E is for Edith
Day 5 of the 2025 A to Z April blogging challenge
The maternal grandmother of my husband Greg—mother of his mother Marjorie—was Edith Caroline Edwards, the daughter of immigrants from Cornwall.
Documents kept in the family, probably based on family Bible records, give Edith’s date of birth as 6:45 p.m. 16 September 1871, and the place Sunnyside, Ballarat. The birth was registered on 20 September 1871 in the City of Ballarat.
Edith Caroline Edwards was the daughter of Francis Gilbart Edwards, a twenty-year-old farmer, born in St Erth, Cornwall, and Caroline Ralph, twenty-one, born in Camborne, about ten miles away. Both Francis and Caroline had come to Australia with their families as children.
Edith’s parents were married in Ballarat in December 1870. She was their first child. The birth registration informant was Francis Ralph, her maternal grandfather, occupation stonemason, who also lived in Ballarat.
By 1879, when Edith was seven, the family had moved from Ballarat to Adelaide. Two more girls had been born in Ballarat, and three more were born in Adelaide. The family returned to Ballarat when Edith was about fifteen. A boy was born there, but he died a year later. The family was then living in Richmond, a suburb of Melbourne. Another boy was born in Richmond in 1889.
On 12 December 1889, Henry Dawson and Edith Caroline Edwards were married at the Wesleyan Parsonage in Brunswick, another suburb of Melbourne. The marriage was conducted by Richard Fitcher, Wesleyan Minister, under license and according to the rites of the Wesleyan Methodist Church.
Henry Dawson was a twenty-five-year-old bachelor, born in Lincoln, England. His occupation at the time of his marriage was railway porter, and his residence was Brunswick, Victoria. His parents were Isaac Dawson, a hawker, and Eliza Skeritt.
Her marriage certificate records Edith Caroline Edwards as a nineteen-year-old spinster, born in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Her residence was Brunswick. Her parents were Francis Gilbart Edwards, a railway employee, and Caroline Ralph.
The marriage was performed with the written consent of Francis Gilbart Edwards, the father of the bride. The witnesses to the marriage were Francis Gilbart Edwards and Emma Manning.
Edith and Henry had eight children, all of whom survived infancy, and all of whom, unusually for the period, outlived both parents. They were:
Edith Eliza Rachel 1890–1965
Stella Esther Gilbart 1894–1975
Beatrice Violet 1896–1988
Ruth Evelyn Elsie 1900–1987
Herbert Leslie 1903–1981
Ada Frances 1906–1995
Ernest Henry 1909–1977
Annie Millicent 1912–1996
As a railway employee, from time to time Henry was obliged to move to a new position. Their first daughter was born in Barnawartha on the northern border of Victoria. Their next child, Greg’s grandmother Stella, was born in Camberwell, a suburb of Melbourne in Victoria’s south. Their other children were born in Melbourne in the area around Brighton.
In 1909 Edith and her husband Henry registered to vote. They were living in McKinnon, a Melbourne suburb near Brighton. Henry was recorded as ‘railway employee’.
When their youngest daughter Annie was born in 1912 they were living in North Brighton. By 1914 they had moved to the suburb of Chelsea. They later moved to the neighbouring suburb of Chelsea Heights then to Murrumbeena, where by 1921 where were living at Neerim Road, near the railway station.
My mother-in-law, Marjorie Young née Sullivan (1920-2007), knew both her grandparents. She recalled that
Henry Dawson died on his 65th birthday in Kyneton hospital. He worked for the railways. All the family worked for the railways. He retired from the railways at compulsory retiring age. Came up to Kyneton for a holiday, and got sick with pneumonia or something. He was put into hospital and died. This was about 1930.
Marjorie’s recollections are much in line with Henry’s death certificate, which records that Henry Dawson died on 30 July 1929 at Kyneton Hospital, Victoria. His usual residence was Murrumbeena. The cause of death was pneumonia and heart failure. He was buried at Kyneton cemetery on 1 August. He had been born on 30 July. Marjorie had remembered correctly.
Kyneton is 90 kilometers north of Melbourne. Henry and Edith’s daughter Stella and her family, including Marjorie, were living in Chewton, 30 kilometers from Kyneton at the time.
Marjorie also remembered her grandmother:
‘She was called “Mam”. From about 1929 Mam helped to run a “commune” farm near Glenlyon called “Circle View”. [This was during the Depression. Her husband Henry Dawson had died in 1929.] “Circle View” was on the Melbourne road on the right going to Melbourne on top of a hill. Also on the farm were her daughter Edith (Rachel, called Rae) with her husband Johnnie Jones (they had no children, but their adopted daughter Jean (later Suttie was with them); her daughter Beatrice with her husband Alf Sanday with their two children; her son Ernest with his wife Vera née Shand; and her daughter Annie and various children.’
Marjorie recalled when they were living in Malmsbury visiting “Circle View”. About the time she was aged fourteen to sixteen. They often drove over to visit on Sunday afternoons.
The 1931 electoral roll records Edith living at “Circle View” Glenlyon; her son Ernest was also at Glenlyon. His occupation was ‘assistant projectionist’. On the 1934 roll Edith, her son Ernest and daughter Annie are recorded at Malmsbury, eighteen kilometers to the north-east, where Edith’s daughter Stella and Stella’s family lived from about 1932 to 1937.
On the 1936 roll Edith, Ernest, and Annie were back in Melbourne in Glen Huntly, a suburb near Murrumbeena. By 1942 Edith was living at 61 Catherine Avenue, Chelsea; there was no one else with the same surname registered at the address.
On 1 November 1946, Edith Caroline Dawson died at her home, 61 Catherine Avenue, Chelsea. The death was registered the same day.
She was seventy five years old. She was born in Ballarat, Victoria, and had lived in Victoria for 75 years [the informant was unaware she had lived in South Australia for part of her childhood]. Her father was Francis Gilbart Edwards, a railway employee, and her mother was Caroline Ralph. She had been married in Ballarat [actually Brunswick] at the age of nineteen to Henry Dawson. She was a widow at the time of her death.
Her children were Rachel Edith, aged 55; Stella Esther Gilbart, aged 52; Beatrice Violet, aged 50; Ruth Evelyn Elsie, aged 46; Herbert Leslie, aged 43; Ada Frances, aged 40; Ernest Henry, aged 37; and Annie Millicent, aged 33.
The cause of death was Angina pectoris for two months, mitral stenosis with regurgitation for two years, and cardiac failure for one day. Her death was certified by Dr. R. Storey, who last attended her on 1 November 1946, the day she died. The informant was Walter Rose, an authorized agent, [the undertaker] residing at Charman Road, Cheltenham.
Edith Caroline Dawson was buried on 4 November 1946 at Kyneton Cemetery with her husband.
Her death and funeral arrangements were announced in the Herald (Melbourne, Vic.), Saturday 2 November 1946, page 6
DAWSON.— On November 1, at 61 Catherine Avenue, Chelsea, Edith Caroline, loved wife of the late Henry and loving mother of Rachel (Mrs Jones), Stella (Mrs Sullivan), Beatrice (Mrs Sanday), Elsie (Mrs Macleod), Herbert, Ada (Mrs Robins), Ernest and Annie, Aged 75 years.
DAWSON - The Funeral of the late Mrs EDITH CAROLINE DAWSON will leave our parlor, 241 Charman Road. Cheltenham, on MONDAY, at 8.30 a.m. for Kyneton Cemetery, arriving 10.30 a.m.
W. D. ROSE & SON. Cheltenham. Phone Chelt. 42.We have visited Henry and Edith Caroline’s grave at Kyneton.
Related posts
T is for twin (Henry Dawson)
R is for Railways – triennial listing of railways employees in Victoria
F is for Francis (Francis Gilbart Edwards)
C is for Chewton (the places lived in by the Sullivan family when Marjorie Young née Sullivan was a child)
Wikitree: Edith Caroline (Edwards) Dawson (1871-1946)
This post first published at https://anneyoungau.wordpress.com/2025/04/05/e-is-for-edith/
Girl babies certainly ran in the family. Incidentally, my brother lives in Barnawartha with his family. Quiet little place.
Your photos look well-preserved, Anne.