Author: Liz Downes

Editors: Ken Gray & Diane Bull

Full Story

Out of a life that spanned almost a century, it seems that Lilian Webb (née Hopkins) spent little more than a decade in the Mission Beach region. Nonetheless, her resourceful character, cheerfulness, practical skills and her readiness to pitch in and help out, must surely have made her a valued and welcome member of the local community, as it seems to have done wherever she lived.

LILIAN WEBB née HOPKINS 05/11/1885-20/09/1983

Out of a life that spanned almost a century, it seems that Lilian Webb (née Hopkins) spent little more than a decade in the Mission Beach region. Nonetheless, her resourceful character, cheerfulness, practical skills and her readiness to pitch in and help out, must surely have made her a valued and welcome member of the local community, as it seems to have done wherever she lived.

Lilian was born into a well-to-do, close-knit, much-travelled family whose frequent journeys soon became part of her own life. Criss-crossing the globe from north to south and from east to west, she would be well into her sixties, at least, before she eventually settled in one place and one country, far away from the remote and beautiful stretch of the wet tropical coast where she had once made her home.

Her parents, Thomas Hollis Hopkins, from England, and Annie McTaggart, from Scotland, arrived in Sydney in 1877^[1] and on 5^th February the following year they married in the little town of Moruya on the New South Wales south coast.^[2] Three years later they arrived in Townsville with three very small children, one a mere babe-in-arms.^[3] In the growing north Queensland town (its city status was still two decades away) Hollis Hopkins, as he was generally known, established his wholesale soft goods business, and extended his family with five more children over the next decade.

On 5^th November 1885, Lilian became Hollis and Annie’s sixth child and their third daughter, in what was to be a ‘gender-balanced’ family of four boys and four girls. All but two of the siblings were Australian born but Annie was in England for the birth of Lilian and her older sister, Winifred who were both born in Croydon, Surrey, which was the family’s English base at the time.^[4]

 

Hollis Hopkins and his children in England, 1905. Lilian standing 2^nd from left, aged 19-20.
Standing left to right: Walter, Lilian, Thomas, Winifred. Seated left to right: Kathleen, Spenser, George, Hollis and Ruth.
NQID 02683, Helen Dyer Album, James Cook University (JCU) Library Special Collections.

 

The Hopkins children, England, 1895. Lilian, back row, right (leaning forward), aged 9-10.
NQID 02821, Helen Dyer Album. JCU Library Special Collections.

It was not until around her second birthday that Lilian made the first of her many long journeys between northern and southern hemispheres, arriving in Townsville in November 1887 and spending the next four years at the family’s handsome bungalow, “Devanha”, on Townsville’s Strand. By the time she was six, the whole family had returned to the UK. The Hopkins’ business, no doubt left in the hands of a capable manager, continued to flourish with regular visits from its founder.^[5] In 1905 Hollis’s oldest son, twenty-seven-year-old Spenser, returned to Townsville to run the business and found his own family dynasty in the north.

After those early years, it is possible that Lilian spent very little or indeed none of her later childhood or adolescence in Queensland.  She was just a teenager when her mother died in 1901 leaving her as the ‘big sister’ of two young siblings, aged only eleven and twelve. When Hollis’s health failed it was Lilian who cared for her father during a long illness, until his death in 1919.^[6] In November of the following year Lilian, who had just turned 35, was in British Columbia assisting her younger sister, Ruth Stanier, after the birth of her third child. Just over two years later she was back there again for the arrival of Ruth’s fourth child, a daughter, in January 1923.^[7]

How much opportunity these family ties and obligations in the northern hemisphere allowed for Lilian to visit her brother Spenser and his family in Townsville is hard to tell. By the early 1920s, Spenser had become well-established in the city with his own growing brood of seven children, ranging from the eldest, Harry, in his early teens, to infant twin daughters. It is of considerable significance to Lilian’s story, and her life at Mission Beach, that Spenser continued and enriched a friendship that had been forged between his parents and the Banfields – “Beachcomber” Edmund Banfield and his wife Bertha – who by now were well settled in their Dunk Island/Coonanglebah paradise.^[8]

Through the Banfields we discover that, between Lilian’s two Canadian visits, she had returned at least once to Townsville and visited their Dunk Island sanctuary. We learn this from the fact that, in September 1921, the Beachcomber himself inscribed a little poem in Lilian’s autograph book, humorously celebrating the essence of her character:

 

Charming in the parlour;

Killing in the skillion –

That’s Lillian

Hefty with the hoe,

Making weeds look silly –

That’s Lillie.

Slipping, sliding, slithering

Down the smiling hill –

That’s Lil.

Lil, Lillie, Lillian,

You’re a girl in a million.^[9]

 

It is no surprise that Lilian was described as a “favourite guest” and a “welcome visitor” to Dunk Island. Being the daughter of their close friends, Hollis and Annie Hopkins, the Banfields would have known her as a child in the days before they moved to the island.^[10] Moreover, the strong bond that continued between the Banfields and Spenser Hopkins, who they came to regard like a son, would surely have meant that visits to Dunk Island would have been an essential part of any trips that Lilian made to her brother’s family.

Be that as it may, early in 1923, having seen her newest niece into the world in British Columbia, Lilian’s links with Mission Beach and Dunk Island were about to become stronger. Banfield’s biographer, Michael Noonan, suggests that Spenser Hopkins was becoming concerned at Ted and Bertha’s isolation, and had been investigating the idea of installing a pedal wireless of the kind being used on outback properties.^[11] It may well have been this concern that prompted him to suggest to Lilian that she spend some time on Dunk as a companion and support for the couple.^[12]

Sadly, fate intervened and before she could arrive, Ted Banfield died quite suddenly from the acutely painful and deadly condition, peritonitis, with only Bertha to witness his passing. As soon as the news became known, their many friends rallied around, with Spenser Hopkins and his wife Rosa among the first to arrive. But it was Lilian, that “girl in a million”, who came for the long haul, spending over a year on the island, helping Bertha with all that had to be done to pack up her life and prepare to leave. There could hardly have been anyone better for this task than this energetic, adaptable, practical and cheerful young woman. According to Noonan:

“[Lilian] never stopped for a moment, gardening, mowing, trimming bushes and hedges; and, if inside the house, dressmaking or baking cakes.”^[13]

At least for a period after Bertha left, Lilian stayed on by herself managing the house, its land and livestock. One of her nephews, Spenser’s second son Charles, later wrote admiringly:

“ … one lonely woman, with an orchard and a vegetable garden, two pens of chickens, five Jersey cows and a bull to look after – she must have been quite a girl – though by then she was thirty-eight.”^[14]

But she was not without the support and watchful care of friends, in particular the soldier-settler, George Henry Webb, who had a fruit farm on the mainland coast opposite Dunk Island. George, the first of the mainlanders to reach the island after the Beachcomber’s death, knew the Banfields well and would have got to know Lilian through his weekly visits to collect mail that was delivered by ship to the Island.^[15] Said to be a man of few words, but apparently in possession of a warm heart and practical nature, he set up a signalling system using hurricane lamps and newspaper, so that he and Lilian could communicate with each other every evening via Morse code flashes, to confirm that all was well.^[16]

Lilian remained on the island for about a year^[17] during which her relationship with George became something more than watchful friendship. While she made a third trip to Canada, this time to help her sister’s family pack up their belongings to return to England,^[18] she had an important reason to return: on 23^rd March 1925, Lilian became Mrs George Webb, and officially a Mission Beach resident.

 

The Webb family, Lilian, Elizabeth and George. NQID 26329, Lillie Webb Album, JCU Library Special Collections.

George’s home “Koongul”, located in what is now the Wongaling Beach area, would have been very different from the Hopkins’ family residences in England or the McTaggarts’ in Aberdeen. Nor could it match the comfortable bungalow, “Devanha” in Townsville, where Lilian had spent her early years and which was now Spenser’s family home.  But Lilian would have taken this in her stride, while her husband seems to have been equally capable in practical matters. Notes supplied many years later by one of Spenser’s daughters, described how the home was adapted:

“[The couple] enlarged Koongul, and added a wash house. Their chief water supply was from two rainwater tanks. They even had a shower supplied by a tank up on the hill at the back of the house; a water diviner had located this water supply for them. The wash house was supplied by a tidal river (Webb’s Creek) and pumped up into the tubs in the wash house”.^[19]

Spenser’s son, Charles, declared that “between them they made it a very comfortable home and lived there very happily.” He recalled how he and his siblings loved going there as children – “there were always plenty of cakes and biscuits” – and at least once some of his siblings stayed there for several weeks.^[20]

 

 

The Webbs’ home, ‘Koongul’. Left, side view. NQID 02793. Right, back view. NQID 02792. Helen Dyer Album, JCU Library Special Collections.

 

Lilian would have turned forty in the year of her marriage and perhaps thought the chance of having a child might have passed her by. Would this have saddened her? After all, she had lived a full and quite adventurous life and, without the ties of husband and children, had been able to travel frequently and support other members of her family when the need was there. But, as she helped her sisters with the arrival of their babies, and experienced the joys of auntie-hood many times over, did she sometimes wish for a child of her own?  From this distance in time, this is something we cannot know.

At any rate, it happened! Towards the end of the year, Lilian would have realized she was pregnant and on 7^th August 1926, by happy coincidence sharing a birthday with her father, Elizabeth Annie Webb was born. While the child’s second name honoured her maternal grandmother, Annie McTaggart, this was not the only link with the mother who Lilian had lost too early. Continuing her habit of global travel, Lilian had returned to Annie’s home in Aberdeen for the birth of her own daughter – the twenty-fourth of Hollis and Annie’s twenty-five grandchildren.^[21]

Lilian must have delighted in introducing her daughter to so many Scottish and English cousins, aunties and uncles but, at four months of age,^[22] it was time for Elizabeth and her mother to set off for their other home, and to settle into their lives as a family at Mission Beach. A collection of photos held at James Cook University’s Mabo Library shows the Webb family at “Koongul”, often with visiting friends and family members. Little Elizabeth can be seen on a home-made swing, at the beach or splashing in the sea. She is present at large family gatherings and in the company of other children, both her own cousins and the children of neighbours. Particularly poignant, in view of what was to occur, are several shots showing her confidently astride a family pony.^[23]

As Elizabeth grew, the need for a good education for her daughter must have been on Lilian’s mind. Although primary schooling by correspondence had become available in Queensland in 1922, there was no school at Mission Beach in the 1930s. The resourceful Webbs, along with their neighbours, the Dunlops, built a schoolhouse half-way between their two homes.

 

Elizabeth Webb on horseback. Left, August 1928, when she turned two years old, NQ26351. Right, Elizabeth aged about 7-8, NQID 26313.
From the Lillie Webb Album, JCU Library Special Collections.

 

A teacher/governess was engaged and lived at “Koongul” with Elizabeth’s family. The two of them would walk along the beach each morning to meet the Dunlop children at the school-house for the day’s lessons.^[24] It makes an idyllic picture.

 

Left, Elizabeth Webb aged about 4. NQID 26324. Right, Elizabeth in school attire, aged 7 or 8. NQID 26321.
From Lillie Webb Album, JCU Library Special Collections.

 

But was this enough? From one of George’s diary entries, we learn that Lilian (and eight-year-old Elizabeth), set off for England in May 1935.^[25] In later life one of the Dunlop children, who had attended the single teacher school-house with Elizabeth, recalled that this move was made in order to provide Elizabeth with a good education in Scotland.^[26] According to George’s diary, a letter arrived from Lilian in October with news that Elizabeth was already at school;^[27] this suggests that she had been enrolled at the start of the northern hemisphere school year in September.

While it is likely that the standard of education for girls was higher in England and Scotland than it was in north Queensland, it is probable that the pull of family was also a major factor in this move. Despite geographical separations the Hopkins’ family ties were strong and, as a three-year-old, Elizabeth and her mother had already made one extended visit of over a year, to her birth country.^[28] From these repeated visits there can be little doubt of the depths of Lilian’s attachment to the country where she was born and the family she was born into. We can also sense that, in addition to the educational benefits, Lilian felt it important for Elizabeth to spend time in the places where she herself had grown up, to absorb something of her Scottish and English heritage and to get to know her extended family in Britain.

It is open to question how much say George had in this decision, or whether either he or Lilian expected, or intended, this stay to be as lengthy as it was to become. Nearly a century later it is difficult for modern readers to escape some troubling questions – how might such a long absence affect the bond between father and daughter? how thinly might it stretch their own marriage bonds? – and equally hard not to wonder to what extent such thoughts also worried Lilian and George?

Indeed, it is entirely possible that the intention was to return in time for Elizabeth to embark on her secondary education in Australia. There were, after all, good opportunities for girls at this level in Townsville, Charters Towers or further away. Elizabeth’s twin cousins, Helen and Margaret, only four years older, had attended St Anne’s in Townsville before spending their high school years at the Glennie School in Toowoomba. Nor should we forget that Elizabeth’s grandfather, Hollis Hopkins, was one of the founders of Townsville’s Grammar School,^[29] that Spenser himself had been a student there, as had several of his children. Since 1928 he had also been chair of its governing body.^[30] Despite this, Spenser had set a precedent by educating his two eldest sons in ‘the old country.’ Harry and Charles Hopkins spent five years at Berkhamstead School in Hertfordshire before, at their own request, returning to finish their education at Townsville Grammar.^[31]

Whatever their plans had been, the outbreak of war in September 1939 would have forced Lilian to re-think their situation. In Charles Hopkins’ memoir, he assumes that the two of them were “caught” in England by the war and this has the ring of truth.^[32] Civilian travel was greatly affected as passenger ships were quickly commandeered to become troopships and non-essential journeys were strongly discouraged. Lilian might also have felt a sense of responsibility to stay where she might be most needed, supporting her family and contributing to the war effort. In contrast to Britain, Australia seemed relatively little affected in the war’s early years, but as the conflict spread to Asia and the Pacific, there must have been more concern. Even though by this time George had already moved to Victoria, Japanese advances and talk of the infamous ‘Brisbane Line’ might well have increased Lilian’s anxiety for her now-widowed brother, Spenser, and his family.

As the war dragged on for six years, Elizabeth would have completed her schooling well before peace was declared, but she was far from idle. Her uncle Charles tells us that she joined the Land Army – teams of young women who helped to keep farms running and maintain food supplies in the absence of the men who had joined up.^[33] In this she would have been following both the fine Hopkins tradition of active community involvement and Lilian’s own example of stepping in with energetic and invaluable practical help wherever needed.

At last, in the northern autumn of 1946, Lilian and Elizabeth set sail for Australia,^[34] but their life at Mission Beach was over. Returning to his home state of Victoria, George had acquired a property in the Benalla region.^[35] Here, after more than a decade’s absence, his wife and daughter joined him – Lilian now over sixty and Elizabeth transformed from a little girl into a young woman – but tragically, there was to be no ‘happy ever after’ for this small family. On the evening of Saturday 11th January 1947, just two months after reuniting with her father, Elizabeth went out riding as the heat of the day cooled – but, when her riderless horse returned, she was found with fatal head injuries, dead at the age of twenty.^[36]

After such a long separation, this was a tragedy too great for Lilian and George’s marriage to survive. Lilian returned to Britain and the five brothers and sisters who still lived there with their families; were it not for one of these, we would know next to nothing of the final decades of Lilian’s life. Jean Elizabeth Stanier (later Velecky) was the daughter of Lilian’s younger sister Ruth, and had been one of the babies whose birth had taken Lilian to British Columbia in the 1920s. When Jean herself was in her nineties, she still retained clear and loving memories of her Auntie Lil.

Through Jean we know that, after returning to Britain, Lilian lived in Aberdeen with two of her adult cousins, on her mother’s side of the family. They were sisters, and after one died, Lilian continued to care for the remaining cousin who had a mental handicap, eventually bringing her south to Winchester.^[37] In that ancient city, Lilian settled down close to Jean’s family, keeping them well-supplied with vegetables from her garden; her green-fingered skills no doubt honed on Banfield’s “tropic isle” and in the rich basalt soils of Mission Beach. She died on 20th September 1983, six weeks short of her 98^th birthday.

Like the Banfields, Lilian’s niece valued her aunt’s skills greatly, describing her as “a most amazingly energetic and talented person, an expert gardener and cook and dressmaker and knitter.”^[38] More movingly, Jean’s description of her Auntie Lil as “a guardian angel to all our family” sums up the depth of Lilian’s loyalty to her family and friends and her unfailing willingness to be where she was most needed. It is a touching and fitting tribute to a woman of considerable independence, boundless energy and great generosity of spirit.

---

Note. Sometime after Lilian’s death, her niece Jean found among her aunt’s belongings a small booklet by Henry Treloar, titled Cottage Gardening in Queensland (December 1915).^[39] The author, originally from Cornwall but resident in Townsville, was an eccentric but enthusiastic advocate of home gardening. The booklet would have been of little use in Aberdeen or Winchester, but one can well imagine Lilian poring over the photographs and trying to put Treloar’s advice into practice in the Banfields’ garden on Dunk Island, and her own at “Koongul”.

Recognising its historical interest, Jean was thoughtful enough to send the booklet to James Cook University for safe keeping, enclosing a handwritten note. It was this note that eventually led to a connection with Jean who gave further insights into Lilian’s character as well as details of Lilian’s trips to Canada in the 1920s, and of her later life.

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful for the interest shown by those members of the Hopkins family whom I was able to contact and particularly to Susan Dyer for permission to use photographs from the Helen Dyer album. I especially appreciate the late Jean Velecky’s willingness to share her memories when I eventually tracked her down five years before she passed away aged 99.

I also thank Bronwyn McBurnie and the staff in JCU Mabo Library’s Special Collections: Louise Cottrell for her help in searching the photographic archives and Trisha Fielding for reading the draft of Lilian’s story.

And, finally, thanks to the good friend who, at the eleventh hour, excavated numerous passenger lists from the British archives which confirmed and/or corrected previous notions.

 

REFERENCES

• Allen, Kim. History of the Townsville Grammar School 1888-1988, Boolarong Publications, 1990.
• Benalla Ensign, 17/1/1947, p.5 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title216
• Dyer, Helen. Notes accompanying Lillie Webb photograph album, JCU Mabo Library – Special Collections. Helen’s daughter, Susan, recalled that when her mother loaned the original photographs to the University, she worked with a staff member, providing relevant family details.
• Fielding, Trisha. The Strand. Interview with Margaret Pearce, in the online project “Looking Back – Memories of Townsville”, Townsville City Libraries, 2009. http://townsvillememories.pbworks.com/w/page/22393781/The%20Strand%20by%20Margaret%20Pearce
• Gray, Ken. George’s Diary: George Webb of Mission Beach. Mission Beach Historical Society, 2022. https://mbhs.com.au/images/H024-Georges-Diary/H024.pdf
• Hammond, Marilyn. The Townsville and District Pioneer and Biographical Register. Family History Association of NQ, 1988.
• Hopkins, Charles McT. How you take it. Neptune Press, 1985.
• National Archives, England. Passenger lists, various vessels, 1924-46.
• Noonan, Michael. A different drummer: the story of E.J. Banfield, the Beachcomber of Dunk Island. University of Queensland Press, 1983.
• Sydney Morning Herald, 16/2/1878, p.8 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title35
• Treloar, Henry. Cottage Gardening in Queensland. 4^th ed. T. Willmett & Sons, 1915. (Digitised copy includes the note from Lilian’s niece Jean Velecky). https://nqheritage.jcu.edu.au/418/
• Velecky, Jean. Personal communication (emails) February-March 2017.

TIMELINE

1877 – Thomas Hollis Hopkins (Croydon, England) and Annie McTaggart (Aberdeen) arr. in Australia.

1878 – 5^th February. (Thomas) Hollis and Annie married in Moruya, NSW.

1878 – December, first child, son Spenser born, NSW.

1880 – January, daughter Kathleen born, NSW.

1881 – May, son Thomas born, NSW. Family moved from NSW to Townsville.

1882 – Edmund Banfield arrived in Townsville as reporter for Townsville Daily Bulletin.

1882 – September, son Walter Donald born, Townsville.

1884 – May, daughter Winifred born in UK (Croydon, Surrey).

1885 – 5^th November, daughter Lilian born in UK (Croydon, Surrey).

1887 – November. Lilian, aged 2, arrived in Townsville.

1888 – Townsville Grammar School opened, Hollis enrolled Spenser as a foundation student.

1889 – January, son George Henry Stanton born, Townsville.

1890 – April, daughter Ruth born, Townsville.

1891 – Hollis Hopkins and family returned to live in Ealing, Middlesex, UK.

1897 – September. Edmund and Bertha Banfield began their residence on Dunk Island.

1901 – Hollis’s wife, and family matriarch, Annie Hopkins, nee McTaggart, died.

1905 – Spenser Hopkins returned to Townsville to manage the family business.

1908 – 24^th March, Spenser married Rosa Sykes.

1909-1918 – Five sons and one daughter born to Spenser and Rosa.

1917 – (George) Stanton Hopkins died in WW1 (Hollis and Annie’s youngest son).

1919 – November. Spenser & family to England. Spenser returned to Qld while others stayed for a year. 2 eldest sons remained at school there until 1925.

1919 – November. Hollis Hopkins died at Ealing, Middlesex (nursed by Lilian).

1920 – October. Lilian in Canada for birth of Ruth’s third child, a son John Alan.

1921 – September. Lilian visited or stayed with the Banfields on Dunk Island.

1922 – Spenser’s twin daughters, Margaret and Helen born.

1923 – January. Lilian in Canada for birth of Ruth’s daughter, Jean Elizabeth.

1923 – 2^nd June. E. J. Banfield died. Spenser & Rosa travelled to Dunk as soon as news broke.

1923 – June (?). Lilian arrived on Dunk, remained for over a year.

1924 – (date?) Lilian to Canada to help sister Ruth; returned to Australia January 1925.

1925 – 23^rd March. Lilian and George Webb married.

1926 – 21^st June. Lilian, approx. 7 months pregnant, arrived in UK.

1926 – 7^th August. Lilian and George’s daughter, Elizabeth Annie, born in Aberdeen.

1926 – December. Lilian left for Australia with 4-month-old Elizabeth.

1929 – July. Lilian & Elizabeth visited UK for extended period, returning November 1930.

1935 – 14^th May. Lilian & Elizabeth sailed from Brisbane, for UK..

1935 – October. Elizabeth reportedly at school, in Scotland.

1939 – George Webb moved back to Victoria.

1940 – October 24th. Spenser’s wife, Rosa, died.

1946 – November. Lilian & Elizabeth arrived back in Australia, re-joining George in Victoria.

1947 – 11^th January. Elizabeth killed in a riding accident.

1947 – April. Lilian returned to UK, cared for cousins in Aberdeen.

1950s – Lilian moved to Winchester, living close to her sister Ruth and niece Jean.

1959 – March. Lilian’s younger sister Ruth (Jean’s mother) died, Winchester.

1983 – 20^th September. Lilian died, Winchester, aged 97.

 

 

FAMILY TREE OF HOLLIS AND ANNIE HOPKINS, TOWNSVILLE

^[1] Fielding, Trisha. Townsville memories: the Strand, Interview with Margaret Pearce, 2009.

^[2] Sydney Morning Herald 16 February 1878, p.8.

^[3] Fielding, Trisha.

^[4] Hammond, Marilyn. The Townsville and District Pioneer and Biographical Register, 1988.

^[5] Velecky, Jean. Personal correspondence, 2017.

^[6] Velecky, Jean.

^[7] Velecky, Jean.

^[8] Noonan, Michael. A different drummer: the story of E.J. Banfield, the Beachcomber of Dunk Island, UQP 1983.

^[9] Noonan, Michael. Incidentally, the correct spelling of Lilian’s name had only two Ls, not three.

^[10] Noonan, Michael. The Banfields’ wedding reception had been held at Hollis and Annie Hopkins’ Townsville residence in 1886.

^[11] Noonan, Michael.

^[12] Dyer, Helen. Notes accompanying Lillie Webb photograph album, JCU Library, ca.1983.

^[13] Noonan, Michael.

^[14] Hopkins, Charles McT. How you take it, 1985.

^[15] Gray, Ken. George’s Diary: George Webb of Mission Beach. 2022.

^[16] Noonan, Michael.

^[17] Hopkins, Charles McT.

^[18] Dyer, Helen.

^[19] Dyer, Helen.

^[20] Hopkins, Charles McT.

^[21] Hammond, Marilyn

^[22] London. National Archives, England. SS Ascanius, passenger list 4/12/1926. www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

^[23] Photographs contained in the Helen Dyer and Lillie Webb albums, NQ Photographic Collection, James Cook University Library.

^[24] Dyer, Helen.

^[25] Gray, Ken. George’s Diary.

^[26] Gray, Ken. Personal comment (email) 5/6/2024. The fellow-student and neighbour was Alex Dunlop.

^[27] Gray, Ken. George’s Diary.

^[28] London. The National Archives, England. Passenger list, SS Ulysses, 8 November 1930. www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

^[29] Townsville Grammar encouraged a co-educational environment, accepting both male and female students.

^[30] Allen, Kim. History of the Townsville Grammar School, 1888-1988.

^[31] Hopkins, Charles McT.

^[32] Hopkins, Charles McT.

^[33] Hopkins, Charles McT.

^[34] London. The National Archives. SS Asturias passenger list, October 1946. www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

^[35] Gray, Ken.

^[36] Benalla Ensign, 17 January 1947, p.5.

^[37] Velecky, Jean.

^[38] Velecky, Jean. Lilian’s great-niece Susan, also remembered receiving a hand-knitted jumper from Lilian every Christmas, with the wry comment that “if it doesn’t fit, it’s because you’ve grown too much – which is not my fault!”

^[39] Treloar, Henry, Cottage gardening in Australia, 4^th ed.1915.

 

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