Hamilton

After 1900 he made several mentions of his children in his letters; from August 1901 an unusual letter written at home in Sydney:

” We have a good old Irish servant (Biddy by name) who looks after the house and kids splendidly, infact little Freddie will do more for her than he will for us. He is such a good little fellow…Molly is a cranky little thing….Jim goes to the Waverley Grammar School and Millie to the Convent school in town….they are doing their work and squabbling beside me now. They are getting quite big and we can send them all over Sydney by themselves….Mary is going to send you one of Mollies curls - she is a mass of curls and such a pretty thing. ”

The letter finished: ” This is the first letter I have wrote you in the midst of my family. Excuse the writing, they are shaking the table.”. And from early 1903 :

” Little Freddie is a very fine boy and the pet of Bondi. Molly is a little terror, she must do as she likes and if anyone interferes she can just say ‘I’ll tell my father when the big ship comes home!’. Mildred and Jim are big lumps going to school and if I take Mary away I will put them to boarding school. ”

(Freddie Courbarron enlisted in the infantry 1915 after the outbreak of WWI. He was just 15 and so raised his age to 17 in order to be accepted. Freddie was at the Gallipolli Landing on April 25th 1915, he served until being discharged after suffering the effects of the mustard gas used at the time in warfare. He lived on the NSW north coast and died in 1987.)

April 1903: ” I was home for two days a few weeks ago, the first time in near two years, the youngsters did not know me. Jim said ‘I suppose you’re Dad?’. Mary came to NZ to meet me when I got back from Calcutta and was aboard for a few days, I took her back to Newcastle on the ship. ”

James made several references to his health over the years. His gout had given him considerable discomfort and he was suffering increasing deafness caused by the years of taking quinine to combat malaria on his travels. He also suffered from rheumatics and it was for this reason that he resigned from the Union Steamship Company on 10th September 1903.

The following year, on the 16th September 1904, Augustus James Hamilton Courbarron died. The cause of death was noted as cardiac failure caused by the chronic nephritis - or Brights Disease. He was only 41years old.

(This Brights Disease is a genetic condition and was also suffered by James’s relatives in Canada; his daughter Mildred passed the illness down to her own daughter and a grandson.)

Molly was only six at the time of her father’s death but recalled that her last vivid memory of him was when the undertakers came to collect his body. Their servant Biddy had sent her and young Freddie, who was four, to their rooms at the top of the stairs. They crept out and sat on the top step watching as the undertakers put their father’s body into a coffin. James had requested that he be buried as close to the sea as possible. And he was. He was buried at the windswept Waverley cemetery in a plot facing the sea. When Mary joined him there, in 1927, many more graves in that time had been placed between James and the cliff face.

Money did eventually come from Ireland in June 1905 with the sale of St Ernans. It was not a great fortune - £1, 670. James Hamilton suggested several ways to safely invest it but Mary eventually spent it all. After James’ death Mary started a relationship with a man of rather unsavory character; this resulted in the birth of a baby girl in 1908, Kathleen (Kitty), and the loss of the money and silver sent from St Ernans. This man disappeared after the birth of Kathleen taking Mary’s money and her husbands family legacy with him. He was never heard from again.

Mildred, my great grandmother, died in 1963. Frederick died at Mullimbimby NSW in 1983. Molly died in 1988. She recalled her memories of her sea-going father:

” He was about 5 feet 8 inches tall and had mid-brown hair. He was an honest person who had been kind with the children. He could also be stern with them. ”

Molly also spoke about how her father travelled home to Bondi on his infrequent visits to Sydney. She said he travelled by Hansom Cab from Dawes Point - the Sydney Harbour Bridge stands there today. He also smoked.

When asked if her father ever went to church, she answered…

” No, he only ever went to sea. ”

( Acknowlegments to my mother’s cousin, Lyn Blacklow, for her painstaking work in compiling the information for this series.)

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