Rose Myrtle Giles

Mother of Veronica Myrtle Ailsa Beasley

Born:

29 Jun 1909 Mackay, Queensland, Australia

Married:

(1) 28 Jan 1930 District Registry Office, Mackay, Queensland, Australia to John Albert Beasley.

Divorced 13 Jun 1947 Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

(2) 31 May 1958 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia to John Alan Wilson.

Died:

17 May 1969 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Age 59

Cause of death:

Heart attack

Cremated:

20 May 1969 Rookwood Crematorium, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Timeline

Jun 1909

Jul 1909

1909-1911

1912-1925

1930

Jan 1930

1934

1935-1936

1936-1940

1941-1943

1943-1944

1944-1946

1946-1949

1949-1951

1952-1953

1954

May 1958

1958-1963

1968-1969

May 1969

Born on Shakespeare Street, Mackay, Queensland [1]

Mother Rose Pittman dies unexpectedly from a cerebral embolism [2]

Lived with father at Pleystowe Mill, Pleystowe, Queensland [3] [4] [5]

Lived with father at Farleigh Mill, Farleigh, Queensland [6] [7] [9] [10] [11]. Attended Farleigh State School from 1914 [8]

Worked as a domestic servant in Farleigh, Queensland [12]

Married John Albert Beasley at the District Registry Office, Mackay, Queensland [12]

Lived with family at Carmila Farm, Carmila, Queensland [13] [15]

Lived with family at Rosemount Farm, Farleigh, Queensland [14] [15]

Lived with family at Balnagowan Farm, Farleigh, Queensland [15] [16] [17]

Lived with family at Farleigh Mill House, Farleigh, Queensland. Husband John ("Dick") leaves family to join RAAF. They are separated from this point [15] [18]

Lived with daughters at Taylor Street, Mackay, Queensland [15]

Lived with daughters at 28 Rae Street, Mackay, Queensland [15]

Lived with Charles Cox, his daughters and her daughters at Kuttabul, Queensland. Divorced from John Albert Beasley in June 1947 [12] [15] [19]

Lived with daughters at Tennyson Street, Mackay, Queensland. Owned and operated the Harbour Café and ran boarding house from Tennyson Street [15] [20]

Lived with daughters at 6 Lawson Street, Mackay, Queensland. Ran boarding house from Lawson Street [15]

Lived with daughters at 31 Hucker Street, Mackay, Queensland [21]

Married John Alan Wilson in Sydney, New South Wales [22]

Lived with husband at Flat 2, 19 Drynan Street, Summer Hill, Sydney, New South Wales [23] [24]

Lived with husband at 15 River Road, Wollstonecraft, Sydney, New South Wales [25] [26]

Died from a heart attack at home in Wollstonecraft, Sydney. Cremated and her remains interred at Rookwood Crematorium [26]

Biography

Early years

Rose Myrtle Giles (known as Myrtle throughout her life) was born on 29th of June, 1909, at the Cromer Hospital on Shakespeare Street, Mackay in Queensland [1]. Her parents as she was brought up to know them were Benjamin Worthy Giles, an engine driver at the local Pleystowe Mill, and Rose Pittman, from nearby Balnagowan [3] [27].

The first Cromer Hospital in Shakespeare Street, Mackay, as it would have looked at the time of Myrtle's birth

Although Myrtle's parents were married at the time of her birth, DNA evidence has shown that Myrtle was not the biological daughter of Ben Giles. Instead, her biological father was a son of Richard Michael Gunning and Margaret Josephine Kavanagh - very likely their eldest son, Herbert, who was working as a labourer in Balnagowan, in 1908, when Myrtle was conceived [28].

It is not known if Rose knew whether her daughter was not Ben's. It certainly seems from a letter sent by Ben's sister that the family believed Myrtle to be his [29].

Tragically, only 2 and a half weeks after Myrtle's birth, her mother Rose died suddenly and unexpectedly from a cerebral embolism, a stroke caused by a blood clot in the brain causing her paralysis and then death [30].

After Rose's death, Ben was left with two children - baby Myrtle, and her older brother Frederick ("Fred"), who was Rose's son to another man. It appears that Ben contacted his sister Elizabeth in Mitchell, QLD, to see if she would take Rose - whether for a visit or permanently is not clear - however, Elizabeth said it would not be possible while Myrtle was so young and instead offered to make her some baby clothes and booties [29]. In the end, Myrtle stayed in Pleystowe with her father, while her grandmother, Ann - Rose's mother - took Fred to live her and and her husband [15].

Farleigh Sugar Mill 1924 - Centre for the Government of Queensland.jpg

Farleigh sugar mill, Mackay, 1924

Myrtle lived with her father at Pleystowe Mill until she was three years old and then, in 1912, she and her father moved to nearby Farleigh, where Myrtle would grow up. They lived at Farleigh Mill and her father continued to work as an engine driver [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [9] [10] [11].

The local school was Farleigh State School, which Myrtle attended as a girl. At the end of her first school year in December 1914, when Myrtle was 5, she received a school prize for getting the second highest marks in her grade, with a score of 87% [8].

Sadly, all was not well in Myrtle's home, and she suffered abuse at the hands of her father from the age of about 9, until she left home aged around 15 years old [15].

Marriage to John Albert Beasley

We do not know much about Myrtle during this period after leaving home, although we have a copy of a postcard she sent in 1927 to her grandfather, Charles Giles.

It seems she remained in the Farleigh area and, in 1930, she married John Albert ("Dick") Beasley at the District Registry Office, Mackay, on 28th of January, 1930 [12].

Prior to their marriage, Dick had been working on the farm of a friend, Ned Powell. He met Myrtle through mutual association, as Ned was a friend of Myrtle's father Ben Giles [15].

After their marriage, in 1934, Dick and Myrtle moved to Carmila, on a farm owned by Dick's sister Lena and her husband Alfred ("Alf") Thomas. Dick worked as a cane cutter and moved to Carmila for work, so that he could do a season with Alf. This meant cutting cane after the growing season and then, off season, ploughing and strip seeding the fields [13] [15].

They stayed on the farm for about 9 months and, while in Carmila, welcomed their first child. By early 1935, they moved to Rosemount Farm, back in Farleigh. That farm belonged to a friend of Dick's and he worked the farm, doing the same work as at Carmila [15].

Farleigh early 1900s courtesy Mackay Family History Society.jpg

Farleigh, Queensland, early 1900s

In 1936, the family moved to Balnagowan Farm, west of Farleigh, as Myrtle had been given a small sugar cane farm by a recently-deceased uncle who she had cared for. Their farm adjoined a farm owned by a Maltese family called the Corinos, who Dick worked for after a bad season on his and Myrtle's own farm. Other neighbours were the Newman family, who raised cattle on a farm up the road and who would invite Myrtle and her family over for a hot dinner once a month - Mr Newman was known as "Poppy Newman" by Myrtle's eldest daughter [15] [16] [17].

While living at Balnagowan Farm and seven months pregnant with her second child, Myrtle became very ill from rheumatic fever. Her condition remained bad for some months after her daughter was born, so she enlisted her eldest daughter's help to care for the baby. Myrtle would boil the water and sterilise the bottle, and she taught her daughter how to mix water and condensed milk to make up a bottle. Her daughter, only about 3-4 years old, also helped with washing the nappies. Over the August school holidays, Myrtle's brother Fred came to visit with his wife Bella and two boys, to see what he could do to help Myrtle and Dick while Myrtle was so ill. When they arrived, they saw Myrtle's daughter stood on a kerosene box and hanging nappies, wearing her mother's high heeled shoes, fancy hat and a blouse big enough to be a dress over her dungarees [15].

Breakdown of marriage

In 1940, the Beasleys - by then a family of five - sold their farm to their neighbour Peter Carino and returned to Farleigh, where Dick picked up work as a fugler at the Farleigh Mill. "Fuglers" worked at the centrifugal machine of a sugar cane mill [15] [18].

Dick worked the midnight - 4am shift and Myrtle would have breakfast ready for him when he came home. As Dick was a mill employee, the family lived at the Farleigh Mill House for free, and they lived two doors down from Dick's eldest sister, Dorrie [15].

It was about this time that the marriage between Myrtle and Dick broke down - they had very different characters and Myrtle has been described by those who knew her as very hot-tempered and prone to large swings in emotional states. One morning in 1942, after Dick came home from the midnight shift, Myrtle told Dick that she had breakfast ready and Dick replied, "I'm not going to bed today. You might as well know it, I went to town last week to join the RAAF and I'm leaving this morning and I won't be back". And with that, the marriage ended and he was gone, leaving Myrtle with their three young daughters [15].

Dick took a small knapsack, hopped on his bike and drove into town, to take the train and on to basic training. His daughters would not see him again until well after the war [15].

Forging a life of her own

Myrtle initially remained in Farleigh but, by 1943, the family were living on Taylor Street, Mackay and then on Rae Street, where they lived from 1944-1946. Myrtle entered into a relationship with Charles ("Charlie") Cox and she and her daughters moved to Charlie's farm with his children at Kuttabul [15].

Myrtle's eldest daughter remembered Charlie having red hair and looking like Spencer Tracey. Myrtle never liked to miss a dance at the hall, so she and Charlie would go regularly. The dances would end at midnight and Myrtle's eldest daughter learned how to drive at a fairly young age to take her mum and an inebriated Charlie home [15].

Rail bridge going over Pioneer River at Kuttabul, Queensland

Their time at Kuttabul was a happy one, although the children were often bullied at school as their mother was a married, and then divorced, woman living openly with a man not her husband. Myrtle, however, was not the kind of woman to care what others thought and she took care to mind her own business as well [15].

In June 1947, Myrtle's divorce was finalised - the divorce petition was instigated by Dick as he wanted to marry a new woman he had met in Dalby, where he settled after the war. Charlie Cox was listed as a co-defendant to the divorce, along with Myrtle [12]. Not long after the divorce, Dick got in touch to see about having the girls for a couple of weeks over the school holidays - the first time he had seen them since he left [15].

Sydney Street Mackay c1936 - QLD State Archives.jpg

Sydney St, Mackay c1936, showing the old Town Hall

By February 1949, Myrtle and her daughters had moved to Tennyson Street, Mackay, from where Myrtle operated a boarding house. She offered food and board and had about 25 permanent boarders, who were mostly wharf labourers ("wharfies") who worked at the harbour [31] [15].

Later that year, in December 1949, Myrtle additionally took on the lease for the Harbour Café [32]. The café was situated at the approach of the north and south piers as you came up the road from Mackay and it predominantly served the wharfies [15].

At the time Myrtle bought the business, harbour employers would pay her as the propietress to provide free lunch and dinner for wharfies. Crushing season was the busiest time, when the local mills would crush the cane and refine the resulting cane juice into sugar. The sugar was bagged, with each bag weighing around 110-120 lbs (50-55 kg). The wharfies would carry the bags over their shoulders and load them by hand onto the waiting ships [15].

Mackay outer harbour, c1960

Myrtle employed a head chef, called Leo, an assistant to Leo and three waitresses - Leo's two daughters and Myrtle's eldest daughter [15].

During crushing season, they would have meals ready at 12 noon to feed 300 men for lunch. They served salad, braised steak, roast meat, roast vegetables, an additional meat dish and then sweets. The men would have the meals dished up to them canteen-style and they would get the lunch service done in about 35 mins. Afterwards, Myrtle and her team would clear up and get ready for the evening dinner service at 5pm for wharfies doing overtime [15].

When Leo sadly passed away from cancer, he was replaced by Jock McFarlane, a tiny Scotsman. Jock insisted on having his two days off a week so, on those days, Myrtle's eldest daughter would fill in as chef. On those days, she would need to start at 4am to get the two big ovens going, then get the vegetables prepped before looking to see what meats Myrtle had put out for use, then settle a menu based on what was available [15].

However, although Myrtle was subsidised by the employers to provide these meals, after a year of operating, she found she was losing money on providing the canteen. Matters were made worse when, in November 1950, the employers made a decision to instead pay a meal subsidy of 3s. 6d. directly to the labourers, rather than to Myrtle. She then found that many men chose to spend their meal subsidy elsewhere - either going into Mackay town for their meals or bringing sandwiches from home. In one incident, Myrtle had only 70 dinners on one day, with the wharfies waving at her as they drove past to get food in town [33] [36].

Myrtle had had enough. On Friday, 8th December 1951, she gave notice to the wharfies that she intended to close the café. The following Monday, as warned, the café did not open to serve meals. At 5pm, the wharfies stopped work, refusing to do overtime if the café was closed [34] [35].

The situation was reported on by Mackay's Daily Mercury newspaper the following day, with Myrtle initially refusing to make a comment to the paper [34]. What followed was a year-long standoff, with Myrtle refusing to reopen the café and wharfies refusing to work any overtime shifts unless hot meals were provided at the café. Myrtle finally made a public comment on the 4th January, 1951, saying:

"I was losing money, and had to sack the staff. There was nothing else for me but shut down the dining rooms. I have my living to make. I am not in the wrong, so I do not see why I should worry" [33].

The timing could not have been worse for harbour officials. By the end of January 1951, there was 77,000 tonnes of the season's sugar that remained to be cleared, as a result of bad weather, waterfront stoppages and the lack of overtime due to the café closure [37]. Subsequently, wharf unions then voted to ban overtime temporarily Australia-wide, until a £1 a week increase to the basic wage was implemented [38] [39]. As a result, by March 1951, there was still 52,000 tonnes of sugar sitting at the wharf [39].

Although the Australia-wide overtime ban was lifted on the 9th of March, wharfies at Mackay Harbour still refused to do overtime shifts until the café re-opened and provided hot meals again [39] [36]. As a result, 6 hours of night loading time was being lost each week [36].

By the end of April, Myrtle had retained legal representation and would not reply to any letters sent to her by the Harbour Board except via her solicitors. Adelaide Steamship Company, one of the principal wharf employers, agreed to subsidise her costs by 6d. per meal ordered by an employer for a wharfie, with the caveat that her accounts were also examined, an offer which Myrtle flatly rejected. In her public response, reported in the Daily Mercury, she stated that she would still be unable to provide a meal for the 3s. 6d. that the employers provided to the wharfies for meals. She pointed out that she would have to pay a cook £14 for a 40 hour week and waitresses £6 and she had no guarantee of business if a ship wasn't in port [36].

The Chairman of the Mackay Harbour Board distanced himself from the row, pointing out that Myrtle had kept up-to-date with her weekly rental payment of £5 10s. for the unit. Another member of the Mackay Harbour Board, Mr. Mulherin, also supported Myrtle, stating, "a person is not yet born who can give satisfaction to the watersiders as far as meals are concerned. The

board has done its duty right through. Mrs. Beasley won't provide meals because she considers it is not a commercial venture. I am quite prepared to believe her" [36].

Myrtle offered the use of the canteen free-of-charge to the Adelaide Steamship Company or Stevedoring Industry Board (S.I.B.) if they wanted to operate it to provide meals to the wharfies, an offer that was declined. In fact, Myrtle had bristled at the interference of the S.I.B., instructing her solicitors to make it clear that she did not consider herself in any way subject to the S.I.B. and that further discussions from them would not change her opinion [36].

The S.I.B. admitted it could take no action against Myrtle and requested the Harbour Board take steps to have meals restored to the café. In response, the Mackay Harbour Board stated that it had fulfilled its obligation by building the canteen - it had no obligation to make Myrtle provide meals [36].

The stalemate continued until that December, when Myrtle sold the café to new owners, who were prepared to commit to providing hot meals [40]. Throughout this time, Myrtle had continued to operate her boarding house at Tennyson Street. With the sale of the café business, she was able to move to a new home at Lawson Street, from which she operated a larger boarding house [15].

Lawson Street backed onto the old boarding house at Tennyson Street and could accommodate up to 35 permanent boarders. It also had a broader mix of boarders - not just wharfies but also men who worked as "bank johnnies", railway workers, sailors, and men who had separated from their wives [15].

Final years and death

Myrtle ran the Lawson Street boarding house for another two years but, by 1954, she was living on Hucker Street, Mackay [21].

She moved south to Sydney and remarried on the 31st of May, 1958, to John Alan Wilson [22]. John worked as a manager and she moved into his home on Drynan Street, Summer Hill, an inner-west suburb [23] [24].

John died in 1968 and, the following year on the 17th of May, 1969, Myrtle died in the kitchen of her home in Wollstonecraft, from a massive and fatal heart attack, aged only 59 years old [41] [26].

She was cremated on the 20th of May, 1969, with her remains interred at the the Rookwood Crematorium in Sydney [26].

Source information

Rose Myrtle Giles, QLD Birth Certificate, 29 Jun 1909, Record no: 1909/C/7347, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
Rose Pittman, QLD Death Certificate, 17 Jul 1909, Record no: 1909/C/2298, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
Benjamin Giles, QLD Electoral Roll, District of Mackay, 1909, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]. Location of father is used as a proxy for location of Myrtle, as she was a minor at the time.
Benjamin Giles, QLD Electoral Roll, District of Mackay, 1910, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]. Location of father is used as a proxy for location of Myrtle, as she was a minor at the time.
Benjamin Giles, QLD Electoral Roll, District of Mackay, 1911, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]. Location of father is used as a proxy for location of Myrtle, as she was a minor at the time.
Benjamin Giles, QLD Electoral Roll, District of Mackay, 1912, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]. Location of father is used as a proxy for location of Myrtle, as she was a minor at the time.
Benjamin Giles, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Mackay, 1913, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]. Location of father is used as a proxy for location of Myrtle, as she was a minor at the time.
Farleigh State School, Daily Mercury, Wed 23 Dec 1914, page 2, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
Benjamin Giles, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Mackay, 1916, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]. Location of father is used as a proxy for location of Myrtle, as she was a minor at the time.
Benjamin Giles, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Mackay, 1921, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]. Location of father is used as a proxy for location of Myrtle, as she was a minor at the time.
Benjamin Giles, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Mirani, 1925, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]. Location of father is used as a proxy for location of Myrtle, as she was a minor at the time.
Albert John Beasley and Rose Myrtle Giles, QLD Marriage Certificate, 28 Jan 1930, Record no: 1930/C/481, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
Rose Myrtle Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Capricornia, Subdistrict of St Lawrence, 1934, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Rose Myrtle Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Mirani, 1936, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Conversations with V. Beasley, daughter of John Albert Beasley and Rose Myrtle Giles
Rose Myrtle Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Mirani, 1937, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Rose Myrtle Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Mirani, 1939, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
Rose Myrtle Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Herbert, Subdistrict of Mirani, 1943, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Rose Myrtle Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Dawson, Subdistrict of Mirani, 1949, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Rose Myrtle Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Dawson, Subdistrict of Mackay, 1949, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Rose Myrtle Beasley, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Dawson, Subdistrict of Mackay, 1954, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
John Alfred Wilson and Rose Myrtle Beasley, NSW Marriage Index, 1958, Record no: 9560/1958, NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages [familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au]
Rose Myrtle Wilson, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Werriwa, Subdistrict of Summer Hill, 1958, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Rose Myrtle Wilson, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Grayndler, Subdistrict of Summer Hill, 1963, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Rose Myrtle Wilson, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, District of Bennelong, Subdistrict of Wollstonecraft, 1968, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Rose Myrtle Wilson, NSW Death Certificate, 17 May 1969, Record no: 19866/1969, NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages [familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au]
Benjamin Werthy Giles and Rosie Pittman, QLD Marriage Certificate, 19 Dec 1908, Record no: 1908/C/1666, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
Genealogy research report - parentage of Rose Myrtle Giles
Letter from Elizabeth Emily Giles to her brother Benjamin Worthy Giles, Regarding the death of his wife and the circumstances for daughter Myrtle, 1909, Mitchell, Queensland
Rose Giles, QLD Death Certificate, 17 Jul 1909, Record no: 1909/C/2298, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
Advertising: Lost wallet, Daily Mercury, 26 Feb 1949, page 8, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
Palms for Harbor, Daily Mercury, 24 Dec 1949, page 10, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
Dinners for wharfies at harbor still off menu, Daily Mercury, 4 Jan 1951, page 2, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
Wharf stop on cafe closedown, Daily Mercury, 12 Dec 1950, page 2, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
Watersiders will take lunches, Daily Mercury, 14 Dec 1950, page 2, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
Board disclaims harbor cafe meal dispute, Daily Mercury, 27 Apr 1951, page 2, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
Overtime ban will hold up sugar, Daily Mercury, 26 Jan 1951, page 2, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
Overtime ban expected, Daily Mercury, 24 Jan 1951, page 3, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
Cost of wharf ban, Daily Mercury, 9 Mar 1951, page 2, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
Overtime with cafe's opening, Daily Mercury, 6 Dec 1951, page 2, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
John Alan Wilson, NSW Death Index, 1968, Record no: 39038/1968, NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages [familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au]