Gordon street, Balmain
© NSW State Archives, ref: 4481_a026_000908
This sweet photograph of a young girl perched on the front step of a corner shop is held by the State Archives of New South Wales, and is simply marked ‘possibly Gordon street, Balmain.’ On a corner of Gordon street at number 26 there is indeed an old corner shop now converted into a small private residence that bears a close resemblance to the shop in the photograph. Comparing the distinctive lines of the sandstone foundations it is tempting to draw the conclusion that they are one and the same, but to be thorough I went looking for more evidence.
A clue presents itself in the lettering about the shop door: just visible is the sign reading ‘G (or C) Halliday, grocer.’ A quick check of the Sands directory shows that yes indeed, a George Halliday lived in Gordon street between 1891 and 1899, although his address is given as either 20 or 28, and the shop is now numbered 26. Nevertheless, it is a close enough match to warrant more digging, so I started with the question “Who was George Halliday?” I got some fascinating answers about George and his family.
The wonderfully named George Richardson Neptune Halliday was born at sea in 1853 as his family made the journey to their new home in Sydney, the circumstances of his birth no doubt inspiring his unusual middle name. George arrived with his family as assisted migrants from Manchester: father John, mother Mary Anne, and siblings John jnr (17), Mary (14), David (11), Agnes (9), Margaret (4), and William (2). His father John was a carpenter for a railway company, and the births of George’s siblings in London, Manchester, Woolwich, and Portsmouth suggest that the family followed work to survive.
After their arrival more Hallidays were born in Parramatta, South Creek (now St Marys), Young, and Yass, suggesting the family continued to roam in search of work. They eventually settled in Sydney, where George would grow up and marry Ellen Caroline Bawn in Paddington in 1879. George and Ellen had moved to Balmain by 1884, where they raised their extensive family of at least 12 children: Maud, George jnr, Jessie, Alfred, Lexie, John, Minnie, Lily, Leslie, Ethel, David and Violet.
With such a large family it is easy to imagine that times were tough and could explain why their address differs from record to record, as the shop itself was quite small and the family could have rented a second small residence to accommodate them all. Additionally, it appears that Ellen may have been the primary shopkeeper, as George’s profession is routinely listed as ‘Quarryman,’ thus giving the family access to two (however meagre) incomes.*
Balmain was a rough area, caused in large part by the financial hardships of many of its inhabitants. On December 29 in 1896 George was robbed of eight shillings by two local roughs, Edward J Keenan and James Flood. The Hallidays were also obviously in financial distress: in 1888 George sued real estate agent SH Hicks for £9 15s 3d for ‘wrongful distraint’ – the seizure of someone's property to obtain payment of rent or other money owed. He lost, suggesting that at some point in the recent past they had lost the shop and all its contents to pay off their debts.
By 1889 and the birth of their daughter Minnie they are living at 49 Hornsey street, just up the road from their old business. The Hallidays had not had a happy life: after the loss of their business George jnr caused them some trouble with several brushes with the law, including two stints in Darlinghurst Gaol on remand for supplying stolen property in April 1899, and in June the same year for ‘riotous behaviour’ at noon on a Sunday on Prince St near St Josephs’ Catholic Church. His gaol records give us a glimpse of the younger George: his age given as 18 years, he had brown hair and brown eyes, and could both read and write. Curiously, when George married several years later his signature appears far more elegant and refined than those of his peers.
George’s signature at the time of his marriage to Emma Bowra at St Andrews Cathedral in 1914.
George and Ellen also mourned the loss of several of their children over the years, including baby Alfred in 1884, and both Minnie and Lexie in 1906, possibly of the same illness. George and Ellen both died suddenly in 1908 both aged in their fifties. George died from a protracted illness at home in April, while Ellen passed away very suddenly about three months later while visiting her nephew in Newtown on July 8th. George and Ellen left their three youngest children - Violet aged 7, David, 12, and Ethel, 14 – looking to their elder siblings for support. The local community rallied to support the children, and a charity event was organised for the local town hall. The Sydney Evening News reported on Saturday 19th September that “A concert and social was given in the Balmain Town Hall on Friday evening in aid of the children of the late Mr and Mrs Halliday, who have been left destitute.”
Though the family appears to have had little money, this did not stop them demonstrating their grief at the loss of their loved ones through In Memoriam tributes published in the newspapers, and it is through these that we are able to gain a touchingly personal insight into their lives. In 1907 George and Ellen published these tributes to their daughters Lexie and Minnie, who had died the year before:
A precious one from us is gone,
A voice we loved is stilled,
A place is vacant in our home
Which never can be filled.
God in His wisdom has recalled
The boon His love had given,
And though the body moulders here,
The soul is safe in Heaven.
(for Lexie, aged 22)
We saw her suffering day by day,
It caused us bitter grief
To see her slowly pine away
And could not give relief.
Not dead to us, we loved her dear
Not lost, but gone before,
She lives with us in memory still,
And will forever more.
(for Minnie, aged 17)
The children would continue to insert loving In Memoriam tributes to both their parents in the Sydney Morning Herald in the following years. One dedicated to Ellen in 1909 reads:
She left her home in perfect health,
Never thinking death was near;
Not dreaming that she never would
Return home to her children dear.
A painful shock, a dreadful blow;
Oh, Mother dear, we miss you so.
Our loss is great; we’ll not complain,
But trust in God to meet again.
Rest, dearest mother, sweetly rest,
They miss you most, who loved you best.
Another for their father from the same year gives us a moving view of his final moments:
Father is gone, but not forgotten,
Nor the good advice he gave;
Sweetest thoughts shall ever linger
Around our darling father’s grave.
Long days and nights he bore in pain,
To wait for cure was all in vain.
But God alone, who thought it best,
Did ease his pain and give him rest.
My search didn’t manage to solve the mystery of the numbering changes on Gordon street, so I haven’t definitively proven that the shop in the photograph is the building now standing at the corner of Gordon and Hornsey streets in what is now Rozelle. I did however uncover a story of a loving family who lived through tough times and survived as best they could. Their obvious love for each other through thick and thin is a beautiful story that deserves to be told.
*for those interested in a similar story, see the history of the Youngein family at the lovely Susannah Place Museum in The Rocks.
