Agnes Miriam Bald: windows to her mind

The previous item about Agnes Miriam ‘Nan’ Bald outlined her life. This item describes some of her writing with a few examples to illustrate her preoccupations and mood.

The following are excerpts of some of her poems as they appear in her short book, Pencil Poems. They were written before about 1925 and the earliest may date from 1919, though there is no indication of the dates for specific poems. The book is dedicated to her mother whom she cared for after the death of her father in December 1925.

A sentence which represents a strong theme of the book is on page 15:

‘It would be nice to feel when ends life’s weary way,

We’ve done our best!’

There is another celebrating a betrothal which may reflect the experience of her youngest sister Ruth or perhaps her eldest sister Evelyn on page 20. The theme of betrothal is the subject of a number of poems and though none seems to refer specifically to herself it is clearly a topic which occupied her mind. 

One gets the impression that this theme comes from a personal experience which was too painful to describe directly. Apart from this, she is consistent in making clear when speaking about herself, which is helpful in identifying other aspects of her life.

‘The Bruised Reed; to a war hero’ tells of a soldier, Bill, who though wounded in the [First World] War and permanently confined to bed, dictates words of beauty which are printed in a newspaper to cheer and ‘comfort half the race’. The story seems to be of someone she knows about as the focus is a nurse copying down his words to send to an editor – whose name is unknown to the author. Her sister Ruth was a nurse during the War so could be based on her experience.  

The poem follows the title of a book by Richard Sibbes (1567–1635) published in 1630 to help struggling Christians see their Saviour as a tender shepherd. Sibbes is best remembered for his little book that draws from Isaiah’s description of the coming Messiah who will not break a bruised reed nor snuff a faintly burning wick.

Another poem called ‘The Proposal’ describes a proposal of marriage and might be the story of a female friend of hers.

‘You are young Mary meadows’ is a kind of tribute to ‘You are old Father William’ and though it shows genuine verbal fun – possibly the only poem to do so - there is the theme of marriage again which obviously preoccupied her. ‘You Are Old, Father William’ is a ‘nonsense poem’ written by Lewis Carroll and appears in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), recited by Alice. The poem was popular with my mother and I guess widely enjoyed at the time and was itself a parody of a now ignored didactic poem by Robert Southey ‘The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them’ published in 1799 and once well-known and loathed by children. 

The first two verses of ‘You are old, Father William’ (1865) by Lewis Carroll are:

“You are old, Father William,” the young man said,

“And your hair has become very white;

And yet you incessantly stand on your head –

Do you think, at your age, it is right?”

“In my youth,” Father William replied to his son,

“I feared it might injure the brain;

But, now that I’m perfectly sure I have none,

Why, I do it again and again.”

…

The first two verses of Agnes’ poem are as follows;

You are Young Mary Meadows

“You are young Mary meadows,” the young man said,

“And your eyes are as bright as the stars,

And yet you refuse charming fellows to wed

You seem to prefer their papas!"

“In the days of my childhood,” she said to the youth,

“I used to like young men like you;

But since I’ve grown up, I must say of a truth,

I seem to like older ones too!”

…

'Raggles' celebrates the Tibetan Lhasa terrier she had in India. The only picture in Pencil Poems is of this dog. Raggles also appears as an ‘extra’ in a family photo in front of her parents’ home at Tukvar shown in the previous post.

Raggles gets star billing as the only picture in Pencil Poems.

A glimpse of her love for India is in the poem of that name.

‘India, thou land of sheer delight!

Land of my birth, I know I love thee quite.

How many years have I spent on thy shore?

I think they’d reckon up to half a score.’

…

When you near home, and your verandah see,

You will be longing for some home-grown tea…’

The poem remind me of the following picture taken at Tukvar which shows Nan's sister Evelyn, mother Margaret and sister Jessie. The picture was probably taken by her father Claud.

Taking tea at Tukvar.

There are two poems about her nieces who visited in August 1922, my mother Joan and her sister dubbed ‘Maya’. We learn from the poem that it was Maya’s ayah who dubbed her thus. Joan ‘is a very bright wee spark, as clever as can be!’ and Maya is ‘a charming little child.’ 

Nan was delighted when the girls did come to join her and her mother a few years later. The phrase ‘wee spark’ reminds me that her parents were both Glaswegian and must have retained that accent through their lives.

Joan the 'bright wee spark' and her mother
 at the time she met Nan and her Bald grandparents for the first time.

The final poem returns to a theme which is consistent throughout the book; a life of pain which others cannot understand and in which she gained strength through her faith.  The title is ‘Be Strong’ and final verse reads;

‘When weariness and weakness is my lot,

What would I do if I ever forgot

These words as through this life I go along,

“Quit ye like men, be strong”’

The last phrase, like others in Pencil Poems, is from the Bible and illustrates her faith which persisted through her life. The phrase is a call to ‘man up’, take responsibility for yourself and do what you need to do. The Apostle Paul uses it in the context of what might be called a moral fight. The phrase had a military application in World War I, consistent with its Old Testament usage where the against the odds the Philistines took this approach and defeated the lax Israelite army. The approach is one my mother adopted though she did not have a specifically Christian sense of faith.

oOo

I think the crucial factor of Nan's life which the family memory may have missed is the devastating impact of the first world war.

Women's Army Auxiliary Corps tend the graves of fallen British soldiers.
Abbeville, France, 9 February 1918. Imperial War Museums. 

Nearly three-quarters of a million young British men died in the first world war. Their loss was also that of a generation of young women who had expected to marry. Virginia Nicholson's book Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived Without Men After the First World War details the phenomena of the single women of the 1920s and 1930s. Even before the war, there were more women than men, but the 1921 census revealed that in Britain women exceeded men by 1.75 million.

Nicholson shows how difficult it was for women who viewed marriage as their birthright to adjust. They had not only to manage their own disappointment and reduced expectations in a climate that pushed homemaking to the fore but do so in the face of both pity and condemnation.

‘Surplus Woman and spinster’, she says, were terms of 'crushing weight'. While her book celebrates women who did climb out from underneath the weight, others would have simply found it very difficult. Nan had a tough time adjusting but was buoyed somewhat by her faith and perhaps her sister Jessie struggled more. In a strange twist, Jessie imagined that men were always chasing her.

For the Bald sisters, a clandestine affair would have been out of the question given their upbringing. This was underlined in the climate that life for the single woman meant enforced celibacy or the loss of respectability.

We have no information on how Nan was employed after her mother died in 1935, though the stipend her parents will provided for her may have meant finding a menial task was the necessity it was for many single women.

Her debt to her parents’ in this provision was significant and in recognition of this I suspect she is the person who organised arrangements for their grave which consists of a pink granite Celtic cross and a grave edging also in granite with the words

‘Their children and grandchildren record their deep gratitude for loving service and noble example.’

By this time her nieces Joan and Maya had returned from India to Worthing for their schooling and Nan spent much time looking after them as well as her ageing mother.

After her mother’s death, her nieces spent summer holidays with their Aunt Ruth and her husband Arthur Campbell in Bangor, North Wales or stayed on at School. 

Nan threw herself into a variety of organisations; she was a founding member and or honorary secretary to the Worthing branches of the Lord's Day Observance Society, Women’s International Fellowship, Protestant Alliance and Women’s World Day of Prayer. 

In 1938, she took up a position as leader of the Sunday Defenders, the children’s section of the Lord’s day Observance Society, based in Brighton, though had returned to Worthing after a year.

In late 1941 she suffered a breakdown in her health and resigned from some of these roles for what turned out to be a short time and returned to her various roles of public advocacy.

In these roles (before and after her break), she was a frequent writer to the editor of the Worthing Herald and spoke at public meetings in support of ‘The great need for women’s influence and responsibility’. She was not shy in offering public expositions of her views of the Bible for example.

In July 1936, no doubt still mourning the loss of her mother, she wrote on the topic of ‘The Pacifist and the burglar’ concluding in a characteristic way;

‘It is this spiritual freedom to serve the unseen Deity which our country still retains, for which we owe the deepest debt of gratitude to our heroes of the Great War, Jesus Christ commends watchful defence of property in Matthew 24:43.’

The tone of her writings had become combative, her feelings are often raw, bitter and unhappy and they often invited cynical responses.

Her apparently joyless advocacy of sacrifice in later life may have been a subconscious expression of bereavement not only at the loss of her mother but also of the married life she dreamed of as a younger woman. She would have been reminded of her loss regularly at the sight of couples with children and in a society increasingly interested in enjoyments such as Sunday cinemas instead of sacrifice. Her inability to regulate her emotions would have reduced her ability to maintain social relationships which would have exacerbated her sense of loss.

Nan’s faith may have provided some buttress to sanity and the absence of such belief, in the case of her sister Jessie, may have made her isolation complete.

Though the first world war deprived many women of potential husbands, it enabled the pioneering few to establish careers. A Bald cousin, Dr Marjory Amelia, dedicated her life to the study and teaching of women’s literature and supporting missionary work and is worthy of recognition for this. Her major work was Women-writers of the nineteenth century and it remains a go-to text for that study and her life a positive example.

The collection of Pencil Poems provides a fascinating glimpse into a part of Nan’s life. A more careful examination of the poems may identify all the people mentioned, the references made to other writings, and the circumstances referred to, though we may never know the name of the person whose loss caused her deepest sense of isolation.

Nan died on 4 May 1950 in a Worthing nursing home and was cremated.

Nan in happy times.
Taking nieces Joan and Maya to school in Worthing.

Let me know if you would like a soft copy of Pencil Poems.

Agnes M Bald – ‘loopy’ or lonely?

One of Mum’s memories of childhood is that her aunt ‘Nan’ was ‘a bit loopy’.

Nan (actually Agnes Miriam Bald) was a younger sister of Mum’s mother Evelyn. She busied herself with writing poems and songs. She was a spinster who lived with her mother and looked after her nieces when they were in Worthing as ‘foreign students’ in the 1920s and 30s.

I had wondered what psychological problems Nan had. She didn’t look unusual so perhaps she was autistic or suffered from Asperger’s syndrome. Although she was treated as someone who needed support, she effectively looked after her nieces which implies some ability to function independently.

.

'Nan' in Worthing about 1930,
after the publication of Pencil Poems.

Then there was Jessie... 

Jessie was another aunt, two years older than Nan. She was apparently ‘even loopier’. She was so difficult to live with that she lived alone. Again, although Mum’s childhood memory was that Miriam was in need of help, she was able to live independently.

I have finally got a copy of Agnes Bald's Pencil Poems published in 1926. It makes an interesting read. India is mentioned along with her pets and impressions of her life. There is a poem about my mother 'Joan' and her sister 'Maya'. Amongst others, 'Tommy' and 'Peter' are mentioned but I don't know who they are.

Reading it gave me the impression that part of her 'loopy' disposition may have come from being one of the many young women at the time who had a husband or boyfriend who died in WWI. Nan’s sister Jessie may have also been a victim of such circumstances. As far as I am aware neither were engaged, and certainly neither married, yet as their life went on they both seemed to imagine that men were ‘after them’.

Some of Nan’s poems seem to be reflections on Sunday sermons. Her parents were regular churchgoers and staunch Baptists. As a child in India, she would have attended the Union Church in Darjeeling, where her father was one-time treasurer.  On their retirement to Worthing, they were regulars at the Worthing Baptist Church. Nan was obviously familiar with the Bible and there are several references to it in the poems. Other poems seem to be self-encouraging.

Her father and many of his generation liked to write ditties so the form was one she would have grown up with. The local weekly newspaper in Darjeeling, Darjeeling Advertiser (all copies of which are now apparently lost) carried this kind of poem also. The contributions of one such writer, tea-planter J A Keble,  were gathered in his book Darjeeling Ditties (1908).

Pencil Poems indicates that Nan had lived a total of 10 years in India, almost half her life to that point. She clearly missed her life there and was melancholy at the thought that she may never have the opportunity to return. This prediction proved correct. Much of her writing also includes a sense of despair at her own circumstances (which are never explicitly spelt out) and this is contrasted with self-talk to ‘be strong’ or ’carry on’.

Her childhood home, Tukvar Tea Estate about 1914.
Left to right: Nan, her father Claud, Mother, sisters Jessie
and Evelyn and brother-in-law Fred Marsh.
Her dog 'Ruffles' also features in the book.

Her father, Claud Bald had died in 1924 and his will made provision for the support of his wife and his two unmarried daughters. Both daughters were provided with a life-ling allowance which seems to have lasted just long enough to sustain them. Bald seems to have anticipated that they would never marry.

One of the stories about the sisters, apart from a general view that they were ‘eccentric’ was that they both imagined that ‘men were after them’; an apprehension which grew stronger as they aged. 

When Nan’s mother died in 1935, it was the married siblings, Evelyn, Wylie and the youngest Ruth who worked out how to finalize the estate. The two unmarried siblings were provided for with a specified amount from which they could draw an income. Whatever else may be true about them, their father would have felt obliged to provide for them as they were not married.

What I had not considered was that he would have known that prospects for them to marry were significantly lowered after World War I.

Now ‘loopy’ is not a sufficient explanation of their circumstances and ‘eccentric’ is kinder but not revealing either. Jessie was certainly isolated and may well have been quarrelsome but this does not mean she was ‘disabled’ in the usual sense. 

Although Nan was living in England when her book was published it is likely that her father Claud used his networks in publishing to support the endeavour even though he had died before the publication date. He had published several works in his long career as a tea planter in India.

Nan was born at Tukvar Tea Estate near Darjeeling town and spent her earliest years there, but as was the custom she was sent ‘home’ to Britain for education. Exactly where she went is not clear but she and her siblings were probably sent to boarding schools in Scotland and during holidays stayed with families who may or may not have been known to their parents.

A brief chronology of her life runs as follows. It is likely that her life was similar to her sister Miriam but there is almost no direct evidence of Miriam’s activities except that she was born at Badamtam Tea Estate, Darjeeling and died in 1954 in Dorset.

Chronology for Agnes Miriam Bald

24 February 1894 - Born at Tukvar Tea Estate, Darjeeling, India.

4 March 1898 – Birth of her sister Ruth Stewart Bald at Tukvar.

1901 - She was a scholar with her sister Jessie boarding in Argyll, Scotland.

2 Apr 1911 - She was living in Islington, London, England but returned to India.

1914-1918 – First World War.

23 Jun 1919 -Arrives in London, England with her parents.

August 1922 – Visit of her eldest sister Mrs Evelyn Marsh with her two young daughters, Joan 18 months and ‘Maya’ 3 years.

31 Dec 1924 - Death of her father Claude Bald (1853–1924) at Worthing.

Early 1926 – Publication of Pencil Poems.

18 Aug 1935 - Death of Mother Margaret (to whom her book was dedicated) at Worthing.

In the 1930 - 1940s – Secretary to Worthing branch of the Lord's Day Observance Society, foundation member and secretary to the Worthing branches of the Women’s International Fellowship, Protestant Alliance and Women’s World Day of Prayer.

4 May 1950 – Death in Worthing.

Mother and siblings about 1905.
Brother Wylie standing.
Seated left to right:
Ruth, Margaret (her mother), 'Nan', Jessie and Evelyn.

The next post describes more of Nan’s writing with a few examples from Pencil Poems to illustrate her preoccupations and mood.

Noel Patrick Hilton finds a surname or two…

Strange as it may seem, the exact sequence of events in Dad’s life from when he left the Lyell home until his marriage in 1951 is not entirely clear. Further research may help sort out the timetable of events.

However, the major motivations and main events do seem to be clear.

His key motivation in leaving the Bill and Ivy Lyell household, apart from the common desire to find his own feet, was to find his own family – that is his natural mother and siblings in particular. My guess is that he moved out of the Lyell home in about 1939 or 1940 when he finished high school. What followed must have seemed like a roller coaster ride for the next decade before he settled down. ‘Mum Lyell’ was not keen on the quest but ‘Pop’ understood his motivations

He worked for a while in Sydney building his skills in catering, carpentry and sales work. He quickly reconnected with his mother and sister Joyce. His mother had friends and family in Sydney so it was easy enough to ask around to find them. Joyce worked for the Tivoli and seems to have been in Melbourne in 1935 and early 1936. She spent most of 1936 in Western Australia doing a series of shows with the Ritchie Brothers and their sister Mavis and in 1938 was in New South Wales.

Joyce and his mother had both adopted the surname Deering by this time. It was also used by his father. There were a variety of reasons why they dropped the use of the surname Poe. A common story is that it was a slang term for ‘bedpan’ in some areas. It is also true that Grandfather Poe would have been eager to leave much of his past behind him. He was, for example, determined that no one takes his photo – a strange thing for a showman. 

The surname Deering is a reference to grandfather Poe’s mother, Minerva Elizabeth Dearing. Poe, like most boys, seems to have been close to his mother and certainly had good connections with his mother’s family. He adopted Deering as he thought it was the original spelling of the name – which turns out to be correct going back to his fourth great-grandfather Edward who was born in Virginia in 1725.

Noel and his brother Jack used the surname Lyell when they lived with Bill and Ivy Lyell and while both boys knew their surname was Poe, no thought was given to making any formal change. Noel probably stopped using Lyell soon after reconnecting with his mother and while he also used the surname Deering he may have been more ambivalent about it and adopted the usage ‘Le Poer’ from time to time claiming that his father used it and that it was the original form of the name Poe. Whether this is correct or not, the Dearing family carry a story that the original form was ‘de La Poer’. Grandfather Poe used the form ‘De Poe’ for his first marriage in 1907.

Noel's sister Joyce Deering as a Tivoli soubrette.

Dad’s oldest brother Eric Alexander, known as ‘Al’, had been fostered out very early in his life also, but had an unhappy experience and ran away from families twice. Eventually, he settled with the Argus family in Gippsland. He told me that he was reacquainted with his natural family as the result of a train accident which killed his adopted father and stepsister…

His mother Beatrice managed to keep track of her family which was in various parts of Australia. She was probably living in Queensland at the time she saw a newspaper report of a fatal accident in the town of Bunyip in Gippsland, Victoria. She knew the names of the man and his daughter who were killed in a level crossing accident; this was the family looking after her eldest child Al. She contacted her daughter Edna who was living in Melbourne asking her to track down Al. It is possible that Noel had already contacted his mother by this time, but either way, Beatrice would have seen the tragedy as a way to rebuild connections with her far-flung family.

The accident took place in Jun 1939 and Al was 19 at the time. The police contacted him to ask if he knew the name Deering and when he said he didn’t they told him to forget it. Soon after, he awoke one night recalling that Deering was a childhood name. He rang the police back who put him in contact with Edna who connected him to his father then living in Prahran, Victoria. He met his father and half-sister Siddy who made him feel welcome. Al quickly adopted the surname Deering and must have met Noel in Melbourne not long after.

Noel’s decision to go to Melbourne probably came in 1940/1. His sister Edna, who had married Eric Storey, was in Melbourne at this time and it was where his father was living. At about the same time Beatrice had also moved from Brisbane where she was in 1940 to Melbourne. This was the time of the second world war which had an impact on society and certainly the family.

Unlike his older brothers, Al and Jack, Noel said he did not take part in the second world war. Al enrolled in the army in late 1942 under the surname Deering with his wife Alice (whom he married in January 1940) who lived in Richmond as his next of kin. Following his divorce, he listed his mother, Beatrice Deering, as next of kin. Jack enlisted in May 1941 under the surname Lyell with Bill Lyell as his next of kin though Jack’s legal name at the time was still Poe.

Dad never pointed out that he was too young – but he would not have turned 21 until after the war had ended. However, it was common for younger men to join up. He would often say he ‘had to look after mother’ – which meant his natural mother Beatrice.

But, he also used to say he was a ‘Bourke Street commando’ which in my mind conjured images of unruly youths roaming the streets at night looking for trouble. In fact, he joined the army in May 1944, in his 21^st year. At the time, he was living in Richmond. It took me a long while to discover this because he joined under the name Deering, using all his given names – Noel Patrick Hilton. His sister Edna, with whom he was staying, was listed as next of kin.

Certificate of World War Two Service for Noel Patrick Hilton Deering

When he first moved to Melbourne he stayed in Al’s home in Lennox Street Richmond. Al had married and then enlisted but soon divorced which may have meant his home was vacant. At about this time Noel ran a toy shop in Richmond. He made some toys and employed Al and other family members from time to time. Apparently, the toy shop business was in the name of Le Poer though as yet I cannot find any records of this.

It was late in the second world war that his sister Joyce whose work kept her between Sydney and Brisbane met a dashing US serviceman, Irving Steil. After the war, she joined him to America where they married and had one son David. She continued to support her mother from afar and keep in contact with her siblings. In the USA, she continued to work in entertainment and performed with the Mills Brothers, famous for Paper Doll, which she was very proud of.

Edna separated from her husband and was bringing up two daughters, Bonnie and Joyce, by herself. Noel had become involved in helping Edna’s husband to ‘move on’ and became a de facto father to his nieces though he was not much older than the girls. At some point, he moved to live with his sister in a one-room ‘bungalow’ is Erasmus Street Surry Hills.

Edna ran a catering business called ‘Cupid Catering’ which was established in partnership with an investor who also had a used car business. When the partnership was dissolved in 1948, presumably with the loan repaid, Noel was a witness using his actual surname – Poe.

Argus, Friday 18 June 1948, page 9.
Noel Poe as a witness

The business continued however and most of the work was to cater for weddings. Dad helped with the business and employed his cooking skills and also employed other family members including his half-sister who washed dishes.

It was probably late in the 1940s that Noel obtained a job at the Myer’s Store in Bourke Street Melbourne. He worked in the furniture department and quickly became the manager – something he would have been very comfortable doing.  Part of his carpentry experience with the Lyells included making furniture and he had some previous experience in sales. Perhaps this was a move for some financial stability after some business of his own. Whatever the case, he kept up working with his sister and continued to make toys though perhaps without the problems of also managing a shop.

But the hyperactive Noel was also a member of the Showman’s Guild at about this time and worked a Lunar Park, probably selling toys. At present no records of this activity have been found so I don’t know what surname he used.

In about 1950 Noel met Joan Marsh who had started at Myer’s. The two hit it off and Joan helped Noel deliver toys and washed dishes for Edna’s business. Joan lived very near to Noel and sometimes got a lift to work with him. Noel’s niece Bonnie also got a job at Myer’s and came for the ride too. Noel cut a dapper figure in his youth with an impressive car to match, a 1933 Reo Flying Cloud soft-top. Joan enjoyed stirring him by messing up his hair and cutting him off in traffic with her nifty Fiat.

1933 REO Flying Cloud via Pin Interest

In late 1950, Bob Patey – who also lived nearby – spoke to Noel about marrying Bonnie. Bob knew him as ‘Noel Le Poer’ and saw him as ‘a stern uncle’ to Bonnie and Joyce. Years later I spoke to Bob who remembered that Edna, Dad, Bonnie and Joyce all lived in a rented room on the corner of Erasmus and Bentley streets.  Bob was able to Noel that he meant Bonnie no harm and approved the marriage which took place in April 1951.

Bob also recalled that Noel made ‘monkeys on a stick’ – something which he would have learned from his father. ‘They all seemed to have the gipsy element in them.’ ‘All very private people.’ Bob’s comments echo the comment of Joan’s father, who saw them as ‘jungli wallas’ and ‘bizzari types’.

In circumstances which are not entirely clear, both Joan and Noel felt that their respective families were putting various pressures on them to conform to a variety of expectations. Some members of both families thought the relationship was not a good one. Noel, and Joan, in the end, decided that a new start was needed.

Late in 1950 Noel and Joan resigned from Myer’s ahead of marriage and an intention to live in NSW near the Lyell’s.

In February 1951 Noel formally changed his surname to Lyell and dropped the given name ‘Patrick’. He was then known consistently as ‘Noel Hilton Lyell’. On 13 February 1951, he and Joan were married at The Entrance, New South Wales. Officiating was Rev I Keith Watson Baptist minister suggested by the bride’s uncle, Rev Frank Marsh.

Noel did some further studies in building and sunk his savings into a partnership with his adopted father Bill Lyell, and together they completed a number of homes around The Entrance, north of Sydney, one of which was to be theirs at some later stage – at least that was the understanding.

Mr and Mrs Lyell on a building block.
The Entrance, NSW, circa 1951.

Joan got to know Noel’s family and some family friends including Harry Rooklyn who played the violin with her accompanying.  His younger brother Jack had been keen on Noel’s sister Joyce and treated the younger Noel as his nephew. Harry’s other brother Maurice had also been a magician and had at one time cut Noel’s sister Joyce in half.

There was a huge demand for housing after the war as the population increased as a result of migration and a surge in the natural birth rate. A shortage of building materials and labour prompted the development of different methods of construction. Bill and Noel were able to build new fibro-cement homes relatively quickly; however, it seems this contributed to a glut in the area and by about 1952 Noel decided to leave the business to Bill and seek his fortune elsewhere. The men apparently agreed verbally that ‘Pop’ would pay him back with one of the houses at some unspecified future date. Unfortunately, this never came to pass.

Initially, the move was not back to Melbourne. They moved to Sydney and Noel worked at Scruttons engineering supplies in Ultimo. On 9 February 1953, he resigned after working there for seven months and they moved back to Melbourne. Noel sold his possessions including a golf set and his Reo both of which he missed for a while, and arrived back in Melbourne with ten shillings. They managed to get a housing loan for a new development in Seaford to the south of Melbourne.

Noel worked for Boyes Brothers hardware merchants in Russell Street, Melbourne from about mid-1952 and resigned 13 June 1957 to start work at Sherlock and Hay in Frankston as by that time his family had begun. 

Noel had finally settled down as Noel Hilton Lyell, hardware salesman, husband and father.

The story of his married life is for another occasion, but for the remainder of his life he never entertained using a different surname and until very late in life could not be drawn on the subject. Many years later, after Joan’s death, Noel became a recluse and kept to himself problems with his health. He announced one day that he was going in for a blood transfusion. He had developed a kind of leukaemia which claimed his life in a short period of time. When the time came to go into hospital he accepted the move with no fuss. He saw his family and wished them off intending he said to have a restful night.

Later that evening, he called out, perhaps for the first time in his life a phrase he heard in the boxing ring ‘I concede’ and expired. His grave includes both his given and his adopted surname.

Jottings of interest: September 2017

Joseph Swan

The online home of The Friends of Glasgow Necropolis has included an item about great-great-great-grandfather Joseph Swan in their profiles under the title Joseph Swan: engraver and publisher.

The Necropolis itself is worth a visit. We had a look for Joseph ourselves a couple of years ago – though we didn’t manage to find him then. We did get an eerie feeling that he was watching us though... 

There are a number of videos about the Necropolis on YouTube – a good ‘overview’ can be seen in Drone Video - Glasgow Necropolis in Scotland and an introduction video as well. If you’re thinking of visiting, check out The Friends of Glasgow Necropolis website before you go!

Volunteer Soldiers in British India, 1687-1947

This video produced by Clayton Roberts in collaboration with Peter Moore is about the Volunteer Forces in British India, 1687-1947, who maintained law and order during times of civil unrest in India and served in overseas conflicts. It covers the Volunteer Militia, the Indian Defense Force Corps and the Auxiliary Force (India)

La Martiniere Lucknow’s cadets who were in the Lucknow Volunteer Rifles & Bishop Cotton cadets are featured.

One of the many volunteer militia units was the Northern Bengal Mounted Rifles (NBMR). My grandfather Frederick Marsh and great-grandfather Claud Bald were members. See a A tale of two tea planters: Claud Bald and F G Marsh . The video includes pictures of Bald and the NBMR (see 15:06-15:35).

Roberts and Moore's earlier video is Anglo-Indians: The Forgotten Pillars of British India. This is a photo-documentary of milestones in the history of Anglo-Indians from 1600 – 1947. There are lots of interesting pictures mini-biographies and snippets of historical information. There’s more to tell, but let's hope the story is no longer 'forgotten'. Fred’s medals are there (at 18:53) and Claud is in there again…

Researching your family tree – University of Strathclyde online course

Earlier this year I completed the University of Strathclyde online course on researching your family tree, and am happy to recommend it.

The main thing I have got from the course is a better sense of the need to be systematic in genealogical research/family history and a clear view of how to go about this. I've have become aware of many resources I had not heard of before and added a few more books to my 'to read list'. By being more systematic, I've already learned new things about Scottish ancestor, Joseph Swan and have a plan for how to get around my major 'brick wall' - how to find the parents of my 3rd great paternal ancestor William Romulus Po(w)e born in VA in 1796 by taking a broader and systematic look at his associates.

Genealogical information as a kind of science - gathering the data which gives some shape to family history. Some context can be suggested by the data (where did they live, when did they move etc), but some of the burning questions are; what was their life like? and why did they move when they did? 

Getting to know their predominant professions and foibles may tell me something about myself or at least give a context to some of my own circumstances. In both aspects (facts and context), it's a never-ending story as access to more information becomes available and our own interests/questions/skills develop.

Poe’s Point exhibit dedicated

On 7 September the Port of Bellingham hosted a ceremony at Marine Park which is just about where Alonzo Marion Poe’s cabin was. The chair of the Port Commission dedicated the ‘Poe’s Point exhibit’ two panels of pictures and text telling Poe’s story. For local identity Dr Warren Bergholz it was a grand 100th birthday gift. Bergholz and several other locals, including Brian Griffin, had been arguing for the proposed change for some time. History has now been corrected and Poe's place publicly acknowledged.

Here’s an image of one of the signs:

UPDATE 28 SEPTEMBER:

You can see the 'unveiling' event via YouTube too:

Noel Patrick Hilton…circus boy comes to town

The story starts with the accidental electrocution of lines worker Harold Patrick Keys on 23 March 1925 in Sydney. The death was ruled an accident by the coroner though some in the family thought in their grief this was highly unlikely as ‘Pat’ was experienced with electricity.

The death of the reliable Harold was a tragedy for his young family and a sad blow to his mother, brothers and sisters. 

Only nine months before, another loved brother ‘Hock’ who had been a champion boxer died as the result of ‘pneumonia’ perhaps brought on by the stresses of his career. 

Hock's legend would loom large in the family and his mother mixed her remembrance of Les Darcy’s funeral procession down Oxford Street in Sydney with the humbler event for her prized son’s farewell. The two men had a common background, though Keys died young it was after his best boxing was behind him. The families were also close and Dad remembers called Darcy's widow, Margaret, 'auntie'.

Beatrice Keys had married Alexander Marion Poe in 1914 and by the time of Harold's death they had brought four children into the world. 

But Poe was a restless spirit and they split about 1922. He had taken care of their eldest daughter who travelled with him, their second daughter lived with her mother, their eldest son was fostered to one family but ‘escaped’ from them quickly and their youngest son had been fostered more successfully to Bill and Ivy Lyell, following Ivy's miscarriage.

Beatrice’s youngest sister Bertha had met Poe very early in his relationship with her sister and didn’t like him. She was a strong woman who developed an enthusiasm for the ‘rag trade’ and after the start of the first world war in Australia had moved to New York to follow her passion.

Beatrice tried to keep contact with her husband and, perhaps as a staunch Catholic, never divorced him. Poe seems to have got on with Hock and the common connection may have been ‘shows'. Poe was a vaudeville artist and both he and Keys also took part in tent boxing shows. 

Perhaps this is where the two men met and perhaps this led to an introduction to Beatrice.

Beatrice knew that Poe would have wanted to farewell her brother Harold Patrick and she was often in search of a reason to track him down. There was also a notice in the paper. Either way, Poe was there for the funeral of his brother in law on 25 March 1924. The event was followed by a traditional Irish wake, though Poe was not a big drinker. Poe then went back on the road...

A little less than 280 days later they had a son.

Beatrice presented herself at St Margaret’s Hospital in Sydney on Christmas Eve with a story about needing a place to stay as her baby was imminent. The hospital admitted her and the next day a baby boy was born.

The story goes that she hung a flag at the foot of the bed seeking funds and that the Lord Mayor of Sydney came through for his Christmas visit and presented the young baby with a soft toy.

Beatrice had to decide on a name. It was obvious to her what that would be. He was named Noel Patrick Hilton Poe. ‘Noel’ because it was Christmas, ‘Patrick’ after her brother whose death made his life possible (and it was also a saint’s name), and ‘Hilton’ after hotelier Conrad Hilton dashing socialite also born 25 December. Later in life, Noel would drop 'Patrick' and keep 'Hilton'.

For the first years of his life, Noel’s family consisted of himself, his mother and his sister Joyce. Joyce later worked as a soubrette with the Tivoli Circuit. He grew up sometimes living in Darlinghurst where friends included the Rooklyn brothers, Roy Rene Mo and Sadie Gail. 

Sometimes he lived on the road when his mother joined Perry Brothers Circus to travel country towns in Australia's eastern states. 

Noel remembered Jack Rooklyn in particular. He spent time with him in his car while he did his rounds of the Clubs where he had placed slot machines and often gave Noel a shiny shilling for his help. Jack was apparently keen on Noel's sister Joyce and was the person who took him to a hospital when his appendix burst - saving his life as Noel remembered it. (In spite of Beatrice's  encouragement Joyce refused Jack's advances.)

Maurice Rooklyn, the magician, did have his way with Joyce however - she was one of the hundreds he cut in half!

Although she’d had a vaudeville background herself Beatrice was now content to do the cooking. Noel remembered in particular that Beatrice did some work on a white horse called ‘Dolly’ while they were with Perry Brothers. 

Young Noel had a dark complexion, like his father, and often wore a turban while sitting on the Perry brothers’ elephants as an ‘Indian boy’. Elephant ‘Jimmy’ would also pick up circus gear when it was time to pack up. He would also pick up two men on the call of ‘up Jimmy’. Noel thought this would be fun, though as a boy was much lighter than two men. On hearing 'up Jimmy' the elephant lifted Noel too far and he went over the top of the animal - luckily unhurt.

Noel also learned some simple trapeze work with Dunnie and Albie Perry so that he could do a somersault while standing on Albie Perry's feet. During the day he often played on the trapeze nets when his mother worked. 

Christmas Day was always memorable for him as he briefly became the centre of attention for the circus family. The circus would have Christmas lunch together, and then sing carols. Then they would sing 'happy birthday' for Noel. He enjoyed it of course but the teenager Jack Perry (later part of the Zig and Zag team) was very unhappy that an 'outsider' received so much attention.

When Noel eventually met his father, he was a toddler. One of the ways Beatrice kept ‘in touch’ with her husband was to seek a court order for him to pay maintenance for the support of his family. The documents show this was an event which took place regularly. Beatrice would then ‘bail him out’ by paying the money owned which she then received back. 

One of the several notices about Poe with his nom de plumes 
in the NSW Police Gazette.

By about 1930 Beatrice was finding it difficult to provide the support needed to her young son. The depression was underway and finding work was not easy.  Dad remembers doing the rounds of shopkeepers seeking broken biscuits or dripping. Beatrice started to think about how to continue to support Noel. 

It was at about this time that Beatrice’s sister Bertha visited Australia from the United States. She was doing well in the 'rag trade' but unable to have children and young Noel got on well with her. The two sisters were in regular contact and it's likely that collecting Noel was one of the reasons for Bertha's visit.

Noel was impressed in particular with her leather jacket and was intrigued that she seemed to be the only family member to give Poe a dressing down. She wasted no time suggesting to her sister than Noel could return with her to live in the USA. 

Young Noel thought this would be a great adventure, but Beatrice refused. While she was in need of help she also wanted to be able to see her son.

Beatrice had to downsize her accommodation and Bill Lyell assisted her with the move. Lyell was an amateur boxer and so in Beatrice’s circle of acquaintances. Years earlier she had given him her then youngest child soon after her separation. Lyell talked suggested that he would be happy to take Noel into his household as well. His wife, Ivy, was unable to have children herself and he hoped the two boys would get to know one another. It would be good for both of them, he argued. Beatrice agreed.

Just before the move to the Lyells, Noel met his father again and remembered him as very well dressed with a penny in every pocket. Perhaps Beatrice wanted to let him know what she was doing. There is no story about his reaction but he would probably have been for it. He would certainly have preferred the arrangement to Noel living with his abrasive sister-in-law.  

So Noel moved in with his new family at Lane Cove a respectable middle-class suburb on Sydney's lower North Shore. It was not a formal arrangement, but he immediately started to use the surname 'Lyell'. There was some tension with his elder brother who had been surprised to find that he had a younger brother. He may also not have known anything about his natural family until the seven-year-old Noel appeared. 

Noel and Bill Lyell became as close as Ivy had become to Noel's older brother.

19 March 1932 gave Noel a very specific memory – the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The way the 8-year-old remembered it, he was the first person to ride a tricycle over the bridge. His horizons continued to expand.

Noel’s time with the Lyell’s provided the stability he needed. He attended North Sydney Boys High and learned the building trade from Bill Lyell. He also followed Bill’s interest in boxing and spent a fair amount of time bodybuilding, training and remembering stories about his champion boxer uncle. He got to know his brother and the two did some work together in a brick factory. 

A young Noel with a catch in the early 1930s.
The picture is torn in half - who is missing?

However, in the late 1930’s as a teenager, he wanted to reconnect with his mother and sister and find out more about the rest of his natural family. Ivy was not happy with the idea, though Bill understood it was inevitable. 

Initially, he moved to downtown Sydney and got a job with his Lyell Godfather, Joe Gardiner. Noel worked for him as a bell-hop / waiter in the Plaza Hotel and there learned the catering business. Prior to that, he had worked as a painter and monumental mason with his Lyell 'grandfather'. 

So he was setting off in life with a number of skills which he would put to good use.

A picture of Perry Brothers Circus about 1935, after Noel had left.
Note the elephants and twin pole tent.

The next item will describe Noel's quest for a surname. See: Noel Patrick Hilton finds a surname or two…

Postscript:

This item was revised on 7 September 2017 to include additional material. The source was a collection of notes I wrote during the 1990s following various conversations and collected on numerous pieces of paper. Dad was not eager to ‘reveal all’ in one discussion so whenever he would say something I’d write a note on whatever was handy. The notes also record conversations with other people. Amazingly almost all of it is legible.