Western Australian Frees

The second of William and Eliza's sons to go to Western Australia was Alfred Free (pictured on the left). Born at Mount Cole in Victoria in 1868, Alfred left home when he was 15 to go horse breaking. In October 1888 he applied to lease a 155-acre block of land at Corack East but had his application refused by the local land board. On 11 February 1890 Alfred, then single and living at Emu, was admitted to the Dunolly Hospital. He married Emma Tissot, the daughter of Henry Tissot and Emma Sutherland, at Mount Cole in the same year.

Research done by Rosemary Jones nee Tissott, and placed on Darryl Brady's website, shows that Alfred, under the alias John Hill, then turned to horse-stealing and other criminal pursuits. The 9 May 1893 issue of the Victorian Police Gazette reported that he was 'on warrant for horse stealing - Offender's relatives reside at Corack near Donald. He has a brother named Charles Free at Rochester, New South Wales and it is supposed he will go there'. Alfred was apprehended by the police and appeared before the Castlemaine Bench on 20 July 1893. He was found guilty and sentenced to 12 months imprisonment at Pentridge Gaol. A subsequent report in the 1894 Gazette described him as 5' 6" tall, of sallow complexion with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. The report added that he had had one previous conviction and, illustrating his hard life, a 'cast in the right eye, scar inside left elbow, two scars on back...scar on first finger of right hand, [and] scar right instep'. A short article in the 1 July 1893 edition of the Melbourne Argus provided some further detail (and colour) to Alfred's exploits and the man himself:

At Yarraglen on the night of Saturday last a man named Alfred Free, alias John Hill, was arrested by Sub-Inspector Walsh and Mounted-trooper Arnold. Free has been wanted by the police for 18 months or more, but has kept shifting about from place to place and eluding their efforts to arrest him. He is said to be a smart and daring horseman and a good bushman. The most recent charge against him is that of stealing a horse from Maurice Sheean of Eddington, in May last. Free has been remanded from Yarraglen to Dunolly, and brought to Melbourne on Thursday in custody.

After serving his time at Pentridge, Alfred and Emma and their eldest daughter, Emma Louise Free, travelled to the goldfields at Kalgoorlie where Emma was said to be one of the first white children in the district. The 1903 federal electoral roll shows Alfred, a farmer, and Emma at Coombakine near Pingelly. In 1910 they were registered as living at New Norcia in the Swan electorate. In 1916 they were at Buntine in the Division of Dampier, where Alfred was working as a teamster. Emma died in Perth the following year and, according to Darryl Brady, was' buried at Karrakatta with her brother Lewis Tissott who died on 11 Oct 1899 (aged 29) and her mother Emma (Sutherland) Tissott who died 26 Jul 1920, aged 88'. Helen Murphy tells that they are all buried there in an unmarked grave.

The widowed Alfred married Eunice Schmitt at Northam in 1919. Born in London in around 1883, Eunice (pictured on the right later in her life) was the daughter of William Schmitt and Amy Petche. She emigrated to Western Australia on the ORAMA, arriving at Fremantle on 11 November 1913. Helen Murphy tells us that Eunice already had a daughter, Nell, when she married Alfred (Nell eventually had five children). The 1925 electoral roll shows Alfred working as a dairy farmer and he and Eunice living at the Peel Estate on the Mandurah Road. In 1936 they were at Mundijong. By the time of the 1943 election Alfred and Eunice had moved to Beverley where Alfred continued to work as a farmer. He died at Beverley three years later, aged 77 years. Eunice died at Mandurah in 1958.

Alfred had seven children, four with Emma Tissot and three with Eunice Schmitt as follows:

Emma Louise Free. Born at Eddington in Victoria in 1891, Emma went to Kalgoorlie with her parents when she was a small child. She married Arthur Mervyn Darcy at Geraldton in 1913. The 1916 electoral roll for the Federal seat of Kalgoorlie shows Arthur, a railway clerk, and Emma were living at 232 Dugan Street in Kalgoorlie. From 1925 to 1936 they were at 61 East St in Guildford in Western Australia. Arthur died in 1944 and Emma re-married, to David Kinnear Hebiton in Geraldton in 1946. The Western Australian electoral rolls indicates that David was a farmer at Yuna, near Geraldton, part of a family of Hebitons that included at different times James and William Lang Hebiton. The 'Reverse' WA Marriage website shows he had been previously married, to Jeannie Little, in the Geraldton Registration district in 1914. The 1949 and 1954 electoral rolls tells us that Emma and David, who worked as a foreman, lived at 3 Commercial Rd in Fremantle. David died at Fremantle in 1962. Emma died there in 1986, aged 94 years.

Alice Eliza Free. Alice was born at York in Western Australia in 1899 and married Joseph Harris Collett, the son of Joseph Harris Collett snr and Edith Carew, at Boulder in 1919 (Joseph had been born at Broken Hill in New South Wales). The Australian War Memorial records show that when he was 19, Joseph (pictured on the left in his uniform) enlisted in the First AIF and served as a private in the 28th Battalion. His military record in the National Archives shows that on 16 June 1916 he entered hospital at Etaples suffering from rheumatic fever. After a stint in hospital in England, he was returned to Australia on 31 August the same year.

The 1925 electoral roll for the division of Fremantle shows Alice and Joseph, who was working as a painter, living at 27 and 26 Attfield St in Fremantle. In 1931 and 1936/7 Alice was at 66 Watkins St in Fremantle. In 1943 Alice and Joseph, a manager, were at 19 Wray St in Fremantle with their daughter Roma Harris Collett, a shop assistant. Alice was still there in 1949 and 1954. Alice and Joseph had two children we are aware of:

1) Roma Harris Collett who was born at Boulder in 1919 and married John Norris in Fremantle in 1944.

2) Clifford William Collett who was born at Fremantle in 1921 and married Lorna Shepherd there in 1943. According to the 'Collett Family Tree' on Ancestry.com, Lorna was born at Fremantle on 10 October 1921, the daughter of Albert Sheppard (1878-1942) and Olive Myrtle Bell (1890-1968). The 1949 and 1954 electoral rolls show Clifford, who worked as a truck driver, and Lorna living at 14 Gallop St in Fremantle. The WA MCB index indicates that Clifford died at Safety Bay in Western Australia in 1997, aged 75 years. The 'Collett Family Tree' tells us that Lorna died at Donnybrook in Western Australia on 31 December 2002 and she and Clifford had three children.

May Victoria Free. May was born at Narrogin in Western Australia in 1901. The 1925 electoral roll for the division of Fremantle shows her working there as a domestic servant and residing at 108 Packenham St. She married Sydney Barrett at Fremantle that same year. The 1931 electoral roll shows May and Sydney, a rabbit merchant, living at 553 High St in Fremantle. In 1936 they were at 174 Sewell St in East Fremantle along with a Phyllis Doreen Barrett, a shop assistant (presumably Syd's sister). Sydney was then working as a labourer. In 1943 Sydney was still registered at 174 Sewell St but May was at 86 Sewell St along with Charles Clarence Barrett, retired (probably Sydney's father). In 1949 Charles, Sydney, May and Meryl Doreen Barrett, a factory hand, were all at 86 Sewell St. In 1954 only May, Sydney and Meryl were there. May died in Hilton in 1976. Syd died there the following year. We believe that they had four children: June Elizabeth Barrett who married Raymond Edward Dunkley, a labourer, in Fremantle in 1949; Meryl Doreen Barrett who may have married Lawrence Mervyn McHale Wayne in Fremantle in 1956; Neil Dennis Barrett who we think married Helen Lewis in Fremantle in 1953; and Ross Barrett.

Charles William Alfred Free. Born at Waroona in 1905, Charles married Kathleen Mary Annakin at Fremantle in 1926 (they are pictured in the photo on the left which was taken in 1972). One of his descendants, Helen Murphy, tells us that the two met on the Peel Estate at Mandurah. Kathleen's father, Arthur Dodsworth Annakin, came from Leeds in England and spent a lot of his early life in the Army. 'In 1923 he and his wife Jessie Comstive came to Australia on the SS AUSTERLEY. Arthur worked first in the Group Settlement scheme at Augusta. Later he was transferred to the Peel Estate'. After their marriage in Fremantle in 1926, Charles and Kathleen lived first at Mandurah and then at Busselton. 'During the depression years they moved around until 1937 when they settled at Bassendean'. Helen adds that 'during the 1939-45 war Charles joined the Light Horse and later went to New Guinea' (the Australian War Memorial's WWII database shows that he enlisted in the Second AIF at Port Moresby on 13 November 1943 and was discharged on 26 July 1946 when he was a Private in 5 Australian Works Company). 'After the war', Helen continues, 'he spent most of his life in the building trade. In 1960 Charles and Kathleen left Perth with their youngest son Graham Free to tour Australia. When they reached Whyalla in South Australia they decided to stay. They lived there until Charles' retirement in 1971'. He and Kathleen then returned to Western Australia where Charles died, at Balga, in 1986. His wife Kathleen died at Noranda in 2004.

According to Helen Murphy, Alfred and Kathleen had seven children and at least 21 grandchildren as follows: 1) Mona Kathleen Free who married, first, Brian Jackson in 1948 and, second, Raymond Geard in 1972. She had three children with Brian. 2) Sydney Charles Free (1930-97) who married Helen Elizabeth Reed (1929-67) in Perth in 1955 and had three children. 3) Hazel Pauline Free who married Peter James Warne in 1949 and had four children. 4) Norman Free who married Janette Marlene Reed in Perth in 1955 and had three children. 5) Leslie William Free who married Agnes Fergus ('Nan') Arbuckle in 1959 and had three children. 6) Eileen Margaret Free who married Ian George Newton in 1958 and had four children. 7) Graham Free who married Astrid Henriatta Tobe at Whyalla in South Australia in 1967 and had one child.

Elsie Eunice Free. Elsie (pictured on the left with her father Alfred, was born at Cunderdin in Western Australia in 1921. The 'Reverse' WA Marriage index shows that she married Francis Robert Wade in the Beverley registration district of WA in 1936. The 1943, 1949 and 1954 electoral rolls show that Elsie and Francis, who was working as a labourer, were living on Bradshaw Rd in Byford. Francis died at Byford in 1956, aged 49 years. Elsie died at Margaret River in 1983. She and Francis had seven children.

Arthur Donald ('Mick') Free. Mick was born on the Peel Estate at Byford in 1924. The Australian War Memorial's Second World War database shows that he enlisted in the Second AIF at Northam in Western Australia on 14 September 1942. He was then living at Beverley and his next of kin was his father Alfred. He was discharged on 17 June 1946. By then Mick (pictured in uniform on the right) was a Private in the 2/48 Infantry battalion. According to Darryl Brady's website, after the war he served from April 1947 until September 1951 in the Australian Army including a posting to occupied Japan where he worked as a trucker. During this time he married Elizabeth Jane ('Betty') Shackleton, the daughter of Thomas Midgely Shackleton (1879-1941) and Mary Jane Ann Pickup (1888-1974), at Mundijong in Western Australia in 1949. Thomas was born in Keighley in Yorkshire and Mary Jane in Newcastle. They were married at Boulder in Western Australia in 1910. After leaving the Army in 1951 Mick worked for the Western Australian railways. The 1954 electoral roll shows he, working as a labourer, and Elizabeth were living on Harper St in Beverley. Elizabeth died in Shoalwater in Western Australia in 1998. Mick died there five years later. They had six children and at least 23 grandchildren.

Violet Gertrude Free. Violet was born on the Peel Estate at Byford in 1925 and married Rex Osborne Bennier in 1943. Helen Murphy tells us that they had eight children.