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The late William Rewell (my grandfather) arrived at Fremantle in one of the first ships to come from England in the early days of W. Australia at the age of seven years. On the same ship came a Mrs Tapper who gave birth to a daughter (Sarah) on the beach two hours after the boat arrived. As the years went by, Sarah and grandfather grew up together and later married, and reared a family of eight children Frederick, William, Lucy, Jane, Fanny, Alice, and Ada. Fred had a beautiful personality, and was loved by everyone, his only failing was drink; he earned his living by pearling up in the N.W. in Broome, and whenever he had collected enough pearls he came back to Perth and spent all his earnings on drink. He died at the age of 89 but never married. The second son Bill lived in the old white stone house adjoining the old flour mill at the extreme end of South Perth, he married Nell Illes, and reared four children - Hilda, Myrtle, Mellville and Willie. Uncle Will was Pilot of the Police Launch Cygnet No.1 and later Cygnet (2). He enclosed a small part of the Swan River and reared all the Black Swans that used to roam the river, their main food being boiled barley and corn. As the Swan River became more inhabited, the swans became frightened and wended their way further up the Swan, where they were gradually sniped off. Later Uncle Will and family moved to Harper Terrace in S. Perth, when his hearing was failing; he was knocked down by a car in William St. and killed instantly. The Old Mill should never have been demolished it was a landmark to W.A. and was built by the convicts in the early days and it was there one of the Shenton boys was speared to death by the natives who were very wild in that period. The Old Flour Mill was a round structure built of white stone with three flights of stairs with a balcony around each one. The stairs had a rope holding on either side, and led on to the top of the building which had a square lookout with a big square wooden wind mill which directed the wheat. Each floor had a round balcony and at the rear of the mill were the huge wheels that ground the flour. In those days it was hard to find employment for young girls other than house maids or servants to the English elite of the time, so it was Lucy (Armstrong), Jane (Turner), Fanny (Fishwick) and Sarah Stephens all filled those occupations. Ada (Stansmore) started as a nurse at the R.P. Hospital and later became matron. Alice (my mother) worked at the Govt. Printing Office as a type setter, and it was there she met my father William (Goodwin Breen) an assumed name, his real name was Geddes. They married and went to S. Australia to make their home, my father was a surveyor by trade, and they both lived very happily and it was at Parkside that my brother Frank and I (Edith) were born, but when I was only three month's old, my mother noticed that my father was becoming very absent minded and not concentrating on his work, so she called in a specialist who said he thought my father had previously had brain damage at some time, and he would gradually get worse and the Dr. advised my mother to take her children back to WA to her father and he would arrange for my father to be transferred to the Adelaide hospital, mother knew nothing of my father's early home life and he would never discuss it, however, just a few weeks before he died, he remembered his home address, which the Dr. forwarded it on, and so his mother came to the hospital just in time to see him a few days before he died but his family made no contact with my mother and so the link was ended. My grandfather Rewell had always been a very hard man to live with, but my mother had no option, but to leave Frank with him, and take the first job that would take me with her, as a general servant to the Wainscoot family of six and there she worked very hard until I had turned five; then one day she was introduced to Mr James Stubbs who had a tailoring shop in Subiaco and after a few months they married. Although a tailor by trade he built a small wooden home all by himself in Loretto St, Subiaco which still stands, and it there in that little home my stepfather, mother, Frank and I lived very happily. My stepfather was a very devout Roman Catholic... [page missing] Frank to the Christian Bros. And I to the Sisters of Mercy in Perth. As I mentioned earlier, my grandfather had always been a very hard man to live with, and after a couple of years he suggested to my mother that they should pay his rates, to which she hotly refused; and so our education was once again halted and this time we made a new home in Kalgoorlie, and I started school once again at the Kalgoorlie St John of God School, and when my school days were nearing its end, as I was now sixteen, my mother received a letter from Aunt Sarah enclosing a cutting from the West Australian, seeking the address of Francis William and Edith M. Geddes and reply to George Geddes, Bondi, N.S.Wales, and a week later we got a return mail from Uncle George, informing us that at the age of 21 ...[missing] . . . both receive a . . . 3000... [missing section]... Her only child May without a soul in the world to look after her, so once again my stepfather's wonderful nature showed itself and suggested they adopt May as she would be a good companion for me, so now our family was five. When nearing the age of 21 we decided to go to Sydney to collect my share, so my stepfather took me to meet Uncle George whose beautiful home was overlooking Bondi Beach with winding footpaths right up to the door with palms and statues right up to the door. After being introduced to Uncle George, he seemed quite impressed with me and told me I was the only . . . [missing page]... Hospital, that he had remembered his home address and asked for his mother to come and then he told her how he was jumping his father's race horse over a high picket fence when it fell and then bolted, leaving my father on the ground with a picket wound in his head and for days suffered loss of memory; and when well enough he was afraid to go back home, so folding his clothes on the bank of a river, he swam into Adelaide where he worked as a surveyor until he went to W.A. and married my mother. A few years my grandfather Geddes died still leaving my father out of his will, and it was then that my grandmother, feeling compassion for her son's wife and children found his will and burnt it, and that is how we claimed our share. When we returned to WA I resumed friendship with an old school mate, Bowen Jones, he was very anxious that we should marry but he was only a clerk at the Swan Brewery on low wages, so we discussed it, and with what he had saved, I put in the balance and then built our home at 117 Heytesbury Rd, Subiaco and then we married. I also gave my mother and father enough money to build a brick home in 20 Union St, Subiaco. We had a family of eight children, losing my first one at birth and the second son in the Second World War in New Guinea and when my third child Mollie was only two years old my stepfather now had turned 46 decided to resign from the West Aus Parliament for which he represented the member for Subiaco as a Labour Member, and join the army, as fighting was being waged between England and Germany in the First World War, and in Belgium he was killed not long before the war ended in 1917. Then my mother lived with us until she died at the age of 89. I have now turned 87 and I thank God for such wonderful parents that made life so easy for me, and now in my old age my loving children are doing all they possibly can, by their love and kindness to make life still happy for me in the last few years of my life. God bless them all, with all my love Mother |
| Memoirs of Edith May Jones (1976) |
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