The Ramsden Family

Above: The Ramsden family...Violet and her husband Harold, and their two daughters Enid and Margery.

Violet and Harold Ramsden had two children- elder daughter Enid Bertha Jean was born in Prahran on December 4,1902, and younger daughter Margery Ida was born at Elsternwick on August 27, 1904.
Only one sister married...in 1954, in Sydney, Enid Ramsden, aged about 52, married John Kilton Andrews. She died on March 16, 1976.
Margery never married, and died just six months after Enid, on September 26, 1976.

I have traced Violet in the electoral rolls, but Harold has proved to be a real mystery...after showing up in the Prahran electoral roll of 1903, I can't find him ever again in other electoral rolls.
1903: Harold Ramsden 226 Chapel Street, Prahran, clerk
Violet Ramsden as above Home duties

1930: Violet Bertha Malvina Ramsden 50 Third Avenue,Willoughby, florist
Margery Ida Ramsden as above saleswoman
Enid Bertha Jean Ramsden as above clerk

1936: Violet Bertha Malvina Ramsden 31 Dalton Rd, Warringah Home duties
Margery Ida as above shop assistant.

In the Sands Directory of Sydney, 1910, I found Harold J. Ramsden living at Military Road, Vaucluse, but after that reference, nothing until his death in 1943 in the Drummoyne district of Sydney.Violet, however, appears as Mrs Violet Ramsden in the Sands Directories of 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926 and 1927. Her address in each instant is "186 Princes Street", with no suburb specified.
Judith Laging, whose father was Violet Bishop's second cousin, wrote the following in a letter to me re. the Ramsden family:
" The photo(appearing in next blog)was taken in 1927 at Violet's and Harold's. The house is an early house at Castlecrag, the first of three subdivisions of Willoughby designed by Walter Burley Griffin and his wife. This was just the type of huge land deal/ development that would have interested Roland, although it was Violet and her husband who were friends of Walter and Marion Burley Griffin and who invested in the development and lived there. Olive and Gran (Ivy McCallum Robley) stayed with the Ramsdens whenever they came to visit Sydney.
The land on the North Shore was obtained by not telling a British Company's shareholders that a bridge was going to be built over the Sydney Harbour, so they sold it to Burley Griffin and business associates for a price more cheaply than would have been the case.
There were thirty shareholders, with shares one thousand pounds each.Roland later lived in nearby View Street, Woollahra.
The early Castlecrag houses leaked and people moved out and it was a very new concept, but I'd have lived there at the drop of a hat!All the houses were designed of local stone with native plants only- just bush and natural boundaries, and of course the cliffs and the harbour views- good place for Roland's boat."

I have no idea how long Violet and her family lived at Castlecrag, or why Harold did not appear with them on electoral rolls and in directories.There was never any suggestion that he and Violet ever separated, and in the above photo Harold is posing happily with his wife and teenage daughters.
Harold Ramsden died in 1943, aged about 68 years.Violet died four years later in 1947, aged about 73 years.

UPDATE: In March and April of 2011, I was fortunate to be able to make contact with Alison Ball, a fabulous researcher who had developed a website relating to her family history, a great part of which dealt with the Ramdsen family. Alison, like me, did not know anything of Harold Ramsden's circumstances prior to his death, but with two of us working on the mystery, we solved the case before a week had passed. Firstly, a little about Harold himself (information gratefully obtained from
http://www.wisdomdays.com/ and from Alison via email):

Above: Harold Ramsden (Source: Private collection of Alison Ball)

Harold John Ramsden was born in Victoria in 1875, the eldest son born to Frederic Ramsden and his wife Sarah Deans. At the time of his marriage to Violet Bishop in 1900, Harold was working as a telegraph operator, and living in South Yarra. There is an entry on the Electoral Roll for 1903 that states:

Ramsden: Harold. 226 Chapel Street, Prahran, clerk

Ramsden: Violet. 226 Chapel Street, home duties.

Sometime over the next few years Harold moved his family to Sydney, and he appears in the 1910 Sands Directory as living at "Warrawee", Military Street, West Side, Vaucluse.

Harold was employed at the Pyrmont Post Office as a telegraphist during the War years, and in 1918 applied and was accepted to be one of the Australian men who volunteered to go to England as a munitions worker. The National Archives of Australia provided the following information about this scheme:

"...men enlisted under a joint Australian Commonwealth - Imperial Government scheme for providing skilled Australian workers to British war industries during the First World War. Under this scheme the volunteers would receive free passage to Great Britain, an allowance for travel time, a special allowance for the duration of service, and eventual repatriation to Australia. Married men also received a separation allowance, but were required to allot a portion of all their earnings to dependants. In return for the above the men were expected to work in whatever industries they were directed to by the British Board of Trade, and under the prevailing conditions and wages for the duration of hostilities. Government newspaper adverts appeared in August 1916, and the first party of 76 workers departed Australia in September. Groups continued to be recruited and sent at intervals, with the eventual number of workers under the scheme totalling just over 5,000. "

It seems strange that a 42 year old father of two young daughters would leave them and his wife to work in England, especially since it meant surrendering a secure job at the Post Office. There is evidence, however, that Harold was perhaps not of the healthiest mental state when this decision was made...he had for a period of time prior to this been treated for "nerves" by a Dr. Macreadie of Macquarie Street.

All did not go smoothly with Harold's planned new life...despite his luggage being forwarded to Adelaide from the Victoria Barracks in Sydney where he had taken it, Harold himself did not follow. In fact, for several months he disappeared from view, leaving a distraught family wondering about his safety and the police conducting interstate searches trying to find some clue of his fate.

Articles appeared in various newspapers, including the following which was published in Queanbeyan Age and Observer on January 18, 1918:

"MUNITIONS WORKER MISSING.

After having enlisted as a munition worker for England and his luggage had been entrained for Adelaide, Harold John Ramsden, 42, who was employed as a telegraphist at the Pyrmont Post Office, disappeared, and the police have not been able to find him. Ramsden was reported missing from his home on November 15 last year, but he returned a day or two afterwards, and did not say where he had been to in his absence. At that time he was employed at the Post Office, but shortly afterwards he resigned his position. A few days later he volunteered for munition making, and he took his baggage to Victoria Barracks. He should have entrained that day for Adelaide, en route for England, but his baggage was returned from that city, where the authorities say that he did not answer the roll call.

The missing man was of a morose disposition, and very melancholy. He was of the opinion that nobody wanted him, and that he would be better out of the road. He had been under Dr. McCreadie, of Macquarie Street, Sydney, for some time, and had been treated for nerves.

  Although the police have made a thorough search in Sydney, they have not been able to find any trace of him, He is 5ft 8in high, of medium build, medium complexion, brown hair, going bald in front, had a dark ginger moustache, brown or hazel eyes, and a scar under his right eye.

Ramsden was employed some time ago in the Federal Capital Territory, and was president of a branch of the Political Labour League."

On the same day, the Sydney Morning Herald published a shorter piece:

"MISSING FROM HOME.

Harold John Ramsden, 42, who was lately employed as a telegraphist at the Pyrmont Post Office, has been reported to police as having been missing from his home since Christmas. The missing man had volunteered as a munition maker, and had made preparations for his trip to England. His luggage was conveyed to Adelaide, but was later returned owing to the owner having not claimed it."

Above: Perth, January 17, 1918.

Poor Violet must have been absolutely distraught, and thinking that the very worst had happened to her husband considering that he was already having suicidal thoughts prior to his disappearance. The pressure applied on her by the District Pay Office at Victoria Barracks for her to pay back the four pounds and nineteen shillings advance which had been made to Harold would have only added to her distress. Violet wrote the following letter to explain her situation, and fortunately reason prevailed and the amount was written off the books.

" 186 Princes Street, Sydney.

To Mr Sinclair,

Victoria Barracks.

Sir- My husband, Harold J. Ramsden,on the 3rd of January last left Sydney with a number of workers en route to England, but did not leave Australia. Every effort was made to trace him but failed, and I was approached by someone whose name I cannot just now recall who asked me to refund a sum of money which had been paid to my husband by the Military Authorities. Some weeks since my husband returned home and has from that day been an inmate of the Mental Hospital at Darlinghurst.

I am now writing to ask you if it is possible to have the amount written off the books. 

Faithfully yours,

 V. Ramsden."

It seems as though Harold Ramsden remained in psychiatric care from this point in 1918 until his death in 1944. This certainly explains why he never again appeared in a street directory...it was always Violet by herself. In 1925 Violet Ramsden was listed in a Sands Directory as living at 186 Essex Street, Sydney, and her occupation as 'dressmaker'. In 1930 she was earning a living as a florist from Rowe Street, Sydney, whilst living with her girls at 50 Third Avenue, West Side,(off Edinburgh Road) which was her home on the Castlecrag estate.

 Violet's nephew, my great-uncle Gordon Oakley, once stated that although he had met Violet and his cousins, Enid and Margery, he had never even seen his uncle, Harold Ramsden. He said that Harold had resided in a nursing home or similar, and that this left Violet and the girls in a 'straightened' financial situation.

Harold John Ramsden died in 1943 at the age of 68. The following death notice was published in the Argus on November 19, 1943:

"RAMSDEN. On November 14 (suddenly), Harold John, beloved husband of Violet Bertha Ramsden, and loving father of Enid and Margery, of 31 Dalton Street, Mossman, Sydney. (Privately cremated at Northern Suburbs Crematorium).

Violet died four years later...

"RAMSDEN: Violet Bertha Malvina- July 12, 1947, at her residence, 31 Dalton Road, Mossman, widow of Harold John Ramsden and loving mother of Enid and Margery, and sister of Daphne and Olive and aunt of Lin Grant, aged 73 years. Melbourne papers please copy."- Sydney Morning Herald, July 14, 1947.