Herald, 16 November 1951
The newspaper article that goes with this photo tells us that this was Annie Beauchamp's first trip in an aeroplane and that she was travelling to Bathurst. It also tells us that 'in her early days Mrs Beauchamp travelled from Pentridge (now Coburg) to the city by horse bus. This probably took longer than today's air trip,' said the newspaper.
Annie as a younger woman. Image courtesy Louise Ruzic.
Annie Beauchamp’s
father, Thomas Watts was seven years old when he arrived in Victoria with his
family from his home town of Worle in Somerset.
Ten years later, aged
17, he married Sarah Banwell and the couple settled at Pentridge where their first
child Annie (later Annie Beauchamp) was born in 1859.
Soon after her birth,
Sarah took baby Annie home to visit her family in Somerset, because they are
both recorded on the 1861 Census at Weston Super Mare. So Annie’s journey to
visit family at the start of her life is mirrored by the aeroplane trip to
Bathurst that she made at the other end of her life.
Annie was one of 9
children born to Thomas and Sarah Watts, although three of them died as
infants. She was the only surviving girl. The first children's births were registered in either Pentridge or Newlands but from the early 1870s their children were born in either Moonee Ponds or Essendon.
In 1890, when she was
31 (quite old to be a first-time bride in those times), Annie Watts married
William Beauchamp and settled in the Moonee Ponds area. The couple had two
children – Eva born in 1891 and Arthur born in 1893.
After her husband’s
death in 1905, Annie remained in Moonee Ponds until the mid-1920s when she
moved to nearby Essendon.
Annie's daughter Eva
divorced her first husband in 1936, remarried and moved to Bathurst in New
South Wales.
The photo you see here
is of Annie aged 93, taking her first ever plane trip to visit her daughter,
now Eva Sutherland.
Annie died a year
later, on 23 November 1952 and is buried at the Bathurst Cemetery. Her daughter
Eva died in 1962 and her son Arthur in 1965.
Well, there's a funny thing, Cheryl. I have the grandson Arthur Watts on my website. Annie was his next-of-kin on his attestation form. http://empirecall.pbworks.com/w/page/30240531/Watts-A-E-J-Pte-939
ReplyDeleteAnd when I look at your entry, there's even a mention of Annie Beauchamp herself. So Arthur was her nephew. And what I hadn't realised until I read your entry on him, was that Annie was his next of kin. How amazing! There are interconnections everywhere, aren't there?!
ReplyDeleteAnnie looked after Arthur Ernest Jubilee Watts until he went to WW1. Arthur was born in Durban in 1897 (hence his 2nd middle name of Jubilee - Queen Victoria's Jubilee year)
ReplyDeleteArthur's mother, Janet Nee Clark died in 1913 leaving Arthur, Claude, Bert & Bessie without parents.
Arthur's father, Arthur George Watts, died in Sth Africa in 1907 when Arthur was 10
Janet and family came back to Australia in 1908 on the ship "Commonwealth"
Thanks for all this extra information, Phil. I keep stumbling on stories of families with connections to South Africa in this era - guess the men went off to serve in the Boer War. And that's a whole other area I'd like to explore more!
ReplyDelete