Corrick Family Entertainers
Encyclopedia
The Corrick Family was a troupe of musicians and entertainers from Christchurch
, New Zealand
. They toured widely throughout New Zealand, Australia
, India
, Southeast Asia
and England
during the period 1898 to 1915.
They advertised themselves variously as The Corricks, The Corrick Family, The Corrick Family Entertainers, and The Marvellous Corricks.
Their performances included singing
, dancing, handbell
ringing, comic sketches
and film
presentations, as well as the playing of various musical instrument
s.
Consisting of two parents and their eight children, the Corricks regularly received enthusiastic reviews from the Press
, however young singer Alice was often regarded as their outstanding performer.
, England
. In 1862, at the age of 14, he immigrated to New Zealand with his family on the ‘Mermaid’, arriving in Lyttelton
on 26 December. The family settled in Christchurch, where they became active in the city’s musical life. Albert went on to pursue a career as a music teacher, church organist and composer.
In February 1877, acting as the conductor of a local church choir, he married Sarah Alice Calvert, a 23 year old singer in the choir. Sarah, like Albert, had emigrated with her family from her native Durham
in England, arriving in Lyttelton on the Zealandia in November 1859. Albert and Sarah opened an academy of music in Colombo Street, Christchurch, importing sheet music and teaching musical instruments. By 1879, they were immersed in the local church and musical scene, and started to conduct sacred concerts.
Albert and Sarah raised a family of seven daughters and one son Their first child, in 1877, was stillborn, and another, Albert Sydney Austin, born 24 June 1881, survived less than seven months. :
as a treatment. This proved successful.
Soon realizing that his children had considerable talent, Albert organized local church and charity concerts featuring the family, which met with warm approval from the local public and press. In particular, young Alice was attracting praise for her beautiful voice, as noted in 1897 in the Ellesmere Guardian.
In April 1898, at the suggestion of a Corrick relation,Searell married Sarah’s niece, Emily Jane Wood architect Thomas Searell, Alice visited Hobart
, Tasmania
, and sang at the Town Hall under Vice-Regal
patronage.
By public demand, Alice’s stay in Tasmania stretched out to several months, and she gave numerous concerts around the state. At her farewell concert in Hobart in November 1898 she was directly compared to renowned Tasmania singer Madame Amy Sherwin
.
In early May 1902, the Corricks set out on a short tour of Tasmania, and gave their first performance in Launceston
– the city which was later to become their home – on 26 May.
In November that year they set out on their first ‘grand tour’ of Australia, taking in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland between 1902 and 1905. Travelling initially by bus and train, the family later invested in several Model T Fords to carry themselves and their ever-growing array of dresses, instruments and equipment, thus becoming the first motorized troupe in Australia.
As their popularity grew, Albert started to employ the services of an advance agent, who would travel ahead of the family to arrange bookings for venues, accommodation, and advance advertising.
In May 1905 the family returned to Tasmania to take a five month break from performing, their first significant holiday in over four years of regular touring. October 1905 saw the Corricks departed on their second major tour of Australia, heading initially to Victoria, then on to South Australia throughout 1906, and Western Australia during 1907; that same year included an extended tour of the outback goldfields of that state.
In September 1907, the second-youngest daughter, Jessie, joined the family on tour. The same month, the family decided to travel overseas, and embarked on a short tour of India and the Far East. For the next few months they performed in India
, Ceylon, Balochistan
(part of modern Pakistan
), Malaysia, and Singapore
.
In December 1908, the family was holidaying in England with family, and “furthering their studies under the best masters.” Alice took private lessons from Signor Moretti of the Royal Academy of Music
, and achieved high praise from Madame Mathilde Marchesi
of Paris.
The Corricks returned to Perth in June 1909, and immediately set out on another Australian tour, their longest yet, taking in the Western Australian goldfields, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.
In November 1912, the youngest daughter, Elsie, finally joined the family, making it complete for the first time since their early tours in New Zealand. After leaving school in New Zealand in 1910, Elsie had trained at the Garcia School of Music in Sydney, under the director Madame Ellen Christian, Nellie Melba's first teacher. Elsie rapidly became the star of the Corrick performances after Alice left the tours in 1913.
, and started to give audiences plenty of advance notice of their upcoming performances. Initially these were restrained and simply informative, but later became less modest. On tour in Australia, their advertising ranged from a beautifully-crafted piece for a charity concert, to some unashamedly vaudevillian promotion.
, and while he was still in his teens he convinced his father to purchase a magic lantern
projector. By 1900 this was being used during family performances to provide a backdrop picture for certain songs, and proved popular with audiences.
In January 1901, encouraged by this success, the Corricks obtained an Edison projector and a small collection of moving films. Leonard, still aged just 14, maintained and operated this equipment, and the Corrick advertising was soon promoting “Leonard’s Beautiful Pictures” (also named “Leonard’s Bioscope Pictures” and “Leonard’s Biograph Company.”)
By 1906, the Corricks had ordered a portable electricity generator to provide them with improved stage and projection lighting. This also allowed them to lure a larger audience in country towns, as they would shine bright lights into the night sky, attracting curious customers from surrounding areas.
During their travels, the Corricks would also make their own films. One of their earliest, filmed in March 1907 in Perth
, Western Australia
, was “Street Scenes in Perth”; this was shown during their performance the same evening, allowing amazed patrons to see themselves on film. A month later, they filmed a short comedy farce, “Bashful Mr. Brown”, featuring family members as actors.
While on their way back to Australia from Britain, aboard the SS Runic in 1909, they filmed “Sports and Play at Sea”, again featuring themselves as well as other passengers and crew.
“The Day-Postle Match” became one of their most successful films, featuring a running contest between Australian sprint champion Arthur Postle and Irishman J.B Day, held in Kalgoorlie
on 10 April 1907. When shown locally, Postle himself came to see it, and was invited onstage by the Corricks to address the audience. This film remained popular for some time.
After the family ceased touring, the Corrick film collection was held by Corrick descendants in Launceston for many years, until it was passed to the Australian National Film and Sound Archive
, which undertook extensive preservation
work on the collection.The Corrick films were all nitrate based, and as such had a limited storage life.
in India, according to Elsie’s memoirs. They married in November 1912, but Ethel continued to tour with the family, appearing under her maiden name. Harold and Ethel had two sons. After Harold’s sudden death in 1919 from food poisoning, Ethel briefly became a confectioner, but then took up teaching and playing the violin. She died many years later in Launceston in June 1971.
In February 1913 Alice married Launceston businessman William Edward Sadleir, a land agent, in Bunbury, Western Australia
. After a short holiday in Cottesloe in Perth, they departed the state to travel to Launceston, where they established their home. They raised three sons and a daughter. Edward Sadleir died in 1925, and Alice taught music and singing for many years. She formed a Ladies Choir and taught at the Broadland House School in Launceston. She died in Heidelberg
in Victoria in 1956.
Albert suffered a heart attack in Western Australia in 1913, and had to substantially cut his touring involvement. He died in Launceston in March 1914. Sarah outlived him by many years, and set up a large communal home for herself and several of her children in St. John Street in Launceston. Sarah died in December 1935.
Leonard married Violet Mary Campbell in Victoria in 1918. They settled in Launceston and raised two sons and three daughters. Along with some of his sisters, he played in theatre orchestras in Launceston. He established a car business, but after this was unsucessful he turned to playing in the ABC
Military band, and moved to Sydney to live. Violet died in Launceston in 1962, and Leonard in New South Wales in 1967.
Ruby married Henry Cottrell Webb in Queensland in February 1920. They settled there, raising a son and a daughter. Ruby died in 1948.
Elsie married Stanley Victor Tilley in Launceston in 1922. They raised four sons and two daughters. Elsie taught piano, violin and elocution at the Corrick School of Music in Launceston, and founded the Tasmania Music Festival Society in 1942. She died in Launceston in 1974 and Stanley in 1985.
Gertie, Amy and Jessie never married. Gertie was the de facto manager of the family and along with Amy, Ethel and Leonard was active in theatre orchestras in Launceston. She and Elsie also regularly played church organs. Amy was a well-regarded flautist, and was retained by J. C. Williamson’s
for tours of Western Australia for some years. Gertie and Amy died in Launceston, in 1945 and 1968 respectively, and Jessie in Hobart in 1957.
Most of the family, and several of their children, are buried in a family plot in Launceston’s Carr Villa cemetery.
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. They toured widely throughout New Zealand, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
and England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
during the period 1898 to 1915.
They advertised themselves variously as The Corricks, The Corrick Family, The Corrick Family Entertainers, and The Marvellous Corricks.
Their performances included singing
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, dancing, handbell
Handbell
A handbell is a bell designed to be rung by hand. To ring a handbell, a ringer grasps the bell by its slightly flexible handle — traditionally made of leather, but often now made of plastic — and moves the wrist to make the hinged clapper inside the bell strike...
ringing, comic sketches
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
and film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
presentations, as well as the playing of various musical instrument
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
s.
Consisting of two parents and their eight children, the Corricks regularly received enthusiastic reviews from the Press
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
, however young singer Alice was often regarded as their outstanding performer.
The Family
Albert Corrick was born in SomersetSomerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. In 1862, at the age of 14, he immigrated to New Zealand with his family on the ‘Mermaid’, arriving in Lyttelton
Lyttelton, New Zealand
Lyttelton is a port town on the north shore of Lyttelton Harbour close to Banks Peninsula, a suburb of Christchurch on the eastern coast of the South Island of New Zealand....
on 26 December. The family settled in Christchurch, where they became active in the city’s musical life. Albert went on to pursue a career as a music teacher, church organist and composer.
In February 1877, acting as the conductor of a local church choir, he married Sarah Alice Calvert, a 23 year old singer in the choir. Sarah, like Albert, had emigrated with her family from her native Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
in England, arriving in Lyttelton on the Zealandia in November 1859. Albert and Sarah opened an academy of music in Colombo Street, Christchurch, importing sheet music and teaching musical instruments. By 1879, they were immersed in the local church and musical scene, and started to conduct sacred concerts.
Albert and Sarah raised a family of seven daughters and one son Their first child, in 1877, was stillborn, and another, Albert Sydney Austin, born 24 June 1881, survived less than seven months. :
- Emily Eleanor Gertrude (‘Gertie’), born 5 December 1878
- Alice May, born 4 March 1880
- Amy Beatrice, born 11 November 1882
- Ethel Mildred, born 20 September 1884
- Henry John Leonard (‘Leonard’, ‘Sonny’), born 26 October 1886
- Ruby Florence Elizabeth, born 1 May 1888
- Jessie Winifred, born 27 October 1892, and
- Elsie Collingwood, born 31 August 1894
Early Concerts
Albert and Sarah raised their children to have a keen appreciation of music, and all the children were encouraged to play various instruments, and to sing and dance.Ruby developed breathing problems as a child, so Albert decided to teach her the French horn and the cornetCornet
The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...
as a treatment. This proved successful.
Soon realizing that his children had considerable talent, Albert organized local church and charity concerts featuring the family, which met with warm approval from the local public and press. In particular, young Alice was attracting praise for her beautiful voice, as noted in 1897 in the Ellesmere Guardian.
In April 1898, at the suggestion of a Corrick relation,Searell married Sarah’s niece, Emily Jane Wood architect Thomas Searell, Alice visited Hobart
Hobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
, Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
, and sang at the Town Hall under Vice-Regal
Viceroy
A viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...
patronage.
By public demand, Alice’s stay in Tasmania stretched out to several months, and she gave numerous concerts around the state. At her farewell concert in Hobart in November 1898 she was directly compared to renowned Tasmania singer Madame Amy Sherwin
Amy Sherwin
Amy Sherwin , the 'Tasmanian Nightingale', was an Australian soprano singer.Frances Amy Lillian Sherwin was born at Forest Home, Huonville, Tasmania, in 1855 and was taught singing by her mother....
.
New Zealand
In 1899, the family started a series of performing tours of New Zealand, visiting cities and towns throughout the country. These tours lasted over three years, and set a punishing pace that would be maintained over the years to come. Even the youngest daughter, Elsie, drew attention, singing solo on stage aged just four years.Australia
In April 1902, again at the suggestion of Thomas Searell, the Corricks left New Zealand to commence a tour of Australia. (The youngest daughters, Jessie and Elsie, were left in the care of an aunt.) Travelling on the Mokoia to Hobart, they gave their first performance as a family on 21 April at the Mechanics' Institute. It was during their initial five-day Hobart season that the description “The Marvellous Corricks” first appeared; this name was to become a standard moniker for the family during its later tours.In early May 1902, the Corricks set out on a short tour of Tasmania, and gave their first performance in Launceston
Launceston, Tasmania
Launceston is a city in the north of the state of Tasmania, Australia at the junction of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River. Launceston is the second largest city in Tasmania after the state capital Hobart...
– the city which was later to become their home – on 26 May.
In November that year they set out on their first ‘grand tour’ of Australia, taking in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland between 1902 and 1905. Travelling initially by bus and train, the family later invested in several Model T Fords to carry themselves and their ever-growing array of dresses, instruments and equipment, thus becoming the first motorized troupe in Australia.
As their popularity grew, Albert started to employ the services of an advance agent, who would travel ahead of the family to arrange bookings for venues, accommodation, and advance advertising.
In May 1905 the family returned to Tasmania to take a five month break from performing, their first significant holiday in over four years of regular touring. October 1905 saw the Corricks departed on their second major tour of Australia, heading initially to Victoria, then on to South Australia throughout 1906, and Western Australia during 1907; that same year included an extended tour of the outback goldfields of that state.
In September 1907, the second-youngest daughter, Jessie, joined the family on tour. The same month, the family decided to travel overseas, and embarked on a short tour of India and the Far East. For the next few months they performed in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Ceylon, Balochistan
Balochistan
Balochistan or Baluchistan is a region which covers parts of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. It can also refer to one of several modern and historical territories within that region:...
(part of modern Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
), Malaysia, and Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
.
In December 1908, the family was holidaying in England with family, and “furthering their studies under the best masters.” Alice took private lessons from Signor Moretti of the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
, and achieved high praise from Madame Mathilde Marchesi
Mathilde Marchesi
Mathilde Marchesi was a German mezzo-soprano, a renowned teacher of singing, and a proponent of the bel canto vocal method.-Biography:...
of Paris.
The Corricks returned to Perth in June 1909, and immediately set out on another Australian tour, their longest yet, taking in the Western Australian goldfields, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.
In November 1912, the youngest daughter, Elsie, finally joined the family, making it complete for the first time since their early tours in New Zealand. After leaving school in New Zealand in 1910, Elsie had trained at the Garcia School of Music in Sydney, under the director Madame Ellen Christian, Nellie Melba's first teacher. Elsie rapidly became the star of the Corrick performances after Alice left the tours in 1913.
Farewell New Zealand Tour
Following Albert's death in March 1914, the family made a final tour of New Zealand. They were warmly welcomed by audiences, but were by now sharing the programme with various other performances. This 'farewell tour' lasted until July 1915, when the family, exhausted by years of almost continuous performance, decided to settle in Launceston, in Tasmania.Advertising
It was during the early New Zealand tours that Albert realized the power of advertisingAdvertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
, and started to give audiences plenty of advance notice of their upcoming performances. Initially these were restrained and simply informative, but later became less modest. On tour in Australia, their advertising ranged from a beautifully-crafted piece for a charity concert, to some unashamedly vaudevillian promotion.
'Leonard's Beautiful Pictures'
Leonard Corrick developed an early interest in photographyPhotography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, and while he was still in his teens he convinced his father to purchase a magic lantern
Magic lantern
The magic lantern or Laterna Magica is an early type of image projector developed in the 17th century.-Operation:The magic lantern has a concave mirror in front of a light source that gathers light and projects it through a slide with an image scanned onto it. The light rays cross an aperture , and...
projector. By 1900 this was being used during family performances to provide a backdrop picture for certain songs, and proved popular with audiences.
In January 1901, encouraged by this success, the Corricks obtained an Edison projector and a small collection of moving films. Leonard, still aged just 14, maintained and operated this equipment, and the Corrick advertising was soon promoting “Leonard’s Beautiful Pictures” (also named “Leonard’s Bioscope Pictures” and “Leonard’s Biograph Company.”)
By 1906, the Corricks had ordered a portable electricity generator to provide them with improved stage and projection lighting. This also allowed them to lure a larger audience in country towns, as they would shine bright lights into the night sky, attracting curious customers from surrounding areas.
During their travels, the Corricks would also make their own films. One of their earliest, filmed in March 1907 in Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
, was “Street Scenes in Perth”; this was shown during their performance the same evening, allowing amazed patrons to see themselves on film. A month later, they filmed a short comedy farce, “Bashful Mr. Brown”, featuring family members as actors.
While on their way back to Australia from Britain, aboard the SS Runic in 1909, they filmed “Sports and Play at Sea”, again featuring themselves as well as other passengers and crew.
“The Day-Postle Match” became one of their most successful films, featuring a running contest between Australian sprint champion Arthur Postle and Irishman J.B Day, held in Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
Kalgoorlie, known as Kalgoorlie-Boulder, is a town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, and is located east-northeast of state capital Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway...
on 10 April 1907. When shown locally, Postle himself came to see it, and was invited onstage by the Corricks to address the audience. This film remained popular for some time.
After the family ceased touring, the Corrick film collection was held by Corrick descendants in Launceston for many years, until it was passed to the Australian National Film and Sound Archive
National Film and Sound Archive
The National Film and Sound Archive is Australia’s audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national collection of audiovisual materials and related items...
, which undertook extensive preservation
Film preservation
thumb|300px|Stacked containers filled with reels of [[film stock]]The film preservation, or film restoration, movement is an ongoing project among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images which they contain...
work on the collection.The Corrick films were all nitrate based, and as such had a limited storage life.
After the Tours
Ethel was the first of the Corrick daughters to marry, falling in love with the family advance agent, Harold George Coulter.Much to the delight of Sarah, Coulter proposed to the auburn-haired Ethel by moonlight at the Taj MahalTaj Mahal
The Taj Mahal is a white Marble mausoleum located in Agra, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal...
in India, according to Elsie’s memoirs. They married in November 1912, but Ethel continued to tour with the family, appearing under her maiden name. Harold and Ethel had two sons. After Harold’s sudden death in 1919 from food poisoning, Ethel briefly became a confectioner, but then took up teaching and playing the violin. She died many years later in Launceston in June 1971.
In February 1913 Alice married Launceston businessman William Edward Sadleir, a land agent, in Bunbury, Western Australia
Bunbury, Western Australia
The port city of Bunbury is the third largest city in Western Australia after the State Capital Perth and Mandurah. It is situated south of Perth's central business district...
. After a short holiday in Cottesloe in Perth, they departed the state to travel to Launceston, where they established their home. They raised three sons and a daughter. Edward Sadleir died in 1925, and Alice taught music and singing for many years. She formed a Ladies Choir and taught at the Broadland House School in Launceston. She died in Heidelberg
Heidelberg, Victoria
Heidelberg is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 11 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Banyule....
in Victoria in 1956.
Albert suffered a heart attack in Western Australia in 1913, and had to substantially cut his touring involvement. He died in Launceston in March 1914. Sarah outlived him by many years, and set up a large communal home for herself and several of her children in St. John Street in Launceston. Sarah died in December 1935.
Leonard married Violet Mary Campbell in Victoria in 1918. They settled in Launceston and raised two sons and three daughters. Along with some of his sisters, he played in theatre orchestras in Launceston. He established a car business, but after this was unsucessful he turned to playing in the ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
Military band, and moved to Sydney to live. Violet died in Launceston in 1962, and Leonard in New South Wales in 1967.
Ruby married Henry Cottrell Webb in Queensland in February 1920. They settled there, raising a son and a daughter. Ruby died in 1948.
Elsie married Stanley Victor Tilley in Launceston in 1922. They raised four sons and two daughters. Elsie taught piano, violin and elocution at the Corrick School of Music in Launceston, and founded the Tasmania Music Festival Society in 1942. She died in Launceston in 1974 and Stanley in 1985.
Gertie, Amy and Jessie never married. Gertie was the de facto manager of the family and along with Amy, Ethel and Leonard was active in theatre orchestras in Launceston. She and Elsie also regularly played church organs. Amy was a well-regarded flautist, and was retained by J. C. Williamson’s
J. C. Williamson
James Cassius Williamson was an American actor and later Australia's foremost theatrical manager, founding J. C. Williamson Ltd....
for tours of Western Australia for some years. Gertie and Amy died in Launceston, in 1945 and 1968 respectively, and Jessie in Hobart in 1957.
Most of the family, and several of their children, are buried in a family plot in Launceston’s Carr Villa cemetery.
External links
- See the National Film and Sound ArchiveNational Film and Sound ArchiveThe National Film and Sound Archive is Australia’s audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national collection of audiovisual materials and related items...
of Australia's Corrick Collection page - Corrick Collection essay and clips on National Film and Sound ArchiveNational Film and Sound ArchiveThe National Film and Sound Archive is Australia’s audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national collection of audiovisual materials and related items...
of Australia's australianscreen online