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| Bartholomew James Stubbs Stubbs Terrace, Subiaco, named in his honour |
| 3 May 1872, Bendigo, Vic 11 Nov 1897, Perth, WA 26 Sep 1917, Belgium Catholic Tailor, Unionist, MP, Soldier Alice Maude Rewell William Frank Geddes Edith May Geddes May Stephens |
| Born: Married Died: Religion: Occupation: Wife: Step Children: Adopted child: |
| "The people of Perth : a social history of Western Australia's capital city" C.T. Stannage, 1979, p.250 In 1894 Bartholomer Stubbs fled Victoria and settled on the Kalgoorlie goldfields. Late in the 1890s he came down to Perth, moving into Subiaco. In Subiaco, Stubbs plied his trade as a tailor and in time bought a house. An active though conservative union man, Stubbs was elected as the local MLC in 1911. His children went to the local Roman Catholic school. In 1913 his stepdaughter married a local man called Jones who worked as a clerk at the Swan Brewery. With the aid of a grant from the Workers' Homes Board (created in 1912) they bought a block of land in the bush along the sandy track known as Heytesbury Road, a mile from the shopping centre. A local builder named Henderson designed and built for them a brick and iron house. Despite financial stringency they raised a family and were active in church and community affairs. As Mrs Jones was to put it: We put a deposit on a workers 'home and paid 15s per week and reared a family of eight. At 4 pounds a week we had no luxury'. One of their children married into the Henderson family. Some members of the family still live in Subiaco (1979), as does the aging Mrs Jones. In February 1916 Mrs Jones' father, Bartholomew Stubbs, MLC, ordered his son-in-law to stay in work and care for his daughter and the children. He then volunteered for service overseas. He was 46 years of age. In September 1917 he was killed in action on the Western Front. Stubbs had won 'freedom and honour' for his family in Subiaco. He believed that their achievement was worth fighting for - even to death. Identity Prized: A History of Subiaco by Ken Spillman,1985. With Subiaco's local pride and neighbourly spirit transformed into this aggressively patriotic fervour, the pressure on the men of the district to enlist was immense. In part this reflected a state-wide mood; at two referenda, in 1916 and 1917, there were twice as many Western Australians in favour of conscription as there were against it, results very different from those of the same polls in the eastern states. In Subiaco, those eligible, who for various reasons had not volunteered, were frequently harassed by the local wartime organisations, and sometimes by the relatives of those who humility. This harassment most commonly took the form of a white feather in the letterbox, accusations of cowardice, and attempts both insidious and blatant to induce irrational guilt, or a sense of responsibility for those who were being killed. As one long-time Subiaco resident recalled, they were always making drives at various times... They used to have meetings and they used to sing that song too, 'We Don't Want to Lose You, But We Think You Ought to Go'. You know you felt bloody lousy, and they would invite you to come to a social evening and they would start singing this song.' (p.206) Such was the intensity of local feeling that an unwritten code of 'responsibility' demanded the enlistment of at least one member of each family. Within this code, a young husband could evade some of his 'due' harassment if his father or another close relative joined the colours 'in lieu'. Asked whether her husband went to the war, one Subiaco woman, the daughter of Bartholomew Stubbs, a Member of the Legislative Council for the district, replied: 'No, that's why my father went... He came home and told me, and I said "Why you, at your age?" He said "To save your husband". Stubbs was killed in France in 1917, and in October of that year J. T. Guy's successor, Mayor W. J. Berryman, made special mention of him in his annual report. Expressing sympathy for the relatives and friends of those 'who have fallen in the cause of Right', Berryman added: "Amongst those who have made the great sacrifice is the late member for this district, Lieut. B. J. Stubbs, who had endeared himself to all who knew him, and whose loss we all sincerely deplore." While very few of those who enlisted received an official tribute, or had a new street named in honour of them, as did Stubbs not long after the war, all were popularly thought of as heroes rather than ordinary people, swept by the fervent patriotism of their age into the abomination of modern warfare. (p.207) In 1916 the Council decided to publicly honour all of the district's volunteer heroes by commencing a 'Roll of Honour', and throughout 1917 a competition was run for the design of an honour board... Many were the names on these boards which were immediately recognisable to most of the municipality's residents. Some like Bartholomew Stubbs, Subiaco Councillor S. R. Roberts, and George Hamilton, a stalwart of Jolimont's Progress Association who was eventually killed in action, were familiar because they had been prominent citizens during the pre-war years. A large number of others were familiar simply because in Subiaco 'everybody knew everybody'. The Late Liuet. Stubbs, M.L.A., Killed in Action The WA Record, 13 Oct 1917 By the death of Lieut. B.J. Stubbs, M.L.A., who was killed in France on September 26th, the State has lost a prominent citizen and the Church a faithful son. Born in Victoria on May 3, 1872, he was early apprenticed to the tailoring trade. Twenty three years ago he came to this State, and two years later was one of the foundation members of the Perth Tailors' Union. Later on for a number of years he was closely assosiated with the Labour movement on the goldfields, and was particularly zealous for the welfare of the members of his own union. Returning to Perth his efforts on behalf of unionism found further scope, and he so enjoyed the confidence and respect of his co-workers that he was more than once president of the Metropolitan Council of the A.L.F. In 1911, being the selected Labour candidate for Subiaco, he unseated Mr. H. Daglish, Minister for Works. Three years later he was again successful. As a politician he maintained the same earnestness in the cause which he represented as he had already distinguished his earlier service. He was strictly just to all classes of the community which he represented. The late Lieut. Stubbs was a strong believer in the justice of the Allied cause, and appeared more than once during the first year of the war on recruiting platforms. He was not one, however, to win the war with his mouth; he believed in deeds. He enlisted in February, 1916. After a successful term in the N.C.O. school, he left for Duntroon, where he qualified for commissioned rank, which he recieved on October 8th of the same year. He left the State on Christmas Eve, 1916, in charge of the 8th Reinforcements of the 51st Battalion. On Monday last, 8th inst, a Solemn Requiem Mass was celebrated for the repose of the soul of Lieut Stubbs in St Joseph's Church, Subiaco. There was a large and representative congregation. His Grace Archbishop Clune CSsR presided. The very Rev Father John Creagh, CSsR, V.A., Kimberly, was the celebrant of the Mass, Rev D. B.Verling deacon, Rev J. O'Grady sub-deacon, Very Rev Bernard Fagan, West Perth, master of ceremonies; Dean Martelli and Very Rev Father Callan, O.M.I, assistant priests; Very Rev Chancellor Hallinan, Fathers Kiernan and Dooey, chanters. The following clergy attended in choir; Rev Fathers Hayes, O.M.I., De Courcey, CSsR, Morris, O'Neill, Crowley, Moss, Sheridan, McCabe, T. Masterson and Pace. The legaslature was represented by Messrs F.M Troy and W. Stubbs, M.L.A. At the conclusion of the Mass the Archbishop gave the Absolution at the Catatalque, and then addressed the congegation. He said that his acquaintance with the late lieutenant was limited; but Mgr. Verling had again and again assured him of his sterling and practical Catholicity. The Archbishop proceeded to say that his body rested in a glorious grave in Flanders, and they were there that morning to beseech the Almighty and Merciful God to grant a greater glory to his soul. On behalf of the congegation, he tendered their united sympathy to the widow and family. He knew it was unnecessary to ask them to pray for the departed, as they had shown their willingness to do so already. He would only repeat again those words which were so much to the Catholic heart at such a time as this: "Requiescat in Pace." Edith's Memoirs, Edith May Geddes, 1976 ...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... The Geddes Mystery, by Brian Jones, Spectrum, 2002. The Geddes Mystery is a story that has been told from one generation to the next. I first heard it from one of Perth's great old storytellers, my grandmother, Mrs Edith May Jones. Edith was one of the oldest residents of the Perth suburb Subiaco. And with some real estate named after her ex-convict father-in-law (Rowland Street), and her politician stepfather (Stubbs Terrace) she became a popular narrator of stories, not just for her grandchildren but for many professional storytellers. Biographical Register of Members of Parliament, Vol 1, 1870-1930 Tailor. B. 31 May 1872, Spring Gully, Sandhurst (Bendigo), Vic.; s. of William, miner, and Catherine Farrell; M 11 Nov 1897, R.C. Cathedral Perth, Alice Geddes (nee Rewell) (c. 1864 - Mar 1954), widow of William Geddes, d. of William and Sarah Tapper; no chn; D killed in action 26 Sep 1917, Belgium. Appreenticed as tailor on leaving sch., followed calling in various parts of Vic,; arr. WA 1894; in 1896 foundation member Perth Tailors' Union; on goldfields; several times pres. metrop.council Amalg. Labour Fed,; first pres. Amalg. Tailors and Tailoresses' Union, Eastern Goldfields; pres. and vice-pres. TLC; enlisted AIF 29 Jan 1916, 51st Bttn; Second Lieut 8 Aug 1916; served in France, Belgium; MC 1917; killed in action in Belgium 26 Sept 1917. Labor MLA Subiaco 3 Oct 1911 - 26 Sept 1917. Cyclopedia of Western Australians, Vol 1, Ed. J. S. Battye, p.352 Bartholomew James Stubbs, who represents the Subiaco electorate in the Legislative Assembly, was born on May 31, 1872. Upon leaving school he was apprenticed to the tailoring trade, and subsequently followed his calling in various parts of Victoria. In 1894 he left for Western Australia and secured employment in Perth, becoming one of the foundation-members of the Perth Tailors' Union in 1896. He has occupied the presidential chair of this organization, and at the present time (1911) fills the offices of Secretary of the Union and delegate to the Metropolitan Council of the Australian Labour Federation. HE was the first President of the Amalgamated Tailors and Tailoresses' Union on the eastern goldfields, where also he was elected Vice-President and afterwards President of the Trades and Labour Council, his introduction to the Labour Party having taken place in 1890, when he first joined a trade-union. In 1910 he contested Central Ward in the Subiaco municipality, but failed to secure election to the Council. Two years prior to this Mr Stubb's name had come before the Labour Party selection ballot in connection with the State elections for that year, and though not then chosen, in 1911 he was selected unopposed to stand in the interests of the Labour Party for the Subiaco seat, and after a well-contested fight was returned against Mr H. Daglish, the late Minister for Works, with a majority of sixty votes. War Records: Complexion, Ruddy; Eyes, Blue; Hair, Steel Grey; R. Catholic 28.1.16, Signs application for enlistment in Perth. 29.1.16 Application for enlistment provisionally accepted. Oath to be taken by Person being Enlisted: "I, Bartholomew James Stubbs swear that I will well and truly serve our Sovereign Lord the King in the Australian Imperial Force from 29.1.16 until the end of the War, and a further period of four months thereafter unless sooner lawfully discharged, dismissed, or removed therefrom; and that I will resist His Majesty's enemies and cause His Majesty's peace to be kept and maintained; and that I will in all matters appertaining to my service, faithfully discharge my duty according to law. So help me, God." 29.1.16, Medical examination 14.2.1916, Joined, given rank as private, (later Sergeant) 7.7.1916, Sergeant 8 August 1916, Appointed 2nd Lieutenant with 51st Battalion 8th Reinfts 23.12.16, Departed Fremantle on "Berrima", with 8 Reinforcements, 51st Battalion. Record of Service in the Field: 23.12.16 Embarked overseas ex Fremantle 16.2.17 Disembarked at Devonport on Berrima 21.2.17 Marched into 15th Tng. Bn. Hurdcott 6.3.17 Marched out to 13th Tng. Bn. Hurdcott 6.3.17 Marched out to 13th Tng. Bn Codford 27.3.17 On Command at Candahar School, Codford 18.6.17 Proceeded overseas to France (Tidworth) 20.6.17 Marched in (Havre) 2.7.17 Proceeded to join Unit (Havre) 3.7.17 Taken on Strength (Field) 26.9.17 Killed in Action is struck off strength (sic) "Killed by rifle bullet and buried ... Belgium approximately 800 yards south of Zonnebekke." Received: British War Medal, Victory Medal, Memorial Plaque, Memorial Scroll |
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