I wish I had known my half-brother, born Aaron James Lee to my father, Anthony Lee and his first wife Eleanore Green, in Lismore, NSW, on the 16th December, 1926. Tony and Eleanore 'Nell' separated in 1931. Nell remarried solicitor Albert James Miller in 1933. Aaron and my half-sister Lenore, were caught up in the bitter aftermath of this divorce. My understanding is that Albert would not allow the children to see Tony, to which it appears Tony reacted by not agreeing to Albert’s request to adopt the children. The childrens' names were changed by deed poll, and Aaron James Lee became Aaron James, or ‘Ron’ Miller. My father, who died in 1963, did not speak to us about Aaron and Lenore until we were teenagers, but never stopped caring about them. My mother described how upset he was in 1947 when he became aware that Ron, still in the armed forces, was to be in Melbourne on a visiting war ship and wrote to Albert and Nell asking for permission to see him. It was denied. This photograph was taken of Ron at about the time he would have visited Melbourne. Sadly, I never met Ron, who died of cancer aged 53 in 1979, many years before I met his wife and two daughters, Elle and Kathy, in 2013.
There is so much I would like to have been able to ask and share with Ron. However, I’ll focus on two things Ron and I had in common—the main focus, that we both studied Economics at university, with a minor ‘lead in’ focus, that we were both troubled, if slightly differently, by the McMahon government in the early 1970’s. I remember being in my third year of teaching economics at Yarram High School and planning a move back to Melbourne when the 1972 ‘It’s Time’ election was held. Billy McMahon’s period as Prime Minister had troubled me. Like many others, I felt ‘it was time’ for a change. According to Ron's wife Noreen, working as an economist in the Departments of Treasury and Finance during the McMahon government had proven troubling for Ron. Like me, Ron had studied economics. However, Ron had practised as an economist, with a career in economics/finance related departments at senior administrative levels for a series of federal governments. He had worked for a number of Australia's Prime Ministers (possibly seven), but his bete-noir was to be Billy McMahon, whose erratic and bullying behaviour contributed to his leaving the Federal public service after what had been a distinguished career. I wish I’d been able to visit Ron in Canberra and discuss his working life. I particularly wish I’d known him when I was studying Economics at High School and University. Twenty years older than me, with a rich experience in economic policy, what a wonderful mentor he might have been. Just knowing that I had a brother working in Canberra in the area of finance and economics could have been motivating. Perhaps he would have given me constructive feedback on my essays. That would have been wonderful! The first person in my known family to have gone to university, I always felt so alone in my pursuit of an economics degree. After leaving Canberra towards the end of McMahon’s period, Ron returned to Brisbane to teach Economics at a prestigious Catholic college. How wonderful for his students to have been taught by an economics teacher with such a rich working life in finance and economics in Canberra! I sometimes imagine a slim possibility that I may have met Ron once at a national economics teachers’ conference, as we both taught high school economics during the mid to late 1970’s. It’s a possibility which I hang on to, despite the fact that certainly by 1979 he was severely ill with cancer. There is so much I would like to have known about Ron’s life, so much I would like to have asked and shared with him. Vale, Ron. Bev Lee (Originally written for my U3A 'Memoirs' class in July 2021) Post script - June 2023: A friend of mine has a friend I suspected could, as a young economist, have worked with Ron in the late 60's early 70's. When asked, he did remember 'Mr Miller'! Who would have thought I’d choose a pugilist, a boxer, to write about - boxing is such an anathema to me! However, the person I’ve chosen, Scottish boxing champion James ‘Tancy’ Lee (1882-1941) continues to be identified as a family hero during family history contacts. When I first made contact with Bill Tully, a younger first cousin of my decades deceased father, he asked “Have you come across ‘Tancy’ Lee in your research?” Bill, born in 1928 in Leith, had known Tancy and shared stories of him with me. A Sydneysider Lee descendant, contacting me through ancestry, also highlighted the connection with Tancy Lee, sending me a photograph he had come across in going through old photographs in his mother’s collection. Just in the last month I’ve been contacted by someone who shares my Lee great, great grandparents, who introduced herself asking ‘have you heard of Tancy Lee? I’m his great granddaughter…. ‘ James ‘Tancy’ Lee (1882 – 1941), a first cousin of my grandfather, James Lee, also born in 1882, was the first Scot to be an outright winner of the Lonsdale Belt, the oldest championship event in boxing. Tancy's Lonsdale belt 9ct gold enamel sold at auction for 19000 UK pounds in 2005. Inducted into the Scottish Boxing Hall of Fame in 2008, the highs during Tancy’s boxing career were substantial – he not only won the Lonsdale belt, according to thefightcity.com… “his stoppage of the legendary Jimmy Wilde in round 17 led to him taking the British, European and world flyweight titles, …he also holds wins over Charlie Hardcastle, Danny Morgan and Young Joe Brooks and won European and Lonsdale titles at featherweight.” A Google search includes many entries for Tancy, including a Wikipedia entry which provides a detailed list of his achievements.
Tancy also trained and mentored the sons of his sister Ellen Lee, who became Olympic medal winners for boxing - George McKenzie (bronze bantamweight medal, Antwerp Olympics 1920) and James McKenzie (silver flyweight medal, Paris Olympics, 1924). A memorable film of Tancy training others in 1924 can be found on in the British Pathe film archives…. https://www.britishpathe.com/video/tancey-lee-aka-tancy-lee/query/belts The swings and round abouts in Tancy’s boxing career can be found in many reports on the internet. Tancy also experienced swings and roundabouts in his personal life. His father, James Lee, died of tuberculosis in 1891, when Tancy was nine years old. His first wife, Jeannie, mother of his six children died of Spanish Influenza aged 28 in 1918. Two of their six children died in infancy, and very sadly, Tancy was tragically killed when hit by a bus in Edinburgh in 1941, aged 59. Tancy may have been a ‘bit of a villain’! Enlisted as a ‘boy’ soldier in the Royal Scots, at age 15/16 he appears to have ‘gone AWOL’ on the 12th June 1899, resulting in a listing in the UK Military Deserters records on ancestry.com, a record which will forever haunt his family historians. I suspect that, being small at 5’2” and having lost his father at 9 yrs, Tancy may have been drawn to, his uncles may have encouraged him to, learn to box in order to protect himself. Irish Catholic families and community in Leith appeared to work together to raise their young people—there are many examples of this having happened to young family members in his generation of the Lee family. The boxing community in Leith, in particular Tancy’s role as trainer and mentor, would also have provided role modelling and structure for his Olympic boxing medal winning nephews George and James McKenzie, whose mother Ellen Lee died when they were children. Tancy was tiny, courageous and appears to have been a loving father and uncle who contributed to the welfare of his community. He participated in a sport renowned for risk taking and drama and seemed to have survived this over an extended period of time. A family and local hero, he does appear to have been a ‘national living treasure’ in Scotland. The tradition of boxing has not been handed down to my generation, though my brother John drily commented when I asked him, that our father did try to get him to take lessons, to no avail. Bill Tully also said it did not appeal to him, despite efforts to get him to learn boxing in Leith as a child. Initially I thought Tancy may have meant ‘tiny’ as in ‘teensy’…. but apparently it can mean ‘Immortal’. Perhaps, Tancy having made it into the Scottish Boxing Hall of Fame, Pathe Film Archives and Wikipedia symbolizes immortality in some way! Beverley Lee November 2022 Tancy Lee Entry in Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tancy_Lee Pathe Film Archives https://www.britishpathe.com/video/tancey-lee-aka-tancy-lee/query/belts 'Tancy Lee - The Famous Scot' - The Referee (Australian paper) - includes a poem - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/129355032 I met my paternal grandfather, 'Grandpa Lee' in late 1951/2 when I was four five years old. Memories of meeting him, his capacity for comforting hugs and the delightful way he called me 'happy face' remain, captured in a bubble surrounded by an aura of light and happiness in my brain. A widower for seven years when we visited, James Joseph Lee lived in a flat in an historic building in Manly, not far from the harbourside beach where the ferries berth and depart. He died in 1957. I remember my father preparing to go to Sydney for his funeral, returning saddened with memorabilia, including a watch inscribed JL, and his war medals, of which I now have the miniatures which my grandmother probably wore at Anzac Time. I knew that he had been a printer, had run printing businesses in Sydney and Lismore, NSW; that he had lost these businesses during the Great Depression after holding on to his staff for as long as he could. I also knew that he had grown up and married In Leith, the port city adjoining Edinburgh, In Scotland where my father was born. I believed that my ancestors on the Lee side were Scottish. That was about it! I didn't know his parent's names, whether he had any brothers and sisters. His early live and 'family of origin' were a mystery to me. Where to begin? BMD (Birth, Marriages and Deaths) documents retrieved online from Scotland's People proved invaluable, The Birth Certificate for my father, confirmed his birth to James Lee and Rose McCann in Leith in 1904. A breakthrough came with the Marriage Certificate of James and Rose, as it listed their parents. Suddenly I had the names of Grandpa Lee's parents - Anthony Lee and Barbara Sullivan. I knew about 'Lee', fancy being a 'Sullivan'! I was thrilled to find that my father was named after his grandfather, also an Anthony Lee, and then on finding my great grandparent's wedding certificate, found that I had Irish great, great grandparents Michael Lee and Margaret Reilly! A UK Census Record for Scotland from 1871 revealed my Great Grandfather Anthony Lee, was, along with brothers and sisters, born in Ireland of an Irish father and mother. What a wonderful resource! Later discovered Catholic Church Baptismal Records from Kilronanan County Roscommon, confirmed his grandparents, but also his aunts and uncles, with all names this time recorded in Latin. 'Michaelem Lee married Marguerita Reilly, and had children Eleonaram (Ellen), Mariam (Maria), James, Antonium (Anthony), John (Joannem) and Michael (Michaelem), before leaving Ireland, having a daughter Margaret, in Scotland. Margaret died as a child, however her birth and death records, falling after the Scottish documentation was more formally registered in 1855, resulting in even greater clarity in some of the details, including the knowledge that my great, great grandparents had married in ....... . Unless, as is possible, the Lees left Scotland for Ireland, perhaps during the troubles or an earlier migration, Grandpa Lee's ancestors were Irish, and he grew up in Leith with Lee side Irish grandparents, aunts and uncles, surrounded as a child by Irish accents. Tracking the family later through Scotlands BMD records, I was relieved and delighted to find that Grandpa Lee, an eldest child had lots of cousins to play with when he was little. Playmates also included uncles, as his mother's younger brothers Francis and Edward Sulivan, were his age. Francis Sullivan, also a 'compositor', was the best man at Grandpa Lee's wedding. I discovered that Grandpa Lee had 10 younger brothers and sisters. The family lived for many years in what was probably a tenement in street called Cables Wynd, near the whisky distilleries located near Leith Docks. During the 1880's a brother, Patrick; and sister Ann were born, however Anne died at 4 yrs. In 1890's Anthony, Mary Cecilia, Barbara, Winnifred, Elizabeth and Phillip were born, however like their sister Anne, Mary Cecilia and Barbara died in early childhood;. Another Barbara, who also died in early childhood, was born in 1901, while in1904, his youngest sister Mary. and born, as was (her nephew), my father Anthony Lee. In 1908 his brother Anthony died of tuberculosis. Like Grandpa Lee, my father had Aunts and Uncles who were close to him in age. Born in 1883, James younger sisters Elizabeth was born in 1898, with another sister, Mary born in 1904, and brother Phillip were born in 1899. An only child at that time, there is a strong likelihood that he would have spent time with them as a child before leaving for Australia in 1912. Grandpa Lee's Birth Certificate revealed that at the time of his birth his father Anthony was a dock labourer Leith was a busy port at that time, and his father remained working on the docks until his death in 1917. Old Postcards and images of Leith found through Facebook groups provided some idea of what Leith must have been like in the 1880's as Grandpa Lee grew up. It's possible that his father Anthony was involved in the Leith Dock Strikes of 1889 pictured in one of these images. Grandpa Lee's Australian war records made reference to his being in the Leith based Royal Scots Divisions of the British Army for at least eight years before coming to Australia in 1912. I have had problems locating his documents in the UK military records, largely because a cousin, also named James Lee and born in Leith in the same year, had a long military record in the Royal Scots. This James Lee, a prize winning boxer affectionately known as Tancy Lee, was and possibly still is, considered a national living treasure in Scotland. His army records keep 'getting in the way', testing my patience, but I'm persisting. I'd love to visit the archives of the Royal Scots in Edinburgh to access the documents. Shipping records revealed that James, Rose and Tony had immigrated to Australia in 1912 when my father was eight years old. Business Directory entries show him as running printing businesses in Sydney, Electoral Records reflect the years in Sydney ; while Trove records flesh out some stories about a fire in the George Streetbuilding in which he had just started his printing business in 1913 and the family's social life in Manly and North Sydney. Facebook groups such as 'I Love Leith', have helped me to picture the life which Grandpa Lee had in Leith. There's a wonderful postcard series which was published in 1904, the year when James, aged only 21, and at the time I think in the Royal Scots, became a father - the year my father was born. Ancestry.com, and to a lesser extent My Heritage, have enabled me to further Grandpa Lee's extended family and led to treasured connections with Grandpa Lee's nieces, nephews. I knew nothing of them when I began my quest. HIs sister Elizabeth's son Bill Tully, who emigrated to Vancouver was a wonderful link to the family's life in Leith; his niece Barbara Lee, remains on my international phone list to call up from time to time in Toronto, Candada. I have Elizabeth's grandson on my list to visit if ever I go to Leith; Bill's daughters to visit in Vancouver; and have visited.... daughter in law in Brisbane. It has been such an adventure, with many treasured discoveries along the way.
So now, when I look at the photo I have of Grandpa Lee in uniform during World War I, I picture a young man with a large extended family who grew up in the Irish Catholic community of South Leith. Many of his male Lee relatives worked on the docks, however his mother's sister appears to have married a well to do printer. Grandpa Lee trained as a printer /compositor, then went into the army where his printing experience seems to have led to him specialising in communications and signalling. He established his own printing business briefly before immigrating to Australia in 1912. He established a printing business in Sydney, however returned to England in late 1915 with the Australian military forces. He was recommended for an award for bravery in relation to signalling and mentioned in despatches during the First World War. He was a much loved father to my father, loved by his daughter in laws, and highly respected by family and friends. Bill Tully, the son of his sister Elizabeth, explained to me once that the Lee family in Leith were "very proud of James, who became a Lieutenant in the Australian Army". I am too. Although I only met him once, I've always loved the fact that he nicknamed me 'Happy Face' and suspect that he was indeed a 'kindred spirit'. As I graduated from childhood to struggle through adolescence, my nose became an quite an issue. Self consciously growing into it, I despaired about the bump in my nose to my parents on many occasions. (This must have been difficult for them at the time, as neither had the cute, turned up nose that I longed for...) My father's response was always to explain to me that I had a special nose, one to feel proud of, a 'Roman Nose'. He tried to help me to reframe my perceptions, to see my Scottish 'Lee Side' nose as having distinctive 'Roman Emperor' connotations. Wikipedia states "An aquiline nose (also called a Roman nose or hook nose) is a human nose with a prominent bridge, giving it the appearance of being curved or slightly bent. The word aquiline comes from the Latin word aquilinus ("eagle-like"), an allusion to the curved beak of an eagle." Now that doesn't make me feel any better at all! It also suggests that my aquiline 'Roman nose' may have genetic links on both sides of the family, as I would describe my mother as having the rather aquiline nose of her paternal 'Miller' grandmother. The Miller clan - of Scottish/Irish descent - sported a number of Roman noses. Kaustubh Adhikari (2016) wrote in 'The Conversation' that 'the history of nose beauty ideals has been changeable and at times dark. For example, in early Europe the hooked “Roman” nose signified beauty and nobility. The Nazis on the other hand despised it and saw it as a characteristic of Jewish people. Even more broadly, Jews like Shakespeare’s Shylock typically ended up being portrayed with a hooked nose to represent evilness.' The Romans do appear to have invaded the southern part of Scotland and have garrisons there for periods of time between 43 AD and about 400 AD, even if they were unsuccessful across most of Scotland. So there is some, if very slim, chance that there may be some Roman genetic matter in my DNA (perhaps I should have a DNA test afterall!). However some respondents to web discussions suggest that while the casts of Roman Emporers do tend to feature Roman Noses, photographic evidence can be found of Aquiline, Roman like noses in the American Indian; Indian subcontinent; and other ethnic groups. Others have concluded that 'a nose is a nose', rather than being race specific. Their conclusion, appearing during my somewhat cursory research into Roman Noses, is not particularly welcome. You see, I have become comfortable with the possibility that a genetic link to my Roman Nose had arisen out of the Roman occupation of Scotland and had passed, not only genetically, but through family stories over centuries which my father had passed on to me A PhD would probably be needed to research this 'warm and fuzzy' hypothesis (....and is unlikely to proceed if left to me to do!) Interestingly, a genetic link to my Scottish Lee/McCann paternal line became obvious when my 'long lost' first cousin, Chris, visited Benalla some years ago. My sister, knowing that my nose has always been 'an issue' for me, suddenly exclaimed over dinner 'Bev, Chris has the same nose as you do!' Next thing I knew, she was arranging for us to stand side on looking at one another to take a photograph of our profiles to confirm this. Perhaps we do have the same nose, but my argument would be... "it looks better on Chris!" Reference and banner photograph image:
Kaustubh Adhikari 'The Conversation' May 24 2016 - 'How we found the genes that control nose shape and what they say about us'
"At 0649 on the 22nd May 1915, troops from the 7th (Leith) Battalion, Royal Scots, were en route for the Dardanelles. Heading south, they had not yet left Scotland when the train they were travelling on collided with an empty, stationary train which was on the same track, detailing the cars and rupturing the gas lamps. Then, sixty seconds later, a northbound express bound for Glasgow smashed into the wreckage. Many men were killed either in the first or second collisions, but the flames from the ruptured gas lamps caused an inferno and there was nothing available to extinguish it. Trapped men had to have limbs amputated by whatever means necessary to get them out of the fire. Others, who could not escape, begged to be shot, rather than be burned to death. 226 men died, 82 of whom were burned beyond recognition in the fire which wasn't extinguished until the following day. Most of the dead were returned to Leith, in Edinburgh, where they were buried in Rosebank Cemetery.
The cause of the crash: Signalling error. "At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them." From a post by Nick Field on the I Love Leith FB page on 22/5/2020.
Today is the anniversary of tragic death of many members of the 7th Battalion, Royal Scots, in the Quintinshill or Gretna Rail Disaster. My grandfather James Lee's military records reveal that he had been a soldier in the 3rd and 5th Royal Scots prior to migrating to Australia in 1912. James is highly likely to have known many of the men involved in the train disaster, either a during his time in the army or while living in Leith, where his family still lived. It is said that everyone in Leith knew someone who had been killed or injured in the disaster.
The Leith Battalion from Rare Bird on Vimeo.
Two years after the train tragedy, on 12 December 1917, 'James' sister, Winnifred Lee, married Matthew Donovan. Attested to the 7th Battalion, Royal Scots in 1911, 21 year old Matthew was seriously injured in the Gretna train disaster. In Military Pension Records available on line, Matthew is described as being 'Injured in Gretna Accident 22-5-2015'; and being 'Discharged permanently medically unfit' on 31 January 1916. Sadly, further tragedy befell Matthew on 6 July, 2018, when Winnifred died of eclampsia, a pregnancy and childbirth related condition. Marrying Winnifred and expecting their first child must have been a period of renewal of hope for Matthew. How bereft he must have been at their loss.
Postscript: In 1921 Matthew married Anne McDougall Uter and in 1928 had a daughter Agnes Marion (Esma) Donovan. Anne died in Dumbarton, Scotland in 1956. Matthew was the informant listed on Anne's death certificate; it is unclear when he died - he may have moved to England to be nearer Esma, who lived in Berkshire.
Someone very dear came in to my life in 2011 who linked me to the paternal ancestry about which I knew so little - a then ‘80 something’ year old first cousin of my father Tony Lee. Bill Tully, the son of my great aunt Elizabeth Lee, speaking with the rich Scottish brogue gained from growing up in my father’s birthplace, Leith in Scotland, established the ritual of phoning me from Vancouver at least monthly on a Sunday morning at 10 am Australian Eastern Time. A reciprocal relationship, we would take it in turns to call. If we were a week out one of us would always make contact. Bill generally took the lead, gallantly excusing himself for doing so by saying that his telephone plan made it cheaper for him to talk for up to an hour than to pay postage. Being so happy to establish a connection with me was perhaps for Bill a way of connecting with my grandfather, his ‘Uncle James’ who had emigrated to Australia before he was born. Bill described hearing about Uncle James, an uncle he said the family was very proud of. He knew his Uncle James was a Lieutenant in the Australian Army stationed in England and France during the Great War and described stories passed down of Uncle James, with his wife and son, my father Tony Lee, visiting their Scottish family in Leith during or not long after the war. He talked to me about my paternal great grandmother, Barbara Lee, who he remembers from childhood, and about his mother, my grandfather’s youngest sister, Elizabeth Lee, and told stories about my paternal great grandfather, Anthony Lee, who was apparently very fond of whisky. Bill’s mother Elizabeth would have been alive when I visited Edinburgh in 1972 and 1976, but I didn’t know. How I would have loved to have connected with the Lee’s in Scotland. Bill, his wife Susan, and daughters Sarah and Kate, lived in Vancouver where Bill had migrated in 1957. I often visited Vancouver in 1982 during a teacher exchange to Kamloops in Canada, but didn’t know they were there. A further irony - Bill had visited Australia with Susan but had not known about us; and was so disappointed that he had visited Melbourne and Ballarat less than a year before we spoke to one another for the first time. He was so very close, but he didn’t know I was here. Finding Bill, a story in itself, helped me to confirm and elaborate upon the emerging ‘Lee side’ history of my family, the side I knew so little about. I treasured our conversations, which were wide ranging and never boring. Rituals were established. Each conversation would include the sharing of news about Bill’s daughters, Sarah and Kate, and grandson Matthew. His wife Susan, who had battled with cancer and passed away two years previously, was a presence in our conversations, particularly in the early years when Bill’s grief about the loss of his beloved life partner was still being worked through. I would share news about my mother, brother and sister and our newly re discovered first cousin, Christopher, who lived in London and had not long ago visited us in Australia. I had always wondered whether connections were maintained by my grandfather with his Scottish family. I had recollections of my father speaking about his mother’s sister, but knew nothing about ‘The Lees’. In an odd and yet quite profound fashion Bill was able to provide ‘primary evidence’ that communication did take place between his Uncle James and his mother Lily via correspondence between James’ daughter, my ‘Aunty Bunty’, and Lily’s daughter, his sister Barbara. Bill sent me two envelopes sent to Scotland with Australian stamps on them in the 1940’s which his older sister Barbara had given him and which he had kept for so many years with his childhood stamp collection. Although the envelopes did not include their contents, they included the address of his mother, Mrs Barbara Potter, written in my aunt’s handwriting and Australian stamps long treasured. When I first met Christopher on his visit to Australia a year or so later, I gave him these envelopes, as Bill had intended. I was hoping they had significance for Chris whose life had been affected by the bitter breakdown of his parents marriage as a child. Chris had not seen his mother since he was four years old, nor ever seen her handwriting. Treasuring them myself, I took photographs before giving them to Chris. I was so lucky to have almost seven or so years of monthly conversations with Bill. Over these years there was much sharing of family history which we would revisit and add to over time. I would send Bill documents and ‘time lines’ of our family story and he would write or call back, providing additional information and embellishing facts with related stories. In later years Bill told me he was writing many of his memories down for his family. It was such a thrill when I received his wonderful document in the mail. We also had seven or so years of sending special greetings on St Patrick’s Day, birthdays, Christmas Day and New Years Eve, when ‘Auld Lang Syne’ would often feature, usually in the wonderful Jackie Lawrence e-cards which we both enjoyed sending and receiving. Of course health issues featured in our conversations. Bill actively volunteered for the Cancer Council in Vancouver, a way of valuing the care Susan had received. He described his own experience of the big C. During the seven years in which we developed and shared our conversations, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. My journey from discovery to treatment through to five years being free of cancer was shared with Bill during our monthly talks. An active learner, Bill enjoyed attending university courses in Vancouver as a community student, latterly electing courses without examinations. Then, with his ‘fourth age’ imminent, Bill shared his decision to move from his apartment to a residential setting closer to his daughters and of his transition there. I have a treasured photo of Bill taken wearing his kilt on ‘Robbie Burns Day’ over which he officiated at an dinner time activity that year. Perhaps a year or so ago Bill disclosed that test results had come in which suggested that his cancer had returned. Always positive and upbeat, he didn’t dwell on this. We remained in contact, but aware that he may not be well, I began to take the lead role if too much time went by between calls. In one conversation Bill explained to me that as it was becoming more difficult for him to keep in touch with everyone, to send emails and to manage his affairs and that his daughter Sarah would be taking over these roles in the near future. My heart sank, however as always I admired his wisdom and capacity to share such information in such an honest and thoughtful way. I kept calling, often leaving messages if he didn’t pick up the phone, and was delighted one day when he did, saying ‘I’m still alive, I’m still alive’. Not long after, almost certainly supported by his grandson Matthew, he sent me news on his iPad and a photo taken of a family dinner when his sister Barbara’s son Lee Potter with his wife Liz and daughter Adeline arrived from Edinburgh to see Bill. Then came the email from Sarah, Kate and Matthew explaining that Sarah would now be Bill’s contact person. After waiting some weeks for news from Canada, I located Bill’s nephew Lee in Edinburgh who was able to tell me about his recent happy visit to see Bill. Then, three months ago as I write, an email from Sarah, Kate and Matthew saying that Bill had been admitted to hospital and was receiving Palliative Care, followed not long after by an email telling me that head passed away peacefully. I cherished knowing Bill. I cherished each conversation with him and loved hearing his voice on my message bank if I happened to be out or away. Indeed I found myself erasing other people’s messages and just leaving his on until they began to take up most of the available time, when I recorded them on my mobile phone for future reference, knowing there would be a time when he would phone me no more. I still have part of a message from his on my message bank which for some reason I missed, in which he says ‘Ho, Ho, Ho, A Merry Christmas from up here in Vancouver… ‘ which still cheers me up as I listen to my messages. Rest in Peace, my very, very dear cousin Bill Tully. I have been quietly bereft since you passed away in a city so far away. I have treasured the times we have shared together at least once a month for seven years and always think of you on Sunday mornings at 10 am. I will miss our calls so much. I will miss the way you ended our conversations in such endearing and hopeful ways. Although we never met in person you are a family member of particular importance to me and will always have a special place in my life. Beverley Lee July 22 2018 I've been thinking about Winifred Lee lately, perhaps because the person who was able to tell me something about her, my father's first cousin and my dear relative Bill Tully in Vancouver, is very ill.
Winifred was my grandfather James Lee's oldest of three surviving sisters, with three sisters dying as toddlers before Winifred was born. My work on Scottish People's BDM's had left me with the impression that Winifred may have been quite a strong and loving person who shared family responsibilities, particularly as her older brother James, my grandfather, had migrated to Australia or away at War or on other military service; another brother Anthony had died of tuberculosis aged 18 in 1908; and another older brother, Patrick having married and appearing perhaps to have not coped particularly well with life, committing suicide in 1932. She was quite possibly often responsible for supervising and supporting her younger siblings Elizabeth (Lily) 1896, Phillip 1894 and particularly Mary (May) b 1904. Bill described Winnie as being held in deep affection by his mother, Elizabeth. Although born 10 years after Winnie died, Bill spoke of her with great warmth. Winifred was also remembered by the daughter in law of Phillip's son Anthony (Tony) Lee when I caught up with her in Brisbane through stories Tony had shared about her. When I first discovered Winnie, I remember being very happy to have a great aunt on my father's Lee side who seemed so wonderful. This was followed by deep sadness when, pursuing records father, I found that she died only a year after she married Mathew Donovan of the pregnancy related condition Eclampsia and what would have been associated heart failure. I remember at the time finding an RCE notice which recorded a required variation to her death registration, which listed not just that she had died at Pathhead Ford. I wasn't sure quite what this meant then, nor am I now. Bill provided some information which I've been mulling over ever since. I can remember, when telling with him that, according to her death registration record, Winifred had died of Eclampsia, that he said he remembered hearing that she had died of tuberculosis. Perhaps tuberculosis, or 'pthisis', was not the cause of her death, however it may have been an underlying condition. Certainly in the one photo I have of Winifred taken in c 1917, she looks quite frail physically. With the anniversary of Winifred's death 100 years ago next month, I've decided to spend some time 'with her' by looking into her records and the possible conditions surrounding her life a little more deeply. I want to look into 'Pathhead Ford'; 'Eclampsia' and 'Eclampsia and Tuberculosis'; Tuberculosis treatment in Edinburgh in the late 1890's to 1920; and I also want to consider, given that there is a famous railway bridge at Pathhead Ford, what she may have been doing there to mean that perhaps she was not able to access medical treatment for her eclampsia. ..... More to come..... It is always a thrill when 'oral history' family stories passed down generations are confirmed during family history research, when they suddenly make more sense. Like my sister, I've found that remembered stories, stories passed on by our mother, are usually 'right' and can often provide wonderful 'leads'. Oral histories suggested that my grandmother, Rose Lee (McCann) had worked 'in the canteens' in England during World War I. My grandfather James Lee's war records show that he had been stationed at Perham Downs on the Salisbury Plains in Sussex during the war - coming across a photo of the Perham Downs canteen gave me goosebumps, as this could have been the canteen in which she worked. Other stories suggested that she may have run a boarding house and even a hotel at some time. Now while I don't have evidence of this, a cousin posted this picture on Facebook some time ago, with the caption 'having breakfast using my grandmother's cutlery'. Rose's cutlery is rather beautiful, isn't it. A copy of 'The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam' treasured by her mother, my 'Aunty Bunty', was equally treasured by this cousin. Intrigued, I took the photo below. The publication date, 1896 suggests that it could have been given my my grandfather to my grandmother, or perhaps by a family member to them both, as a wedding present in 1904. It made me feel quite strange looking at it, as my parents had a copy of 'The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam' in our bookshelves when I grew up. None of my friend's families seemed to have a copy in their bookshelves. Did my father's parents give this to my mother and father as a present at their war time wedding in Sydney 1942? If not, did my my father give it to my mother, remembering that his parents had a copy? What of an Irish connection? My mother passed on her understanding that my grandfather's Devitt forebears had left Ireland for Liverpool, moving on from there to Newcastle Upon Tyne in Northern England where they settled. This all appears to have been true, though there was an intervening period in which my Irish born bricklayer/stone mason great great grandfather Edward Patrick Devitt and his wife Anne (possibly Rourke or O'Rourke) lived in Manchester where my great grandfather was born in 1858 (1871 UK Census).
Sometimes oral history is a bit sketchy and there are 'holes' even 'black holes', often resulting from family secrets! My Scottish born father died when I was fifteen, limiting my accress to Lee stories to those told during my childhood. I knew my father was born in Edinburgh, remember him talking about Leith and 'The Firth of Forth', I thought I was a Scot through and through on my father's side. However reading through Scottish census data during the 1800's I realised I was much more Irish than I thought. My great grandfathers, Anthony Lee and Bernard McCann were both born in Ireland, as was Rose Anne McCann (Kelly), my great grandmother. While my other great grandmother, Barbara Lee (Sullivan) had been born in Scotland, her father had been born in Ireland. All my paternal great great grandparents had been born in Ireland, appearing to have migrated to Scotland in the Irish Famine decades or after political unrest or economic decline in Ireland. This has led me to reflect on the depth of the Irish connection, to think about whether it has influenced me, to look for remnants of my Irish history in my life. I've come up with one or two - the first is that above our kitchen table when I was young was an illustrated poem which I loved to look at. The illustration featured a road up to a house on a hill. It has taken me some time to fully remember, but now I realise, and my brother has thought back to confirm, that it was 'The Irish Blessing'..."May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, The rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of his hand". I wonder why it was there, who chose it, and why? No one else had an 'Irish Blessing' at their house and my father seemed to be quite fond of it. On St Patrick's Day at 'the Northo' in Benalla just a few weeks ago, my sister and I were singing along with the Scottish fiddle band 'Nessie' playing as part of St Patrick's Day celebrations. We were singing along with 'Cockles and Mussels'... you know, 'In Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty'... Suddenly we looked at one another, knowingly, recognizing that when we were little we sat around the kitchen table after meals, singing this song with our father, who had taught it to us. I was telling this to my father's also Scottish born cousin, 90 year old Bill Tully, son of my paternal grandfather's sister Elizabeth, who now lives in a nursing home setting in Vancouver. Bill laughed and said, that is strange, as it is a song which he has chosen to sing recently with his carer. His grandfather, my great grandfather, was born in Ireland, first appearing in the Scottish census in 1871 after the family had migrated from County Roscommon in Ireland. So, sometimes it is the family story, the somewhat 'out of place' treasured family object or paperwork, or the rather odd family tradition, which has a place in the search for meaning during the family history journey. 'Alive, alive oh... Alive, alive oh, singing cockels and mussels... ' Bev Lee April 9 2018
Born on 24 October in Govan, Lanarkshire in Scotland, Rose was the youngest child of Irish born parents - Bernard McCann, a ship's plater/boiler maker (described on Rose's death certificate as 'engineer'), and his wife Rose Anne Kelly. Married in the Catholic Parish of Kilmore, County Armagh, on 13th July 1864, Bernard and Rose Anne appear to have migrated to Scotland shortly between 1864-6, with the first of their children, Margaret, born at Greenock in 1866 followed by John (b 1868); Edward (b 1873) James (b1871-d1871), Mary (b 1877) and Rose (b 1882). At the time of her marriage to James Lee in 1904, Rose was living at 14 Great Junction Street Leith with her now widowed mother Rose Anne and sister Mary. 14 Great Junction Street appears to have been the McCann family home years for many years and features in correspondence to Rose from the War Office during the Great War. In a building comprising relatively large apartments over shops with a shared back garden, we have a picture of Rose's sisters Margaret (Molly) and Mary with their nieces sitting in the garden at 14 Great Junction Street. . Somewhat surprisingly at the time, my mother advised me "not to look too closely" at my father's birth certificate when I was applying for a visa to travel and work in England in 1971. Advice I of course completely disregarded! James Lee (compositor) and Rose McCann (clerkess) had married at the Catholic Chapel in Leith, four months before my father Anthony 'Tony' Lee was born at 8 Admiralty Place on September 23, 1904. A compositor by trade, it is on record that James had an 8 year career with the 3rd and 5th Royal Scots, so Rose would probably have had the typical life of a young army wife living in Leith at that time. Although Tony was to remain an only child for another 20 years, family history records suggest James had a particularly large extended family and that there were many causins for my father Tony to play with. There was even another Anthony Lee, also born in 1904. This Anthony, a mariner who never married, died like my father, in 1963, leading to some confusion on ancestry.com which I'm finding hard to rectify. At the time of the 1911 census, Rose and 7 year old Tony were listed as present at the home of her remarried mother Rose Anne and sister Margaret at their home in Leith, while James is found in the UK census in a printing business in London. A year later, James, Rose and Tony embarked on 'The Otway' to Australia, arriving in Brisbane on 28 October 1912, travelling on to Sydney where Sands Directory entries appeared listing James Lee running a printing business, and where Tony attended the junior school of Sydney Grammar School or 'Shore'. Rose must have begun to settle in and make friends, however the Great War was clearly imminent and then a reality. Rose, like James, must have known many of the Leith based Royal Scots soldiers killed so tragically in the Gretna Train Disaster of April 2015, an event which deeply affected the Leith community deeply. Not long after this event James enlisted in the Australian Armed Forces, leaving Australian shores a Lieutenant owing his earlier military experience with the Royal Scots and skills evident in running his printing business. Rose chose to return to England, travelling to London with Tony from Wellington in New Zealand via Monte Video and Teneriffe on the 'Corinthic'. Initially intending to live with her family at Great Junction Street,in Leith, Rose was able to join James to live at or near the Army Base at Perham Downs. Things we remember hearing? We remember hearing that Rose had 'worked in the canteens' during the war - these would almost certainly have been the canteens at Perham Downs Army Base on the Salisbury Plains when James was stationed there during World War I throughout 1916 and 1917. Rose and Tony appear to have been able to live as a family with James (a Lieutenant) during this period, with Tony attending nearby Andover Grammar School. Rose appears to have operated a boarding house for soldiers in a nearby village while James was posted to France from November 1917 - 18. Rose and Tony were given permission to travel with James in the troop ship on his return to Australia in 1920 and are recorded in the passenger records. . We remember hearing that James and Rose had become quite wealthy during the 1920's, owning what was once described to me as 'an ionic columned house with swimming pool in North Sydney', My mother described Rose as having had a very active social life in Sydney including involvement with 'new theatre'; a range of social sets and political discussion groups; card and bridge clubs, literary sets and as developing advanced skills in public speaking. My brother and sister remember our father's friends saying that 'The Lee's weren't just wealthy, they were very wealthy'. We also remember hearing that the depression resulted in the selling of my grandfather's two printing businesses - one in Sydney and one in Lismore - and the family home, and that thereafter they lived in a rented accommodation, including apartment in an historic home at 8 Osborne Road then divided into flats not too far from the Manly ferry terminal. I suspect Rose kept up her contacts at her card and discussion groups, as a journalist friend of hers, 'Betty', wrote a piece about my parents wedding in the social pages of the Sydney Morning Herald in 1942. My sister remembers our father explaining to her that he chose 'Rosemary' as her second name as it is the combination of his mother Rose and her favorite sister Mary's names. And we often chuckled and felt happy when our father told us that his mother always called him 'Snooks'. Here is a note to him written on the back of a photo while he was away at war... This began as a story about grandparents. Although Rose was alive when my parents married and while my mother worked in Sydney during the war, Rose never knew us, nor her daughter Bunty's children, who were all born after her death in 1945. There is a sad twist here. Grandchildren had been a part of her life until my father's first marriage disintegrated ('we were too young'), followed by an increasingly bitter divorce eventually decreed in 1933, Jacqu Leonard's son once told me there were pictures in a family album of Rose's 'first' grand children Aaron and Lenore, playing with him at a picnic. It's possible that their aunt, Bunty was playing with them as well. Bunty was born 20 years after Tony's birth and was barely three years older than Aaron. Perhaps Rose received occasional news of Aaron and Lenore, who grew up in Lismore, NSW, from family friends--I suspect and do hope so. Rose faced many challenges in her life. Becoming pregnant before marriage and this becoming a 'family secret'; migrating to Australia for a new life eight years later then returning to the UK during the war; managing a boarding house while her loved husband James at war in France throughout 1918; returning to Australia then having another child in her early to mid forties; experiencing the highs and then lows of the economic cycle after James very successful business failed during the great depression; losing a home; watching the failure of her son Tony's first marriage; losing contact with her grandchildren; Tony fighting in the Middle East and New Guinea during World War II; having an apparently volatile relationship with daughter Bunty who had joining the forces as soon as she was eligible; experiencing the pain of an incurable cancer at a time when pain management and treatments were not as effective as they are today; Apparently sometimes prickly and of a 'mercurial' temperament, aspiring to and for a time becoming a newly monied member of the 'upper middle' class in Sydney during the 1920's, ,Rose appears to have been an intelligent, adventurous and interesting person married a kind and wonderful man who reportedly loved her very dearly, and was clearly held in deep affection by my father, 'Snooks'. This post was written in response to the topic 'Grandparents' for my U3A memoir based Writing Workshop group.
The bravery of my grandfather, James Joseph Lee, was officially recognised through a Mention in Despatches for 'valuable services rendered in connection with the war' in France in March 1918 and in northern France near the border with Belgium in August and September 1918. An officer working in Signals training in England from early 1916 to late 1917, James was transferred to active duty in France in November 1917. This year I'm planning to follow James's service record as a centenary of the First World War - I'd better get moving though as it will soon be March. I need to determine whether the Mention in Despatches relates to the same battles as the Belgian Croix de Guerre, or earlier incidents in France, or perhaps recognition for his work in the 'depots'. My brother John thinks that it is almost certainly the former, but I'm uncertain. I need to check out his service record carefully to see where he was in March 1918; to locate Proyart and Hesbecourt; and more!
Later (25/2): It seems that both Proyart and Hesbecourt are in the North of France near the border with Belgium; so the battles referred to fall within the Western Front/ 'France and Flanders' category. I've started to try to track the timeline for James Lee moving into active duty with the 2nd Battalion, and things are starting to make sense. On November 1, 1917, facing a manpower crisis, it was decided to combine five divisions to form one, the Australian Corps. James was recommissioned (word) from his roles at Perham Downs to the 2nd Battalion within this umbrella in mid November 2017. The 2nd Battalion was involved in significant battles in March and again in the 'Hundred Days Offensive' period under the command of Sir John Monash in August/September 1918. It is possible that James' 'Mention in Despatches' on March 13 2018 relates to either his service at Perham Downs or to battles in France March 1918, and is separate from his later recommendation for operations on 28 August and 16 September for the Belgian Croix de Guerre. (Need to tighten this up!) I first 'met' my great grandfather, Anthony Lee, on a census form - the 1871 Scottish census, to be precise. Not only did I meet Anthony, I also met my great great grandparents, Michael Lee and Margaret O'Reilly and great grand uncles James, John and Michael and great grand aunt Maria. They lived at or in the vicinity of 'Lambs Court', where Michael and James appeared to work, Michael as a gardener, James as a servant. Great grandfather Anthony Lee, then aged 12, and his brother John Lee, aged 10, were soap makers (soap making was a large industry in Leith at that time). All 'born in Ireland', the Lee family appear to have moved from Ireland to Leith in the late 1860's. I've found some photographs which may set a context for Anthony's life in Leith at that time. I wrote 'Anthony's Story' in 2013 in an effort to pull together what I had found out about my great grandfather and my impressions of his life for a 'Creative Writing of Family History' class.
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The Journey ...An 'occasional blog' recording elements of my renewed family history journey. This is the second wave in my 'family history' journey. The first lasted from 2010 to 2014. with intermittent bursts since then. It's time to revisit, to share more stories, to edit, to tackle uncertainties... Categories
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April 2024
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