The Wills family in around 1910. L/R: Alice Amy, Isobel Madelaine, Reginald Alfred and Richard Alfred Wills.

Alice Amy Cheeseman (1880-1917) was born at Carngham in Victoria on 28 February 1880, the sixth child of Alfred John and Jane Elizabeth Cheeseman nee Wright. She married Richard Alfred Wills (1878-1942) at Beaufort on Christmas day in 1905. The wedding was reported in the Ballarat Star on 27 January 1906 as follows: 'a wedding was celebrated at the residence of Mr A. J. Cheeseman, farmer, of Eurambeen, when his daughter, Alice Amy was married to Mr Richard Alfred Wills, of Melbourne. The Rev. R. McGowan officiated. The bride, who was given away by her father, wore a pretty dress of steel grey taffeta, with trimmings of crepe-de-shine and applique also a wreath and veil and bouquet of Christmas lilies. She was attended by Miss Nellie Doyle, of Ararat, who wore a costume of white book-muslin, and Miss Ada Cheeseman who was attired in grey voile. Mr Alfred W. Ckeeseman was the best man'. According to the Wills Family Tree on Ancestry, Richard was born either in Melbourne or at sea on 13 May 1878, the second son of a master mariner, Richard Wills (1849-1922), and Isobel Turnbull (1854-1904) who were married in Melbourne on 17 April 1875. The birthplaces of their children show that, after their marriage, Alice and Richard, who worked for the Victorian railways, lived at Beaufort, Horsham, Warburton and Goorambat near Benalla before Alice's untimely death in 1917. As the following report in the Benalla Standard described, she was one of a number of victims of an outbreak of typhoid fever at Goorambat:

THE TYPHOID OUTBREAK AT G00RAMBAT Another Death Reported The death occurred yesterday morning, at a private hospital In Benalla, of Mrs. Wills, wife of Mr, Richard Wills, railway employee at Goorambat. About tbree weeks ago Mrs. Wills contracted typhoid fever and was brought into Benalla for attention. Her condition became worse, and on Wednesday it was feared that she would not recover. She leaves a husband and three chiidren, the eldest 10 years of age. A sad feature about the case Is that when the outbreak occurred Mr. Wills sent his children to Melbourne so that they should be removed from danger, but the eldest girl either contracted or developed the disease down there, and she is at present suffering from it. Much sympathy is felt for Mr. Wills in his severe trouble. The remains were interred yesterday in the Banalla cemetery, the servlce at the grave being read by the Rev. P. J. Edwards, and the mortuary arrangements were in the hands of Mr. W. G. Abbott (2 Febrauary 1917).

Alice was buried in the Anglican section of the Benalla cemetery (Section B, Plot 95). Richard moved to Melbourne where he married Euphemia Johns (1889-1976), the daughter of Thomas Johns (1864-1934) and Catherine Thompson, at Carlton on 26 April 1919. According to the Wills Family Tree he and Euphemia had six children: Alice Margaret Wills (1919-2014), Percival Richard Hugh Wills (1921-92), Arthur John Wills (1924-24), Richard Locksley Wills (1926-2009), Shirley Estelle Marian Wills (1928-2008) and Phillip Arthur Wills (1932-2021). Richard and Estelle Pearl as Euphemia was named in the rolls, lived initially in the outer Melbourne suburb of Somerton before moving to Drouin, where Richard ran an orchard, and then back to Melbourne where they lived at Richmond, Hawthorn and Coburg. Richard died at South Melbourne in 1942 and is buried in the C of E section of the Fawkner Cemetery {Section T, Grave 5353). Euphemia, who had re-married in 1952, died at Parkville in Melbourne in 1976. What of Richard and Alice Will's three children?

1) Isobel Madeleine ('Madge') Wills (1906-49) married Doren Roland Fashoda Kent (1899-1975), a driver and yardman, in 1930 probably in Melbourne although that has still to be confirmed. Click here to see a photo of Madge and Doren not long after they were married. According to the Wills Family Tree on Ancestry, Doren sailed with his parents - Rueben and Minnie Kent nee Bennett - and siblings from London to Australia on the Themistocles in 1911, arriving at Brisbane on 14 August (the Australian electoral rolls indicate the family travelled on to Melbourne where they lived in the suburb of Kew and Rueben worked as a labourer). After their marriage Madge and Doren also lived for a time in Kew. They were living on Irving Street in Pascoe Vale at the time of Madge's death at the Royal Melbourne Hospital on 14 July 1949. Her death notice tells us she was 42 years old, the 'dearly beloved wife of Doren [and] loving mother of Grace, Pearl, Margaret, Doreen and Shirley'. The Australian electoral rolls show that Doren then moved to Dandenong where he was employed as a textile worker and his brother, Arthur Francis Bennett Kent and wife Eva Florence lived and worked as poultry farmers. The Wills family Tree tells us Doren died at Dandenong in 1975 and is buried in the Springvale Botanical Cemetery (Mathews Lawn, Row AB, Grave 15). Jenny Tapungao recently provided the following information about Madge and Doren's children: 1) Grace Kent married Melvyn Lucas and has three children; 2) Thelma Pearl Kent married Kevin Keightley in 1954 and has a daughter; 3) Margaret Kent married Kevin Donegon and has two daughters (the family is now living at Barooga near Cobram); 4) Doreen Kent; and 5) Shirley Kent is married to Dale Short.

2) Reginald Alfred Wills (1908-72) was born at Warburton in Victoria and married Horsham-born Kathleen Mavis Bunworth (1913-93) in Victoria in 1939. Kath's parents were David Francis O'Connor Bunworth (1877-1939) and Christina Johns (1887-1964) the older sister of Richard Mills' second wife, Euphemia Johns. Christina was born at Bairnsdale and died at Sea Lake in Victoria. The Australian Electoral Rolls show Reg worked for the Victorian railways and he and Kath were living at Ultima in central Victoria in 1942 and during the 1960s at Dandenong on the eastern outskirts of Melbourne (where they kept in touch with my parents Laurie and Elsie Cheeseman nee Hickmott). They were at nearby Devon Meadows at the time of Reg's death on 22 March 1972. His obituary published in the Melbourne Age the following day tells us Reg was the 'dearly loved husband of Kathleen, loving father of Ken, Ronald (dec), Reg, Merle and Glenn, father-in-law of Barbara, Beryl, Yvonne and John, grandfather of Robyn, Craig, Karen, Jacinta and Gregory'. According to the Melbourne General Cemetery website, Reg is buried in the Springvale Botanical Cemetery (A F Alway Lawn, Row L, Grave 27). The Australian electoral rolls show Kath was living near Maffra in Victoria's Gippsland region in 1977 along with a NSW-born WW2 veteran, Robert Herbert Cook (1921-2006), who she had married the same year. The Wills Family Tree states that Kath died in the outer-Melbourne suburb of Clyde on 23 November 1993. It adds she and Reg had five children: Kenneth Reginald (1941-2013), Ronald Alfred (1942-68), Glen Richard (1951-85), Reginald David and Yvonne Joy Wills. Information provided by Jenny Tapungao indicates all of Reg and Kath's children were married and provided their parents with at least 13 grandchildren.

3) Joyce Elizabeth Wills (1911-67). Born at East Warburton in Victoria, Joyce lived all her adult life with her parents and step siblings in the Melbourne suburb of Coburg where she worked as a machinist. She died a spinster at Parkville in 1967 and is buried with her father in the C of E section of the Fawkner Cemetery. Click here to see photos of Joyce and her siblings and half-siblings.

From the Wills Family Tree on Ancestry, this is said to be of Alice Amy and her three children - Joyce Elizabeth, Reginald Alfred and
Isobel Madelaine Wills - taken not long before Alice's death in 1917.

Return to Cheesemans in Australia.

Return to Alfred John Cheeseman and family.

Return to First Families Home page.