Weise Family.
OTTO & ALICE WEISE (née Hickmont)
After their marriage at Lalbert, Victoria, in 1910, Otto and Alice Weise went to live in Western Australia. The 1912, 1913, and wartime electoral rolls have them at ‘The Gums‘ near the WA wheat-belt town of East Pingelly where Alice’s parents and some of her siblings had also settled. By 1922, Otto had given up farming and was working as a blacksmith and carpenter’s labourer at Boyup Brook. The 1931 to 1943 electoral rolls have them registered as living at Katanning, initially on Daping Street then Albion Street and, in 1943, on Austral Terrace. They eventually moved to Mount Lawley where Otto died in 1947 and Alice the following year.
Notices honouring Otto published in The West Australian on 6 September 1947, tell us he was the ‘loving father of Owen, father-in-law of Leaf and grandfather of Barbara and Susan’; ‘loving father of Betty and Bill and loving Poppa of Kaye’; ‘dearly beloved father of Muriel, father-in-law of Rex and grandfather of Diane’; and the ‘dearly beloved father of Thelma. Father-in-law of Tom and grandfather of Faye, Lola and Kerry’.
Alice’s death notice, published in The West Australian on 18 and 23 March 1948, reads: ‘WEISE: On March 16, 1948 at Perth. Alice Annie Weise of 5 Third Avenue Mount Lawley, widow of the late Otto Weise, fond mother of Thelma, Owen, Verna, Betty, Bill and Muriel, mother-in-law of Tom, Leaf, Frank and Rex, loved grandma of Faye, Lola, Lynn, Kerry, Kaye, Barbara, Susan, Diane and Denise; aged 63 years’. According to the Find-a Grave website, Otto and Alice are buried/memorialised together in the Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth (Memorial ID 171094350). It also states their children were: Thelma Elizabeth Louisa Applin, Henry Hickmott Owen Weise, Verna Hope Taylor, Elizabeth (Betty) Valma Quartermaine later Tate, William Arthur Weise and Muriel Faith Egerton-Warburton.
Thomas Edward, Christian Martha Applin and their nine children sailed from Liverpool to Fremantle in Western Australia in 1912. The Australian electoral rolls show the family headed straight to the township of Katanning located some 270km southeast of Perth where Thomas took up dairy farming.
Their nine children included Edward James Applin; Amelia Applin; Robert Harry Applin; Lilian Christian Applin; Priscilla Applin; Freda Applin; Phillip Victor Applin, Thomas Edwin Applin and Arthur George Applin.
Weise Family. Weise Family.
Alice Ann Hickmott (1884-1948)
Born at Charlton in 1884, Alice was living at nearby Lalbert when she married a local blacksmith, Johann Otto Weise (1880-1947) at the Mechanics’ Institute there on 23 February 1910. The following report of the occasion was subsequently published in the Kerang New Times on 22 March:
ORANGE BLOSSOMS. WEISE-HICKMOTT. A very pretty wedding was celebrated in tbe Lalbert Hall recently, tbe contracting parries being Mr O. Weise, and Miss Alice Hickmott, both of the district. The hall had was tastefully decorated with evergreens, pepper-tree and fioral designs. The Rev. L. Fielding, of Boort, piloted the young couple into the united state. The bride, who was given away by her brother, Mr John Hickmott, was becomingly dressed in a creme silk empire gown, with silk insertion, and carried a wreath and bouquet of orange blossom. The chief bridesmaid, Miss Owen, looked well in white mausaline empire gown, trimmed with valleucene lace and insertion, with hat of pale blue. The assisting bridesmaids were the Misses Myrtle and Lily Smith, Miss Francis Free, and Miss Phillis Lswis. Each wore pretty dresses of creme voile, trimmed with insertion, and large white bats to match. All carried shower bouquets of marguerites and maiden hair fern. The groomsmen were Messrs W. Hickmott, A. Osborough, J. Teague and P. Smith.
At the conclusion of the ceremony adjournment was made to a spaceous marquee, where the wedding breakfast was prepared, at which about 100 guests assembled and did full justice to the varied and dainty fare provided. The evening was enjoyably spent in songs, speeches, music, and dancing, all joining in wishing the happy couple happiness and prosperity in their new home in Western Australia. Mr and Mrs Weise left for Perth, where the honeymoon will be spent.
The couple’s wedding certificate shows Otto was born at Wooroonook in Victoria and his parents were Gottleib Weise, a local farmer, and Louisa ‘Verner’. Jenny Spagnolo, a descendent of Otto’s older brother, Gustav Weise who also worked as a blacksmith, tells us Gottleib and Johanne Louisa Weise nee Werner were both German-born, Gottleib in around 1833 and Louisa in 1836. Together with their three eldest children – August(a) Pauline (born in 1859), Wilhelmine Ernestine (1860) and Johanne Louise Weise (1861) – they sailed from London to Australia on the PEGASUS which arrived at Port Phillip Bay on 26 September 1863.
As detailed in Gottleib’s obituary detailed below, the family spent their early years at Barrabool and Mount Moriac near Geelong before farming land at West Charton and then Lalbert in Victoria’s Wimmera district. Louisa died at Charlton in 1883 and is buried in the local cemetery (the cemetery records on the Find-a-Grave website has her surname as ‘Waise’ and date of death 12 October 1883). By then she and Gottleib had had eleven children we know of. These were, in addition to Otto and his three eldest sisters: Johanne Caroline (born at Barrabool in 1864), Gustav (Mount Moriac, 1867), Johann Henrich (Mount Moriac, 1869), Carl Wilhelm (Mount Moriac, 1871), Adolf (Mount Moriac, 1872), John Gottleib (Mount Moriac, 1873) and Emma Weise (East Charlton, 1880).
Gottleib Weise, aged 91 years, died at Ariah Park near Temora in the Riverina district of NSW where he was living with his son John and daughter-in-law Marion Weise nee Harper. His obituary, published in the Ariah Park News on 1 May 1924, reads:
The Late G. Weise. The subject of our notice, who passed away on the 9th April at the ripe old age of 91, came to Australia in the 50’s. and settled at Mt. Moriac near Geelong, Victoria, where he resided for a number of years, eventually selecting land at West Charlton, where he carried on farming for over 20 years. Selling his property, he again selected land at Lalbert and after meeting with much success as a result of his labours, he again sold and retired from active farm life. Just on 20 years ago he came to live with his son, Mr J. G. Weise, Ariah Park, with whom he resided up to the time of his demise. His wife predeceased him by 40 years, she being buried at West Charlton. Mrs J. G. Weise was unfailing, in her attentions to the old gentleman, and by her devotion earned his ever-lasting gratitude and the admiration of her home folk and neighbours. The following sons and daughters, with whom much genuine sympathy is felt, survive him: Mrs H. Blum, Berriwillock; Mrs W. Rabey, Melbourne; Mrs. C. Casey, St. Arnaud; Mr J. G. Weise, Ariah Park; Mr Gus Weise, Albert; Mr A. Weise, Culgoa; and Mr O. Weise, Boyup Brook, West Australia. There are 41 grandchildren.
By the time of Gottleib’s death, all of his and Louisa’s daughters had married: Johanne Caroline twice, first to Charles Beckham in 1889 and then, in 1908, to Herbert William Blum, a farmer from Berriwillock in central Victoria. Johanne died at Sea Lake in Victoria in 1948; Emma to Walter Rabey, labourer, in 1902; Wilhelmine Ernestine to Charles Casey (1860-1943) at Charlton in 1889. Both Wilhelmine and Charles, who farmed land at nearby Darkbonee, died at St Arnaud, she in 1935 and he eight years later; and Johanne Louise Weise, who had pre-deceased her father by five years, to William Beckham at Geelong in 1880. Most of their boys were also married: Otto to Alice Annie Hickmott; Gustav to Catherine Mary Mills, daughter of Robert Henry Mills, a carrier by trade, and Delia Stonehouse, at Charlton in 1899; John Gottleib to Marian Spencer Harper in 1904 and Johan Henrich Weise to Catherine Cross in 1896 (Johann died at Kaneira in Victoria in 1922).
As noted in the above newspaper report, after their marriage at Lalbert in 1910, Otto and Alice went to live in Western Australia The 1912, 1913 and war-time electoral rolls have them at ‘The Gums’ near the WA wheat-belt town of East Pingelly where Alice’s parents and some of her siblings had also settled. By 1922 Otto had given up farming and was working as a blacksmith and carpenter’s labourer at Boyop Brook. The 1931 to 1943 electoral rolls have them registered as living at Katanning, initially on Daping Street then Albion Street and, in 1943, on Austral Terrace. They eventually moved to Mount Lawley where Otto died in 1947 and Alice the following year.
Notices honouring Otto published in The West Australian on 6 Sep 1947 tell us he was the ‘loving father of Owen, father-in-law of Leaf and grandfather of Barbara and Susan’; ‘loving father of Betty and Bill and loving Poppa of Kaye’; ‘dearly beloved father of Muriel, father-in-law of Rex and grandfather of Diane’; and the ‘dearly beloved father of Thelma. Father-in-law of Tom and grandfather of Faye, Lola and Kerry’. Alice’s death notice, published in The West Australian on 18 and 23 March 1948, reads: ‘WEISE: On March 16 1948 at Perth. Alice Annie Weise of 5 Third Avenue Mount Lawley, widow of the late Otto Weise, fond mother of Thelma, Owen, Verna, Betty, Bill and Muriel, mother-in-law of Tom, Leaf, Frank and Rex, loved grandma of Faye, Lola, Lynn, Kerry, Kaye, Barbara, Susan, Diane and Denise; aged 63 years’. According to the Find-a Grave website, Otto and Alice are buried/memorialsed together in the Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth (Memorial ID 171094350). It also states their children were: Thelma Elizabeth Louisa Applin, Henry Hickmott Owen Weise, Verna Hope Taylor, Elizabeth (Betty) Valma Quartermaine later Tate, William Arthur Weise and Muriel Faith Egerton-Warburton.
This photo, taken in 1939, shows Johann Otto Weise with four of his six children: (L/R): Muriel Faith, Elizabeth Valma (‘Betty’), Verna Hope and William Arthur (‘Bill’) Weise.
This photo, taken around 1902, is of Otto’s brother, Gustav Weise (1867-1950), with his wife, Catherine Mary Mills (1872-1939) and their first child, Harold Robert Weise. Married at Charlton in 1899, Gustav and Catherine had four children – Harold (1901-14), Irene Isobel Constable (1906-89), Reginald Vincent Weise (1908-86) and Lawrence Gustav Weise (1913-25) – and four grandchildren we are aware of. Both died in country NSW, Catherine at Orange and Gustav, who re-married in 1940, at Forbes.
Weise Family. Weise Family.
1) Thelma Elizabeth Louise Weise (1910-2007)
Thelma, who died in Katanning in 2007 (the photo shows her with two of her great grandchildren shortly before her death). She and Thomas had three children we are aware of: Audrey Faye Applin Lola Naomi Applin, and Thomas Kerry Applin.
Born at Pingelly in 1910, Alice and Otto’s eldest daughter married Thomas Applin (1908-86), the youngest son of Thomas Edwin Applin (1868-1939) and Agnes Moore (1868-1958), at Katanning on 21 January 1935 (Thomas and Thelma’s wedding photo is pictured on the left. The photo on the right is of Thomas taken at around the same time). Thomas was born at Monks Green Farm outside Hertford in Hertfordshire in 1908. Four years later he and his parents and eight siblings sailed from Liverpool to Fremantle in Western Australia. The Australian electoral rolls show the family headed straight to the township of Katanning located some 270km southeast of Perth where Thomas’ father took up dairy farming. In 1916, Thomas’ older brother, Robert Harry Applin, sailed back to England after enlisting in the First AIF. Sadly he was killed in action on 12 October the following year while serving with the 48th Infantry Battalion at Paschendaele. Click here to see a photo of Robert Harry in uniform. Robert and Thomas’ older brother, Edward James Applin (1893-1917) had tried to enlist in the Army in 1915 but was rejected as medically unfit. He died at Katanning from the effects of valvular heart disease on 3 July 1917.
Thomas Applin was working as a shop assistant at Katanning when he courted and married Thelma Weise. Their wedding took place in the local Anglican church and was duly reported on by The Southern Districts Advocate as follows:
To the strains of the “Wedding March” the bride entered the church on the arm of Mr N. Wells (who gave her away) in the absence of her father. She was exquisitely gowned in white morocain, fashionably pin-tucked to fit the figure, with trimmings of kilting at neck and sleeves: Her beautiful veil was held in place with a coronet of orange blossom. She carried an artificial bouquet of white roses and maiden hair fern. The bride was attended by Miss Ethel Stallwood, smartly dressed in flowing blue lace, fashioned on close fitting lines, the skirt inlet with godets to form fullness. She wore a crinoline picture hat of same blue, with grey shoes, stockings, and gloves to match. She also carried an artificial bouquet of pink and white roses, entwined with maiden hair fern. The train-bearer, Miss Muriel Weise (youngest sister of the bride), looked sweet in her pretty frock of deep saxe blue, with pink sash, and head band, ‘ and she also carried a bouquet’of pink roses. The duties of best’ man were performed by Mr S. C. Barclay. After the service the wedding march was played by Mr Gordon Beeck, who presided at the organ.
The reception was held at the Masonic Hall, where relatives and friends were received by Mrs Weise (mother of the bride), who was dressed in black reversible satin relieved with white, and black hat to match. She was attended by Mrs Applin (mother off the bridegroom), who wore navy blue morocain with beige trimming arid black hat to tone; both carrying posies of mixed roses and fern. The usual toasts were honored, with Mr A. Barclay carrying out the duties of master of ceremonies; then came the cutting of the beautiful three-tiered wedding cake (made by the bride’s mother).
After the reception, the tables were cleared and the hall was partaken of for dancing, to the music supplied by Mr F. Martin, until a late hour, when supper was indulged in and the bride and bridegroom retired to leave for their honeymoon, which is being spent touring through Perth and the South-West, the bride travelling in a frock of floral pink and white morocain, with white hat, shoes and gloves, to match. After the joining of hands and the singing of “For They Are Jolly Good Fellows,”‘ followed by “Auld Lang Syne,” the happy couple left mid shower of confetti and rattling of kerosene tins. Many useful and handsome presents, including several cheques, were received by the happy couple.
Four years after this joyous event, Thomas’ father, Thomas Edwin Applin, died at Katanning and was buried in the local cemetery (Section E, Grave 129). The following obituary, published in the Great Southern Herald on 2 December 1939, provides an interesting summary of his and his family’s life and times in the West:
His many friends in the Katanning and surrounding districts were grieved to learn of the death of Mr T. E. Applin, which took place at his residence on Wednesday, November 22, following a sudden heart seizure and collapse. Deceased, who was 72 years of age, had lived an active and varied life, which was sustained to the last in spite of his advancing years. He arrived in Katanning 27 years ago with his wife and family of five boys and four girls, after voyaging from the Old Country on board the S.S. Belgic, which carried 1,500 migrants for Australia. His family, incidentally, was the largest one on board the vessel.
After gaining local experience around Katanning, Mr Applin selected land about 15 miles from Nyabing, which he farmed for a number of years. Just prior to the Great War, his eldest son, Edward (Ted), suffered a breakdown in health and died after a long illness, and on the outbreak of hostilities his second son, Robert, enlisted with the A.I.F. He went overseas and was killed in action.
The family then persuaded their father to leave the farm and come to Katanning; and it was here that he started what is known today as the Monk’s Green stud. From a very modest beginning (two cows in a back yard), he succeeded by hard work and diligence in becoming the proud owner of one of the finest dairy herds in the State. He was a highly successful exhibitor in local and district shows, where his splendid Ulawarra Shorthorns were universally admired. In this achievement he was ably assisted by his wife, two youngest sons, Victor and Tom, and a daughter, who have lost a good husband and father, while his wide circle of friends will regret the passing of a true Britisher.
Thomas Edwin’s wife, Agnes Applin, nee Moore, died at Katanning on 29 November 1968 aged 90 years and was buried with Thomas in the Katanning Cemetery. As noted earlier, she and Thomas snr had eight children in addition to Thomas: Edward James Applin (1893-1917), Amelia Wells (1895-1973), Robert Harry Applin (1896-1917), Lilian Christian Brade (1898-1996), Arthur George Applin (1900-92), Freda Applin (1902-90), Priscilla Daniels (1905-85) and Philip Victor Applin (1906-73).
Thomas and Thelma Applin on their wedding day.
The Australian Electoral Rolls show that Thelma and Thomas lived all their married lives at Katanning where Thomas worked variously as a shop assistant and milkman. Thomas died in Perth in 1986 but is buried at Katanning along with Thelma who died there in 2007. She and Thomas had three children we are aware of:
Audrey Faye Applin who was born in December 1935 and was twice married. Her first husband was a local farmer, Thomas John Harrison (1935-62), who she married at Katanning in 1956 and who died there six years later. Thomas is buried in the Katanning cemetery where his headstone informs us he was the: ‘Beloved husband of Faye [and] Loved Father of Kerry Anne’. Faye’s second husband was another farmer, Eric Desmond Lake Wickland (1927-2014) of ‘Spring Hill’ in Kirup south of Bunbury, who she married sometime before 1968. Eric died in 2014 and is buried in the Donnybrook cemetery at Upper Capel. We don’t know if he and Faye had any children.
Lola Naomi Applin who was born in August 1938 and married a carpenter, Frederick James Bielby (1932-2012), at Katanning in 1957. The ‘Bielby Family Tree’ on Ancestry tells us Frederick was the eldest son of a Yorkshire man, James Edward Bielby (1910-91) who sailed from London to Western Australia on the steam ship OSTERLEY in 1928 and was working at Katanning as a farm labourer when he married Winifred Gertrude Mary Lawes(1906-90) there in 1932. Born in London, Winifred had emigrated to Western Australia in 1912. She and James had three children in addition to Frederick. His death notice published in The West Australian on 20 November 2012 tells us Frederick ‘Passed away peacefully at Katanning District Hospital. Beloved husband of Lola for 55 years. Loving father and father-in-law of Wayne and Wendy, Robyn and Steve, Gary and Caroline’.
Thomas Kerry Applin who was born in January 1941 and seems also to have been thrice married: to Valerie Green in Perth in 1964, Leslie Gay Unknown, and later to Mary Lee Higgins.
2) Henry Hickmott Owen Weise (1914-2000)
Born at Pingelly in 1914, Owen later lived at Katanning where he would have attended school with his future wife Beryl Leaf Thompson (1914-2004). A report in The Southern Districts Advocate (dated 11 February 1935) indicates that after finishing his schooling, Owen worked on the staff of Messrs Richardson and Co. Ltd before being appointed to the Education Department and employed at the Katanning State School (as an assistant monitor in 1935 and a monitor in 1936).
The Australian electoral rolls show Leaf was then living and working as a primary school teacher at Bunbury. According to the ‘McLellan/Cribb Family Tree’ on Ancestry, her parents were John Thomas McLennan (‘Jack’) Thompson (1878-1963) and Hannah Eliza Kinnersley (1881-1971) who were married at Ballarat in Victoria in 1906, and came to Western Australia three years later. It adds that Leaf’s paternal grandparents, Alexander Thompson (1855-1934) from Donegal in Ireland, and Christina Mona Skene McLellan (1848-96) from Nairnshire in Scotland, were married at Coghill’s Creek in Victoria in 1878.
Her maternal grandparents, Thomas Hall Kinnersley (1845-90) from Easington in Staffordshire, and Barbara Stewart McLellan (1855-1911) who was born at Willunga in South Australia, were married at Ballarat in 1873. Christina and Barbara were sisters whose parents, John McLellan (1818-1907) and Babara Fraser (1818-84), were married in Nairnshire in 1838 and emigrated to South Australia in 1854.
The Department of Veterans Affairs’ WW2 nominal roll shows Henry Hickmott Owen Weise [2] enlisted in the Australian Army at Katanning on 24 February 1941 and transferred into the RAAF at Perth in 1942, the same year he married Leaf in Western Australia’s Wellington registration district.
The 1943 electoral roll has Leaf Weise living with her parents on Swanstone Street in Collie where she was working as an assistant teacher on supply at the Collie infants school. Owen was registered as living with his parents at Katanning and working as a clerk. After his discharge from the Air Force in February 1945 Owen and Leaf lived for a time at Katanning before moving to Wembley Park in Perth where Owen worked as an accountant and Leaf as a teacher on supply at Swanbourne and Cottesloe primary schools.
From 1960 onward they lived at Floreat Park where Owen was employed as a company secretary and Leaf taught at the local primary school. The WA Metropolitan Cemeteries Board index shows that Owen and Leaf both died at City Beach in Perth, he on 19 August 2000, aged 86 years, and she on 1 November 2004, aged 90 years. They are memorialised in the Garden of Remembrance at Karrakatta (Crematorium Rose Garden 20C, position 108). As described in Otto Weise’s death notices above, they had two daughters: Barbara, who we think taught at Manjimup primary school from 1965 to 1968, and Susan Joy Weise who was working as a bank officer at the time of the 1968 election. Both girls were married and provided their beloved parents with a total of six grand children to fuss over.
3) Verna Hope Weise (1920-2014)
Born probably at Pingelly in Western Australia in 1920, Verna married Francis Alwynne (‘Frank’) Taylor (1909-87) at nearby Katanning in 1940. His military record shows Frank was born at Port Hedland in Western Australia on 20 December 1909. His parents were William Innes Taylor (1877-1955) and Frances Matilda Skillen (1876-1950) who were married in Victoria in 1899. The Australian Electoral Rolls show Frank was living at Geraldton with his parents in 1931 and working as a store assistant.
The Department of Veterans Affairs’ WWII nominal roll shows he enlisted in the RAAF at Mount Hawthorn on 9 April 1942 and served until 17 December 1945. At the time of his discharge he a Leading Aircraftman at HQ Western Area. The electoral rolls indicate that Frank working as a clerk both in the Air Force and as a civilian. Both during and immediately after the war, he and Verna lived at Leederville with their son, Lynn Francis Taylor who was born at Katanning in 1940. From the 1950s onwards, the family lived at Scarborough where Frank continued to work as a clerk and their son as a factory worker and orderly. Once Lynn had grown up and started working, Verna also worked, as a machinist.
The WA Cemeteries Board index shows that a Frank, aged 77, died in in the Perth suburb of Armadale on 26 June 1987. Verna died at Mundaring on 21 December 2014. Both she and Frank were cremated and are memorialised at the Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth (VC Section, Wall 20, position 001). Their son Lynn posted the following notice in the West Australian after his mother’s death: ‘TAYLOR (Verna Hope Weise): No words enough what you meant to us, for the loss felt. Great Mum, friend. You and Dad took me home, heart, became family, ours. Lynn, Le, Natelle, Danae, Jono, Kynan, Bailey, Tenniel, Lee, Luca, Dakin. You are now with Dad and Tim. Rest in Peace Lynn and Carmen.’
4) Elizabeth Valma (‘Betty’) Weise (1924 – )
Betty was born at Katanning in 1924 and married another local, Ford Robinson Quartermaine (1920-45), there in 1942. Ford’s parents were Andrew Raymond Frederick Quartermaine (1883-1963) and Mary Louise Bain (1883-1979). His military record in the Australian Archives service records show that Ford, who worked as a railway employee at the time. He enlisted in the RAAF on 17 February 1942. His NOK, Elizabeth Valma Quatermaine, was then living at Austral Terrace in Katanning (presumably with her parents). The records also show that they had a daughter, Kaye Wanda Quartermaine, who was born on 10 January 1943. Ford died from an electric shock from an air cooled generating set at Tarakan in Boreo in 1945.
Betty and other family members posted memorial notices in the the West Australian on the first anniversary of Ford’s death. Betty’s read: ‘QUARTERMAINE. F. S. (LAC RAAF). Treasured memories always of our darling husband and Daddy, Ford, who was accidentally killed, Tarakan, June 18. 1945. Loved and longed for always by his loving wife and little daughter, Betty and Kaye.’ The ‘Reverse’ WA Marriage lookup website shows that Elizabeth remarried in 1948, to Ewan Thomas Tate, the brother of her cousin-in-law Frank Leonard Tate (who, as described above, married Dorothy Florence Elizabeth Carter in Perth in 1919). The electoral rolls for Western Australia show that she and Ewan, who worked as a mechanic and later a fitter, lived at Coomberdale until around 1972 and thereafter at Riverdale. We don’t know if they had any children.
5) William Arthur (‘Bill’) Weise (1926-97)
Bill was born at Boyup Brook in Western Australia in 1926. The Department of Veterans Affairs’ nominal roll for World War 2 shows he enlisted in the RAAF at Mount Hawthorn in Perth on 1 April 1944 and was discharged on 4 March 1946. He was then serving as a Leading Aircraftsman in 1 TAF Tele U. The 1949 electoral roll for Mount Hawthorn has a William Arthur Weise, student, registered at 90 Same Avenue.
The Papua and New Guinea Gazettes contained on Trove show that a William Arthur Weise served in the PNG public service in Port Moresby between at least 1953 and 1973 (when he was in the Department of the Chief Minister and Development Administration). While in PNG he met and married his wife Norma or ‘Robbie’ as she was known.
Although still to be confirmed, we think Robbie was Norma Joan Robinson (1922-97) who was born at Merewether in Newcastle in NSW, the daughter of two locals, Norman Joseph Robinson (1891-1958) and Irene Margaret McGlynn (1898-1980), who were married in Newcastle in 1918. The Department of Veterans Affairs’ WW2 nominal roll tells us Robbie served in the Womens Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) from September 1943 to December 1945. At the time of the 1949 election she was back living with her parents in Newcastle and working as a stenographer. According to a memorial notice published in Garamut, the newsletter of the Gold Coast PNG Club, ‘Robbie, with friend Marcia Bastow, went to PNG in May 1951. She was secretary to various department heads before becoming Michael Somare’s private secretary’.
Bill and Robbie returned to Australia after Papua New Guinea achieved independence in September 1975. Like hundreds of other PNG ‘ex-pats’, they settled on Queensland’s Gold Coast (the 1977 and 1980 election rolls show a William Arthur, clerk, and Norma Joan Weise, home duties, living at 19 Lakeside Ave Moana Park via Surfers Paradise). They joined the Gold Coast PNG Club which had been founded in 1976 and held regular luncheons and a range of other activities. Bill served as president of the club in 1987 and, as described in a recent overview of the club’s history, he and Robbie were also instrumental in compiling and improving the club’s magazine:
. . . with the help of artist Bill Weise and others the Magazine took on a more modern form, with Robbie Weise coining the title of Tok Tok Bilong Yumi . . . 1980 is remembered for some successful committee initiations . . . Robbie Weise had joined a year before; and thus started what can only be described as the “Robbie” era. Her influence as Editor of Garamut and her following work as Assistant Secretary resulted in the expansion of the club and the changing face of Garamut from being something more than a roneoed news sheet to that approaching a magazine. Her conscientiousness to that work made her a very popular member of our club, and certainly earned the privilege of being awarded life membership. Robbie’s husband, Bill, an artist of some ability, produced our painted Logo on a sheet of curtain backing cloth, which we still use at our luncheons. He also improved the Garamut Logo for our magazine. Our present computer has copied this and still uses it on its front page today.
According to the Ryerson Index, William Arthur Weise, ‘late of Broadbeach Waters, Qld’ died on 12 October 1997 (Gold Coast Bulletin, 15 October 1997). His wife, Norma Joan (Robbie) Weise, died there on 12 April 1997 (Gold Coast Bulletin, 14 April 1997). Her brief obituary, mentioned earlier, in the club newsletter tells us Robbie had ‘retired to the Gold Coast in 1975 where she became very involved with community affairs and was an active supporter and committee member of the Gold Coast PNG Club’. It added that Robbie is survived by her husband Bill, as well as a daughter and son, plus grandchildren. Bill and Robbie’s daughter married the son of Athol Neville Sherwood (1928-2002) and Joan Agnes Dennis (1927-2004) who were wed at Parramatta in NSW on 5 October 1946. Dennis was born at Northmead in Sydney and Joan at Dubbo in western NSW, the fourth daughter of James Alexander Dennis (1892-1965) and Mary Josephine Bayliss (1898-1987). Although still to be confirmed, we think Bill and Robbie’s son is Norman John Weise who was registered as living with them on the Gold Coast at the time of the 1980 election.
6) Muriel Faith Weise (1929-2017)
Born at Katanning in 1929, Muriel married Rex Egerton-Warburton in the town’s St Andrews Anglican Church on 20 March 1946. Also born at Katanning (in 1928), Rex was the only son of Reginald Hubert (also Rex) Egerton-Warburton (1894-1962) and Lena Mary Lambe (1906-95) who were married at Canning in Western Australia in 1925 and divorced in 1942. Rex’s older sister, Dawn Egerton-Warburton (1926-97), was born at Katanning and married three times. Her first husband was Alfred Crabb (1917-2004) who Dawn married in Victoria in 1948.
Alfred was born at Souris in Kings County, Prince Edward Island in Canada and enlisted in the RAAF in Perth on 20 March 1943. He was then living at Fremantle and gave as his NOK a Ruth Crabb. He was discharged from the Air Force in May 1946 at which time he was a Leading Aircraftman in 14 Aircraft Repair Depot. The electoral rolls show that after their marriage, he and Dawn lived at ‘Woolareen‘ at Kojonup in Western Australia where Alfred worked as a vermin inspector and later a farmer. The 1972 roll has a Cheryl Ann Crabb, who was working as a teacher, Reginald Wayne Crabb (farmer) and a Jennifer Louise Crabb (nurse) also living at Kojonup. They separated sometime after this and Alfred died at Esperance in Western Australia in 2004 and is buried in the local cemetery there. His gravestone tells us he was the ‘loving father of Cheryl, Reg, Jenny, Geoff, John, Carolyn and Robbie’.
Dawn’s second husband was the Perth-born author, Donald Robert Stuart (1913-83), who she married in Perth in 1976. As described in his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, Donald had enlisted in the 2nd AIF on 21 May 1940. He sailed from Australia to the Middle East in April 1941 with the 2/3rd Machine Gun Battalion and saw action in the Syrian campaign. The unit was sent to Java in February 1942 and was part of the Allied force that surrendered to the Japanese the following month. He survived three and a half years as a prisoner of war, including time working on the the Burma-Thailand railway.
After the War Donald lived for a time in Melbourne before returning to Western Australia where he worked variously as a labourer, farmer, and native welfare officer. His lifetime experiences informed his eleven published novels which included the semi-autobiographical Drought Foal, published in 1977, and I Think I’ll Live (1981). As Sally Clarke, the author of Donald’s ADB entry concluded, the prediction in 1976 of Harry Heseltine – academic and former Rector of the Australian Defence Force Academy – that ‘Stuart’s first five books may “come to be regarded as one of the most impressive groups of novels published by a single writer during the period” has not eventuated; his books are out of print and are rarely noticed by a later generation of literary critics’.
Donald Stuart died of coronary artery disease at Broome in Western Australia on 25 August 1983. After Donald’s death, Dawn partnered with Robert Boyd, who died in Perth in 2004. They had two children and at least four grandchildren. Emmalisa also tells us that Dawn, who was her grandmother, died at Kojonup in 1997 and is buried as Dawn Stuart in the local cemetery. She adds her grandmother was a farmer, writer and poet and her published writings include a 144-page monograph entitled ‘The way to St Werburgh’s: a short history of the life and times of George Edward Egerton-Warburton founder of St Werburgh’s, Mount Barker Western Australia‘.
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