James Marlow (1880-1931) and Ellen Machell (1879-1960).
My great-grand uncle and aunt.
Born in Acton, Middlesex, James Marlow was the eldest son of Reuben Thomas Marlow and Annie Ayling. James was baptised on 26 December 1880 at All Saints Church in South Acton.
By the 1901 Census, he was boarding with a family on Caledon Road, Wallington, Surrey, and working as a gardener. In a neighbouring house lived Ellen Machell, who James married at Holy Trinity in Wallington on 3 August 1901. She’d been born in nearby Beddington in 1879, the daughter of labourer Henry Machell and his Irish-born wife Kate. James and Ellen remained in the area and had several children, one of whom died an infant. But at some point in the early years of their marriage they made the decision to emigrate to Australia – not an easy one then as it meant they would probably never see their friends and families again.
Whether they were part of an assisted migration scheme is not yet known but on 25 March 1911 James began the journey from London to Fremantle in Western Australia, arriving on board the Australind on 8 May and described as an agriculturalist. He travelled alone, perhaps to find accommodation and prepare the ground for the rest of the family. Ellen and their two daughters followed in 1912, also on the Australind, arriving on the 18 May.
Birth records of their younger children showed them living some 450km north of the state capital Perth in the early years of their Australian adventure. But a 1917 electoral roll placed them in the wheatbelt town of Merredin, about 250km east of Perth, with James working for the railways. Merredin grew not just with agriculture but as a stopping point to the goldfields further east. A number of narrow gauge railway lines linked the town to other settlements and gold mines in the region.
In the 1920s James became a farmer in Nokaning, a few miles to the north of Merredin. He died at Merredin Hospital in Western Australia on 2 November 1931 (Kalgoorlie Miner, 11 November 1931). He was buried at the vast cemetery at Palmyra, a suburb of Perth. Ellen remarried in Fremantle in 1938, her new husband being widower and butcher Frederick Charles Richman Bowering, who’d been born on 30 December 1869 at Aldinga in South Australia. They settled in Fremantle. Frederick died in Fremantle Hospital on 24 May 1951 (The West Australian 25 May 1951 public notices) and was buried in the cemetery at Palmyra. Ellen died in Fremantle in 1960.
James and Ellen’s children were:
- Nellie May Marlow (1903-1973). Nellie was baptised on 26 July 1903 at St Mary’s in Beddington, Surrey, and travelled with her mother to Australia in 1912. She married Leslie Marchall Bowden, who came from New South Wales, in Perth in 1922. Electoral rolls in the 1930s placed them in the Yilgarn shire where he worked as a miner in the goldfields. By 1943 they were in Fremantle and he was working as a lumper, essentially someone who loaded and unloaded goods . However, the couple divorced in 1949. The Perth Mirror of 10 September 1949 reported that Nellie had sued for desertion on the grounds that, since about 1930, Leslie had only been interested in horse racing and had gambled all their money away. In 1950 Nellie married Albert William Jarratt, also a lumper. They lived in and around Fremantle and Perth. Nellie died on 22 May 1973, Albert on 18 May 1987.
- Dorothy Marlow (1906-1906). Nellie was baptised at St Mary’s in Beddington, Surrey, on 17 June 1906 and died the same year.
- Ruby Beatrice Marlow (1907-1994). Ruby was baptised on 19 January 1908 at St Michael and All Angels in Beddington, Surrey, and travelled with her mother to Australia in 1912. She married Albert Ezra Roberts of Portsmouth in England in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, in 1930. He had a number of jobs over the years, including working as a lumper and miner around the goldfields, and also served in the army during the Second World War. In later years the couple lived around Perth and Fremantle. Albert died on 23 September 1967, Ruby on 20 January 1994.
- Kate Irene Marlow (1913-1974). Kate was born in Mullewa, Western Australia, some 450km north of the capital Perth. She married Albert Henry Thomas Budge in Perth in 1936. The Daily News, Perth, of 14 May 1940 reported that Albert had been found not guilty of killing a cyclist during a road accident in a Perth suburb in January 1940. He worked as a truck driver and for a time they lived out in the goldfields. He also served in the army during the Second World War, on the home front. Later, Kate and Albert moved back to the suburbs of Perth and Fremantle. Kate died on 9 May 1974, Albert on 10 November 1988.
- James Henry Marlow (1916-2004). James was born in Geraldton, Western Australia, some 450km north of the capital Perth. He married Thelma May Studd in Northam, WA, in 1943. A jockey by profession, he served in the army in the Second World War but things did not go well. His record outlined a long list of offences, including going AWOL, and finally, on 12 December 1944, he was sentenced at court martial to 23 months hard labour for desertion, escaping from captivity and being absent without leave. The Mirror, Perth, of 17 May 1947 reported on James and Thelma’s divorce, granted on the grounds of his misconduct. A private eye hired by Thelma had discovered James in a compromising position at the Fremantle Memorial Gardens. In 1946 Thelma had obtained a separation from him because of his cruelty and she’d grown suspicious after finding letters and telegrams that hinted at his relationship with the other woman. James married the “other woman”, Evelyn Ruth Screen, in 1951, lived a long life and died on 5 July 2004.
Sources:
Birth, marriage, death and burial records including civil registrations from the General Register Office, census returns, military, travel and other records at Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and familysearch.org.
British Newspaper Archive, titles in text.
Second World War military records from the National Archives of Australia.
Trove, the Australian newspaper archive.