century.  If truth be told, I have neither read, nor seen F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work about just how great Gatsby was, nor was it the pomp and pizzazz of the recent movie release that inspired me to host a dinner centred around this ostentatious decade. It actually came about during another cupboard clean out and the discovery of a couple of notebooks filed with newspaper clippings and handwritten recipes belonging to my great grandmother throughout the twentieth century. It seems that she and a friend, Mrs Shannon constantly exchanged recipes through that archaic form of correspondence – snail mail. These recipes consisted of everything from drop scones (pikelets), potted meats, jellied tongue and even ‘Wurrook Fluff’. It fascinated me. There is a published pamphlet of recipes compiled by Amuri and a Mrs Champ of recipes called ‘Barwon Heads: Favourite Recipes’, which raised and donated funds for the Barwon Heads Branch of the Red Cross Society and the Auxiliary for the Blind, two groups my great grandmother was a fanatical patriot for.



Amuri with Tom & Erica
outside 'Wurrook', c. 1927.

Amuri with Erica in the car, c. 1928.

Along with planning the menu, I have had the fascinating task of researching the fashion of the era, this inevitably started with the requisite Google search and found opulence and glamour in an era coming out of the devastation of the First World War and prior to the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Google search aside, I did a little personal research of my own and discovered some family photos of my great grandparents. Very fashionable in their fox furs, glamorous jewels and chauffeur driven cars, with and without two children in tow, the Russell’s were the epitome of 1920s (and beyond) opulence.

 

So in a few weeks time I will try and replicate my version of the 1920s with cuisine, cocktails and clothing of the decade. I will attempt to make the night as close as possible to the time, even pulling out some of the family silverware (Silvo come at me) for serving and the odd outfit from the archives (yes, items belonging to my great grandmother, possibly with a slight odour of moths).

 

1920s wedding party. Tom Russell at left, Eric & Amuri fifth from right.

I am off to plan the menu, test the Mint Juleps and Gin Rickeys before beginning Dry July and taking-on prohibition and fundraising for Geelong’s Andrew Love Cancer Centre.

Wish me luck!

 

Please feel free to support my Dry July bid, where proceeds raised will go to Andrew Love Cancer Centre, Geelong. Search for Phoebe Wilkens to directly donate to the cause.

It's a nice day for a white wedding

It seems that I have been on hiatus for a while. But no fear, I have returned!! I can feel the excitement and enthusiasm radiating through your computers right now as you read this (wishful thinking?).

 

The Taylor-Hughes’

Just yesterday my grandparents would have celebrated their 53^rd wedding anniversary. Sadly, my grandfather Lionel passed away in May last year, so he was missed, but remembered by all of his family yesterday. However, he did spend fifty-two married years with my grandmother Judy, plus a few more on top of that ‘courting’.


'Just Married': Lionel & Judy with their wedding party, 1960.

On 27 February 1960 Judith Heather Hughes walked down the aisle of Christ Church in Moorabool Street, Geelong followed by her bridesmaid, Dorothy Barnes. Judy was wearing a magnolia satin gown with a tulip neckline while Miss Barnes was wearing an avocado green satin sheath dress with an interesting back panel and a Dior bow.[1] Waiting at the other end of the aisle was Lionel Taylor accompanied by his best man and brother Arthur Taylor. The men were looking dapper in their black tuxedos and bow ties. After this happy affair and the ‘I do’s’ had been signed, sealed and delived, the couple went on a honeymoon to Sydney. Eventually driving to their final destination, they stopped in at the Savoy in Spencer Street for their first night as a married couple before making their way to New South Wales.

Cutting the cake: Lionel and Judy Taylor.

Once married and returned to reality the couple moved in to their first home in Herne Hill where they started a family and lived for nearly 30 years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Wilkens-Russells

A few years earlier on 19 October 1957 at St Georges Presbyterian Church, Geelong, Eric Russell walked his only daughter Erica down the aisle to wed Hank Wilkens. Erica wore a gown of magnolia delustred brocade with a cowl neckline and long lily point sleeves. An orange blossom half circlet on the back of her hair held a lovely old Carrick Macross lace veil, which the bride’s mother [Amuri] had worn at her wedding.[2] After the lavish ceremony followed the even more extravagant reception which was held at the brides’ parents home in Barwon Heads in a large marquee adorned with flowers. The guests consisted of friends, family and ‘society’s’ glamorous couples eating and drinking in celebration of Erica and Hank’s marriage.

 

 

 

Above: The new Mr & Mrs Wilkens, 1957.

Left: Hank and Erica signing the registry.

 

However, it wouldn’t be worth talking about if there wasn’t some ‘skeleton’. Not spoken about so freely was the fact that Erica had previously been engaged in somewhat of a ‘society match’ before she met Hank who had emigrated from the Netherlands in the early 1950s. What was also never discussed was the fact that Hank had been married before in his native Netherlands. Ultimately that marriage ended in divorce not long before he left permanently for Australia. Regardless of these previous relationships Hank and Erica were happily married for over thirty years before Hank passed away in the early 1990s.

The next generation

A few decades later on Saturday 19 February 1983 Andrew Wilkens, younger son of Hank and Erica and Amanda Taylor, eldest daughter of Lionel and Judy were married at St Johns’ Church in West Geelong. In all things 80s, especially following the resplendent wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana a few years earlier, the Taylor-Wilkens wedding had undertones of the royals. Flanked with four bridesmaids draped in marshmallow pink chiffon and four groomsmen dressed in tuxedos and bow ties. Their wedding photos were posed in the Geelong Botanic Gardens draped on an empty water fountain surrounded by brown crunchy grass. The wedding date had fallen in the middle of an extremely hot summer and a few days after the devastating Ash Wednesday bushfires which engulfed parts of Victoria. Their wedding reception was held at Kirrewur Court in Geelong, the same place that Lionel and Judy celebrated their wedding. Amanda and Andrew left their reception and boarded a plane to the ultra ‘exotic’ Bali for their honeymoon for two weeks.

Above: Amanda & Andrew and wedding party, 1983.

 

 

Weddings are an exciting time and for my forbearers have been the start of a new chapter, the meshing of families and the beginning to new generations.

 

I could go on, and maybe I will make it a two-parter. Stay tuned for the sequel.

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[1] Geelong Advertiser, 1960.

[2] Ibid., 1957.