Eliza and Robert had twelve children in the Clunes/Amherst/Eganstown area between 1865 and 1890: William Henry, James Robert, Louisa Sophia, Emily, Rebecca, Emma Jane, John, Edith Rose, Alice Mary, George Alfre, Olive Eva Violet and Charles Stanley Osborne (see below for more details). At the time of the 1903 and 1909 elections they were living at Telegraph Hill on Mount Franklin near Eganstown in Victoria. Robert was said to be working as a miner while Eliza was a nurse. As Rosemary Kennedy tells us, her nursing duties often went beyond the care of her patients. 'In 1904, one of my relatives, Mary Darcy from Borrisoleigh in Ireland, made out her Will. Eliza was a witness to the Will as was a local farmer Patrick Kelly (Borrisoleigh). Mary died in 1909 and is buried at the Roman Catholic Church in Eganstown. I am assuming that Eliza was a nurse to Mary as she was over 80 when she died. Mary was a farmer at Kangaroo Hills, a few kilometres from Blampied, near Eganstown'.
Eliza Osborne nee Hickmott died at the Telegraph Sawmill near Eganstown in 1912 from the effects of influenza and bronchitis. She was then 64 years old. Her death certificate, which was informed by her youngest son Charles Stanley Osborne, states that she was buried at the Burwood cemetery in Melbourne on 7 September 1912. She was said to have been born in London and had been 63 years in Australia, 56 of these in Victoria and seven in South Australia. Eliza's issue at the time of her death were: William (46), James Robert (44), Louisa Sophia (deceased), Emily (deceased), Rebecca (39), Emma Jane (36), John (34), Edith Rose (32), Alice Mary (29), George Alfred (27), Olive Eva Violet (24) and Charles Stanley (22). The following notice appeared in the 7 September 1912 edition of the Melbourne Argus: 'OSBORNE - On the 5th September, at her residence, Eganstown, Eliza, beloved wife of Robert Osborne, and loved mother of Will, James, Jack, George, Stan, Mrs Shiels, Mrs Babgary [sic], Mrs Kerr, Mrs Thomas, and Olive, aged 64 years'. On 4 September 1915 The West Australian carried the following Memorium notice: 'OSBORNE - In loving memory of our dear mother, who passed away at Eganstown, Daylesford Victoria on September 5, 1912. Inserted by her daughters, E. Shields Barrabupp, A. M. Thomas, Subiaco'. The executors of Eliza's will were George Alfred Osborne, who was working in Melbourne as a teacher, George's mother-in-law Louisa Wall of 12 Scott Street St Kilda and Jabez Ernest Lees, an auctioneer of 240 Clarke Street Northcote. Some time after his wife's death, Robert Osborne moved to the Melbourne suburb of Glen Iris where he died from the effects of cancer on 10 January 1918. He was buried with Eliza in the Burwood Cemetery.
As mentioned above Eliza and Robert had twelve children. One of these, Emily Osborne (1871-74) died as a child. The remaining eleven all grew to adulthood and married. Four of their children went to live in Western Australia while the others stayed with their parents in Victoria. Four were either farmers or worked in the farming industry, three were teachers (one of whom became Chief Inspector of Victoria's primary schools) and one was a missionary. Between them they provided their parents with 33 grandchildren and some 40 great grandchildren we know of. Three of Eliza and Robert's grandchildren were killed in action in the First World War. Another died as a prisoner of war in World War 2. Among the others were seven farmers, three clerks, two teachers, two engineers, a registered nurse and a naval officer. They and their children and grandchildren were living in Victoria, Western Australia, the ACT, Queensland and the United Kingdom.
1. William Henry Osborne (1865-1945).
Born at Amherst in Victoria, William was working as a miner at nearby Eganstown at the time of the 1909 and 1914 elections. Sometime after this he went to live at Beverley in Western Australia, near the home town of his uncle, Henry Edward Hickmott. The 1925 electoral roll has him at Bruce Rock in WA and working as a commission agent. As the following report in the Bruce Rock Post shows, he married Elsie May Haythornthwaite (1892-1976) there in 1928: 'Wedding Bells. Osborne - Haythornthwaite. On 21 March at Wesley Church at 7pm a wedding was celebrated by the Reverend W. J. Grove, in the presence of a number of select personal friends, the contracting parties being W. H. Osborne, commission agent at Bruce rock, and E. M. Haythornthwaite, nurse, also of Bruce Rock. After the ceremony the guests were entertained at a wedding breakfast at the Savoy Hotel. The happy couple are spending some months in the Eastern States and sailed by the SS Katoomba on Saturday March 24th'. Ancestry's index of Australian bdms shows that Elsie was born at Bendigo in Victoria, the daughter of John Proctor Haythornthwaite and Mary Alice Jane Edwards (who were married in Victoria in 1889). According to the Dale Family Tree on Ancestry, John Proctor was born at Taradale in Victoria in 1865 and he and Mary Alice had five children in addition to Elsie May: William Henry (1890-1975), Edith Jane (1894-1971), John Proctor jnr (1896-1979), Eva (1899-99) and Mary Haythornthwaite (1910- ). John and Mary Alice also went to live at Beverley in Western Australia. Both died there, Mary in 1932 and John ten years later (and after re-marrying).
The electoral rolls show that after their marriage William Henry and Elsie May lived at Bruce Rock until William's death, announced in the 19 November 1945 edition of the West Australian as follows: 'OSBORNE - On November 18 1945, at Perth, William Henry Osborne, late of Bruce Rock, loving husband of Elsie May, loving father of Joan; aged 80 years.' It seems that Elsie and their daughter Joan then went to live at North Perth and later Como where Elsie worked as a registered nurse. The Perth Metropolitan Cemeteries Board website shows that Elsie, aged 84 years, died at Como on 15 August 1976 and was buried with John in the family grave at Karrakatta (Wesleyan section 1A, gravesite 610). We have yet to find out what happened to their daughter Joan who seems to have been born before William and Elsie's wedding (and so may have been William's step-daughter). While at Bruce Rock she may have boarded at St Joseph's College at Kellerberrin and studied music. The records of the Perth Metropolitan Cemeteries Board show that a Joan Osborne, born around 1925, died in the Perth suburb of Lesmurdie on 13 October 2003, was cremated and her ashes taken by the director of the Karrakatta cemetery. We haven't as yet been able to confirm this is our Joan.
From Lisa Wahlsten's 'Osborne/Wahlsten Family Tree' on Ancestry.com, this photo shows four of Eliza and Robert Osborne's sons.
From L/R: Charles Stanley, William Henry, James Robert and John Osborne.
2. James Robert Osborne (1867-1941)
Born at Clunes in Victoria, James trained to be a minister in the Bible Christian Church. Founded in 1815 by the Wesleyan preacher, William O'Bryan, the church sought to spread its dissenting beliefs and values via a combination of pulpit orations and missionary work. The Australian branch of the church amalgamated with the Methodists in 1902. In his capacity as a Minister of the Christion Bible Church, James married Eleanor ('Nellie') Warland (1869-1949) in the Melbourne suburb of Ascot Vale in 1894. A notice published in the Melbourne Age informed its readers the wedding was officiated over by the Reverend D. Daley who was assisted by the Reverends J. Teague and S. P. Webber and that Nellie was the youngest daughter of the late Henry Warland of Melbourne. The Henry referred to was Dorset-born Henry Augustus Warland (1817-78) who, with his wife Sarah Watts (1824-93) and eldest daughter Alice Maud Warland (1850-1926), emigrated to Victoria in around 1855. There they had a further five children in addition to Nellie (some family researchers believe Nellie was actually the illegitimate daughter of Henry and Sarah's eldest daughter Alice Maud although this has still to be confirmed).
The Australian electoral roll shows James Robert, a clergyman, and Eleanor Osborne living on Chapel Street in Nathalia in central Victoria in 1903. Their son's enlistment papers indicate they were living in Papua New Guinea in 1915 and at Tunstall in Victoria in 1917. The 1919 roll has James Robert, who was then working as a clerk, and Nellie Osborne living at 27 Coventry Street in South Melbourne. By 1924 James had become a real estate agent and he and Nellie were living on Churchill Street in Surrey Hills. The electoral rolls show they continued to move around after this, living at 7 Yonga Road in Canterbury in 1931 and on Woodvale Road in Boronia in 1936/7. James died at Ballarat in 1941, aged 74 years. Eleanor returned to Melbourne's Surrey Hills where she died in 1949. They are buried together in the Ballarat New Cemetery.
We believe James and Nellie had only one child, a son Frank Robert Warland Osborne, pictured in uniform on the right, who was born at Rochester in Victoria in 1896. According to his military record in the Australian Archives, Frank attended Wesley College in Melbourne where he passed junior public and junior commercial and was a member of the college's football team. He then lived with his parents at Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea and worked there as a plantation overseer. Frank enlisted in the First AIF on 13 September 1915. He sailed for Europe from Sydney on the HMAT BOONAH on 22 January 1916 as part of the 13th Reinforcements for the 2nd Light Horse Regiment. He was then aged 20, single, and gave as his NOK his father, James Robert Osborne, of Milne Bay via Samarai in Papua.
According to the Australian War Memorial's Roll of Honour, Frank eventually served as a gunner in the 11th Brigade Australian Field Artillery. He died on 6 June 1917 from wounds received at the battle of Messines and is buried at the Westhof Farm Cemetery at Neuve-Eglise in Belgium. The following notices were published in the Melbourne Argus on 30 June 1917: 'OSBORNE. - Died of wounds in France, June 6, Gunner Frank Robert Warland, the dearly loved and only son of Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Osborne, Milne Bay, Samarai, Papua, aged 21 years. Another sacrifice offered on the altar of duty', and more simply, 'OSBORNE. - Died of wounds, in France, June 6, Gunner Frank Robert Warland Osborne, the beloved nephew of A. M. and E. R. Warland, 'Maiwara', Hampton, aged 21 years'. Alice Maud Warland continued to live with her younger sister, the costumier and corsetierre, Emily Rosena Warland, until the former's death in the Melbourne suburb of Surrey Hills in 1926. She is buried in the Melbourne General cemetery. Emily Rosena married a native of Devon, James William Hammond-Cross, in Melbourne the following year. They both died while living at Surrey Hills, he in 1942 and she ten years later. We don't think they had any children.
3. Louisa Sophia Osborne (1870-99)
Born at Stoney Creek near Talbot in Victoria, Louisa - pictured with her mother and siblings in the photo at the top of the page - married Charles William Bassett (1863-1905) in the Melbourne suburb of Malvern on 1 August 1893. Their marriage certificate tells us Charles, a 29 year-old bachelor, was then living on Glenferrie Road in Malvern and working as a storeman. Louisa, who was described as a 23 year-old dressmaker, was living on Alma Road in nearby Caulfield although her usual address was said to be Eganstown. Charles was a native of Otago in New Zealand, the son of Joseph, a carpenter, and Mary Bassett nee Harriman/Harroman. The wedding was administered according to the rights of the Christian Bible Church by Louisa's older brother, the Reverend James Robert Osborne, and was conducted at 'Adelaide Cottage' on Barkley Road in Malvern. The witnesses were an Annie Lambert and a George Henry Kneebone.
Although still to be confirmed, we think that Charles' parents were both born in Leicestershire in England, Joseph in around 1822 and Mary at Hathern in 1835. After marrying at Leicester on 30 May 1861 they emigrated to New Zealand where they lived in the coastal village of Hawkesbury (also known as Cherry Farm) located near Waikouaiti in the East Otago region of the South Island. They had four children we know of there: Charles (born in 1863), Catherine Annie (1867), Alfred Harriman (1871) and Edwin Jackson Bassett (1875). Sometime after 1886, the family moved to Melbourne in Victoria where Joseph died in 1891 and Mary in 1921 (see below).
On 1 January 1900 Louisa's parents published the following 'In Memoriam' notice in the Melbourne Age: 'BASSETT nee OSBORNE - In loving memory of our dear daughter, Louisa, who died at Bourke, New South Wales, on the 16th January 1899'. As indicated, Louisa and Charles were then living near the western NSW town of Bourke where Charles was employed as the caretaker of the Corella Tank (located south of the town near the Gundabooka National Park). As reported in the 27 January 1899 edition of the Dubbo and Wellington Independent, Louisa, had been lifting a camp oven from the fireplace at their residence when 'her clothes became ignited. She was immediately enveloped in flames, and her little boy, an intelligent little fellow about five years old, seized a rug and wrapped it around his mother. Eventually the flames were extinguished, but not until Mrs Bassett was terribly burned'. Informed of the accident by two passers-by, Charles rushed home and took his wife to the Bourke hospital. After her injuries were attended to, the newspaper report continued, Louisa seemed 'to be progressing favourably . . . On Monday [16 January], however, the Matron noticed a considerable change in the patient's condition'. The local doctor was immediately called but Louisa died before he got to the hospital. She was buried in the Bourke cemetery later the same day.
It seems that after Louisa's death, Charles and their son, Robert Joseph Bassett (1894-1917), returned to Melbourne where Robert probably lived with his paternal grandmother while Charles worked as a coal miner in Victoria's Gippsland region. Ancestry's index of Australian deaths shows that a Charles William Bassett, born in around 1863 and son of Joseph and Mary Bassett nee 'Harroman', died at Jumbunna in south Gippsland in 1905 (reg no 9392). The following report in the Melbourne Age indicates Charles' death was also a tragic one:
A COAL MINER KILLED. JUMBUNNA, Sunday. A fatal accident occurred yesterday morning at the Jumbunna coal mine. An employee named Charles Bassett and his mate, James Gahan, were proceeding with the erection of a coal boring machine. Basset was setting a prop to attach the machine to it. Gahan noticed a move in the roof and called to Bassett to look out, but before the latter could escape, a huge wedge shaped stone fell, and completely crushed the back of his skull. Death was instantaneous. Bassett, who was a widower, leaves a son, about 12 years of age, and also a widowed mother. Gahan is suffering from shock. The mine has stopped work (24 July 1905).
Charles' body was brought back to Melbourne where he was buried in the Anglican section of the Footscray General Cemetery (grave 431). Ancestry's index of Australian deaths shows Charles' mother, Mary Bassett, died at Footscray in 1921 aged 85 years. Her parents were said to be William Harriman and Ann Cocks. She was buried with Charles in the local cemetery on 17 October the same year. Charles' father, Joseph Bassett, 'late of Waittonaiti, Otago in New Zealand', had earlier died at the then Bassett family residence at 232 Hoddle Street in Abbotsford on 28 July 1891 (Melbourne Age, 30 July 1891) and is buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery at Carlton.
We think none of Charles' siblings married or had children. Alfred Harriman Bassett (1871-1936), who worked as a labourer, died at Yarraville and is buried with his mother and older brother in the Footscray General Cemetery. His sister, Catherine Annie Bassett (1867-1951), who was a machinist by trade, lived with her brother, Alfred, at Yarraville until his death in 1936 and then at 3 Mackay Street in Footscray South (the 1949 electoral roll shows Catherine living there with her nephew Charles William Bassett and his wife Bessie - see below). Catherine died two years later and was buried in the Anglican section of the Footscray General Cemetery (grave 550). Joseph and Mary's youngest son, Edwin Jackson Bassett (1875-1930), worked as a carter and lived with his siblings in Melbourne until the late 1920s when he went to Barham in southern NSW to work (the 1930 electoral roll has him working as a clerk at the saw mill there). He died in Melbourne the same year and is buried with his mother and two siblings. The 'Find a Grave' website shows a number of other members of the Bassett family are buried in the Footscray General Cemetery. These include: 1) Joseph's brother Frederick Bassett (1874-1934) and his wife Alice Maud Bassett nee Burnet (plots 387 and 638 in the Roman Catholic section of the cemetery). Married in Victoria in 1908, they had three children there - Rupert, Bessie and Reginald Bassett - and lived the latter part of their lives at 7 Mackay Street in Footscray South; and 2) another possible sibling of Joseph and Frederick: Thomas Benson Bassett (1849-1911), an engine driver by trade, and Johanna Bassett nee Callaghan (1844-1914) who were married in Victoria in 1871 and were living on Bell Street in Footscray at the time of their respective deaths. They are also buried in the Roman Catholic section of the cemetery.
His military record in the Australian National Archives shows that Louisa and Charles' only son, Robert Joseph Bassett, was born in the Melbourne suburb of Malvern and later attended the Hyde Street State School at Footscray. He enlisted in the First AIF on 2 October 1916. By then he was working as a clerk (with H. V. Mackay of Sunshine), was married and living with his wife at 6 Webber Street in the adjoining suburb of Seddon. Robert's wife was Christina Mary Henderson (1894-1936) who he had married in Melbourne in 1914. She was born at Ballarat East in central Victoria, the daughter of William Henderson (1861-1936) and Ellen Drummond (1865-1941) who were married there in 1886 and had seven children in addition to Christina (see the photo below).
Robert embarked from Port Melbourne on the RMS ORONTES on 23 December 1916 as part of the 7th General Reinforcements. He arrived in England on 17 February 1917 and after undergoing specialist signals training at Perham Downs and Shefford proceeded overseas, on 6 September, to serve as a sapper in the 4th Division Signal Company. He died three weeks later from wounds received at Polygon Wood near Paschendaele in Belgium and is buried at the 112 Hooge Crater Cemetery at Zillebeke. It seems Christina was not officially informed that Robert had been wounded until the 22nd of October 1917, two days after she had heard of his death from the Red Cross. Robert's final resting place is shown in the photo on the left which was recently sent to us by one of his grandsons, Michael Cuthbert ('Mike') Bassett. Standing behind the grave are six of Mike's seven grandchildren and Robert's only great grandchildren.
Robert's military record also shows that Christina, who was then living at 753 Flemington Road in North Melbourne, informed the authorities that two of his cousins, Leonard Balzary and Frank Osborne, also died on active service during the Great War (see below). Christina did not re-marry and lived the rest of her life in Melbourne, dying at her parents' home in the inner suburb of Hawthorn in 1936. The family posted the following death notice for their beloved 'Chrissie' in the Melbourne Argus on 6 January 1936: 'BASSETT - on 4 January 1936 at Hall Street Hawthorn, Christina Mary dearly loved widow of Robert J. Bassett (late AIF) beloved mother of Charlie and Bert, beloved daughter of William and Ellen Henderson and loved sister of Ethel, Will, Bella, Alec (deceased), Maude, Maggie, Mayne and Jim'. As Christina's death notice indicates, she and Robert had two sons:
1. Charles William Bassett (1914-71). The Department of Veterans Affairs' nominal roll for World War 2 shows that VX1536 Gunner Charles William Bassett, born in Melbourne on 6 December 1914, enlisted in the Australian Army at Yarraville on 23 October 1939. He was then living at Albert Park in Melbourne and gave R. Bassett as his NOK. He was discharged from the Army on 13 September 1945 while serving with the 2/1 Tank Attack Regiment. According to the Marguglio Family Tree on Ancestry, Charles married Bessie Agnes Wescott (1919-88), the daughter of Charles Wescott and Annie Sabrina Lingwood (1894-1971). The Australian electoral rolls show that Charles William, clerk, and Bessie were living at 3 Mackay Street in Footscray in 1949 (together with a Catherine Annie Bassett, machinist), and then at 22 Narcissus Ave Boronia where Charles was living at the time of his death (probably at the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital) in 1971. After Charles' death Bessie continued to live at Boronia until the mid-1970s when she moved to Noble Park. She died at nearby Dandenong in 1988 and was cremated at the Springvale Crematorium (Charles seems also to have been cremated there and is memorialised in the Crematorium's Banksia Garden). They had two children we are aware of: a son, Douglas Charles, born in Melbourne in 1950, and an older daughter, Christina who the Marguglio Family Tree tells us, is married and has four children.
2. Robert James ('Bert') Bassett (1917-88). His Naval Personnel File in the National Archives tells us Bert was born at the Melbourne suburb of Malvern on 16 March 1917 and his NOK at the time of his enlistment was his brother Charles W. Bassett of 3 Mackay Street Yarraville. Bert was appointed as a Cadet Midshipman on 1 September 1932 and was subsequently commissioned on 18 October 1939. He served in the RAN throughout the Second Warld War and joined Australia's Permanent Naval Forces on 1 January 1948 as a Lieutenant Commander. It seems Bert spent much of the war seconded to the Royal Navy. Although we have few details of his service in England we do know he was one of four Australian naval officers involved in the sinking of the German battleship the Scharnhorst off the coast of Norway on 26 December 1943. As reported in the Brisbane Courier Mail on 30 December 1943:'Lieutenant Robert James Bassett, R.A.N., believed to be from Melbourne, was the flotilla torpedo officer of the destroyers which torpedoed the Scharnhorst. Bassett aboard the secret 'S' class destroyer, Saumarez, was serving his first sea-going appointment after qualifying at the Royal Naval Torpedo School, at which he subsequently became a staff officer. Twenty-six-years-old, Bassett went to England in 1941, and last year married an English girl'.
Bert's wife was Elizabeth Myrtle Storey (1915-92), daughter of Cuthbert William Storey (1878-1955) and Myrtle Backhouse (1881-1919). They were married at Leighton Hall in Lancashire. Mike Bassett tells us that in 1905, Myrtle 'won the first Ladies Golf Championship in Melbourne . . . [adding that is is] amazing that my paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother were in Victoria at the same time! He adds that Bert and Elizabeth had two sons: 1) himself, Michael Cuthbert Bassett, who was born in 1945 and has five children and seven grandchildren; and 2) John Augustine Bassett (1947, married with no children). As mentioned above, after the war Bert returned to Australia where he was commissioned into that country's peacetime navy. He was promoted to Commander on 30 June 1952 and resigned from the RAN on 1 October 1956. During his time in Australia's post-War Navy Bert served on the Shropshire, Terrible and Glory and was stationed at HMAS Londsale, Albatross and Cerebus as well as in Sydney and Melbourne. He returned to England after his retirement and was living at Leighton Hall at Cornforth in Lancashire in 1958 and, from 1983, at 'The Cottage' in Albrighton near Wolverhampton in Shropshire. Bert died at Albrighton on 27 November 1988. His naval record contains a cable sent from Australia House in London to Navy HQ in Canberra advising of his death and stating a Requiem Mass was to be held for him on 6 December 1988 at St Joseph's Church at Albrighton. The cable further stated Bert had requested his death be notified to Rear Admiral W. J. Dovers CBE, DSO (who joined the RAN around the same time and eventually became Chief of Navy Personnel). A death notice was published in The London Times on 30 November 1988 (we have still to view it). Mike Bassett tells us his mother Elizabeth continued to live at Albrighton after her husband's death and died there on 10 March 1992.
From the Gillespie Family Tree on Ancestry, this photo is of Christina Mary Henderson and her family in around 1909.
Standing (from L/R): Isabella, William jnr, Ethel May and Alexander Hugh Henderson. Seated in the centre: Christina Mary, Willian snr,
Ellen and Maud Henderson. At the front: Ellen Mayne, James Henry and Margaret Temple Dummond Henderson.
This photograph was sent to us by Mike Bassett. It was taken in around 1917 and shows Christina Mary Bassett nee Henderson
with her mother, maternal grandfather and eldest son.
Also from the Gillespie Family Tree, the photo on the left is of Christina Mary Bassett nee Henderson
and her sons, Robert James and Charles William Bassett. The one on the right is of Christina's
younger brother, 3313 Pte Alexander Hugh Henderson, who served in the 38th Battalion in France.
4. Rebecca Osborne (1873-1953)
Born at Coleraine in Victoria in 1873, Rebecca married John (Jack) Shields
(1872-1950) at Daylesford near Eganstown in central Victoria on 28 May 1899. Their
wedding was reported in the Traralgon Record on 2 June of that year as follows: 'On
Thursday afternoon a quiet wedding took place in the Roman Catholic Church, when Mr J. Shields, son of Mr J. Shields, Loy Yang, was united in the bonds of matrimony to Miss Rebecca Osborne, second daughter of Robert Osborne, of Eganstown, North Eastern district. The bride, who was nicely attired was given away by her brother. The bridesmaids were Miss Lizzie Osborne, and Miss A. Shields. The ceremony was performed by the Rev Father Coleman, and Mr J. Quigley, junr, acted as best man. The happy couple left by the evening train for Melbourne, en route to Western Australia, a large number being at the station to see them off'. John (Jack) Shields was born at Gheringap on the western outskirts of Geelong in 1872, the only son of two Irish nationals, John Shiels (c1834-1910) and Margaret Young (1845-1909) who were married at Geelong on 13 June 1867 and later farmed land at Loy Yang in Victoria's Latrobe Valley. They had four children in addition to John: his twin sister Bridget (Bryde), Margaret (born in 1870), Catherine (1875) and Ellen Shiels (1878). John's parents both died at Traralgon, Margaret on 16 March 1909 and John snr on 16 June 1910, and are buried together in the local cemetery (Gippsland Memorial Park, Plot NSC-C068). Margaret's obituary, published in the Traralgon Record three days after her death, informed its readers:
We regret to chronicle the death of Mrs M. Shiels, wife of Mr John Shiels,
formerly of Loy Yang, but now of Traralgon, which sad event took place at his residence on Tuesday last. The deceased lady, who was 63 years of age, had been ailing for about six years. She was a native of Tipperary, Ireland, being a daughter of Mr Michael Young, grazier. In the early days the family came out to the colony of Victoria, and took up their residence at Geelong, where deceased was married to Mr Shiels about 41 years ago. She was an old colonist, having resided in Victoria for 55 years. Besides her husband,
deceased leaves a grown up family of five children to mourn her loss.
Margaret's death notice in the Melbourne Argus tells us she 'died at "Hyde-park" in Traralgon, the dearly beloved wife of John Shiels, sen, and beloved mother of Mrs.
C. Smythe, Morwell, Katey, and Annie, and Mr J. Shiels, jun., and Mrs W. Lightly, of West Australia, aged 63 years'. As noted, their youngest daughter, Ellen Teresa (Nellie) Shiels/Shields (1878-1948), also went to live in Western Australia (we think in 1900 although that has still to be confirmed). The Western Australian index of BDMs shows she married William Lightly (1880-1929) at Bunbury in 1902. William's obituary, published in the Melbourne Advocate on 5 December 1929, tells us he was born at Daylesford in Victoria and, at 16 years of age, 'tried his fortune in the siren West . . . [where he eventually] made good. When twenty-two he married Miss Ellen Shields, daughter of a well-known Gippsland family. He was a model husband and father, and his life was centred in his home. In addition to his very considerable hotel interests, he had two beautiful farming properties'. A second obituary in Bussleton's South-Western News states 'Mr William Lightly was well known in this district . . . as the manager of Barabup and Ellis Creek timber mills . . . [he also] held the licenses of the Melbourne and Australia Hotels in Perth'. Following Willam's death in 1929, Nellie lived in Perth then Subiaco and finally at Cornhill Estate at York to the east of Perth. As reported in The Daily News she died at Cornhill Estate on 19 October 1948, the 'dearly loved wife of the late William Lightly, and loving mother of Bill (Shenton Park Hotel), Milly (Mrs J. J. Monaghan, Rose Hotel, Bunbury), Gerald and Harold, of York'. She is buried with William at Karrakatta
Cemetery and Crematorium (Roman Catholic Da-0072).
As noted above, after their marriage at Daylesford in 1899, John and Rebecca Shiels/
Shields nee Osborne travelled to Western Australia to live. An article on 'The Upper
Preston Jarrah Sawmills' in the 19 June 1901 edition of The West Australian tells us a Mrs Shiels and Mrs Barton (Rebecca's younger sister, Alice Mary Barton nee Osborne) were among the throng of people who attended a gala event held at George Baxter's sawmill near Kirup situated between Donnybrook and Balingup on the South Western Highway, some 228 kilometres south of Perth. Held in 'a large new building intended for a chaff-house', the event - comprising speeches and presentations followed by dinner and dancing - was 'to mark the appreciation which all those employed on the mill felt with regard to Mr Baxter's action in reducing the day's working hours from nine to eight'. The mill 'produced timber for export through Bunbury, [including] sleepers for the Menzies-Leonora railway, the New
Zealand government and for the South African and New South Wales railways'.
The Australian Electoral rolls show John, who was working as a labourer, and
Rebecca Shields registered as living at Kirup at the time of the 1903, 1906 and 1910
elections. The 1912 roll has John, a mill hand, and Rebecca 'Shiels' at Barton's Mill at Pickering Brook on the eastern outskirts of Perth. Rebecca Shields and John Shiels, a mill foreman, were registered at Barrabupp in 1914 and 1915. His military record in the Australian National Archives shows that 264 John Shields, a saw mill foreman who was born at Geelong in 1876, enlisted in the First AIF at Perth on 18 January 1916. He gave as his NOK Rebecca Shields of Barrabupp (later amended to Belleview Terrace in Fremantle). Allocated to B Company 44 Battalion, John proceeded overseas from Fremantle on the HMAT SUEVIC A29 on 6 June 1916 (the embarkation roll shows he was then 40 years of age, had enlisted at Barrabupp and Rebecca was living on Farmer Street North Perth). He sailed from Southampton to France on 25 November 1916 and returned to England in October 1917. After
working on the administrative staff at Woking Hospital, John returned to Australia on the BALMORAL CASTLE on 1 February 1918 (he was said to be suffering from lumbago) and was discharged from the Army at Perth on 3 April 1918.
The 1925 electoral roll shows Rebecca and John Robert Osborne Shields, farm hand, registered at Yalbarrin near Bruce Rock. The 1931 roll has a John Shields, farmer, at Bruce Rock and Rebecca Shields still at Yalbarrin. The 1936, 1937, 1943 and 1949 rolls have Johm, a farmer, and Raymond William Shields, also a farmer, at Bruce Rock and Rebecca still at Yalbarrin. As the following notice published in The West Australian records, John (Jack) Shields died at Bruce Rock the following year: 'SHIELDS: On January 21, 1950 at Bruce Rock Hospital, John Shields, dearly beloved husband of Rebecca, loved father of Ray also Jack (deceased), loved twin brother of Bryde (Mrs Smythe. Melbourne), loved brother of Annie (Mrs Dowd, Gippsland), Catherine (Mrs Mc Clintock), also Ellen (Mrs E. Lightly, deceased); aged 76 years' (23 January 1950). Rebecca Shields nee Osborne died in Perth in 1953. Her death notice, published in The West Australian on 11 June 1953, reads: 'SHIELDS: On June 10, at 29 Preston-street Como, Rebecca, widow of John Shields of Bruce Rock, loving mother of John (deceased) and Ray. Fond mother-in-law of Patricia, and loved grandmother of baby Phillip; aged 79 years'. The Perth Metropolitan Cemeteries Board website shows John is buried in the RC section of the Karrakatta Cemetery. Rebecca is buried in Karrakatta's Wesleyan section along with her elder son, John Shields, who had died at Bruce Rock in 1930.
As their death notices indicate, John and Rebecca had two sons: John Shields jr (1901-30) and Raymond William Shields (1908-91). As mentioned, John jnr died at Bruce Rock in 1930. Ray, who was born at Bruce Rock on 15 June 1907, was farming land there when he enlisted for military service on 19 June 1942 and served for a time as a private soldier in the 15th Battalion. On 28 July 1951, Ray married Nellie Patricia ('Pat') Halligan (1923-2016) at the Sacred Heart Church in Highgate in Perth (their wedding photo is shown on the right). The report of their wedding in The West Australian on 30 July 1951, tells us Pat was 'the daughter of Mr and Mrs W. A. Halligan, of Mt. Lawley . . . was attended by her sister, Miss Bobbie Halligan . . . Mr Gerald Lightly was the best man [and the] wedding reception was held at the Esplanade Hotel'. According to the 'Halligan Family Tree' on Ancestry, Pat was the youngest of four daughters of William Arthur Halligan (1886-1958) and Anne Patricia Duane (1887-1974) who were married at East Coolgardie in Western Australia in 1913. Pat's father was born at Walhalla, a gold-mining town in Victoria's Gippsland region, one of eight children of William Halligan (c1845-93), who hailed from County Armagh in Ireland, and Melbourne-born Mary Ann Strahan (1859-1932) who were married at Walhalla on 14 April 1879. Mary Ann's parents were two natives of Dublin, John Strahan (1834-1924) and Charlotte Ryan (1836-74) who were married in Victoria in 1857. Following William Halligan's death in 1893, Mary Ann married John McKenzie (1860-1927) at Fitzroy in Melbourne on 19 June 1899. She died in Perth on 27 July 1932 and is buried in the Roman Catholic area of Karrakatta Cemeterry (Section LC Grave 0180). After their marriage in 1951, Pat Halligan lived with Ray Shields on his farm at Bruce Rock. Ray died there on 2 June 1991 and was buried in the Karrkatta Cemetery (Roman Catholic Oc-0443). Pat died at Como in Perth on 26 October 2016 and was buried with Ray at Karrakatta. Her obituary, published in The West Australian on 5 November 2016, tells us Pat was 'the daughter of Hannah and William Arthur Halligan, and had three sisters: Elise, Verna and Mary Elizabeth (Bobbie) - all of whom are deceased'. She and Ray had at least one child we know of, a son, Phillip William Shields.
5. Emma Jane Osborne (1878-1954)
Born at Amherst in 1878, Emma married Edwin Albert Balzary (1860-1945) in the Bible Christian Church at Sailor's Creek Falls in Victoria on 2 October 1895. Emma was then living at Eganstown and was 20 years old. Edwin, described as a 'civil servant', was 31 (the family think he was more likely 34 or 35) and lived at 'Rosebank' on Evandale Road in Malvern. The wedding was witnessed by Emma's brother, William Henry Osborne, and James Nicholas.
Beth Chamberlain and her cousin Jean Nixon have researched and written about Edwin ('Ted') Balzary's parents and their family. Ted's mother, pictured on the left, was an Irish woman, Honoria Bentley or Bartley, who came to Australia in 1849 as part of the Female Orphan Immigration Scheme. Jean tells us that the scheme was designed in part to 'redress the balance of the sexes [in the new colony] which stood at two males to one female in the cities and eight males to one female in the areas "beyond the established boundaries"'. It was also hoped that the influx of young and pious working women would help meet the then high demand for domestic servants in the colony as well as provide a civilising influence within its outer reaches. Between 1848 and 1850, more than 4,000 girls from Irish foundling hospitals and Irish and English workhouses were brought to Australia under the scheme.
Honoria, who was sixteen years of age at the time, came on the orphan ship the PEMBERTON which sailed from Plymouth in England on 29 January 1849 and docked at Port Phillip on 14 May. She was received into a government-sponsored immigration depot on 26 May and left Melbourne for Portland some three weeks later. There she met and married Albert Vincett Balzary at the local church of St Stephen on 14 February 1853. Albert (pictured on the right) was born in Hungary and is thought to have sailed from Bombay to Australia on the RUNNYMEDE, arriving at Portland on 3 June 1852 (Jean notes that a number of subsequent certificates state that Honoria and Albert were actually married in Bombay but believes that was not so).
Jean continues that Honoria and Albert 'had three children born before 1858 - Lylle, Emily Louisa and Eleanor Albertha, but apparently not one of the three was registered'. Their next two children, Arthur Vincent and Edwin Albert Balzary, were born at Pleasant Creek (now Stawell) and Lamplough in 1858 and 1860 respectively. Lylle died young and may be buried at Dunolly in Victoria. Emily married John Walker Wills at Goldsborough in 1884 and had two children: Albert John Nelson Wills and Henrietta Leonora Maria Stoward Wills. Eleanor married John Edgar Peck at Goldsborough in 1882. They lived at Bealiba and had five children: Edwin, Arthur, Oliver, Walter and Cyril ('Jack') Peck. Arthur Vincent Balzary married Annie Margaret Smith (Beth's grandparents) at Fitzroy in Melbourne in 1895. They had seven children: Mildred, Una, Aubrey, Verna, Arthur, Norma and Dulcie Balzary.
Albert Balzary died at Dunolly on 3 July 1865 and was buried there the following day. He was said to be 51 years old. His wife Honoria (who was also known as Henrietta) re-married in 1875, to William Lovett, who came from Middlesex in England, at Dunolly in Victoria. At the time she was a storekeeper in the nearby town of Goldsborough. They had no children. Honoria Lovett nee Balzary nee Bentley died at her son Edwin's home at Evandale Road in Malvern on 29 November 1902. She was buried at the Melbourne cemetery on 3 December 1902.
After their marriage in 1895 Edwin Albert, a postman and later a 'sorter', and Emma Jane Balzary lived most of their married lives together at 8 Evandale Road in the Melbourne suburb of Malvern where Edwin died in 1945. Emma Jane died at Box Hill in Melbourne in 1954. The couple had five sons - Leonard Albert, Clifford Vincent, Raymond Robert Cecil, Edwin George and William Osborne Balzary - all of whom were born at Malvern and some of whom saw active service (see below). Ronald Balzary tells us that Edwin and Emma also had an adopted daughter, Mollie Balzary who, according to the Australian electoral rolls, worked as a commercial artist and mothercraft nurse. Mollie's brother, Edwin George Balzary (1905-45) worked for the Victorian Railways and lived all his life at Malvern with his parents. We don't think that he married. We have been able to discover a little more about the rest of their family as follows.
5.1 Leonard Albert Balzary (1896-1917)
No 2344 Pte Leonard Albert Balzary (pictured below on the left) enlisted in the First AIF on 5 July 1915. He was then aged 18 and was living with his parents at 8 Evandale Road in Malvern where he had attended State School No 2586 on Tooronga Road. He had previously served four years in the senior cadets and six months with the citizen forces. He embarked from Port Melbourne on 29 September 1915 on the HMAT RMS OSTERLEY as part of the fifth reinforcements for the 23rd Battalion of the 6th Infantry Brigade. His father informed the authorities that he 'served in Egypt and afterwards in France with B Coy 23 Battalion as a stretcher bearer'. He was killed in action on Westhoek Ridge near Ypes in Belgium on 21 September 1917 and his name is included on the Menin Gate memorial. The following 'In Memorium' notice was published in the 21 September 1918 edition of the Argus: 'BALZARY - In loving memory of our beloved eldest son, Private Leonard Albert, stretcher bearer, 23rd Battalion, who fell in France on 21 September 1917, also his cousin Sapper R. J. Bassett, who died of wounds on 20th September 1917, loved brother and cousin of Cliff (on active service), Ray, George and Will, aged 20 years and eleven months.'
Taken from the 'Balzary Family Tree' on Ancestry, the photos are of
Leonard Albert Balzary and his younger brother Raymond Robert Cecil Balzary.
5.2 Clifford Vincent Balzary (1899-1964)
Clifford or 'Cliff' as he was called, enlisted in the First AIF on 13 March 1917 and embarked from Melbourne on the HMAT A32 THEMISTOCLES on 4 August 1917 as part of the 14th Reinforcements. He was then 18 years old and was living with his parents at 8 Evandale Road in Malvern in Victoria. He served in the 5th Division Signal Company and returned to Australia on 22 July 1919. The Australian electoral rolls show that he remained in the Army for a time after the war and worked in Melbourne where he met and married in 1927 Sylvia Eileen Mitchell (1899-1959), the daughter of Robert Alexander Mitchell and Ellen Fitzgerald. The 1931 electoral roll shows Clifford, now a public servant, and Sylvia Eileen Balzary living at 104 Bamfield Street in the Melbourne suburb of Sandringham. The 1936/7, 1942 and 1954 rolls show them at 7 Susan Street in Sandringham. Clifford Balzary died at Sandford in Victoria in 1964. His wife Sylvia had pre-deceased him by five years. Ronald Balzary tells us that they had four children: Peter John Balzary (1927-2004), Leonard Vincent Balzary (1929-2009), Noel Clifford Balzary and Wendy Anne Balzary. Like his father, Peter Balzary was a career soldier. He attained the rank of Warrant Officer Class 1 and served with the 3rd Battalion RAR in Korea between April 1952 and March 1953 and with the 5th Battalion RAR in Vietnam between November 1966 and May 1967 (see the photo below).
Taken at Nui Dat in South Vietnam in 1967, this photo shows , from L/R:
WO1s Peter John Balzary, then RQMS of 5 Battalion, George Quinn and
Alexander ('Blue') Thompson who had earlier all served together in Korea.
The Balzary Family Tree on Ancestry.com tells us that Peter died at Cleveland
in Queensland on 6 November 2004, was married to a living Nihill
and had two children both still living.
5.3 Raymond Robert Cecil Balzary (1902-75)
Raymond married Margaret Jean Palmer (1903-73), the daughter of Henry Palmer (1869-1950) and Eliza Rebecca Hutchison (1865-1935) in Victoria in 1928. The 1931 and 1936/7 electoral rolls show Raymond, who was working as a salesman, and Jean living at 7 Drummond Street in the Melbourne suburb of Oakleigh. The Department of Veterans Affairs Nominal Roll for the Second World War shows that Raymond enlisted in the RAAF at Melbourne on 5 February 1943. He served until 9 January 1946 by which time he was a Leading Aircraftman at the RAAF's HQ 1 Training Group (see his photo in uniform above). They continued to live at Oakleigh after the War, Jean dying there in 1973 and Raymond two years later. Both were cremated at the Springvale Crematorium. The 'Balzary Family Tree' on Ancestry tells us they had three children: Kenneth Raymond (1932-2013) who we don't think married, Thelma Jean who married Keith Hayes and had two children (Thelma died in 1993) and Ronald Balzary who we think married Nanette Baker and had three children.
5.4 William Osborne Balzary (1907-82)
The Australian electoral rolls indicate that William, who worked as a butcher, lived at his parents' home at Malvern until at least the time of the 1954 election. The Balzary Family Tree on Ancestry.com has William's wife as Helen Elizabeth Clark (1914-1992) who was born at 'Koarah' in NSW and died at Dandenong in Victoria.
6. John Osborne (1878-1949)
John, or Jack as he was known, was born at Amherst in Victoria. He married Alice Aldrich (pictured on the left) at Sailor's Falls near Daylesford in Victoria in 1914. The couple's wedding certificate shows that John was a 33 year-old bachelor and Alice a 26 year-old spinster who was born at Eganstown in Victoria in 1888. Her parents were James Grant Aldrich (1863-1947), a miner, and Naomi Wise (1864-1939) who were married at Daylesford in 1892. At the time of his wedding John was living and working as a tree feller at Busselton in Western Australia. The birth places and dates of their children indicate that he and Alice returned to the West after their marriage. This is confirmed by the following note in the Bruce Rock Post dated 21 December 1923: 'Mr Jack Osborne (brother of Mr W. H. Osborne well known in local circles) of Nannup with his wife and family arrived early in the week to take up farming in the Korbel district'.
The electoral rolls show them at Ellis Creek in 1925 and, from 1931 to 1943, on a farm at Belka (near Bruce Rock where John's older brother William Henry Osborne also lived). By the end of that decade they had moved to Korbel where John died suddenly of a heart attack on 7 January 1949. Death notices published in The West Australian indicate that John had previously lived at Kirup and Barrabup and that he was: 1) the father of Alan (Victoria), father-in-law of Jean, and grandpop of Diana; 2) the 'Pop' of Joy (Mrs Stammers); 3) brother of Emma (Mrs Balzary) and Alice (Mrs A. Thomas) of 29 Preston Street, Como; 4) brother of Rebecca (Mrs Shields), brother-in-law of John and uncle of Ray; and 5) uncle of Gwennie (Mrs Munyard), Bill and Ron Thomas. His funeral was described in the Bruce Rock Post thus: 'The funeral of the late John Osborne, one of the earliest settlers in the Korbel district who died suddenly at his home on Saturday last took place in the Methodist portion of the Bruce Rock cemetery on the Sunday. Chief mourners were Mrs Osborns (wife), Bill and Ray (sons), Mesdames Shields and Thomas (sisters), Mr J. Shields and Ray, Mrs Munyard, Mrs H. Stone and Ron Thomas' (20 January 1949).
After John's death Alice lived for a time with her family at Korbel before moving to Perth where, according to Ancestry's index of Australian bdms, she died in 1966, aged 78 years (the van Vliet Family Tree has her place of death as Nollamara). According to Ronald Balzary, the van Vliet Family Tree on Ancestry and other sources, John and Alice had five children as follows:
1. John Robert ('Bob') Osborne (1915-43). Born at Bruce Rock and educated at Belka State and Northam High Schools, Bob enlisted in the 2nd AIF at Claremont in WA on 30 October 1940. He was then working as a farm hand at Korbel and gave as his NOK his mother Alice. He was allocated to the 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion on 13 December 1940 and, after going home on pre-embarkation leave in July of that year, sailed from Fremantle with his unit on 30 December 1941. They were destined for Singapore and within a month of arriving became prisoners of the Japanese. His family and friends at home were unaware of what had happened to him until September 1943 when Alice received a Red Cross card telling them Bob was in a Japanese POW camp. Sadly by the time they received the card, Bob had already died of illness in Thailand. According to the van Vliet Family Tree he had 'caught cholera while working on the Burma Railway ... and then died of pneumonia' in September 1943. Bob was buried at 'Kanni Sonkurai' (Grave No 170) until war's end when his remains were exhumed and re-buried at the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetry in Burma. As noted in the following report in the Bruce Rock Post, the family only became aware of his death two years after it had occurred: 'For many months hope had been dwindling in the breasts of Mr and Mrs J. Osborne of seeing their son Bob again and last week their worst fears were realised when the definite and sad news was received that Bob had died in a prison camp on 27 September 1943. This family has contributed its share to the winning of the war. Two other brothers, Bill and Alan, are in the RAN and their sister's husband, W. Stammers, also died while a POW in Japanese hands' (19 October 1945).
2. Ailsa Joyce Stammers nee Osborne (1917-93). As just noted Joyce's husband, William George Stammers (1914-1943) also died in Thailand as a Japanese POW. A plasterer by trade, William was born at Boulder in WA, son of John Thomas and Emma Stammers. His military file shows he enlisted in the Australian Army at Claremont on 10 July 1941 and was allocated to the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion. He named Joyce as his NOK and married her before he set sail with the rest of his unit for service in North Africa and Syria. According to the Australian War Memorial, the ship returning the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion and a number of other units to Australia was diverted to Batavia on the island of Java to reinforce the Dutch garrison there against an expected Japanese invasion. This occurred on 28 February 1942 and the Dutch surrendered eight days later. The account by the War Memorial notes the majority of the pioneer battalion survived the fighting and spent the rest of the war as prisoners. Of the 858 members who landed on the island, 258 eventually died, most while working on the Burma-Thailand railway. William died from the combined effects of diarrhoea and ulcers at 55 Kilo Camp in Burma on 27 August 1943. Like his brother-in-law, Bob Osborne, he is buried at the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery in Burma. Joyce didn't receive news of her husband's death for another twelve months. After the war Joyce lived for a time with her parents at Korbel before moving to Perth where she worked as a clerk. We believe she died at Rockingham in 1993 although that has still to be confirmed. Nor do we know if she and William had any children.
3. William Thomas ('Bill') Osborne (1919-88). Born at Perth, Bill served as an Able Seaman in the Royal Australian Navy from 1941 until 1946. In 1948 he married Mary Frances Butcher (1922-2009) at the Perth suburb of Claremont. The Harold Leslie Walker Family Tree on Ancestry tells us Mary was born at Perth and was the daughter of Ernest Alfred William Butcher (1887-1945) and Josepha Marjory Jean Foale (1895-1962). The Australian electoral rolls show that Bill and Mary farmed land at Korbel until at least the 1980s. They are both buried at the Mandurah Lakes Cemetery whose records tell us that they had six children: Cheryl, John, Gregory, Michael, Stewart and Penelope Osborne.
4. Alan Stanley Osborne (1921-2005). Born at Ellis Creek, Alan was also an Able Seaman in the Royal Australian Navy, serving from 1943 until 1948 (when he was at HMAS Lonsdale, the Navy training establishment, in Victoria). A report in the West Australian on 4 August 1951 indicates he was granted a 1094-acre block of land at Mount Many Peaks (located some 35km north east of Albany) under the war service land settlement scheme. The Australian electoral rolls show that he and a Jean Yvonne Osborne farmed land at Mount Many Peaks until the early 1970s when they moved to Donnybrook. Alan died in 2005 and is buried in the Mandurah Lakes Cemetery whose records tell us he was the 'father of Diane, Rosemary, Robert (dec) and Lois'.
5. Raymond James Osborne (1929-2014). John and Alice's youngest son, Ray or 'Ozzie' Osborne, worked on the family farm at Korbel for a good deal of his life. The Reverse Western Australia Marrige Lookup shows he married Norma Joyce Harvey in the Perth registration district in 1961 (reg no 427). According to Lisa Wahlsten, Norma's parents were a Staffordshire couple, Joseph Harvey (1894-1976) and Jessie Marsh Ridout (1904-93), who were married at Stone in Staffordshire in 1926 - a photo of them at the time of their marriage is shown below - and emigrated to Western Australia two years later (the UK and Ireland Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960 on Ancestry show a Mr J. Harvey, a 33 year-old farm worker from Henbury Macclesfield, his 23 year-old wife and one year-old daughter (Miss D. Harvey), sailed on the ESPERANCE BAY from London on 28 February 1928 bound for Fremantle). The Australian electoral rolls show they farmed land at Sandalwood Rock in the Yilgarn district of Kalgoorlie from at least 1931 to the mid-1970s. We believe they had three children in addition to Norma: Joseph Harvey jnr, Dorothy (Joan) Stewart and Margaret (Peg) Wheeler. Joseph Harvey snr died in England in 1976 while on a return visit there. He is buried in the local cemetery at Swynnerton in Staffordshire where, Lisa Wahlsten tells us, 'A pioneer returns' is inscribed on his tombstone. Jessie died in Western Australia in 1993 and is buried at Mandurah Lakes. The cemetery records state she was the 'Wife of Joseph (interred UK), mother of Joan, Peg, Norma and Joe. Died 22 November 1993 . Aged 89.'
The Australian electoral rolls show that after their marriage in 1961, Ray and Norma Osborne, farmed land at Korbel until at least the 1980s. When Ray retired, they moved to Hall's Head near Mandurah south of Perth. According to the Perth Metropolitan Cemeteries Board website Ray, aged 85 years, died at Halls Head in July 2014. He was cremated and his ashes taken by the administrator of Fremantle Cemetery. A tribute to him, published in The West Australian on 9 July 2014, reads: 'OSBORNE (Ray): Passed away peacefully at home on July 7. Dearly loved husband of Norma. Devoted father of Lisa, Mandy and Lou[ise]. Loved father-in-law of Laurie and Bill and adored Grandad of Rhett, Jess, Henke and Jemima'. In a further tribute posted on the Legacy.com website, he and Norma's eldest daughter fondly remembers her father as: 'A hard worker . . . first on the farm and then in "retirement" for your beloved Lions. A lover of all sports, any beer, rollies, kids and animals. Also of Banjo and Henry Lawson's poems, of fishing at Albany with ya mates, an admirer of wheatbelt sunsets and clear starry nights. Don't worry Pops, we know that all you ever wanted was the best for us all and you always strived for that. Finally reunited with your big brother Bob (died POW). Love, Lisa Joy "The Naughty One"'.
From Lisa Wahlsten's Osborne/Wahlsten Family Tree on Ancestry, the photo on the left is of WX9287 Private John Robert Osborne of the 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion.
Born at Bruce Rock in WA in 1915, John died in 1943 while a prisoner or war in Thailand. His remains are buried in the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery in Burma.
The photo in the centre is of John's younger brother, Raymond James Osborne who was born in 1928. That on the right is of the infant Raymond
with his father, John Osborne (1878-1949), and possibly his mother Alice Osborne nee Aldrich (1886-1966).
Also from Lisa Wahlsten's Osborne/Wahlsten Family Tree on Ancestry, the middle photo is of
Joe and Jessie Harvey nee Ridout at their wedding at Stone in Staffordshire in 1926.
The bottom photo was taken at Raymond Osborne's wedding to Norma Joyce Harvey at Perth in 1961.
The couple on the left are Joyce's parents Joseph and Jessie Harvey. Those on the right are Raymond's
mother Alice Osborne nee Aldrich and her son William Thomas ('Bill') Osborne.
Click here to read about Robert and Eliza Osborne's next four children.
Image sources:
Eliza Osborne and family, Museum Victoria Image MM 7865 (copied from Heather Walsh, 1990).
Eliza Osborne nee Hickmott, Osborne brothers and Alice Aldrich, courtesy of Lisa Wahlsten.
Honorah Balzary (nee Bentley) and Albert Vincent Balzary, courtesy of Beth Chamberlain.
'Leonard Albert Balzary' and 'Robert Raymond Balzary' from the 'Balzary Family Tree' on Ancestry.
WO1 Peter John Balzary and colleagues, courtesy of the Australian War Memorial, AMW COL/67/0315/VN.
Baptised at Hackney St John in London on 26 April 1848, Eliza (pictured on the right) was a mere infant when she and her parents and older sister, Emma, sailed from London to South Australia on the sailing ship EMILY in 1849. She lived initially at Mount Barker in South Australia before moving with her father and step-mother to Clunes in Victoria in around 1854. She was only fifteen years and five months old when she married Robert Osborne (1830-1918), a saw miller, at Coghill's Creek in Victoria in 1863.
