William Mitchell (1829-1892)
and Mary Jane Parrott (1846-1900)

(last updated 12 November 2022)

Life and times

Nellie Williams' paternal grandparents were William Mitchell (1829-92) - pictured on the left - and Mary Jane Parrott (1846-1900) who were married at the residence of a Mrs Warner at Lake Macquarie to the south of Newcastle on 27 September 1866. A copy of their wedding certificate originally shared by Adrian Olsen and contained on Freja Soininen's 'Cross-Soininen Family Tree' on Ancestry, states that both were working at Lake Macquarie at the time, William as a labourer and Mary Jane as a house servant. Freja adds that William was a native of Inverness-shire in Scotland while Mary Jane was born at Tamworth in northeastern NSW. The year before her marriage to William, Mary Jane had given birth to a daughter while working as a servant at West Maitland (the child's birth certificate states the father was unknown). Freja's and a number of other family trees on Ancestry tell us William was born in 1829 - his burial records, described below, state he was born in 1819 - and he and Mary Jane had nine children, six of whom were born in Newcastle and three in the Armidale region of NSW: Malcolm William (born in 1867), Colin (1869-1922), Roderick (1870-1947), Samuel Alfred (1872-1962), Mary Jane Morris (1874-1949), John (1875-6), Ellen Emily Sommerville (1877-1947), John (1879-1955) and Stephen Mitchell (1882-1945).

By the 1890s the family was back in Newcastle and William was working as a storekeeper and coach proprietor. The NSW 1891 census shows a W. Mitchell, together with five males and three females, living on Elizabeth Street in a house that adjoined the Tighe's Hill public school. A report in the Daily Telegraph in February of the same year informed its readers that 'This afternoon a man named McCallum sold a roan horse to Wiliam Mitchell, omnibus proprietor, of Tighe's-Hill, for £5. Mr Mitchell had scarcely placed the animal in his bus when Joseph Woodcock of Hamilton, recognised the horse as his property, and was about to take summary proceedings when Mitchell produced his receipt. A warrant was immediately issued for the arrest of McCailum'. On 24 March 1892, the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate reported that a William Mitchell applied for a license to run a line of buses from the city to the proposed Smedmore estate (first planned in 1878, the Smedmore Estate comprised 71 building sites in an area in Wickham adjoining Throsby's Creek). By the mid-1890s, four of William and Mary Jane's sons - Samuel, Roderick, John and Colin Mitchell (along with his wife Agnes Emily and their first two children) - had sailed from Australia to New Zealand where they lived and worked in the Kiapara Region in the north of the North Island, Samuel and Roderick as bushmen and Colin and John as farmers. As described below Samuel, Roderick and John all remained in New Zealand. Colin and Agnes Mitchell and most of their children returned to Australia in around 1913.

By 1889 William, who was now into his his sixties or seventies, was also either ill or sufficiently indisposed to publish the following notice in the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate: 'The BUSINESS lately carried on by the undersigned as General Storekeeper, at Tighe's Hill, will, in future, be conducted by my wife, MARY JANE MITCHELL, and SON. (Signed) WM. MITCHELL' (28 June 1889). Mary Jane Mitchell nee Parrott died on 6 September 1900. The family published the following notices in the Newcastle Herald and Miners Advocate: 'MITCHELL - Friends of the late Mrs MARY JANE MITCHELL are invited to attend her Funeral: To leave her late residence, Elizabeth-street, Tighe's Hill, THIS AFTERNOON. at half-past 2, for Church of England Cemetery, Sandgate' (7 September 1900) and 'Return Thanks. We desire to return our sincere THANKS to the many kind friends for their kindly assistance and expressions of sympathy by letter and wreaths in the sad bereavement of our beloved mother, Mary Jane Mitchell. (Signed) Mr and Mrs SOMMERVILLE and Mrs G. B. MORRIS Elizabeth street, Tighes Hill' (11 September 1900). Mary Jane's husband, William Mitchell, died at Newcastle on 28 June 1891. According to the Find a Grave website William, aged around 73, and Mary Jane (55) are both buried in Newcastle's Sandgate Cemetery (Anglican Section 24 plots 63 and 65).

What of their children? We know nothing of William and Mary Jane's eldest son, Malcolm William Mitchell, beyond his date of birth. Their second son, Colin Mitchell (1869-1922), married Agnes Emily Lane (1875-1958) in the Newcastle suburb of Islington on 20 March 1892. They had two children when they left for New Zealand in around 1896 and a further seven over there including Nellie Mitchell (later Williams) who was born at Dargaville in the Northlands region of New Zealand in 1902. Click here to read a detailed account of their lives, family and descendants. Another son, John Mitchell, died as an infant in 1876. Detailed below is what we know of William and Mary Jane's remaining six children:

Children and descendants

1) Roderick Mitchell (1870-1947). A copy of his marriage certificate, contained on Carl Nelson's 'Nelson NSW Tree' on Ancestry, tells us Roderick, a 24 year-old bachelor labourer born at Newcastle, and Leonora Newman (1878-1978), then a 15 year-old domestic servant who was born in Auckland, were married in the Dargaville Registrar's Office on 10 July 1893 (both were then living at Dargaville). Roderick's parents were said to be William Mitchell, coach proprietor, and Mary Jane 'Peritt'. Leonora's were Charles Harold Newman, labourer, and Louisa Isaac. The certificate was witnessed by a J. and M. E. Logan both of whom were also from Dargaville. Carl Nelson tells us Roderick and Leonora had five children all of whom were born at Dargaville: Roderick jnr (1897-1979), Charles Harold (1901-68), Ernest George (1904-80), Leonora Rose Olsen (1910-2002) and Mary Jane Logan (1912-2007). All but Leonora Rose Olsen died and are buried at Dargaville. She married Huia Andrew Olsen (1910-87) at Helensville north of Auckland and following his death in 1987, went to Cairns in Australia where she died on 23 July 2002 (we don't know if she was visiting Cairns or living there). Carl adds that Roderick Mitchell snr died at Mamaranui in Kaipara on 7 July 1947 and his wife, Leonora died at Te Kopura in Kaipara on 1 January 1978. The Find a Grave, website shows they are both buried in the Old Wesley Cemetery at Dargaville.

2) Samuel Alfred (Sam) Mitchell (1872-1962). The New Zealand electoral rolls show Sam was living at Tokatoka and working as a bushman at the time of the 1900 and 1903 elections. Two years later he married Catherine (Kate) Kaes (1871-1932) who was born at Puhoi. Her parents, Wenzl and Maria Kaes nee Woller, and younger siblings had emigrated from Bohemia to New Zealand a few years before Kate's birth. Like hundreds of European immigrants before and after, they had first to travel by train and then ship to England and then undergo a month-long journey through sometimes mountainous seas to the other side of the world. On arrival at Auckland they boarded a cutter, run by Capt Kaspar or some other ship owner, which ferried them to the mouth of the Puhoi river from whence they were transported by Maori canoes and boats to their future dwelling places. After her marriage to Sam, Kate joined him at Raupo where he continued working as a bushman and later took up dairy farming. Kate Mitchel nee Kaes died at Raupo on 30 August 1930. The Find a Grave website tells us she is buried in the Tokatoka Cemetery along with her and Sam's son, Frederick Walter Mitchell (1908-14). In 1932, the widowed Sam married Minnie Robinson. The New Zealand electoral rolls show she and Sam lived on the dairy farm at Raupo until the latter's retirement in around 1950 and he and Minnie moved to Auckland. The running of the farm was taken over by Sam's oldest son, Alexander Alfred Mitchell (1906-66), and his wife, Tabatha Martha McCord (1908-92), who were married in 1931, probably in Auckland although that has still to be confirmed. The records for Auckland's Waikumete Cemetery show a Samuel Alfred Mitchell, retired farmer aged 89 and living at 1073 Dominion Road in Mount Roskill, died on 29 October 1962. He was cremated there two days later (ashes taken by a funeral director named Sibuns). The Auckland city council website shows Minnie Mitchell, aged 70 years had died on 9 July of the same year and was also cremated at the Waikumete Cemetery (funeral director Watney Sibuns and sons Ltd). The same source informs us that Alexander Alfred Mitchell, a 59 year-old retired dairy farmer of Inlet Road Keri Keri, died on 10 May 1966.

3) John Mitchell (1879-1955). Born at Armidale in the Northern Tablelands of NSW, John would have been at school and living on Elizabeth Street in the Newcastle suburb of Tighe's Hill at the time of the 1891 census (see above). The 'Hobson Family Tree.FBK' on Ancestry tells us in 1896 'John Mitchell came with his 3 brothers, Sam, Rod and Colin to [New Zealand to] make their fortunes. John was small by stature and was to be a jockey. Unfortunately he suddenly grew and horse racing was shelved . . . John and Sam went to Raupo and Naumai to work as bushmen with the idea of buying land and commence dairy farming, this they did very successfully. Rod went to Maropiu north of Dargaville and farmed. Colin returned to Newcastle, NSW'. In around 1900 'John developed a nice dairy farm of 100 acres on Tramline Road, Naumai and raised a large family, his first wife died and he married his 1st wife's sister and had more family. He remained on the farm until his death'.

John's first wife was Emily Elizabeth Bascombe (1881-1913), daughter of John Coleman Bascombe (1854-1929) and Rosanna Fancy (1851-1916) who came from Dorchester and Dorsetshire respectively and were married in Auckland on 15 May 1875. John and Emily were married at Te Kopuru, North Wairoa on 21 March 1899 and had nine children between then and 1911: Rosanna MacDonnell (1899-1978), Alfred John (1900-93), Stephen (1902-89), Winifred Elsie (1904-5), Francis James (1904-5), Ruby May (1905-85), Myrtle Elizabeth (1907-80), Frank (1908-24) and Rita Mary Hobson (1911-65). Francis 'Frank' Mitchell drowned while 'bathing in the Northern Wairoa River at Naumai with a number of companions . . . Mr Hart, an Anglican minister, recovered the body, but efforts to restore animation failed' (Evening Post , 16 December 1924). Emily Elizabeth Mitchell nee Bascombe died at Naumai on 20 November 1913. She is buried with her son, Frank Mitchell, in the Tokatoka Cemetery (Row 8, Plot 31b). Buried in Plot 31a is Emily's mother, Rosanna Bascombe (1851-1916) and her grandson, Ronald James Mitchell (1917-18).

The following year, John married Emily's younger sister, and mother of Ronald James, Eva May Bascombe (1889-1935), at Auckland and had a further five children with her: Kenneth William (1914-35), Ronald James (1917-18), Ronald Wallis (1919-2004), Inez (born in 1920) and Gladys. Eva May Mitchell nee Bascombe died in 1935 and is buried at Tokatoka Cemetery (Plot 78). Her gravesite details read: 'bur 31.3.1935, CE, 46 Years, married (John) of Naumai, born Tikinui'. As noted above, John continued to live on his farm at Naumai until his death there on 26 July 1955. He is buried in the New Mount Wesley Cemetery at Dargaville (Block Z, Plot no. 40). He had at least seventeen grandchildren we are aware of.

This and the photo of 19 year-old John Mitchell (shown above) are from the 'Hobson Family Tree.FBK' on Ancestry. This one is of
John and Emily Elizabeth Mitchell nee Bascombe and their family at Naumai in New Zealand in around 1913.

4) Stephen Mitchell (1882-1943). Born at Bundarra south of Inverell in the Northern Tablelands of NSW, Stephen married Helen Rogers (Nell) Ireland (1890-1970) at Townsville in northern Queensland in 1916. Nell was the third child of two English emigrants, William Ireland (1858-1929) and Dorcas Lawrence (1857-1924) who were married at Misterton in Somerset on 6 February 1883. Their wedding certificate tells us William, who was from Devon originally, was working as a dealer and was the son of Robert Ireland, a butcher. Dorcas' father, Robert Lawrence, was a miller. Less than a month after their marriage, the newly-weds boarded the DUKE OF BACCLEUCH which sailed from Plymouth to Brisbane stopping on the way at Townsville where they disembarked on 14 April 1883. William, who worked as a dairyman and farmer, and Dorcas lived the remainder of their lives in and around Townsville where she died in 1924 and he in 1929. According to the 'Stephanie Mitchell Family Tree' on Ancestry, they had four children in addition to Nell: Annie Dorcas Kelso (1884-1971), Kate Lawrence Patterson (1885-1968), Mary Agnes Polly Ireland (1886-1917) and William Bryant Ireland (1895-1947). His military record in the Australian National Archives shows William Bryant Ireland enlisted in the 1st AIF at Townsville on 20 March 1916. Allocated to the 47th Battalion, he embarked overseas on the A42 BOORAWA which arrived at Plymouth on 13 October 1916. After undergoing training at Etaples, William joined his unit on 10 February 1917. Wounded in action in France on 27 March 1918 (probably at Bullecourt), he underwent treatment at Aldershot and the 3rd Auxillary Hospital at Dartford, before being repatriated back to Australia on 30 June 1918 and discharged from the Army. His obituary, published in the Townsville Daily Bulletin on 3 December 1947, tells us William Bryant 'went to the Lower Burdekin after serving in World War 1 and was engaged in sugar farming there for over 20 years. A couple of years ago he returned to the old Ireland home at Aitkenvale 'Green Bower'. He is survived by three sisters. Mrs J. Kelso, Mrs K Patterson and Mrs E. R. Mitchell'.

Taken at Townsville in around 1913, this shows Helen Rogers (Nell) Ireland later Mitchell (on the right) with her siblings:
Kate Lawrence, William Bryant and Annie Dorcas Ireland.

Stephen seems to have worked all his life as a tele-communications linesman. The Australian electoral rolls show he and Nell lived at Townsville from 1916 until the early 1920s, Atherton south of Cairns in 1925, the Mount McConnell Telegraph Station at Ravenswood in 1928, Isisford near Longreach in 1931 and 1935, Clarke River near Longreach in 1937 and White's Gully in Charters Towers in 1943. The Find a Grave website shows Stephen Mitchell died at Charters Towers on 22 September 1945 and was buried in the town's Monumental & Lawn Cemetery (LYND, Section 7, Plot 265, Grave 10225). Nell and their children moved back to Townsville where she lived until her death there on 23 August 1970. She, along with her and Stephen's daughter, Iris McDonald (1921-2013), are also buried in the Monumental & Lawn Cemetery at Charters Towers. The Queensland Government's index of bdms shows Nell and Stephen had five children in addition to Iris: Gwendoline (born in 1917), William Dennis (1918-20), Stephen jnr (1923-86), Colin (1926-80) and Bryant Mitchell (1928-45). The DVA's WW2 nominal roll shows Colin Mitchell, born at Atherton on 4 October 1925, enlisted in the RAAF at Brisbane on 15 November 1943 (NOK Stephen Mitchell). He was discharged on 11 September 1946 at which time he was a LAC with 486 (M) SQDN. The electoral rolls show he and his brother Stephen both worked as motor mechanics. As the following notice in the Brisbane Courier Mail indicates, their older brother, Bryant Mitchell, died in a waterside accident: 'Wednesday - Bryant Mitchell 17, was killed today in an accident on board the CANBERRA berthed at Townsville. He recently joined the ship and had made one trip to Bougainville, He was a native of Charters Towers where his mother lives' (20 December 1945).

5) Mary Jane Mitchell (1874-1949). A report in The Maitland Daily Mercury on 12 May 1897 tells us a Mary Jane Mitchell of Tighe's Hill was among a number of public school teachers who the Public Service Board had approved to be promoted to Class 3. The following year Mary Jane's teaching career ended when she married George Bassett Morris (1872-1945) in Newcastle. The son of John Morris (1838-1916) and Mary Ann Corfield (1840-1921), George was born at Wolverhampton in Staffordshire in England. His parents and siblings emigrated to Australia in the mid-1880s and settled in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Prahran where John and his son, John Robert Morris (1868-1930), worked as 'japanners'. We think George served in the merchant navy both in his younger years and during the First World War. His and Mary Jane's only child, Frances Janet Morris (1899-1904), was born during a visit to Prahran. Suffering from leukemia, Frances died at Tighe's Hill in 1904 and was buried with Mary Jane's parents in Newcastle's Sandgate Cemetery. The Australian electoral rolls show George and Mary Jane were living at 50 Union Street in Prahran - the residence of George's parents - at the time of the 1915 election and in East St Kilda in 1922 and 1924 (where George's older brother, John Robert and his wife Ada Jane Morris nee Smith were living). By the time of the 1930 election, George and Mary Jane had moved to Sydney where they lived first at Chatswood and later Willoughby. George died at Willoughby in 1945 and Mary Jane at nearby Castlecrag in 1949. Her death notice, published in The Sydney Morning Herald on 29 October 1949 reads: 'MORRIS, Mary Jane - October 26, 1949, at her residence, 184 Eastern Valley Way, Castlecrag, relict of the late George Bassett Morris and dear mother of Lorraine (Mrs J. Werner, USA), and dear aunt of Rubi. Privately cremated'.

We believe the daughter mentioned in Mary Jane's death notice, Stella Lorraine Morris, was adopted although that has still to be confirmed. Born in Sydney in around 1916, she married a visiting US serviceman there on 3 July 1942. Their wedding certificate, contained on Ancestry's 'Sydney Anglican Parish Registers, 1814-2011', shows Lorraine was a 25 year-old secretary living at 184 Eastern Way in East Willoughby. Her spouse was a 26 year-old US Army Sergeant, James Francis Werner, who was living at the Mascot Aerodrome and was born at Wilkes-Barre in Pennsylvania in the United States (his parents were Frederick Werner, engineer, and Anna Brislin both deceased). The following notice published in The Sydney Morning Herald on 21 July 1945, indicates they had both left Australia before the end of the war: 'WERNER (Lorraine Morris, formerly of Sydney) - July 16, at Greensboro, N.C., U.S.A., to Sergt. and Mrs J. F. Werner - a son (Philip James)'. The 'Rubelmann Family 2012' tree on Ancestry tells us Stella Lorraine Werner nee Morris died at Delanco in Burlington New Jersey on 12 August 1964. Her husband, James Francis Werner, died there on 13 August 1969. They only had one child.

6) Ellen Emily Mitchell (1877-1947). Born at Torryburn west of Armidale in northern NSW, Ellen married a Scotsman, Alexander (Sandy) Sommerville (1875-1950) in the Wickham registration district of Newcastle in 1900. Born near Edinburgh in Scotland, the then two year-old Alexander sailed with his parents and three siblings from Plymouth in England on the emigrant ship TYBURNIA which arrived at Sydney on 20 February 1878. His obituary, published in the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate on 26 August 1950, tells us after coming to Australia, Sandy worked 'as a miner on the South Coast. He also worked in the old Hetton colliery in the Newcastle district. At his retirement he was a coal trimmer [and] is survived by four sons and two daughters'. The same edition of the newspaper included the following notice: 'SOMMERVILLE - The Relatives and Friends of Mr and Mrs K. SOMMERVILLE, Mrs I. CLATWORTHY, Mr and Mrs A. SOMMERVILLE Jnr, Mr and Mrs A. HUDSON, Mr and Mrs J. SOMMERVILLE, and THEIR FAMILIES and Mr R. SOMMERVILLE are respectfully invited to attend the Funeral of their dearly beloved Father, Father-in-law, Grandfather and Great-grandfather, ALEXANDER (Sandy) SOMMERVILLE. to move from St. Paul's Church of England, Stockton . . . to Beresfield Crematorium'. The Beresfield cemetery records show Sandy died at Stockton on 25 August 1950, was cremated and his ashes placed at Rose R 6/3 where those of Ellen Emily, who had died at Stockton on 30 July 1947, and their son, Ross Sommerville, who died in 1970 - see below - are also located.

The NSW 1901 census and subsequent electoral records show that after their marriage Ellen and Sandy lived for a time at Tighe's Hill before moving to Stockton where they spent the remainder of their lives. As noted above, they had six children:

6.1) Iris Zealand Sommerville (1899-86). Iris was twice married, first to Patrick J. Martin in the Wickham RD of NSW in 1920 and second to a Welsh seaman, Edga(r) Clifford Clatworthy (1900-43), at Stockton in 1934. The Australian electoral rolls show they were living at 42 Mitchell Street Stockton at the time of Edga's death in 1943. Iris continued living there until the mid-1960s when she moved to the Newcastle suburb of Toronto (she seems also to have changed her second name from Zealand to Zelema). The Find a Grave website shows an Iris Clatworthy, aged 87 years, died at Stockton on 20 June 1986. Like Edga, she was cremated but, unlike Edga, her ashes were scattered whereas his are located in Colonade A/97. We don't know if Iris had any children.

6.2) Keith Sommerville (1902-61). According to the NSW index of bdms, a Keith Sommerville married Beryl P. Milgate in the Stockton RD in 1924. The Australian electoral rolls show Keith, who worked as a butcher and later a salesman, and Beryl Priscilla Sommerville were living at Adamstown in the 1930s and in the Toronto area of Newcastle from the 1940s (the 1949 roll has a John Stretton Sommerville, spray painter, living with them). The Beresfield cemetery records show Keith and Beryl both died at Toronto, he on 6 August 1961 and she on 22 April 1979. They were both cremated at Newcastle Memorial Park and their ashes placed at Loggia 1 L/10 and L/11). The 'Little Family Tree' on Ancestry tells us Keith and Beryl had three children: Valerie Ellen (born in 1925), Brian (1940-2015) and Robert Sommerville. it adds Brian Sommerville married Wendy Agnes Jowers (1941-2016) in 1963 and had four children. Brian and Wendy both died in the Newcastle suburb of Toronto, he in 2015 and she the following year. Brian's tribute, published in the Newcastle Herald on 4 December 2015, tells us he was the 'Dearly loved husband of WENDY. Loving father and father-in-law of ANDREW and KATE, EMMA, BELINDA and TERRY, TIM. Much loved pop of JOSH, REYNA, MADDY, HAYLEY, SAVANNAH, TARA, ALEX, NICK, SARAH and HOLLY'.

6.3) Alex Raymond (1907-59), labourer and then a ship steward, and Amelia Elizabeth Sommerville were living at Stockton at the time of the 1930 and 1934 elections. The 1943 roll has him back with his parents at 27 Maitland Road in Stockton. The NSW index of bdms shows Alex married Edna Jean Valmay Cleary in Sydney in 1944. They were both living with Alex's parents in 1949. The Australian electoral rolls show Alex Raymond Sommerville, a seaman, living at Albert Park in Melbourne at the time of the 1954 and 1958 elections. Ancestry's Index of Victorian Wills and Probate Records show Alex died at Albert Park on 7 January 1959 (occupation ship's steward). He was buried at Springvale Botanical Cemetery two days later (Presbyterian, Compartment O, Section 9, Grave 30). We don't know if he had any children.

6.4) Ross Sommerville (1912-1970). The Australian electoral rolls show Ross was living with his parents in the Newcastle suburb of Stockton prior to the onset of the Second World War. A number of newspaper reports tell us Ross, along with his brothers Alex and Jack Sommerville, were among the surviving crew members of a cargo steamer that was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sunk some 35 miles off the coast of Sydney on 3 June 1942. Ross and Jack managed to escape the scene on a lifeboat which, after '30 hours exposure to rain and bitter cold', landed at a small fishing village in the early hours of the morning. Alex was one of twelve men floating on improvised rafts who were picked up by Australian warships. The 1949 electoral roll has Ross back at Stockton and working as a labourer. The Beresfield cemetery records tell us he died at Nelson Bay on 24 July 1970, was cremated at Newcastle Memorial Park and his ashes placed with those of his parents at Rose R 6/3.

6.5) Heather Elma Sommerville (1914-2003). The NSW bdms shows a Heather E. Sommerville married Arthur Hudson in the Stockton registration district of Newcastle in 1935. The 1936 electoral roll shows Heather Elma, hd, and Arthur Hudson, ironworker, at 48 Hamilton Street Hamilton. The 1980 roll has them at 12 St James Road New Lambton (Arthur was working as an ashman). The Beresfield cemetery records show Arthur Hudson (1913-24 December 1990) died at New Lambton and was cremated at Newcastle Memorial Park (ashes scattered). The Ryerson Index tells us Heather Elma Hudson, 89 and late of Wallsend, died in 2003. According to the 'Hudson Family Tree' on Ancestry they had at least one son: Arthur Hudson (1944-2008).

6.6) Jack Russell Sommerville (1920-69). An article published in The Newcastle Sun on 24 December 1942, describes the wedding of 'Phillipina May, daughter of Mrs M. Arthur, of Waratah, and the late Mr Arthur, formerly of Lithgow, to Jack Russell, son of Mr and Mrs A. Sommerville of Stockton, which was celebrated at Corpus Christ Church Waratah . . . The bride was given away by her uncle, Mr. James Stuart . . . Miss Joan Galnor and Miss Edna Nightingale were bridesmaids . . . Mr Ross Sommerville was best man and Mr. Jack Bailey was groomsman. The reception was at Waratah School of Arts'. The available electoral rolls indicate that Jack, a seaman, and Phillipina lived all their married lives in Newcastle, initially in the Stockton and Waratah regions and later at Jesmond near Wallsend (a Roger George Sommerville, student, was registered with them at Jesmond in 1968). The Western Australian bdms show a Jack Russell Sommerville, son of Alexander and Ellen, died in the Fremantle RD in 1969. The Find a Grave website shows he was buried in the Sandgate Cemetery in Newcastle on 11 August 1969 (Catholic 2, Section 51, Plot 38A) along with a Phillipina May Sommerville who was buried there on 5 March 1998.