Meet The Rellies
Another Pioneer
Robert and Elizabeth Jillett's g.g. grandson
Fanny Ellen Jillett
Fannie married Richard Osborne Roberts at St Colombs, Hawthorn in Melbourne in 1887. They had two children.
Richard was the son of Richard Roberts, the editor of the Dorset County Chronicle, and his wife Agnes Cela Evans. Richard died in 1868, leaving her with two young children.
They had 4 children
·
Kate Annie Roberts born
1854 and died 1858
·
Thomas William Roberts born
1856 - 1931
·
Alice Matilda Roberts born
1859
·
Richard Osborne Roberts born
1862 - 1902
Fannie Ellen Jillett married Richard
Osborne Roberts in 1887
They had two children
Thomas Osborne Roberts b 1890 who served in World War I and was a motor mechanic d 1964.
He married Violet Mary Christina Jardine in South Australia
and Mary Cela Roberts born 1892 died
1933 who married Dr Esmond Shirley Joske.
Richard died in 1902 and in 1907, Fannie then married Charles Burchill. They lived in Toorak in Melbourne.
Fannie died in 1948 aged 88 and is buried at Boroondarra Cemetery Kew.
Alice Matilda Roberts married Thomas
Peter Purves, and lived in Sydney.
Her brother Thomas William Roberts is
an Australian Story in itself.
The best way to tell Tom's story is
with his biography.
Tom Roberts was Fannie's brother in
law.
Thomas William Roberts,
(Tom) (1856–1931)
This article was published
in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11, (MUP), 1988
Thomas William (Tom) Roberts (1856-1931),
artist, was born on 9 March 1856 at Dorchester, Dorset, England, elder son of
Richard Roberts, journalist, and his wife Matilda Agnes Cela, née Evans. Tom
was educated at Dorchester Grammar School. After her husband's death Matilda and her three children migrated in 1869 to Melbourne where they lived at Collingwood. The first years were difficult for a poor family and Tom helped his mother to sew satchels after work. He soon became interested in art and studied at the Collingwood and Carlton artisans' schools of design in 1873; at the latter Louis Buvelot and Eugen von Guerard awarded him a prize for a landscape. In 1874 he joined the National Gallery School where he attended Thomas Clark's classes in design. Though the school listed his occupation as photographer, his responsibilities at Stewart's, photographers in Bourke Street, were confined to arranging backdrops and studio sets and sometimes posing the sitters for portraits.
Roberts was one of the first painters to recognize the special character of the Australian landscape; Studley Park, Kew, was close to where he lived (in Johnston Street) and he introduced his friend Fred McCubbin to the native flora there. Encouraged by Clark and his other teachers, Roberts resolved to gain further experience in London, and the Victorian Academy of Arts helped by providing him with a bursary. Already ambitious to paint subject pictures, he had attended anatomy classes at the University of Melbourne. Roberts was the first major Australian painter to be selected to study at the Royal Academy of Arts which he attended from 1881 to 1884, benefiting especially from tuition in anatomy and perspective. To help make ends meet he contributed illustrations to the Graphic.
In London he was especially influenced by a variety of regional groups who eventually formed the nucleus of the New English Arts Club in 1886; these artists from centres such as Newlyn and Glasgow rejected the strictly historicizing Academy style. Other strong influences were Whistler and the popular plein air painters such as Bastien Lepage and his British followers. Roberts toured Spain in 1883 with the future Labor politician Dr William Maloney and fellow artist John Peter Russell.
Although he spent only a few weeks in Spain it was a joyous and formative experience which encouraged his naturalistic bent. Two Spanish painters he met in Granada, Lorreano Barrau and Ramon Casas, emphasized certain popular notions of Impressionism and plein air principles. In 1884 Roberts continued his pursuit of momentary effects in small studies of the seascape and several figure studies painted during a holiday at Venice—small exercises in a Whistlerian mode.
He returned to Melbourne in 1885 at precisely the right moment to instigate a new school of painting based on plein air practice which, in Australia as elsewhere, was allied to notions of nationalism and regionalism. Roberts's Melbourne colleagues immediately benefited from his experience; Arthur Streeton, for one, later claimed that 'Bulldog's' example was crucial. His sense of mission and enthusiasm were important in a period when painters and writers were seeking local self-definition. His dedication put him in the forefront of the group of painters which became known as the Heidelberg school.
The first camp was set up at Box Hill in 1886 at Housten's Paddock, scene of 'The Artists' Camp' and 'A Summer Morning Tiff'. 'We went to the bush', said Roberts, 'and, as was always our ambition, tried to get it down as truly as we could'. Early in 1887, painting at the seaside outer suburbs, Beaumaris and Mentone, Roberts first met Streeton and recorded the long hot summer in key pictures such as 'Mentone' and 'The Sunny South'. Charles Conder joined them from Sydney in 1888. In 1889 they established a hilltop camp at Eaglemont with sweeping views of the Yarra valley.
In August that year Roberts, Streeton and Conder arranged their 9 x 5 (inches) Exhibition of Impressions (with a few contributions also by four others including McCubbin) which further defined the Heidelberg movement in the public mind. The 182 small panels, of which Roberts contributed 62, were all painted on cigar-box lids and uniformly framed in flat wide lengths of kauri wood. Roberts had brought home a few 9 x 5 impressions painted in London; the first item in the catalogue was one of his Thames-side studies.
The staging of the exhibition mirrored the artists' desire to display their artistic practice in an Aesthetic and Bohemian framework. The decorations of Liberty silks and the red silk background on which they were hung, as well as the elegant flower arrangements, were consonant with Roberts's practice at his studio in Grosvenor Chambers, at the fashionable 'Paris' end of Collins Street. At social and artistic soirées there, patrons could see his latest work in a setting decked out with chinoiserie, bric-a-brac, drapes, and with the addition of musical performances which were an important part of the mise en scène. Streeton claimed that Roberts was the first to bring bunches of gum tips into town.
The catalogue of the Impressions Exhibition had quoted Gérôme: 'When you draw, form is the important thing; but in painting the first thing to look for is the general impression of colour'. It continued: 'An effect is only momentary … Two half hours are never alike'. The Ruskinite James Smith condemned four-fifths of the exhibits as 'a pain to the eye'. When Roberts showed 'Shearing the Rams' in 1890, Smith found the painting too naturalistic: 'art should be of all times, not of one time, of all places, not of one place'. Roberts countered: 'by making art the perfect expression of one time and one place, it becomes for all time and of all places'.
Roberts and his colleagues had a few discriminating supporters and patrons, but the public was unimpressed and the National Gallery gave no encouragement. In 1891, with Melbourne falling into deep economic depression, Roberts followed Streeton to Sydney where the National Art Gallery of New South Wales had a positive policy of acquiring Australian pictures. In October Roberts established a camp at Sirius Cove, Mosman Bay, where Streeton and A. H. Fullwood joined him.
As part of his urge to develop a national art, since 1889 Roberts had been investigating the possibilities of painting historical subject-pictures, describing the experience of 'strong masculine labour'. Drawing on the basic tenets of naturalism, he developed an aim to record historical processes, especially agricultural and pastoral methods which were fast disappearing. For three years in a row he visited Brocklesby station in the Riverina where he painted 'Shearing the Rams', which came to be considered the definitive image of an emerging national identity. In the earlier 1890s he travelled widely from Sydney in search of subject-matter—riding long distances, living hard—notably to the property of his friend Duncan Anderson near Inverell. The paintings 'Shearing at Newstead: The Golden Fleece' (1894) and 'Bailed up' (1895-1927) were major consequences.
Roberts was a reader: his love for the English romantic poets is reflected in the titles of some of his paintings. In particular he read the works of his Dorset elder Thomas Hardy with whom he had had a childhood association. Far from the Madding Crowd was a favourite book and he had an early ambition to illustrate Hardy's novels. The influence can be traced directly: in Hardy's use of the word 'impression' and in his poetic, melancholic twilight scenes; his depiction of shearers at work; his contrasts of city and country, of a vanishing way of life, and his artist's assumption of the task of historical recorder; and in his interest in a regional, provincial culture. Later, in England, Roberts returned several times to Dorset.
In Sydney Roberts fell naturally into close touch with J. F. Archibald of the Bulletin whom he had met on board ship in 1885, 'Breaker Morant', 'Banjo' Paterson and many other writers and journalists at his Pitt Street studio. He was a member of the Dawn to Dusk Club. His democratic, nationalist tendencies were reinforced. In this period Roberts attempted every area of representation; his portraits of literary, artistic and political figures are as important as his landscape and subject pictures.
More than half his paintings between 1885 and 1900 were portraits, a means of earning a living that he much preferred to teaching (to which he succumbed from 1896). He would much rather have painted more historical subjects, but they were time-consuming, expensive in materials and difficult to sell. Some of his portraits are 'official' and impersonal; those of friends and intimates more often demonstrate his talent and intelligence, and many of women and girls show great flair.
The number of distinguished public figures he painted, however, such as Sir Henry Parkes, Major General Hutton, Alfred Hill and Marshall-Hall, led him eventually to develop an interest in a historical portrait-record of Australian types: in 1900 he exhibited a series of twenty-three informal panel-portraits, much influenced by Whistler. And, mainly on his trip north in 1892 to Queensland and the Torres Strait Islands, he painted Aborigines as individuals rather than types.
Through his close friend S. W. Pring, Roberts met again a former art-student Elizabeth (Lillie) Williamson and married her on 30 April 1896 at St Hilary's Church, East Kew, Melbourne. They settled at Balmain, Sydney, and had one son Caleb, born in 1898.
Roberts was a born leader and mentor to younger painters. Russell had been distraught when Roberts left for home in 1885. Conder affectionately addressed him as 'friend, philosopher and guide'. It is not known to what extent Roberts took the lead in 1886 in forming the Australian Artists' Association as a body of professional painters in opposition to the Victorian Academy of Arts, and in forming the Victorian Artists' Association in 1888, but he was a committee-member of both bodies.
He was also secretary of the literature and art section at the 1889 Melbourne meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. Then in Sydney he was founding chairman (1895-97) of the Society of Artists. He was the one artist articulate and bold enough to duel, vigorously and stylishly, with James Smith and others in the Argus. He worked assiduously to promote the status of the artist and of art as a profession, demanding respect rather than patronage. Largely through his eminent portrait-sitters, he gained an entrée to Sydney society where he felt he was representing his profession and gaining recognition for it. There was more than a touch of flamboyance, however, in his top hat and red satin-lined cloak and, remembering his rise from poverty and hardship, he was no doubt well satisfied by his social prominence. But, as J. S. MacDonald later said, 'he convinced by his arguments, he convinced by his painting … he convinced by his presence'.
At the close of the century Roberts had decided to leave Australia because of the bad economic conditions and lack of patronage—'there seemed so little in front of us'. However, when in 1901 he was invited to attend the opening of the Commonwealth Parliament in Melbourne, he was commissioned to paint the official picture. His 'Minute Book' reflects his excitement. Roberts was to paint 250 figures for which he was offered more than one thousand guineas and expenses. The work took two and a half years but it gave him financial security. In 1903 he embarked for England to complete the 'Big Picture' (1570 sq. feet, 518 cm x 305 cm). He had 'longed and longed' to return to England, but he did not receive the patronage he expected despite his contacts with Royalty while painting the picture, and, uncertain of the direction his art should follow, he entered a 'black period' for several years. Although Roberts had considered the commission to be the peak of his career, the need to represent accurately so many figures and the importance he placed on the task sapped his energy and weakened his eyesight.
Portraits were again his bread and butter; one was 'hung on the line' at the Royal Academy in 1910, but he barely made ends meet during sixteen years in London. Lillie Roberts became well known for her handsome carved frames. Tom corresponded with Prime Minister Alfred Deakin with whom, as a sitter, he had immediately struck up a warm friendship—Deakin was 'ever ready for five minutes' chaff'—and in 1910 he unavailingly offered his services in establishing a national portrait gallery. In 1913 Roberts held an exhibition of alpine landscapes, but his confidence had been lacking and his hopes disappointed. He had organized an Australian artist group based on the Chelsea Arts Club and was often nostalgic for the 'Sunny South'.
During World War I, understating his age (59), he enlisted in 1915 with several other Australian artists as an orderly, undertaking menial tasks, at the 3rd London General Hospital, Wandsworth; he became corporal, then sergeant, in charge of the dental department, and remembered the hospital with great affection. He returned to Australia in December 1919, stayed for a year and held exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney whose success encouraged him to return finally early in 1923.
Roberts and his wife settled at Kallista in the Dandenongs in a small cottage they named Talisman. He was particularly fond of the countryside there and returned to painting small formal landscapes in a low-key tonal Impressionism which he had rediscovered in a small panel painted in 1914 at Lake Como. Lillie Roberts died in 1928 and on 27 August he married her childhood friend Jean Irving Boyes at Illawarra, Tasmania. His last work 'Ring a Ring a Roses' was a nostalgic reprise of a landscape painted at Cremorne, Sydney, in the early 1890s. He died at Talisman on 14 September 1931 and was cremated. His wife and son by his first marriage survived him.
Roberts was a slim 5 ft 10 ins (178 cm), brown-eyed, brown-bearded, prematurely balding; he retained his English accent. He was direct, definite and straightforward in manner, loved an argument and relating anecdotes, in his younger days was often the life of a party. (Sir) Frederic Eggleston, a friend of the 1920s, recalled: 'He was a great talker, full of fun and whims and wisdom, but he was no egotist … He would not permit the silent listener. Every moment brought the call for active comradeship, participation in the passing of life and the enjoyment of beauty. He could not have lived without this active interchange of affection and friendship'.
In the first third of the century his reputation, such as it was, slumped. The contrast with Sir Arthur Streeton is striking; Roberts was offered no honour. In his earlier Melbourne days he had been outspoken and suffered many 'nasty knocks' from critics and art-officialdom. The trustees of the National Gallery did not purchase one of his works until 1920—a portrait painted in London. R. H. Croll's Tom Roberts: Father of Australian Landscape Painting (1935), which included many reminiscences by associates, began his return to fame. In more recent years it has been recognized that Roberts was at least as distinguished a painter as Streeton, in the wider sense a much more significant figure, and heroic in his claims for art and as a patriot.
His readiness to absorb major current influences and his energy in disseminating them made him one of the prime movers in the development of a national movement in painting. A portrait of him by Conder is in a private collection and a self-portrait is in the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Select
Bibliography
V.
Spate, Tom Roberts (Melb, 1972)H. Topliss, Tom Roberts, 1856-1931: A Catalogue Raisonne (Melb, 1985), and for bibliography
Tom Roberts papers (State Library of New South Wales).
Thomas William
"Tom" Roberts
(8
March 1856 – 14 September 1931) was a British-born Australian artist and a
key member of the Heidelberg
School, also known as
Australian Impressionism. After attending art schools in Melbourne, he left for Europe in 1881 to
further his training, and returned home in 1885, "primed with whatever was
the latest in art". He did much to promote en
plein air painting
and encouraged other artists to capture the national life of Australia. While
he is best known for his "national narratives", among them Shearing
the Rams (1890), A
break away! (1891)
and Bailed
Up (18
Roberts was born in Dorchester, Dorset, England,
although some mystery surrounds his actual birthdate: his birth certificate
says 8 March 1856, whereas his tombstone is inscribed 9 MarchRoberts migrated with his family to Australia in 1869 to live with relatives. Settling in Collingwood, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. He worked as a photographer's assistant through the 1870s, while studying art at night under Louis Buvelot and befriending others who were to become prominent artists, notably Frederick McCubbin.
During this period, his mother had remarried to a man whom Roberts did not get on with. He hence decided to further his art studies, and hence returned to England for three years of full-time art study at the Royal Academy Schools from 1881 to 1884. He traveled in Spain in 1883 with Australian artist John Peter Russell, where he met Spanish artists Laureano Barrau and Ramon Casas who introduced him to the principles of Impressionism and plein air painting.While in London and Paris, he took in the progressing influence of painters Jules Bastien-Lepage and James Abbott McNeill Whistler.[2]
Through the 1880s and 1890s Roberts worked in Victoria, in his studio at the famous studio complex of Grosvenor Chambers at 9 Collins Street, Melbourne. In 1885 he started painting and sketching excursions to outer suburbs, creating camps at Box Hill and Heidelberg, where he worked alongside McCubbin, Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder, working on representing Australia’s light, heat, space and distance.
In 1896 he married 36-year-old Elizabeth (Lillie) Williamson and they had a son, Caleb. Many of his most famous paintings come from this period. Roberts was an expert maker of picture frames, and during the period 1903–1914, when he painted relatively little, much of his income apparently came from this work. Roberts spent World War I in England assisting at a hospital. In Australia, he built a house at Kallista, near Melbourne. Elizabeth died in January 1928, and Roberts remarried, to Jean Boyes, in August 1928. He died in 1931 of cancer in Kallista near Melbourne. His ashes are buried in the churchyard at Illawarra near Longford, Tasmania.
Shearing the Rams, 1890, National Gallery of Victoria
Holiday sketch at Coogee, 1888, Art Gallery of New South Wales
Roberts painted a considerable number of fine
oil landscapes and portraits, some painted at artist camps with his friend
McCubbin. Perhaps the most famous in his time were two large paintings, Shearing the Rams, now displayed in the National
Gallery of Victoria and The Big
Picture, displayed in Parliament
House, Canberra. The Big Picture,
a depiction of the first sitting of the Parliament of Australia, was an
enormous work, notable for the event depicted as well as the quality of
Roberts' work.Shearing the Rams was based on a visit to a sheep station at Brocklesby in southern New South Wales, depicted the wool industry that had been Australia's first export industry and a staple of rural life. At the time it was exhibited, it was criticized because many critics did not feel that it fitted the definition of 'high art'. However, since the wool industry was Australia's greatest export industry at the time, it was a theme with which many Australian people could identify and shows Roberts putting his training to work translating "the classical statuary into the brawny workers of the shearing shed". Shearing would probably have been much messier than shown in the image, although shearing rules at the time did expect the sheep to be carried as shown in the picture.
In 1888 Roberts met Conder in Sydney and they painted together at Coogee beach. The younger Conder found these painting expeditions influential and decided to follow Roberts to Melbourne later that year to join him and Streeton at their artists’ camp at Heidelberg. While Conder painted Coogee Bay emphasising on the decorative qualities of form and colour, Roberts’ Holiday sketch at Coogee(1888) embodies his primary focus on the landscape’s natural effects. It is an early testament to Roberts’ plein-air ‘impressionist’ technique, which brought out the sun’s glare on the bright blue sea, bleached white sand, dry grass and spindly seaside vegetation.
Legacy
Roberts' life was dramatised in the 1985
Australian mini series One Summer Again.A "lost" painting titled Rejected was featured in a 2017 episode of the BBC series Fake or Fortune?. It was determined by experts to be a genuine Roberts, dating from his student years in London. Roberts' granddaughter considered it a self-portrait. If so, it would make it his oldest surviving self-portrait.
Elizabeth
Williamson b. 1860
Elizabeth Sarah (Lillie) Roberts (née
Williamson, 1860–1928), artist, was born in Launceston, the daughter of Caleb
Williamson, a successful merchant, and his wife, Elizabeth. She attended school
in Launceston before moving to Melbourne, her father having gone into
partnership in a department store on Elizabeth Street. Lillie studied at the
National Gallery School in the early 1880s before a period spent travelling in
Europe. She met artist Tom Roberts in 1886. She exhibited paintings with the Victorian Artist’s Society between 1888 and 1892; and appears to have started making frames during the 1890s, carving a frame for Roberts in 1894 as well as for other artists. She and Roberts married in Melbourne in April 1896 and then moved to Sydney, where their only child, Caleb, was born in 1898.
In 1903, dispirited at the poor prospects and lack of patronage in Australia, Roberts took his family to London, where he worked on his painting of the opening of the Australian Parliament. But Roberts had difficulty attracting the commissions he was anticipating in London, and it is believed that it was only through Lillie’s family funds that they managed financially. Lillie also contributed herself, between 1905 and 1908 training in woodcarving and gilding in London.
As Helen Topliss states in her entry on Roberts in the ADB: ‘Lillie became well-known for her handsome carved frames’. She received commissions from important clients and had examples of her work exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1908 and the Imperial Exhibition of 1909. They returned to Australia in 1923; Lillie died in 1928.
Updated 2013 https://www.portrait.gov.au/people.php?peopleID=141&startat=11
Also
known as Elizabeth Sarah Williamson, Lillie Williamson
- Artist
(Painter)
Elizabeth Sarah (Lillie)
Williamson was a frame-maker. She married Tom Roberts on 30 April 1896. Her
frames were hung at the Royal Academy in London and she also received
commissions from royalty. By the mid 1900s her reputation as a frame maker was
well established in London and Australia.
A frame-maker, was born into a wealthy Tasmanian family, a daughter of
Caleb Williamson and Elizabeth, née Cakebread. By the 1880s her father was
manager of Craig & Williamson’s, a prosperous department store in Elizabeth
Street, Melbourne. The family home then became Rangeview in Mary Street, Kew.
After attending Mrs Cowper’s school at Launceston Lillie matriculated to the
University of Melbourne in 1876. Although full details of her early art
training remain unknown, she attended the National Gallery Schools in the early
1880s.
In 1886 Lillie embarked on the Grand Tour with her friend Mrs Lewis and
family. They visited England, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Not long
before she left, she met the painter Tom Roberts ; her first surviving
letter to him is dated 15 April 1886.
They were married on 30 April 1896 in St Hilary’s Church of England, East Kew, spent their honeymoon in Tasmania then moved to Sydney, where they lived at 6 Little Paul Street, Balmain. Their son, Caleb, was born on 31 January 1898.
They were married on 30 April 1896 in St Hilary’s Church of England, East Kew, spent their honeymoon in Tasmania then moved to Sydney, where they lived at 6 Little Paul Street, Balmain. Their son, Caleb, was born on 31 January 1898.
In 1888 Lillie Williamson had become an exhibiting member of the
Victorian Artists’ Society; she showed about five oil paintings in the annual
exhibitions between 1888 and 1892. The earliest date given by Helen Topliss for
a frame carved by her is 1894; it houses Tom Roberts’ painting, Billie
Millera (unlocated). There is evidence that Lillie was also carving frames
for other artists at this time. Early in 1903 Lillie Williamson and Tom Roberts
travelled to London, in part so that Roberts could complete 'the Big Picture’
(on the opening of the First Commonwealth Parliament at Melbourne). They
remained there until 1923 and these years represent the blossoming of Lillie
Williamson’s career. In 1905-8 she attended woodcarving and gilding classes in
London. In 1908 two of her works were hung 'on the line’ at the Royal Academy.
She was exhibiting her work, receiving commissions, some from royalty, and
carving frames for her husband’s work.
Mrs Tom Roberts was awarded a first prize certificate for a carved and
gilded frame (now lost) shown in the Imperial Exhibition at Shepherd’s Bush in
1909. Her reputation as a frame-maker was well established in both London and
Australia by the mid-1900s. One of Lillie’s frames, still with the family,
contains her husband’s portrait of her (1910). Another frames Roberts’ portrait
of a neighbour at Hampstead Garden Suburb, Mrs M.P. Thompson (1912), and
Lillie may have framed other paintings by Roberts for the Thompsons.
Lillie left England for Australia on 6 January 1923. After her death, on
3 January 1928, Tom Roberts married Miss Jean Boyes of Lochmalien, Tasmania, a
lifelong friend of Lillie’s.
Writers:
Gray, Pamela Clelland
Date
written: 1995
Last
updated: 2011
https://www.daao.org.au/bio/elizabeth-williamson/biography/
It has been said that Charles Gerome Burchill, his
cousin was riding the horse, in this painting.
Charles was his sister-in-law's husband.
The painting is "Winter Morning After Rain,
Gardiner's Creek"
Caleb Grafton Roberts,
(1898–1965)
This article was published
in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 16, (MUP), 2002
Caleb Grafton Roberts (1898-1965), civil
engineer, public servant and army officer, was born on 31 January 1898 at
Balmain, Sydney, only child of Thomas
William Roberts, the English-born
artist who founded the Heidelberg school, and his wife Elizabeth, née
Williamson, who came from Melbourne. The family moved to London in 1903 and set
up house at Putney. 'Ca' was educated at St Paul's School, London, and the
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. A keen sportsman and a good scholar, he
impressed his father as being a 'model all-rounder'. On 26 August 1916 he was
commissioned in the Royal Engineers. He served in Palestine (1917), on the
Western Front (1917-18) and in northern Russia (1919). Promoted lieutenant in February
1918, he won the Military Cross (1919) and played Rugby Union football for the
British Army.Back in England, Roberts resigned his commission, entered East London College, University of London (B.Sc.Eng Hons, 1922), and obtained a position as an assistant-engineer with the Ministry of Transport. On 30 September 1922 at the parish church, Kew, he married Norah Joan Watson. They lived near Billericay while he worked as a resident engineer on the reconstruction of the trunk road between London and Southend. With no prospects other than the promise of an interview with William Calder, chairman of the Country Roads Board of Victoria, he left with his family for Melbourne in August 1925. That year he began his employment with the C.R.B. as an assistant highway engineer.
Roberts was promoted to highway engineer in 1928. His responsibilities included the modernizing of road-making techniques and the introduction of cheaper construction methods. In 1937 he prepared the board's 'first 10-year plan for highway development'. An engineer officer (from 1931) with the Citizen Military Forces, he was gazetted acting major on 25 September 1939 and called up for full-time duty. In November he was transferred to the Australian Intelligence Corps. While serving at Army Headquarters, Melbourne, he was raised to temporary colonel and made director of military intelligence in February 1942.
On 1 July 1942 Roberts was appointed controller of the Allied Intelligence Bureau at Douglas MacArthur's General Headquarters, South-West Pacific Area. The A.I.B. spread propaganda and conducted espionage, sabotage and guerrilla operations in enemy-held territory. By 1944 Roberts had charge of an organization comprising some 2000 men from Australia, Britain, the Netherlands, the United States of America and countries occupied by the Japanese. It was a daunting job. He found it difficult to reconcile the aims and allegiances of the various national groups, and to deal with some highly individualistic and temperamental members of his staff. On 17 October that year he relinquished his appointment and was placed on the Regimental Supernumerary List.
Resuming work at the C.R.B., Roberts was promoted chief engineer on 30 October 1944. He was to hold office in a period when the number of motor vehicles on Australian roads increased enormously. The board sent him to the U.S.A. and Britain from June 1947 to January 1948 to study the latest methods of building and maintaining roads, as well as new measures to improve safety. His report constituted a landmark in the analysis of Australia's needs: it recommended fresh approaches to highway planning, to predicting traffic demand, to constructing and repairing roads, and to developing the skills of personnel involved in these activities.
With prescience, Roberts urged the establishment of a national organization to study roads. After he and (Sir) Louis Loder submitted a further report to the National Association of Australian State Road Authorities, the Australian Road Research Board was established in 1959.
Roberts was also committed to advancing the engineering profession; to that end, he lectured at Swinburne Technical College and the University of Melbourne. Appointed deputy-chairman (1956) of the C.R.B., he became its chairman in July 1962. He retired on 30 June 1963, but was 'co-opted to serve in an advisory capacity' with the A.R.R.B. Survived by his wife and three sons, he died of coronary vascular disease on 23 November 1965 at Kew and was cremated.
Allison Ind, Roberts's deputy at the A.I.B., described him as 'a man of integrity, tremendous energy, and fearless loyalty'. Colleagues at the C.R.B. found him kind-hearted and appreciative, despite his stern manner and military bearing.
Select
Bibliography
G.
Long, The Final Campaigns (Canb, 1963)Australian Road Research Board, 'The First 15 Years' (Melb, 1975)
W. K. Anderson, Roads for the People (Melb, 1994)
Victorian Roads Retirees Association, Reminiscences of Life in the Country Roads Board (Melb, 1995)
H. McQueen, Tom Roberts (Syd, 1996)
Roadlines, Mar 1966
private information.
And from Chris Clark Historian
http://chrisclarkhistorian.com.au/2016/12/21/the-military-art-of-tom-roberts/
It was at least pleasing that the
exhibition’s curators had picked up on the military path followed by Roberts’
only child, his son Caleb Grafton Roberts (1898-1965). Although born in Sydney,
young ‘Ca’ (as he was known in childhood) grew up and received his education in
England, after his parents moved there when he was aged five. Following
training at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, he was commissioned into the
Royal Engineers in 1916 and served during the First World War in Palestine
(1917), on the Western Front (1917-18) and North Russia (1919). He was promoted
Lieutenant in 1918 and awarded the Military Cross the next year.After the war Caleb Roberts resigned his commission and trained as a civil engineer at the University of London. He was working for the Ministry of Transport when his parents decided to return to Australia to live permanently in 1923. Caleb, by now married and with a young family, decided to follow in August 1925. Settling in Melbourne, he became a highway engineer with the Country Roads Board of Victoria.
As noted in the NGA’s exhibition book, Caleb went on to become the CRB’s chief engineer and subsequently the board’s chairman, and during the Second World War served as the Australian Army’s director of military intelligence (DMI). And thereby hangs a fascinating tale – albeit one which, admittedly, it would not have been appropriate to treat in detail in a book dealing with Tom Roberts’ art. For Colonel Caleb Roberts was only DMI for a relatively short period of his army service in World War II: from February until June 1942 in fact.
Before that he had been only a Major serving as General Staff Officer grade 3 (Intelligence) at the headquarters of Southern Command (covering Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania) until May 1940, when he was transferred to Army Headquarters. In March 1941 he was promoted Temporary Lieutenant-Colonel and became Deputy DMI, from which post he stepped up to the Director’s job.
The post that next fell to Colonel Roberts was actually his most challenging and demanding, and controversial. On 1 July 1942 he was appointed as Controller of the Allied Intelligence Bureau at General MacArthur’s General Headquarters of South West Pacific Area. In this capacity he was expected to bring together and control the activities of the agencies – of not just the Australian services but British, Dutch and American – that were using Australian soil to engage in intelligence operations, as well as sabotage and psychological and propaganda warfare against the Japanese.
This was no easy task, since many of the eight agencies involved did not want to be under Australian direction – or American in some instances – and constantly worked to subvert Roberts’ authority, often with the support of figures higher up in the allied command chain. The end result was that by late 1944 Roberts was ‘released’ from the army to return to his civilian employment. He became chief engineer with the CRB on 30 October 1944. Only later, in 1956, was he appointed deputy chairman of the board, then chairman from July 1962 until he retired on 30 June 1963.
Colonel Roberts as Chairman CRB
The story most commonly encountered is that
the CRB asked for Roberts’ return because he was suddenly needed to fill the
chief engineer’s post. Other accounts state that he had had enough and simply
‘resigned’.Yet another (Barbara Winter’s 1995 biography of Rupert Long, Roberts’s naval counterpart as Director of Naval Intelligence) believes that Long engineered the CRB request to get Roberts out of the AIB job where he was obviously unable to prevail. Judging purely from the major published sources on the subject, Roberts’ struggle is a fascinating story which could well inspire a future postgraduate student looking for a worthwhile thesis topic.
The Joske Family
So many different people chose to bring
their families to Australia for a new beginning. None other than thousands of residents of
Prussia, who faced religious turmoil within their own country. Many of those people were brought to
Australia for a specific purpose. In
Queensland, it was for agricultural skills, for South Australia, for their
ability with vineyards. People like Dr
John Lang, had a vision for Australia,
and either good or bad, those ideas, helped create the country as it is today.
When Alexander Joske arrived in London
en route to Australia in 1852, he possibly had no idea of the effect on
Australian life he and his family would make.
In 1856, along with his brother Paul,
he had a shop at 2 Little Collins Street Melbourne, as merchants.
He married in 1856, Therese Marcus, the
daughter of Magnus Marcus and Bella van Damn, who also arrived in London en
route to Australia but in 1851, where Bella was described as a "Lady"
Alexander worked with his brother Paul
Joske, and for a time in partnership, along with many business interests,
including the purchase of a railway.
Alexander applied for a patent for
"Improvements in the Manufacture of Pipes". He was a wine and spirit merchant, and had
interests in Spring Water in all areas.
His leases regarding Water, posed a problem
for the Government of the day, with numerous reports in Parliament.
His brother Paul Joske had married
Ellen Lowe Brewster, and he opened a Sugar Mill in Fiji, which was very
successful. The business was known as Brewer and Joske. Paul died in Fiji in 1898.
Aexander and Theresa had a son Jerrold
Joske who firstly an author, known as Neville Goyder[1], and then Enid Louise
Fairfax from Sydney. Jerrold worked in
the Wool industry
Jerrold served in World War I.
Alexander's brother was Aldolph. He and his wife Augusta Weinberg arrived in
New South Wales in 1861 as First Class passengers on
the Wellesley and he became naturalised in 1864.
He
operated as a Wine and Spirit Merchant in Sydney, and was another victim of
insolvency in 1864
He moved to Melbourne, and was insolvent
again in 1870. He had a very unfortunate
accident in 1876, and lost his life. Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Monday 31 January 1876, page 5
FATAL ACCIDENT TO MR ADOLPHE JOSKE
A melancholy accident occurred at Messrs Webster Brothers' warehouse,
Queen-street, on Saturday last, by which Mr Adolphe Joske, broker, brother of
Mr Alexander Joske, the wine merchant, lost his life. It appears that Mr Joske
purchased a quantity of tobacco at Messrs Webster's sale, on Thursday and
Friday, and on Saturday morning he came to the store, and asked for some
samples of the tobacco he had bought.
He was referred by the bookkeeper to the storeman, who, he was told,
would give him what he wanted, Mr Joske, however, walked through the store to
the rear, without speaking to the storeman, and went upstairs to the first
floor of the warehouse as if intending to get the samples himself. On the first
floor, a short distance from the top of the stairs, is an open trap through
which goods are raised and lowered, and through this, which is always left
open, Mr Joske was shortly afterwards observed to fall to the ground floor, a
distance of about 14ft.
He was picked up insensible, and, by the direction of one of the
partners, was at once conveyed to the Melbourne Hospital under the care of two
men. It was found, on examination by the resident surgeon, that he had
sustained a severe scalp wound and a fracture of the shoulder. His injuries
were at once attended to, and in the afternoon he recovered consciousness, so
that at first no serious results were anticipated. He had, however, sustained
concussion of the brain, and the unfortunate gentle-man died yesterday morning,
at 7 o'clock.
Mr Joske was 54 years of age, and was an old resident of Melbourne. We
are informed that the portion of Messrs Webster's ware-house where he met with
the accident was strictly reserved from the public, and no one was supposed to
penetrate to the rear of the store except persons connected with the
establishment, all business being transacted in the front. No covering has ever
been provided for the trap through which Mr Joske fell (and similar openings to
which extend through the different stories of the building), as only the men employed
in lifting or lowering goods are supposed to be in that part of the premises,
and no similar accident has ever occurred before. Mr Joske, it is stated,
escaped observation in going up the stairs, the employees being all busy in
attending to the delivery of goods purchased at the sale; otherwise he would
have been stopped. An inquest will probably be held to-day.
THE DEATH OF MR A JOSKE Dr Youl held an inquest at the Melbourne
Hospital yesterday, upon the body of Mr Adolphe Joske, wine merchant, of Bourke
street west, who died in that institution on Sunday, from the effects of
injuries caused by his falling down a trapdoor at Messrs Webster Bros, Queen street.
Mr Alexander Joske, brother of deceased, deposed that after the accident he saw
his brother in the hospital. He went for the honorary surgeon (Mr Beaney), but
he was from home. Word was left for him to call on his return, but he did not
see deceased at all.
Ernest Joske, son of deceased, hearing of the accident, went to the
hospital at half past one o'clock on the 29th inst. At half-past seven o'clock
in the evening he went for Mr Beaney, the honorary surgeon. He went again at
twenty minutes to nine, and waited until Mr Beaney came home, when he promised
to come and see his father as soon as he got rid of his patients. Mr Beaney did
not go to the hospital.
Mr David Webster, merchant, Queens-street, deposed that about eleven
o'clock on Saturday morning deceased came for a sample of tobacco, and was
referred to the storeman. Instead of going to the storeman he went upstairs,
and witness was soon after informed that he had fallen through the lift
opening. Deceased was sensible, and was at once sent to the hospital. The lift
was the usual one, and it was almost impossible for Mr Joske not to see it, but
he had no right to be where he was at all.
Charles Clarke, a clerk in the employ of Messrs Webster Bros, saw
deceased fall through the lift opening, but did not see what occurred upstairs.
Geo. Rice, storeman, deposed that deceased came upstairs and asked for some
samples of tobacco. Rice was walking across to attend him when deceased fell
through the trap, which was open for delivering goods, a distance of about 14
feet.
Dr Lawton, resident surgeon at the Melbourne hospital, deposed that
deceased was admitted on Saturday last, suffering from scalp wounds, concussion
of the brain, and fracture of the collar bone. He died the next morning.
Deceased was under Mr Beaney's charge, and that gentleman was at once sent for.
A written communication was sent to Mr Besney at mid-night, but he did not see
the patient.
The cause of death was concussion of the brain; the verdict of the jury
was death was caused by an accidental fall through a lift opening, and added a
rider requesting the coroner to call the attention of the hospital committee to
the neglect of the honorary surgeon, Mr Beaney, in not attending to the
case.-Age, 1st Feb.
Adolph and Augustus had 4 children
1.
Agnes Clara Joske 1857 1923 m Otto
Linden 1832 - 1911
2. Ernest Oskar Joske 1858 1939 m Evalyne Joyce Richards
3. Paul Reuben Joske 1861 1938 m Rose Alice Cantor
4.
Alexander Sydney Joske 1863 -
1939 m
Leah Louise Mary Isaacs
Otto Linden
Otto Linden was an
accomplished musician, who taught, and conducted orchestras. He came from Prussia and was naturalised in
1883
The Germans in Australia
By Jürgen Tampke
MR. OTTO LINDEN'S FAREWELL CONCERT.
The Athenæum-hall was crowded to over-flowing yesterday evening on the
occasion of the farewell concert tendered to Mr. Otto Linden prior to his
leaving for Tasmania. Though his departure from Melbourne will be sincerely
regretted, he takes with him the good wishes for his future success of a
multitude of friends, both professional and amateur, who have duly appreciated
his un-tiring and unstinted efforts on behalf of art progress in our midst,
extending, as they have done, over so many years.
The preludial sostenuto assai, and the allegro ma non troppo from
Schumann's quartet in E flat, op. 47 (pianoforte, violin, viola, and violoncello),
opened Part 1 of the programme, while the andante cantabile, and finale
(vivace) were tho first items in the second half-the scherzo being omitted. In
these three movements Mr. Linden gave a scholarly rendering of the important
share allotted to the pianoforte ; his associates were Messrs. Hermann
Schrader, E. A. Jäger, and Claude Harrison. The nervous excitability natural on
such an occasion prevented Mr. Linden from doing full justice to himself in his
interpretation of Chopin's familiar B flat minor Scherzo, but any shortcomings
were generously overlooked by the audience, and the hearty round of applause
that ensued necessitated his returning to the platform and bowing his
acknowledgments. Later on he was the recipient of an address presented by Mr.
E. A. Jäger on behalf of the Musical Society of Victoria.
Ernest Oskar Joske was a barrister, and Registrar of the Dental Board of Victoria. In 1911, he was the Liberal candidate in the
Albert Park Electorate, however was unsuccessful.
Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), Monday 23 October
1939, page 10
Mr E Joske
Mr Ernest Joske died yesterday at his home, Goathlands-avenue, East St
Kilda. Mr Joske had been associated with the dental profession in Victoria for
over 50 years. During that time, as a result of his untiring efforts, the
dental profession has been built from very small beginnings to its present
important status in the community. For many years he carried on in an honorary
capacity. He was registrar of the Dental Board of Victoria, secretary of the
Australian College of Dentistry and secretary of the Faculty of Dentistry
within the Melbourne University. His kindly and genial personality added to his
many charitable deeds will be sadly missed, not only by the dental profession,
but by the com-munity in general. It is only twelve months since the dental
profession, as a mark of esteem to the late Mr Joske presented him with a
painting in oils and a sum of money in recognition of his lifetime work on its
behalf. He leaves a widow, four daughters and a son, Mr Percy Joske, a
well-known barrister. The death of his brother, Dr Joske, a few weeks ago. was
a great shock to de-ceased, and this, together with the illness from which he
was suffering, hastened his end. The remains will be cremated at Spring Vale
Crematorium at 3.30 today.
Paul Reuben Joske was a Woollen Merchant, in 1895.
Alexander was born in 1863. He was registered to practice medicine, in
1884, beginning a long tradition taken by his descendants.
In 1889 he married Leah Louise Mary
Isaacs. She was the daughter of George Isaacs.
George arrived in 1852 on the ship
"Isabella", he married Deborah Moses in Sydney in 1861
Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957),
Monday 8 April 1901, page 4
A very old colonist passed away
at his residence, South Yarra, early on Saturday morning, in the person of Mr.
George Isaacs. The deceased gentleman was the senior member of the firm of
Messrs. George and Henry Isaacs at Castlemaine in the early gold-digging days
of that town. Mr. Isaacs (who held the commission of the peace for upwards of
35 years) was the father of a large family, including Mrs. Theodore Fink, Mrs.
Louis S. Woolf, and Mrs. A. S. Joske.
He took particular interest in typhoid,
as per a letter at the Dental Museum.
These two letters of thanks
relate to medical reports undertaken by Dr Alexander Joske in 1887 and 1903.
(.1) 28/5/1887: letter from the Acting Secretary and Superintendant of the
Alfred Hospital, thanking Dr Joske for a report on typhoid patients; (.2)
3/10/1903): letter from the Chief Secretary's Office thanking Dr Joske for his
report on the ill treatment of attendants at the Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum.
http://henryformanatkinsondentalmuseum.mdhs.unimelb.edu.au/collections/collection-detail?id=30651
He was granted an OBE, and died
thereafter.
Dr. ALEXANDER SYDNEY JOSKE, O.B.E., president of the National Gallery and
Public Library Trustees, and president of the Victorian Medical Board, has had
a distinguished career in Australian medicine. He has performed a vast amount
of charitable work.
Alexander and Lea had several children
·
Enid Deborah Joske 1890
- 1973 Enid did not marry but devoted her life to
Nursing.
·
Esmond Shirley Joske
·
Elaine Joske
·
Phyllis Joske
·
Sybil May Joske
Enid Joske, (1890–1973) by Alison Patrick
This article was published
in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 14, (MUP), 1996
Enid Joske (1890-1973), college principal,
was born on 7 September 1890 at Prahran, Melbourne, eldest child of Alexander
Sydney Joske, a surgeon from Sydney, and his English-born wife Louisa, née
Isaacs. The parents were not wealthy, but their son became a doctor and the
three of their four daughters who remained unmarried were educationally
equipped to follow a profession—two as teachers and one as a nurse.Educated at the Church of England Girls' Grammar School, Melbourne, Enid won the Florence Stanbridge scholarship which enabled her to be a resident student (from 1909) in the women's hostel attached to Trinity College, University of Melbourne (B.A. Hons, 1912; Dip.Ed., 1913). She was employed as a teacher, first at her old school and then at Lauriston Girls' School, Malvern (1917-27). While at Lauriston, she helped to found the pioneering Children's Free Lending Library at Prahran.
Returning from leave spent in Siam, Japan and New Zealand, she was invited in 1927 to apply for the principalship of her old college, renamed Janet Clarke Hall. She had not been first choice, and later discovered that she had been expected to stay only three months. Miss Joske remained there for twenty-five years. She did not forget Lauriston, and, after the school was incorporated, served (1948-52) on its foundation council, but J.C.H. became her life.
The Joske régime (1928-52) was steady, placid and wise. She inherited an institution which lacked physical cohesion, had only recently recovered from a serious dispute over discipline, and encountered the consistent hostility of (Sir) John Behan, the warden of Trinity. She dealt with these problems in her own unobtrusive way. Small and quiet, Miss Joske was also ubiquitous, a characteristic resented by some students until they discovered a care for their concerns which more than atoned for her occasional mistakes.
Her main personal handicap, serious deafness, became almost an asset, as legends proliferated about her judiciously selective use of her hearing-aid. Unlike Behan, she never faced a crisis over student discipline. Although the basic boundaries of conventional decorum changed little between 1928 and 1952, Joske enforced her rules with humour and discretion. She met no agitation in J.C.H. for a move towards the much freer style of University Women's College. Miss Joske's college reflected the accepted mores of its time—but without rigidity.
Over the building programme, which finally brought the college under one roof and gradually enlarged it, she resolutely pressed the J.C.H. interest, with the creation of the gardens as a contribution from her own expertise. The subsequent naming of the Enid Joske Wing (1956) acknowledged her efforts, sustained in the face of the warden's lack of sympathy for all J.C.H. concerns. Behan's antagonism had an impact in ways he did not foresee. The underlying point of difficulty was that Miss Joske's position as principal was anomalous. Independently run, J.C.H. remained a Trinity possession, which the warden had the right to criticize and control.
Although it was the oldest and largest of the women's colleges, Miss Joske had no place on the heads of colleges' committee. Yet neither was J.C.H. integrated into the Trinity fabric, nor were the claims of the women considered with those of the men. For Behan, J.C.H. was at best an unwanted appendage, at worst the source of dangerous distractions for the Trinity men whose interests he saw as paramount. The resultant frictions drove J.C.H. in upon itself, and fostered a sense of distinctive identity.
Miss Joske's attitude to Behan was tactful and generous. If she saw separation from Trinity as inevitable, she never pushed for it, and she was fully aware of the Trinity case against it. But from 1946 she gladly accepted the greater autonomy offered by Behan's successor R. W. T. Cowan. While she was principal, she tacitly strengthened the case for independence by consolidating a happy and confident institution, academically sound, with loyal domestic staff and some distinguished tutors. She also widened student horizons by the quality of the visitors to high table. Her college had grown and prospered. Nine years after her retirement in 1952, independence was achieved.
When she withdrew to Harfra, her cottage at Harkaway, there was concern lest she feel lonely and bereft. The concern was misplaced. She made another garden, and for twenty years entertained a stream of visiting ex-students. She died on 17 October 1973 at Harkaway and was cremated with Anglican rites.
Enid Joske (1890–1973) was Principal of Janet Clarke Hall from 1928 until 1952. She won the Florence Stanbridge scholarship, and due to that was a resident student in the women's hostel attached to Trinity College, University of Melbourne, from which she earned her bachelor's degree in 1912 and Diploma of Education in 1913. She worked as a teacher at her old school and then at Lauriston Girls' School, where she helped found the Children's Free Lending Library at Prahran. She later served on Lauriston's foundation council from 1948-1952, after the school was incorporated. In 1927 she was invited to apply to be the principal of her old college, which had been renamed Janet Clarke Hall. She improved the facilities and grew the enrolment at the college.
In 1956 the Enid Joske Wing of the college was named for her.
She had serious deafness and used a hearing aid.
Phyllis Joske married James Humphrey Rose, from New Zealand. They married in 1926 in Victoria. They had two daughters, Shirley Ann Rose and Louise Mary Rose. Louise married Sir Edmund Hillary.
Records relating to James's family are stored in the Auckland Museum
http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/collection/object/am_library-manuscriptsandarchives-2458
Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954),
Friday 14 August 1953, page 5
Engaged to Sir Edmund Hillary
Miss Louise Mary Rose, aged 23, who will be married to Sir Edmund
Hillary in September, according to an
Auckland message, is the granddaughter of the late Dr. A. S. Joske, of
Melbourne, and a niece of Miss Enid Joske, former principal of Janet Clarke
Hall, University of Melbourne
She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Rose, of Auckland, New Zealand
(her mother was formerly Miss Phyllis Joske, of Melbourne). After leaving
school she graduated in music from the Auckland University and won a bursary to
further her studies at the Sydney Conservatorium. Her instrument is the viola.
She has a number of friends in musical circles in Melbourne whom she saw when
she spent three weeks' holiday here earlier this year.
She first' met Sir Edmund Hillary several years ago, through her father,
who is the president of the Alpine Club of New Zealand. Relatives in Melbourne
say Miss Rose has been climbing since she was four years old and keenly shares
her fiancé's interests in . mountaineering. It is expected . that she and Sir
Edmund Hillary will be married in September in Auckland and will leave by air
for England on September 9, combining a honeymoon and lecture tour. She will
probably leave Sydney at the week end to return home to Auckland.
http://www.noted.co.nz/archive/listener-nz-2008/sir-edmund-hillarys-last-ever-interview/
Hillary married Louise Mary Rose on 3 September 1953, soon after the ascent of Everest. A shy man, he relied on his future mother-in-law to propose on his behalf.
They had three children: Peter (born 1954), Sarah (born 1955) and Belinda (1959–1975). In 1975 while en route to join Hillary in the village of Phaphlu, where he was helping to build a hospital, Louise and Belinda were killed in a plane crash near Kathmandu airport shortly after take-off.
In 1989 he married June Mulgrew, the widow of his close friend Peter Mulgrew, who died having replaced Hillary as speaker on Air New Zealand Flight 901, a sightseeing flight to the Antarctic which crashed into Mount Erebus in 1979. His son Peter Hillary has also become a climber, summiting Everest in 1990.
He spent most of his life (when not away on expeditions) living in a property on Remuera Road in Auckland City, where he enjoyed reading adventure and science fiction novels in his retirement.[2]
Elaine Joske
Elaine was a nurse who spent time in
America, and completed a post-graduate course of dietotheraphy paediatrics at
Columbia Medical Centre Hospital
Dr Edmond Shirley Joske
Edmund was born in 1891 and enlisted in
World War I. He married Mary Cela
Roberts in 1923
He and Mary had 4 children
Mary Joske 1923 1993
Clara Joske 1925 1991
Dr Richard Alexander Joske 1925 2008
m Enid Joyce Prudence Apperley
William David Joske 1928 2006
Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954),
Monday 6 December 1948, page 2
OBITUARY
Dr. E. S. Joske
Dr. Esmond Shirley (Bill) Joske, who died at his home in High-street, .
Prahran, on Saturday night, aged 57 years, leaves a wife, two sons (one of whom
is Dr.. Richard Joske) and two daughters.
Dr. Joske was industrial doctor for several leading Melbourne firms. He was
a member of the British Association of Dermatology, and assistant in the
dermatology clinic at Alfred Hospital. He was educated at Melbourne Grammar
School and the University of Melbourne, and trained at Alfred Hospital. He served In the Fourth Light Horse (A.I.F.)
in the first world war, after which he studied in London hospitals before
returning to set up practice In Prahran The funeral will leave Dr. Joske's home
for Spring Vale at 3.30 this afternoon. Arrangements are being made by B.
Matthews Pty. Ltd.
He was registered to practice in 1916
AM(2001) MB BS Melbourne(1948) MD(1952) FRACP(1962) PhD University of Western Australia(1972) MRCP(1977) FRCP(1982) MRACP
Richard Alexander (‘Dick’) Joske was professor of medicine at the University of Western Australia, Perth. He was born in Melbourne. His mother, Molly née Roberts, was the niece of the well-known Australian painter, Tom Roberts, who painted her portrait. His father, Esmond Shirley Joske, graduated in medicine from the University of Melbourne in 1916 and served as a captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps during the First World War. His antecedent was Adolph Abraham Joske, a Jewish merchant from the German/Polish border who arrived in Sydney in 1861. Dick’s grandfather, Alexander Sydney Joske, graduated in medicine in 1885 with a thesis on typhoid, reporting 'better results for cases treated in tents than in the wards at the Alfred Hospital'
.
Dick Joske went to Melbourne Church of England Grammar School, where he was awarded the Rosa Elizabeth Millear scholarship. On his way home from school he preferred taking a shortcut through the park so he could save the halfpenny tram fare, using the money to buy more lead soldiers for his collection. He studied medicine at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1948 with honours in chemistry, physics, physiology, biochemistry, pathology, microbiology and botany. Four years later, he was awarded an MD with gold medal.
At the Royal Melbourne Hospital, he met and courted a student nurse, Enid Jocelyn Prudence Apperly, known as ‘Prue’, whom he married in 1952. She later completed several degrees and co-wrote a history of Royal Perth Hospital. He was always deeply in love with Prue, whom he always referred to as 'my beloved'.
In his later career at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Melbourne, his mentors included Sir Macfarlane Burnet [Munk’s Roll, Vol.VIII, p.68] and Sir Ian Wood [Munk’s Roll, Vol.VIII, p.548]. He developed a major interest in gastroenterology. In 1955, he was awarded a Nuffield Dominion fellowship in medicine and spent a year at University College Hospital in London, working with Lord Max Rosenheim [Munk’s Roll, Vol.VI, p.394]. He was subsequently awarded a Commonwealth Fund (Harkness) advanced fellowship in medicine, which enabled him to work for a year at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Returning to Australia by sea, he stopped over in Perth and was offered and accepted the Adolph Basser fellowship in medicine at the University of Western Australia. Initially reader in experimental medicine, he succeeded the founding professor of medicine, Eric Saint [Munk’s Roll, Vol.IX, p.457], as head of the department of internal medicine in 1968.
His major working years were spent at Royal Perth Hospital, where he was recognised as a supreme clinician and teacher of internal medicine, at a time when specialties were already fragmenting from the wider base of medicine. He reluctantly transferred from Royal Perth Hospital, which he loved so much, to the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre, where he also served as dean of the faculty of medicine of the University of Western Australia. He was a member of the university senate and also member of the academic council, the Raine Medical Research Foundation committee and the Healy Medical Research Foundation committee.
He remained a physician without peer and was often referred the most difficult cases. He was once presented with a patient with a complex constellation of signs. In the course of a long presentation he said: 'check the urinalysis – if it’s 3+ protein, it is lupus, if it’s 1+, it is rheumatoid'. Of course he was right. His students sometimes found him intimidating, although they affectionately described Dick Joske as 'Disc-Jockey'.
Many were witness to his kindness and compassion at the bedside. He was a brilliant teacher, applying physiology and pathology to everyday medicine. He was legendary for his wit and humour, even though he was by his own admission a shy person and found it difficult to make small talk in company. At a time when Royal Perth Hospital supplied lunch for its staff, he was always stimulating company at the lunch table. He used to enjoy lighting up his narrow cigar after lunch, but gave up the habit of smoking in his later years.
He was widely published in national and international journals, served as an external examiner in medicine for the universities of Adelaide, Queensland, Malaysia and Singapore. As president of the Western Australian branch of the Australian Medical Association, he was a member of the federal council. He was made a fellow of the Australian Medical Association and received its inaugural award for services to medicine from the West Australian branch.
He retired in 1990 and decided to make a complete break from medicine. However, he served on the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Disability Commission and the Autism Association.
Outside work, he was a great supporter of Claremont Australian Rules Football Club. He also closely followed cricket and was pleased on one of his visits to the UK to be introduced to Sir Kenneth Stuart, formerly professor of medicine at the University of the West Indies. As a consequence, Dick Joske was invited to attend a game in which the West Indies played against England. He was also an avid stamp collector.
His marriage to Prue was, in the words of his son, 'his greatest achievement'. He was devastated when she died in 1992, but he continued on in independence, enjoying occasional lunches with colleagues and friends for another 16 years.
He was attending a class reunion in Melbourne when he was taken ill in his hotel room. He was rushed to hospital, but was unable to be resuscitated. He is survived by four sons. One, David Joske, is a haematologist. A seminar room at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital has been named after R A Joske.
Krishna Somers
[Royal Perth Hospital www.rph.wa.gov.au/emeritus/joske.html]
(Volume XII, page web)
http://munksroll.rcplondon.ac.uk/Biography/Details/6070
What an amazing family. Until the research was conducted for the creation of the Jillett Family website, none of the family of Fannie Jillett were known to any others. There seemed to be some sort of reason that the boys, who lived in Queensland, did not keep in contact with their nieces and nephews.
Thank goodness that has changed.
Orr, Sydney Sparkes
(1914–1966) by W. D. Joske
This article was published
in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 15, (MUP), 2000
Sydney Sparkes Orr (1914-1966), philosopher,
claimed to have been born on 6 December 1914 at Belfast, Ireland, son of
Tedford Orr, blacksmith, and his wife Elizabeth. However, in giving evidence
before the Supreme Court of Tasmania in October 1956, he said: 'My birth is a
mystery. It has been a source of great distress to me all my life. I do not
know whether my purported parents are my real parents, whether I am adopted or
illegitimate'.Educated at Bedford College and Queen's University of Belfast, Sydney graduated with first-class honours in philosophy (B.A., 1939; M.A., 1941). At Cooke Centenary Church on 22 September 1941 he married Sarah Davidson with Presbyterian forms. While employed at Queen's as an assistant-lecturer (1939-44) in philosophy, he began in 1942 to study for his doctorate on 'the relationship between virtue and knowledge in Plato', but was never awarded the degree. He held a temporary assistant-lectureship (from 1944) in the department of logic and metaphysics, University of St Andrews, Scotland.
In 1946 Orr was appointed acting-lecturer in the department of philosophy, University of Melbourne; in the following year he obtained a permanent lectureship. While awaiting his wife's arrival, he formed an intimate relationship with a young woman who bore him a child. She later lived with the Orrs in a ménage à trois. The affair ended while Orr was still in Melbourne. In 1952 he was appointed professor of philosophy at the University of Tasmania. The choice was surprising, as Orr had published little, and was not as highly regarded as some other applicants for the chair, but he had the support of the chancellor Sir John Morris, who believed that he would contribute to adult education in the community and who wanted a philosopher untainted by logical positivism.
During his tenure of the chair Orr played a significant role in seeking reform of an outdated university administrative structure. The university council was seen by many staff members to be both interfering and obstructionist, involving itself in matters that were properly the concern of academics and not of a body of lay persons. In 1953-54 staff and students campaigned against the old order. An open letter to the premier, written by Orr and signed by thirty-five fellow academics, was published in the Mercury on 29 October 1954. It called for an inquiry into 'the present administration of the University of Tasmania' and led (Sir) Robert Cosgrove reluctantly to agree to the appointment of a royal commission.
Headed by Justice James Walker of the Supreme Court of Western Australia, the commission opened on 22 February 1955 and delivered its report on 26 May. The report was highly critical of Morris and of the university council, which it recommended be replaced. The council did not feel obliged to implement all the commission's recommendations. A new University Act was passed by parliament in November 1955 and proclaimed on 15 December.
Next day the council authorized the vice-chancellor to establish a committee to consider complaints against Orr made by two members of staff—W. A. Townsley, an historian, and Dr K. Milanov, a member of Orr's department—and by a mature-age student of philosophy, Edwin Tanner. Following a special council meeting on 2 March 1956, which heard an allegation by Reginald Kemp, a local timber merchant, that Orr had seduced his daughter Suzanne (an undergraduate student of philosophy), a second committee was established. Both committees found against Orr. The university refused to accept his resignation, and he was summarily dismissed on 16 March 1956.
Orr's significance for historians derives from the circumstances of his expulsion, the subsequent campaign for his reinstatement, and the consequent prolonged debate concerning both the propriety of the university's proceedings and the proper relationship between a university and its academic staff. Orr sued the university alleging wrongful dismissal. The case was heard in the Supreme Court in October and November 1956. The court found that the complaints of Townsley, Milanov and Tanner were not of sufficient gravity to justify Orr's removal, but it did accept the veracity of Miss Kemp's evidence, and found that the university was justified in summarily dismissing him. In May 1957 the High Court of Australia rejected Orr's appeal and supported the findings of the Supreme Court.
That month Orr enlisted the help of Professor R. D. Wright of the University of Melbourne as his academic 'next friend'. Wright devoted energy, time and money to assist Orr until the year of the latter's death. In June 1958 the Orr case gained considerable credence when the Kirk Session of Scot's Church, Hobart, after receiving Orr's application for readmission to the Church, found that he had been convicted on insufficient evidence and that a gross miscarriage of justice had occurred. The session's findings took account of new evidence produced by Orr, and were later endorsed by other church authorities, most notably the Catholic archbishop (Sir) Guilford Young and the Anglican bishop Geoffrey Cranswick.
Support for Orr was not confined to Tasmania. The staff associations of most Australian universities expressed their concern, that of Newcastle University College calling in July 1958 for a 'ban on applications for positions on the Staff of the University of Tasmania'. In August that year the Australasian Association of Philosophy imposed a ban on the filling of the chair of philosophy at the University of Tasmania. There was consistent agitation for reopening the case, either by the court or by a special inquiry, so that the new evidence could be examined. In Hobart the community was divided. Orr's supporters and opponents campaigned vigorously. The strength of feeling was demonstrated when a shot was fired through the window of his home on 23 December 1959. The owner of the rifle from which the bullet was fired was tried early in 1960, but the magistrate dismissed the case. There is still argument as to whether the shooting was an attempted assassination or a ploy to gain sympathy for the former professor.
Orr was widely regarded as a martyr, an antipodean Dreyfus, the victim of a conspiracy by members of a conservative establishment determined to rid the university of a difficult troublemaker by punishing him for the part he had played in bringing about the royal commission and the reform of the university and its council. This view was put most strongly by W. H. C. Eddy, a senior tutor in external studies at the University of Sydney, in his voluminous and passionate book, Orr (Brisbane, 1961).
In spite of approaches made on his behalf, Orr was unable to obtain any other academic appointment, and was reduced to dependence on the charity of his sympathisers. Except for short periods when he was employed in unskilled tasks, he devoted the remainder of his life to seeking compensation from the university and reinstatement as its professor of philosophy. In December 1963 the university offered him a cash settlement. The chancellor Sir Henry Baker and four other council-members resigned in protest. Orr rejected the offer. In May 1966, when his health was failing, he accepted a similar settlement which included compensation of $32,000.
Survived by his wife and their daughter and two sons, Orr died of multiple pulmonary emboli on 15 July 1966 in Royal Hobart Hospital and was cremated. A public appeal was launched to raise funds for his family.
In recent years the Orr case has been re-evaluated, in particular by Cassandra Pybus in Gross Moral Turpitude (Melbourne, 1993). Pybus argued that there was no conspiracy, that Orr was guilty, that the shortcomings in the procedures of the University were excusable, and that the seduction of a student by a professor is a serious abuse of a special relationship. She pointed out that—as shown by (Sir) John Kerr and J. H. Wootten in 1958—the new evidence, which long provided the main reason for seeking a rehearing of the case, could only be accepted by denying facts that were conceded by Orr at his trials.
We moved to Tasmania ( or, back to Tasmania as it turned
out) in 1969 when Dad got the Chair in Philosophy at Uni of Tas after the
blackban was lifted 12 years following the Orr case. I was only a
teenager at the time.
There is a book by Cassandra Pybus. “Gross Moral
Turpitude”which tells the story in a readable way.
Tom Roberts - Resting
Place of an Icon
Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), Sunday 17 January 1988, page 1
Tom Roberts reposes in unremarked oblivion By PIP BUTLER
The graves of Tom Roberts and his wife: resting in obscurity.
Former Prime Minister Andrew Fisher is not the only prominent Australian
to have been forgotten in his grave. Tom
Roberts, one of Australia's best-known artists, lies in an isolated and
unremarked grave in northern Tasmania.
A simple, cement-edged grave, it is clearly tended to some degree: the
grass is kept short around it. But it is dry and dusty, and no attention is
drawn to it, to attract passersby.
The Tasmanian Tourist Bureau does
not know it exists, responding with a blank "whose grave?" to
requests for information, though it has made the odd National Trust
publication.
Roberts was buried at the Illawarra church at his request, perhaps for
its very isolation. It sits alone on a hill overlooking the pastoral scenes he
loved so well, and is in the area of his second wife's family home.
There is no monument to this famous Australian other than the simple
headstone, which reads "Tom Roberts, artist, born Dorchester, Eng. 9th - ...March 1856, died Kallista, Victoria 14th
Sept. 1931.
The only real monument the church does possess is an ugly
stone-and-cement block topped with a plough, dedicated to the World Ploughing
Championships held in 1979.
The church is off the main Launceston-Hobart road on the stretch known
as the Illawarra road, about 15km from the historic township of Long-ford. It
is surrounded by private property owned by the Dumaresq family, whose members
have been buried there since last century. As church property it is always open
to the public, but driving along the highway there is nothing to suggest that
this church is in any way remarkable, apart from its oddly isolated setting.
Roberts's grave, is also, surprisingly, unknown to many locals. In a
state which takes its famous people very seriously, and where many still
proudly spout the myth that the famed Hollywood actress of the 1940s, Merle Oberon,
was born of an unholy alliance between the Chinese cook at the Campbell Town
pub and a wandering miner, it is unusual to find a true potential tourist
attraction left unexploited.
Perhaps, however, Roberts did not want tourists of the future poking
about his resting place.
He is buried in the shade of two huge old pines in the Boyes family
corner of the churchyard with his second wife, Jean Boyes. He married Boyes,
with whom he had been friends for many years, three years before he died.
Her family had long lived in the Longford area, and Roberts spent some
time painting there and in other parts of Tasmania.
The English-born Roberts is one of the most popular Australian artists,
his work being so absorbed by the popular culture as to make it on to Big W
placemats and drink coasters, as well as to pride of place in galleries and museums.
In the bicentennial year, a year in which funds are being raised to
attend to the graves of other notables such as Andrew Fisher and Walter Burley
Griffin, it is ironic that the man called "the father of Australian landscape
painting" is left in such an undisturbed state.
Photograph of Tom Roberts grave, Illawarra
Cemetery, Tasmania 
Courtesy of David McHarg, Melbourne
Parish in mourning DANIELLE BLEWETT
The ordained closure of the Illawarra church is a blow to worshippers.
Tasmania is to lose one of its most valuable and historic churches to
church bureaucracy.
The State's Anglican Church has turned its back on country Tasmanians,
says Northern Midlands grazier Martin Dumaresq, whose family built the historic
Illawarra Christ Church.
Mr Dumaresq believes that a decision to close Christ Church is not
unlike bank, school and hospital closures elsewhere in country Tasmania.
Mr Dumaresq is the great- great-great-grandson of Tasmania's Surveyor-
General Capt. Edward Dumaresq, who built what is one of the State's oldest
churches in 1840.
The authorities in Hobart have told the parishioners that the church
must close. It is yet to be decided when the last service will be held.
Illawarra Christ Church houses the grave of colonial artist Tom Roberts,
and its altar was decorated by artist Arthur Boyd.
During the past five years, 20 country churches have been closed and
another 50 are listed for closure as the church "rationalises" its
services around Tasmania.
Anglican Church media spokesman the Rev. Paul Arnott said he did not
understand why protest at the closure had "been raised again".
"You have to understand the bigger picture that there are a number
of church buildings that are being closed down _ they require a certain number
of people and a certain income," Mr Arnott said.
"There were 220 churches a few years ago _ we had to rationalise
our services."
Mr Dumaresq said the parishioners, through the Longford-Perth Parish
Council, had tried to meet the criteria laid down by the church to keep
services at Christ Church, but the rules kept changing.
"It is disturbing that the goalposts keep being moved without the
consultation of the parishioners," Mr Dumaresq said.
His father Alan said the latest outrageous request was that the 16
elderly parishioners carry out missionary activities.
Christ Church and an adjoining 80ha were given to the Anglican Church by
Capt. Dumaresq as an endowment in trust. The 80ha is tenanted and provides
income for the church's maintenance.
Mr Arnott suggested that two elderly women from Coles Bay and another
woman from Hobart who travelled to Christ Church for their once-a- month
service were in fact ring-ins, brought in to boost numbers.
According to Alan Dumaresq, Coles Bay residents Rita Blazely and Doris Hooper have been travelling to Christ Church monthly for 20 years.
A National Icon buried in Tasmania
www.tasphotoalbum.com/VerylargeFotos/LongfordLarge.html
1842:
Christ Church Anglican, Longford, Tasmania.
Artist/Studio: Designed by William Archer
& Executed by William Wailes, England, c.1842.
Location: Longford, Tasmania, Australia.
Building: Christ Church, Longford.
Memorial: N/A
Donor: Charles Reid.
Photos dated: 12th August 2012.
Short link: http://wp.me/p2yCYO-n7
Location: Longford, Tasmania, Australia.
Building: Christ Church, Longford.
Memorial: N/A
Donor: Charles Reid.
Photos dated: 12th August 2012.
Short link: http://wp.me/p2yCYO-n7
The Stained Glass window in the Anglican Church of Christ Church, at
Longford, Tasmania, is the oldest known figurative stained glass window in
Tasmania, and arguably the oldest in Australia.
On the 16th March 1839[1]
Lieutenant Governor Sir John Franklin (1786–1847) laid the foundation stone of Christ Church of
England at Longford in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), assisted by Archdeacon Philip Palmer (1799-1853) of Hobart Town.
The church was designed by Launceston architect-builder Robert de Little (1808-1876) and was officially opened on the 6th of
October 1844 and consecrated by
Bishop Charles
Henry Bromby (1814-1907), on the
27th January 1882.
One of the most beautiful historical artifacts in the church is the
liturgical east five light stained glass window, recorded as the first of its
kind erected in Tasmania, and arguably Australia. It was donated by a local
merchant of Longford, Charles Reid (c.1794–1857)[4] and was
crafted as a collaborative effort having been designed by the colonial
architect William Archer (1820–1874) and
executed by the English stained glass artist William Wailes (1808-1881) at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1842. It was reported to
have cost £300.
Before the window was even erected in the church circa 1844, it was
found to be damaged when it was unpacked. Three portions of the canopies were
broken and one of the “Supporters of Tasmania” (either the Emu or the
Kangaroo). A local artisan by the name of ‘Nash who had established himself at
Longford as a painter and glazier was reported to have done the repairs so well
that;
“…the most critical observer cannot discover which of the canopies have
been broken, or which supporter has been made in the colony, the kangaroo or
emu…”
In September 1876, it was reported that further damage had occurred to
the window as a result of a severe storm. The damaged portion representing St.
Matthew was “repaired by Mr. J. Owen, and fixed in place again.”
Circa 1880 the window was reported to have undergone extensive repairs
in Melbourne;
The West window was dismantled piece by
piece to be sent to Melbourne for repairs and plate glass reinforcement…” This is further corroborated by the Treasurer’s statement of accounts for Christ Church by Joseph Archer published in September 1881:
“…The well-known large stained glass window has been restored in Melbourne at considerable expense, to provide for which the Hon. W. Dodery and Messrs. J. Archer and C. Arthur increased their original contributions…”
Although the statement of expenses published in the tabloids in 1881 appeared quite comprehensive, there doesn’t appear to be any clue as to which Melbourne firm conducted the repairs to the window. Possibly the most experienced firm in Melbourne at that time would have been the Ferguson & Urie stained glass company of Curzon street North Melbourne who started full time commercial stained glass production from late 1861, but by the 1880’s this firm no longer had the monopoly of locally created stained glass and was coming under increased competition from firms such as Rodgers & Co, and Brooks, Robinson & Co and William Montgomery.
In February 1882, architect Harry Conway advertised for tenders in relation to additional glazing for Christ Church. This reference could only be in relation to the tall two light nave windows of Christ Church, which, to this day, appear to have stained glass border designs that are uncannily like that of the Ferguson & Urie stained company of North Melbourne. In the head of the windows are heraldic designs with typical Ferguson & Urie colouring and borders of alternating reds, blue and purples separated by stylised depictions of the Passion Flower in yellow/gold. The borders of the tall thin lancets below appear to follow the unmistakeable Ferguson & Urie designs with the alternating colours and patterns, but sometimes with the random introduction of a yellow/gold crowns where a simple passion flower design would normally be expected. Other extant Ferguson & Urie windows that include the small ‘crowns’ in the border designs are seen in the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Mission Church and St Andrews Church at Box Hill. The heraldic designs in the head of the windows, as well as examples of the lower borders are shown at the end of the slideshow.
The coincidence between the design’s of the current nave windows, as being like that of Ferguson & Urie stained glass, and the reference to the Melbourne stained glass firm that performed the 1881/1882 repairs of the Wailes/Archer historic window is a curiosity that needs a lot of further detailed research.
On the 23rd of August 1943 the Launceston Examiner again reported on the Longford Church window that: “Historic Window needs repair…” It was estimated that the required work would cost more than £200 but this was to be postponed until after the war.
In 1967 a complete restoration of the window was conducted, by the Victorian stained glass artist Jean (John) Orval and his sons at Hamilton in Victoria; “When completed Mr Orval guaranteed the window would last at least another century before again needing repairs”.
Orval’s guarantee did not stand the test of time and after only 45 years the window was found to be in an advanced state of deterioration and again required a partial restoration. This work was conducted by Tasmania’s Heritage Stained Glass conservationist Gavin Merrington of South Hobart in 2013.
Description of the window:
“The five tall lower lights are all headed by five-foiled arches; the two outer ones on each side form a single pointed arch above, while the mullions of the middle arch are more substantial and run up to support the top window. The central light contains the figure of our Lord in vestments of beautiful shades; He is carrying the Orb and the Cross, the signs of Royalty and Sacrifice. The others have the four Evangelists, Saints Matthew
Mark, Luke and John. The first two have nothing to identify them, but St. Luke has his Gospel open, beautifully illuminated, the words being easily read with a pair of glasses. They are the first words of the gospel in Latin: “Quoniam quidem multi conati sunt ordinare narrationem.”
Above these figures is the usual elaborate canopy work of the period. There are two angels in each holding scrolls, which have no inscription. In the arches above the Evangelists are their symbols, suggested by the fourth chapter of Revelation:- the man, the lion, the ox, and the eagle, all with wings. Between them, over our lord, is the Annunciation, the Angel Gabriel and the Blessed Virgin having scrolls bearing the words spoken by them (also in Latin): “Hail Mary” and “Behold the handmaid of the Lord.” Going further up, below the three cross-shaped lights at the top, are four irregular panes which carry the ‘Instruments of the Passion.’ Of these in the left and lower one (at present broken) is the Crown of Thorns; next, the pillar to which our Lord was bound, and the ropes and scourges; next is the Cross with nails, reed (with sponge) and spear, pincers and hammer; and in the last the robe without seam; above it a white curve which closely seen resolves itself into thirty pieces of silver; on either side the money-bag of Judas, and the lantern, and, below, the dice used by the soldiers. Right at the top is the Dove, representing the Holy Spirit descending on the Church of the world.
At the base of the window are five coats-of-arms. That in the middle is the Royal Arms, surmounted by the Imperial Crown, and supported by what are intended to be the kangaroo and the Emu; but the designer could not have been acquainted with the latter, for it is more like a native hen than an emu, while the kangaroo is a poor pathetic creature. The other shields are evidently fancy constructions, though heraldically correct. The second from the left is surmounted by a mitre and seems to be the Bishop’s; but though the left-hand side correctly represents the Southern Cross, the right-hand is not that of Bishop Nixon”.
About the shield in the bottom right corner of the window:
A shield appears at the bottom right corner of the right light that provides most of the information about the windows historical origins. It includes the name of William Archer as the designer, William Wailes as the maker, and the location and date the window was made. The detail appears in four ribbon scrolls in the lower right shield and is described as follows:
1. “Gulielmus Archer – Des”. “Gulielmus” – the French based Latin version of the name “William”. The letters immediately after are “DES” being the abbreviation for “Designed”.
2. “Gul: Wailes. Exec”. “Gul:” shortened for Gulielmus (William) with the letters “Exec” being the abbreviation for “Executed”.
3. “Newcastle AD”. Newcastle being the location the window was Executed (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) and the letters “AD”, the Latin abbreviation for “Anno Domini”, being “The Year of Our Lord”.
4. “MDCCCXLII” in the last portion of the scroll indicates the year 1842 that the window was created. The bottom portion has some missing paint work and a missing piece of glass. The first Roman numeral looks like two letters “NI” but there is missing paint work as is actually one letter representing “M”, The “X” is drawn in an unusual fashion and looks like ¥. The same date in Roman numerals also appears clearly written to the left of the shield to confirm the date correctly as 1842.
Transcriptions of significant articles:
The Cornwall Chronicle, Launceston, TAS, Saturday 28th September 1839, page 1.
“At Longford, the Church, erected some years since, had become much too small for the accommodation of the congregation, whilst at the same time, from some defect in the construction, it was not likely to stand long; the inhabitants, therefore, determined upon having an entirely new and handsome building, the foundation of which is now completed, the first stone having been laid by the Lieutenant Governor, upon the tour already referred to more than once.”
The Courier, Hobart, TAS, Tuesday 20th October 1840, page 3
“At Longford, the Church is rising gradually, but not so rapidly as was at first expected, in consequence of the Committee having come to the determination to adopt, in lieu of brick, a facing of free-stone, which has to be carted for several miles”.
The Courier, Hobart, TAS, Tuesday 1st October 1844, page 2.
“His Lordship the Bishop of Tasmania will consecrate the new church at Longford on 3rd October. The principal attraction of this edifice is a large painted window, executed in England, and sent out at an expense of two hundred guineas. It is considered a superior work of art, and will doubtless draw many of the curious, for want of a better motive, to visit this place of worship…”
Launceston Examiner, TAS, Wednesday 2nd October 1844, page 4.
“LONGFORD CHURCH.- The new church at Longford will be opened by the bishop of Thursday next”.
Launceston Examiner, TAS, Saturday 12th October 1844, page 3.
“COLONIAL ART.- When the glass of the chancel window of Longford church was unpacked, it was discovered that three of the fine canopies were broken, and one of the supporters of the arms of Tasmania. The glass, however, has been so well repaired, that the most critical observer cannot discover which of the canopies have been broken, or which supporter has been made in the colony, the kangaroo or emu. The artist’s name is Nash, who lately established himself at Longford, as painter and glazier. This window, which is the gift of Charles Reid, Esq., was painted by the famous Wailes, of Newcastle, and cost 300 guineas.
It is perpendicular gothic, and considered a work of great merit. Mr. Kidd, of Launceston, constructed the carved oak chairs for Longford church, and they have justly received universal commendation”
(Additional article on same page)
“LONGFORD CHURCH.- The new church at Longford was opened for Divine service on Sunday, the 6th instant. Not withstanding the floods the church was filled at an early hour. The service commenced by the Rev. R. R. Davies reading the bishop’s license to perform service in that building, to be called and known by the name of “Christ’s Church,” Longford”.
Launceston Examiner, TAS, Saturday 28th February 1874, page 4.
“LONGFORD”
“…the church clock had and extraordinary fit of striking; it began about 25 minutes to six, and kept at it nearly a quarter of an hour. Many of the inhabitants turned out in alarm, thinking a fire was raging in the neighbourhood, others thought it was to announce the arrival of the Executioner and his staff, but it did not happen to be either. It appears Mr Allen, who was leaving by the train, wound it up rather hurriedly, when some of the works must have got a little deranged, hence this extraordinary occurrence.”
Launceston Examiner, TAS, Saturday 23rd September 1876, page 5.
“The portion of the stained glass window in Christ Church, representing St. Matthew, which was damaged some time ago, by one of the violent gales has been repaired by Mr. J. Owen, and fixed in place again.”
In 1880 further extensive repairs were reported to have been done to the window by an un-specified Melbourne firm:
“…The West window was dismantled piece by piece to be sent to Melbourne for repairs and plate glass reinforcement. Ornate side windows, beyond repair, were now fitted with cathedral glass…”[12]
Launceston Examiner, Thursday 15th September 1881, page 3.
“CHRIST CHURCH, LONGFORD, REPAIRS FUND…”
The well-known large stained glass window has been restored in Melbourne at considerable expense, to provide for which the Hon. W. Dodery and Messrs. J. Archer and C. Arthur increased their original contributions…”
“…In account with the treasurer to 17th August, 1881″.
With receipts omitted, the published account of expenditure in the Examiner of August 1881 does not give an obvious indication as to any payment to a Melbourne company for the stained glass restoration. The Mr John Wright mentioned in the article was the building contractor. The next largest sums mentioned are for a James Howard and architect Harry Conway of Launceston. This particular treasurer’s report may be too early to include any mention of an actual payment for the stained glass repairs and may have appeared in a subsequent report. In early 1882 Conway advertised for tenders for further glazing;
Launceston Examiner, TAS, Friday 17th February 1882, page 1.
“TENDERS will be received until noon on Saturday, 18th inst., for glazing, etc, Christ Church, Longford. Specifications can be seen on application to Rev. A. Wayn, or at the office of the undersigned. The lowest or any tender not necessarily accepted.
HARRY CONWAY, Architect, etc., Patterson-street”.
Examiner, Launceston, TAS, Wednesday 30th May 1928, page 5.
“…A great feature of the church was (and is) its west window, which was presented by Mr. Charles Reid, a resident of the district, and cost £300. The block and bell were provided by the Government, and cost, it is recorded, £200. On October 6, 1844, Christ Church was opened for Divine service by the Lord Bishop of Tasmania, and at the same service was admitted to holy orders the first Tasmanian ordained in the colony, Rev. Thomas Reiby. Shortly after the opening, the old brick building was pulled down, as also the first wooden one…”
Examiner, Launceston, TAS, Monday 23rd August 1943, page 4.
HISTORIC WINDOW NEEDS REPAIR
At a meeting of the vestry of Christ Church, Longford, attention was drawn to the condition of the large coloured window in the church, over a century old, which has been of considerable interest to visitors by reason of its unique character. This now requires re-leading, but the work will have to be deferred until the end of the war. It is estimated that the necessary repairs will cost upwards of £200…”
The Mercury, Hobart, TAS, Wednesday 4th October 1944, page 7.
“Historic Christ Church Celebrates Centenary.”
“THIS month the centenary of the dedication of Christ Church, Longford, is being commemorated by services and social functions. The present church (the third on the site) was begun in 1838, the foundation stone was laid by the Governor (Sir George Arthur) in 1839, and the church was dedicated by Bishop Nixon on Oct 6, 1844…”
“…Important parts of the church are the west window and the two-faced clock. The window was given by Mr Charles Reid, a resident of the township, and designed by Mr William Archer, Cheshunt, Deloraine. It was erected at a cost of £500. Urgently needed repairs to the window are shortly to be carried out, and other windows are receiving attention. The cost will be about £300, and the offerings this month are to be credited to that purpose…”
The Mercury, Hobart, TAS, Saturday 7th October 1944, page 16.
“Early History Of Longford Church.
An exhibition of old papers, letters, and books relating to the early history of Christ Church, Longford, which is being held in the parish hall, includes original documents, some from Bishop Broughton, Governor Arthur, Archdeacon Davies, photographs of early clergy and church workers, and pictures of the present church in its early stages. The design by Mr. William Archer for the west [sic] window is of special interest.”
Examiner, Launceston, TAS, Monday 9th October 1944, page 4.
CHRIST CHURCH, LONGFORD, 100 YEARS OLD.
“The special celebrations to mark the centenary of Christ Church, Longford, were begun yesterday, when at 8 a.m. 75 parishioners attended Holy Communion, after which 70 sat down to a breakfast in the Parish Hall, at which the Vicar-General (Archdeacon H. B. Atkinson) was guest speaker…”
“…The collections for the day totalled over £50, which will be credited to the repair fund already commenced for the historic west window…”
Advocate, Burnie, TAS, Saturday 28th October, 1944, page 5.
“CENTENARY OF CHRIST CHURCH LONGFORD.
LAUNCESTON, Friday.- An old English custom known as “clypping the churche” will be revived at Longford on Sunday as part of the centenary celebrations of Christ Church. At the conclusion of the morning service in the church the congregation will encircle the building and sing appropriate verses of thanksgiving. The celebration will conclude next week. To date 160 has been received for the window repairs thanksgiving fund.”
Examiner, Launceston, TAS, Thursday 30th November 1944, page 5.
“LONGFORD- At a meeting of the vestry of Christ Church, Longford, the treasurer-warden (Mr. G. W. Hudson) reported that £250 was in hand as a result of the centenary offering for the window repairs fund…”
Orvall Stained Glass web site – accessed 15th Aug 2012;
“In 1967, with the help of his sons, Mr Orval had the intricate task of restoring the treasured 125 year-old large stained glass altar window of Christ Church, Longford (Tas), transporting the window in pieces both to and from Hamilton. When completed Mr Orval guaranteed the window would last at least another century before again needing repairs”.
External References:
A scanned original copy of the c.1958 version of the Christ Church History Booklet (I found this copy at a Battery Point Antique shop in 2012)
“A Short Account of Christ Church, Longford: erected 1839, dedicated 1844”-Author Unknown.
Christ Church’s own web site provides links to three items written by the author of this article.
http://www.christchurchlongford.com.au/p/church_history
[1] Born
in a large middle class family in Melbourne, Sisters Anne Neville and Margot
Goyder are very interested in writing. After the
marriage of Anne Neville with Jerrold Joske (Margot will remain old maid), they
adopt the pseudonym of Margot Neville, formed from their first names to publish
in 1922, Marietta is Stolen in London. This
psychological novel, the sisters wrote it together word for word, before Margot
typed the manuscript. They observe the same
method and repeat the following years with other psychological novels, one of
which, Safety First , is twice adapted to the cinema.
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