spison
12-02-2010, 3:36 AM
Only the Australian part of the following story was my work and the credit for the actual discovery needs to go to my some sort of cousin, M, who is living in Newport, Monmouthshire. She contributed the hypothesis of what may have happened and family knowledge of the return and did the considerable legwork in the UK. We (mum and myself) checked Australian records. Oh what a tangled web.....
William Jones remained in England when his brothers, George and Benjamin, came to Australia to work for the company, Lysaghts, when it expanded into Australia. It was probably not a happy marraige because at some stage his wife, Catherine Mary Jones nee Johnson, who he married in 1906 and with whom he had five children, also came to live in Australia, leaving her husband and her children in England. The couple never divorced and William was charged with bigamy sometime after 1930. When his second wife, Mary, discovered that she had inadvertently made this bigamous marriage, she threw a milk jug at him and the story reached the papers. William died in 1960.
It has always been assumed by Catherine's family that she arrived in Australia sometime after 1921 and that she went to meet up with her Jones brothers-in-law and their families. No evidence of Catherine Johnson or Jones was able to be found arriving in Australia or leaving England and she doesn't appear on the NSW electoral rolls. As a boy my father remembers Catherine, who he called 'Aunty Kit'. His recollections were that his father and uncle treated Kit with either disapproval or ambivalence because she was living with an Ernest Alfred Gallienne (b. 1894). Catherine's Australian granddaughter, B, also confirms that her father, Lawrence, knew that she was living with this particular man.
Ernest Gallienne was so often A.W.L. during WW1 that he was denied his medals and his papers are notated with the statement that 'it is unlikely that he ever saw a shot fired'. In 1919 he spent three months in Wandsworth Prison for obtaining money through a trick. He was court martialled for his frequent desertions. Ernest died in 1936.
By matching Australian war records, emigration and electoral roll information, it has been proven that Catherine Mary Johnson nee Jones assumed the name Kathleen Richards and bigamously married Ernest Alfred Gallienne in 1919 in England. Kathleen stated at the time of her marriage that she was a spinster and born in 1893. It is unknown whether Ernest knew of her duplicity or was complicit in helping her. Ernest was born in Australia and his father was a butcher in Tighes Hill, a suburb of Newcastle, located very close to the Lysaghts plant. An extract of the marriage certificate is located in Ernest's Australian enlistment papers and it is stated in his papers that Kathleen arrived in Australia with Ernest on 15th May, 1920 on board the 'Zealander'. The 1833 electoral roll shows Kathleen and Ernest living at 22 Antill Street, Mayfield after moving there from Dubbo where they had been living in 1930. At this stage many of the Jones families were living in Antill Street – my father's family were at number 10. In 1936 she and Ernest are living at 80 Carrington St, Mayfield and living with them is Lawrence Llewellyn Jones, Catherine Mary Johnson's son. Why would Lawrence live with a woman he didn't know when he had cousins in the area?
The UK Incoming Passenger lists 1878-1960 show Kathleen Gallienne, aged 46, returning to England after Ernest's death in 1936 - arriving in Hull - on the 'Esperance Bay', on 18 February, 1939. She was intending to live there permanently. Her intended abode was Chepstow Road, Newport, Monmouthshire. In a letter to my mother, Catherine's English granddaughter, M, confirms that her father and his brother met the 'Esperance Bay' and were reunited with their mother after 20 years. Catherine/Kathleen then lived with her first husband's sister and her husband at the above address. Family stories say that Catherine was killed in a bombing raid over Sheffield in 1940 and her body was never found. No further trace of Kathleen Gallienne or Catherine Mary Jones nee Johnson has been located.
It is now clear that Catherine left for Australia as Kathleen the year before the Jones brothers. It must have been an awful shock to her that they arrived to settle in exactly the same town as her. It is very likely that in letters home George and Benjamin mentioned that Catherine was in Australia. This in turn probably caused Lawrence to attempt to find his mother and emigrate to Australia where he settled. It is unknown whether anyone would have known who Kathleen Gallienne nee Richards was had the Jones brothers remained in Newport and therefore she would have been lost to her children forever.
If anyone can find any references to the death of Kathleen/Catherine Jones/Richards/Johnson during a Sheffield bombing raid during 1940 (or there abouts), M & I would be very happy. I have tried the CWGC under all possible names variations and combinations and spellings (I think).
Jane (and M who is very happy to have found her grandmother)
William Jones remained in England when his brothers, George and Benjamin, came to Australia to work for the company, Lysaghts, when it expanded into Australia. It was probably not a happy marraige because at some stage his wife, Catherine Mary Jones nee Johnson, who he married in 1906 and with whom he had five children, also came to live in Australia, leaving her husband and her children in England. The couple never divorced and William was charged with bigamy sometime after 1930. When his second wife, Mary, discovered that she had inadvertently made this bigamous marriage, she threw a milk jug at him and the story reached the papers. William died in 1960.
It has always been assumed by Catherine's family that she arrived in Australia sometime after 1921 and that she went to meet up with her Jones brothers-in-law and their families. No evidence of Catherine Johnson or Jones was able to be found arriving in Australia or leaving England and she doesn't appear on the NSW electoral rolls. As a boy my father remembers Catherine, who he called 'Aunty Kit'. His recollections were that his father and uncle treated Kit with either disapproval or ambivalence because she was living with an Ernest Alfred Gallienne (b. 1894). Catherine's Australian granddaughter, B, also confirms that her father, Lawrence, knew that she was living with this particular man.
Ernest Gallienne was so often A.W.L. during WW1 that he was denied his medals and his papers are notated with the statement that 'it is unlikely that he ever saw a shot fired'. In 1919 he spent three months in Wandsworth Prison for obtaining money through a trick. He was court martialled for his frequent desertions. Ernest died in 1936.
By matching Australian war records, emigration and electoral roll information, it has been proven that Catherine Mary Johnson nee Jones assumed the name Kathleen Richards and bigamously married Ernest Alfred Gallienne in 1919 in England. Kathleen stated at the time of her marriage that she was a spinster and born in 1893. It is unknown whether Ernest knew of her duplicity or was complicit in helping her. Ernest was born in Australia and his father was a butcher in Tighes Hill, a suburb of Newcastle, located very close to the Lysaghts plant. An extract of the marriage certificate is located in Ernest's Australian enlistment papers and it is stated in his papers that Kathleen arrived in Australia with Ernest on 15th May, 1920 on board the 'Zealander'. The 1833 electoral roll shows Kathleen and Ernest living at 22 Antill Street, Mayfield after moving there from Dubbo where they had been living in 1930. At this stage many of the Jones families were living in Antill Street – my father's family were at number 10. In 1936 she and Ernest are living at 80 Carrington St, Mayfield and living with them is Lawrence Llewellyn Jones, Catherine Mary Johnson's son. Why would Lawrence live with a woman he didn't know when he had cousins in the area?
The UK Incoming Passenger lists 1878-1960 show Kathleen Gallienne, aged 46, returning to England after Ernest's death in 1936 - arriving in Hull - on the 'Esperance Bay', on 18 February, 1939. She was intending to live there permanently. Her intended abode was Chepstow Road, Newport, Monmouthshire. In a letter to my mother, Catherine's English granddaughter, M, confirms that her father and his brother met the 'Esperance Bay' and were reunited with their mother after 20 years. Catherine/Kathleen then lived with her first husband's sister and her husband at the above address. Family stories say that Catherine was killed in a bombing raid over Sheffield in 1940 and her body was never found. No further trace of Kathleen Gallienne or Catherine Mary Jones nee Johnson has been located.
It is now clear that Catherine left for Australia as Kathleen the year before the Jones brothers. It must have been an awful shock to her that they arrived to settle in exactly the same town as her. It is very likely that in letters home George and Benjamin mentioned that Catherine was in Australia. This in turn probably caused Lawrence to attempt to find his mother and emigrate to Australia where he settled. It is unknown whether anyone would have known who Kathleen Gallienne nee Richards was had the Jones brothers remained in Newport and therefore she would have been lost to her children forever.
If anyone can find any references to the death of Kathleen/Catherine Jones/Richards/Johnson during a Sheffield bombing raid during 1940 (or there abouts), M & I would be very happy. I have tried the CWGC under all possible names variations and combinations and spellings (I think).
Jane (and M who is very happy to have found her grandmother)