72 Crown street, Woolloomooloo - part two
Image © State Library of New South Wales, 796823. Weemala Hospital Ryde. Part of the hospital complex which also included Moorong.
In my last post we met the Kelley family. Patriarch Robert Kelley died suddenly in 1895, having moved his family to a grand new home, however his wife, children and grandchildren continued to inhabit his newly acquired home long after his death.
Some of the children never left home: John Edward lived at number 72 for the rest of his mother’s life and never married, taking over the role of breadwinner after his father’s death. John was a storeman by profession and does not appear much in the records. He was witness to a possible murder on Crown street in 1912 and was called to give evidence in the death of Alfred Smith, who was attempting to gain access to his estranged wife and daughter living at 342 Crown Street, another house in this story which still stands. John had bumped into his acquaintance ‘Alf’, who had been drinking (and was known to do so heavily) and had relayed a message to Mrs Smith’s landlady before walking away. He had not gone far before he heard Alf cry out, and turned to see him fall and hit the back of his head on the curb. Alf died in Sydney Hospital that night. A Joseph Reece was accused of causing the fatal injury as he came to the defence of Mrs Smith but was acquitted at trial.
Louisa Florence lived on Wayne street in Pennant Hills in 1913, but by 1921 had returned to the Crown street home, where she lived until 1931. She died in the cancer ward at Moorong Private Hospital at Ryde in 1932. Perhaps her extended stay with her mother was due to continuing ill health. Ada Elizabeth also left home, and was employed for several years by Mrs Attwood, who according to the Wellington Times was the proprietor of “the Ladies’ Emporium of the town,” and whose reputation was such as she was considered as highly “as Worth’s in Paris.” Ada died in Wellington in 1914. Her mother had her returned to Sydney for her funeral, and she was buried at Waverley Cemetery.
Bootmaker Norman married laundress Ruby Pietona Isabelle Farlong (or Furlong) the daughter of a sailor in 1904, and they lived with mum Louisa for a short while. In 1909 they were living in a small two storey terrace at 7 McGarvie street which still exists today when his infant son Robert Andrew Edward passed away. His mother Louisa inserted her own notice to mourn the loss of her baby grandson. Their daughter Ruby was born in 1910 at their new home at 195 Crown street, but sadly Norman’s wife Ruby died the following year at the age of 26. After living with mum Louisa for many years, Norman remarried Jane Amelia (also referred to as Jean) in 1930 and went on to a career on the trams as a driver. The family published a special thanks to the “Tramway Band, mates at the Fort Macquarie Tramway Depot, NSW Rugby Football league, Eastern Suburbs Rugby League Football Club, for all their gifts and support” upon Norman’s passing in 1942.
Harold had first worked as a woolclasser, and in 1907 married Alberta Maude Ward, the daughter of single mother Marie. Their son John Edward jnr, known as Jack, was born in 1908, but sadly lived only 3 months before passing away at their home at 76 Brougham street Darlinghurst, another house still standing. Harold and Alberta were still together the following year, when they published an in memoriam for their son in July 1909, but no further mention of them as a couple can be found. Losing a child can put incredible stress on a marriage, and it appears that Harold returned to the family home on Crown street. No further mention can be found of Alberta prior to her death in Raymond Terrace in 1934.
By 1934, more of the Kelley children had returned to the family home, perhaps driven by economic necessity during the depression. Harold and John, both storemen had lived with their mother for several years; tram conductor Norman, his second wife Jane Amelia and adult daughter Ruby, a saleswoman; and an Annie Helena, who I suspect is the previously listed Annie Ellen, as well as matriarch Louise. By 1937 Norman and Jane had moved to Cambridge Flats at 305 Liverpool street, yet another building in the area which remarkably still survives.
Some of the children had also left home of course: Robert had married Violet and moved to Leichhardt, where they raised Albert, Robert junior and Irene, and Albert became a compositor in the printing industry, marrying tailoress Maggie Flint in 1907. Robert died at his home in Leichhardt in 1949, while Albert and Maggie moved to “Kelville” on Adelaide street Woollahra, next door to the Holy Cross Church – the site of their home is now the park next to Syd Einfeld Drive. Their son, Alfred junior, became a cab driver. In 1923, young Albert, aged 12, sent in a useful tip for using coins to weigh and measure various objects, when no conventional form of measurement was available. He received a ‘ruby card’ from the editor for his clever hints. He was also awarded an Emerald card by The Sunday Times in November the same year for sending in a joke about an absent-minded professor.
In 1938 Albert junior was accused of the age-old crime of the recalcitrant cabbie: refusing a fare. Not just a modern convention, apparently taxi drivers in Sydney have for decades been unable to legally refuse any reasonable hire. Albert was fined £2 for declining to take a party of four over the harbour bridge at 2am on New Years’ Day – he claimed he thought that there were six passengers, whom he could not legally carry. Albert Kelley senior and his family moved to 28 Cope St Lane Cove in about 1940, where Albert senior was listed as a linotype operator, and Albert junior a taxi driver. Albert junior died in 1960.
Elsie married late, first to a Thomas Bents in Sydney in 1929, but Thomas died suddenly in 1931. She remarried in 1934 to a carpenter by the name of Percy E W Allder, and they moved to 49 Hill road in Birrong, in a lovely little cottage with an incredible old gum tree in the front garden which remarkably still stands, although judging by the modernisation of the surrounding houses probably will not for much longer.
Harold enjoyed a successful sporting career, playing scrum-half for Sydney in 1906, making the “players talked about” column in the paper in the same year. He played in the first grade as a 5/8th 1908-10 for the Eastern suburbs rugby club, and became treasurer of the club in 1910, a position he would hold for 37 years. He retired from his association with the club in 1946, and was completely blind by 1947. Upon hearing the news, his former club held a fundraiser for Harold and his family. Harold died on 7 July 1948 at the Lewisham Hospital. He was cremated at the Eastern Suburbs crematorium in Bunnerong.
By 1942 Louisa’s granddaughter Ruby and her aunt Annie were still living at number 72 and were apparently now the only occupants. Ruby’s stepmother Jane was living alone at Cambridge Flats, where she had lived with Harold for several years before his death. Annie was still at 72 in 1949 but gone by 1958 when Ruby was living there alone, still working as a saleswoman, and still unmarried. From 1968 to 1977, Ruby lived at 22 Catherine street Leichhardt, a smaller more manageable semi-detached cottage.
This humble terrace at 72 Crown street, now much altered to accommodate a gym, sheltered various members of the Kelley family for nearly eighty years. There is no publicly available record of the Kelleys having ever sold the terrace on Crown street; for all I know, they are still the landlords today.
