228. Launcelot St George Piercy Austin
He is believed to have been born in Georgetown. He went to Reading University in England and then emigrated to Australia where he joined his brother William in Adelaide and taught at St Peter's College there. Later he took the position of Registrar and Business Manager at the Ballarat School of Mines. He remained there for several years but later moved to a teaching position at Mentone Grammar School. There, he had an argument with the Principal over the marking of examination papers, as a result of which he left the school. He then became an insurance agent and continued in that job until his death from drowning in the Yarra River, Melbourne.
433. Robert Launcelot Piercy Austin
He was born in Geelong and educated at the Ballarat Grammar School and at the Ballarat School of Mines. He joined the Victoria State Electricity Commission where he became in charge of plant design and construction, a job he held until he retired. After retirement he undertook consulting jobs. He died in Melbourne.
238. Charles James Evelyn Piercy Austin
He was in the Colonial Service in West Africa. His first marriage was to Alice Eva Halifax and they had one child. Charles James abandoned his first wife and then married Susan Dorothea Nalton and they had three children.
When Alice died, Charles abandoned the children who were brought up in an orphanage.
I'm sure we used to know her when we lived in Sussex in the 1950s. She lived in Eastbourne and was known as Dorothy Austin - TJS
243. Hugh Cecil Havelock Piercy Austin
In his early years he was a talented artist, particularly with oils. He joined the army and served in the Middlesex Regiment and also as Provo Marshall in the Military Police. He rose to the rank of Captain and fought in the battle of the Somme in World War I where he was gassed. After the war he became a don at Oxford University teaching history. His youngest son, Anthony, discovered a number of poems and plays written by his father which have not been published. Hugh Cecil married Ivy Mary Emily Halls and they had three sons. He is buried in the Military Cemetery in Woking, Surrey.
245. Mehetabel Harcourt-Hamblin
The family were Roman Catholic and Mehetabel changed her faith. That the Anglican Bishop's grand-daughter should take this step scandalised her relations and was a shock to the entire community.
246. Mehetabel Emma Grant Austin
Mehetabel wrote a 27-page account of her life until the age of 18 (‘Earliest Recollections’) during which she crossed the Atlantic several times as well as travelling in Europe.
The following is an extract from her recollections:
‘When I was four years old I made my first trip to England. The steamer was expected late one evening and we duly left The Farm [the family house in Bridgetown], bolted and barred, and set off in a carriage to the wharf at Cavan’s office, under a tamarind tree. The firm was agent for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company whose history is as much part of the West Indies as the P&O line is of the Far East. I was perched on the box next to the coachman while Mother, Jeffrey, the baby and nurse who was to accompany us to England, were inside. We waited in vain for the ‘Shannon’, for there was no wireless to tell us that she had been delayed. Late at night, the steamer was still not in sight, so, as The Farm was shut up, we drove to Holborn, a huge old house in Fontabelle where my mother's uncle, old John Grant, lived with his big family. I cannot remember if the advent of a family of five and a servant caused any surprise or inconvenience, except on the part of the youngest daughter Carrie, who expressed some annoyance at being woken up and having Jeffrey and myself to sleep on a mattress in her room. Next day the steamer arrived and we sailed. The baby was another little brother (John Gardiner Austin III). He became so popular with the sailors who called him ‘Mr Rough and Tumble’ and the name ‘Ruff’ stuck to him for life.’
In 1891 Mehetabel married William Burslem (1853-1920; M.A. Oxon.), headmaster of The Lodge School in Barbados and latterly head of Queens’ Royal College in Trinidad. William Burslem is mentioned in ‘Beyond a Boundary’ by C.L.R. James, who describes him as a cross between Dr Johnson and Mr Pickwick. James also ascribes his love for cricket and English to William Burslem’s teaching. Mehetabel and William had six children of whom four survived to adulthood. These were:
Dora Phoebe Burslem (1894-1982). She was born in Barbados and went to London University and gained a B.A. degree. She later joined the Colonial Service as an education officer and worked in Trinidad, Hong Kong and Barbados. When in Hong Kong, she and her mother were evacuated after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour in 1941. Dora travelled extensively and was the first author of ‘An Old Colonial Family, 1685-1900’. She did not marry.
John Austin Burslem, born in 1895 and died as an infant.
William Harold, born in 1897, and died as an infant.
John (‘Jack’) Burslem (1898-1975). He was born in Trinidad and went to Edinburgh University where he gained a B.A. degree in geology. He worked in oil exploration. He married Kathleen Williams in Trinidad, but they had no children.
Arthur Gardiner Burslem (1900-1968). He went to the Royal Naval College, Osborne, Isle of Wight but left following severe pneumonia, returning to Trinidad where he was in commerce. He married Margaret Aston Shrewsbury in 1935 and in 1944 emigrated to New Zealand. They had two children. The first, William Herbert Gardiner (b. 1936, in Trinidad), married Susan and had four children. The second, Bridget Margaret (b. 1938, also in Trinidad), is married to Mr Graham and has one child. Arthur Gardiner Burslem died in New Zealand.
Frank Grant Burslem (1901-1976). He worked in the oilfields. He was in the RFC in World War I and in World War II was in the RE, being involved in pipeline laying in the Western Desert. In 1931 he married Ruth Portia Rashleigh from Cornwall. They have three children, all born in Trinidad. The first, Michael Rashleigh Grant (1933- ), is a medical doctor and lives in Canada and is married. The second child is Quentin Nathaniel Grant (1936- ) who is married and lives in New Zealand, where he was in the police force. The third, David Christopher Jeremy Grant (1937- ), is a clergyman, who married Susan and had four children. One of these is Jonathan, a schoolmaster in Derby.
Manchester Grammar School and Pembroke College, Oxford
Headmaster of The Lodge School, Barbados and in 1904 was Principal of Queens' Royal College, Trinidad.
447. Dora Phoebe Burslem
She was born in Barbados and went to London University and gained a B.A. degree. She later joined the Colonial Service as an education officer and worked in Trinidad, Hong Kong and Barbados. When in Hong Kong, she and her mother were evacuated after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour in 1941. Dora travelled extensively and was the first author of ‘An Old Colonial Family, 1685-1900’. She did not marry.
448. John Austin Burslem
Died as an infant
Died as an infant
450. John Burslem
John (‘Jack’) Burslem (1898-1975). He was born in Trinidad and went to Edinburgh University where he gained a B.A. degree in geology. He worked in oil exploration. He married Kathleen Williams in Trinidad, but they had no children.
249. Brig.Gen. John Gardiner Austin C.M.G., C.B.
He was born at The Farm, St Philip, Barbados. He married an Australian, Margaret Drew Moir (1873-1955), in Australia, and they had one son. Like his brothers, he was a fine cricketer and he captained Barbados in the 1906 Inter Colonial series.
John Gardiner Austin (‘Ruff’) had a distinguished military career in the British army. He trained as an officer at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, where he won the ‘Sword of Honour’ and ‘Silver Bugle’, both of which were very prestigious awards and was commissioned in the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1891. During 1899-1900 he served in the Boer War in South Africa, where he was involved in the advance on Kimberley, in operations in the Orange Free State and in Cape Colony. He was transferred to the Army Ordnance Department in 1909 and seconded to Australia as Director of Ordnance Services to the Commonwealth of Australia in time for the outbreak of war in 1914. He sailed with the first Australian Expeditionary Force serving in Gallipoli (where he was one of the first to land and the last to leave) and also served in France, on General Birdwood’s staff. He was wounded twice during the war and twice mentioned in Despatches. He was awarded the C.M.G. in 1915, the C.B. in 1920 as well as the Croix de Guerre by the French. He was Director of Army Ordnance Services from 1926 to 1928. He retired as a Brigadier General in 1928 and went to live in Vancouver Island, B.C., where he died.
During the war he wrote many letters to his mother Dorothy, describing his experiences. These letters survive in a typed transcript, a copy of which has been placed in the Imperial War Museum in London. The following is an extract from one of the letters:
‘At about 2 a.m. there was a pause in the firing as if by mutual consent. I sat alone on my pile of ammunition and mused. The spirits of night and of death were abroad and my sensations were curious, abnormal, as if the whole thing were some horrible, fantastic dream. The moon shone bright and its beams cleft the water down to my very feet. Just opposite, steeped in brilliant light, lay the Isles of Greece, so beloved by Byron. Imbros in front and Samothrace to the right, its peaks just touched with snow. Each little peak and summit stood out in the strong light. The twinkling lights of the transports shone in the distance and in front of them lay the huge hulks of the men-of-war. Man alone could be vile in such surroundings and vile indeed was his handiwork. Slowly winding its way down the hill to my left came a stream of maimed and mangled humanity. Some are limping painfully with the assistance of a comrade, others supported by two comrades, others carried on stretchers in every agonised contortions of body, the stretchers steeped in blood so that you could see and smell it. At my feet, their bodies kissed by little waves, lay the stiff bodies of men, gallant fellows who had fought their last fight and lay there, killed on their way to the boats. And with it all not the sound of a groan.
Behind, doctors plied a busy trade and as each man was bound up he was carried to the waiting boats on which the enemy could turn his shrapnel at will. My God, if only one half of the world could just see five minutes of war, there would never again be any war. Public opinion would stop it and the nations would make any sacrifice to dignity, I had almost said to honour, to avoid such horrible slaughter. My musing wasn’t to last long. A screech and a flash and the beastly chorus began again! The rattle of musketry grew louder and I began once more my vile occupation of sending up little things of lead and nickel for my own side to inflict the same suffering which I had seen on a race of men which they had never seen.’
An obituary notice written by one of his army friends said of him: ‘Besides being a fine athlete and games player with a charming way with him, he was one of the smartest and best dressed men I have known. This, with his tall splendid figure made him a beau sabreur.’
453. John Gardiner Austin
This John Gardiner (‘Tom’) married Pamela Charlewood in 1936 but had no children. He worked for the British-American Tobacco Company and was a captain in the British Army during World War II . After the war he went to live in Vancouver, where he died in 1979.
250. Arthur Piercy Gardiner Austin
He is believed to have been born at Enmore, Barbados, but spent a year or two in London with the old-established firm of Wilkinson & Gaviller, West Indian merchants. Subsequently he joined the Colonial Bank and served in many islands in the Caribbean, just missing the Mont Pelee eruption in Martinique, though being in Jamaica for the earthquake of 1907. When the Colonial Bank was taken over by Barclays, he became manager in Demerara and then in Barbados, retiring as local Director. He played cricket for Demerara and, on occasion, led the team.
Arthur, known as A.P.G., was a member of the Legislative Council of British Guiana. His younger brother Malcolm took his place when he left the colony for Barbados.
In 1905 in Antigua, he married Louisa Frances Watts (1884-1969), daughter of Sir Francis and Lady Louisa Watts. Sir Francis Watts K.C.M.G., D. Sc., F.I.C., F.C.S. was the founder and later Principal Emeritus of the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, Trinidad, which later became the St Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies.
Arthur Piercy Gardiner Austin died in Reading, Berkshire. He and Frances had five children.
Louisa Frances Watts (1884-1969), was the daughter of Sir Francis Watts, K.C.M.G., D. Sc., F.I.C., F.C.S. Sir Francis was the founder and later Principal Emeritus of the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, Trinidad, which later became the St Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies.
Billie was born in Antigua in 1906 while her father was there with Barclays Bank DCO. She went to school in British Guiana and then Barbados, before going to England where she attended Bartram Gables School in Broadstairs in Kent, with her sister Dick. From there she went to finishing school in Switzerland, before returning to British Guiana, where she had a short teaching career with the Ursuline Convent in Georgetown. Billie returned to England in 1928 and in due course joined the Head Office of Barclays Bank DCO. In 1936 she married John Francis Woollcombe ‘Jack’ (1894-1959), son of Mr and Mrs. J.Y. Woollcombe of Plympton, Devonshire, at St Jude’s Church in London. Jack was educated at Haileybury and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a degree in civil engineering. At the outbreak of World War I, he joined the Admiralty and worked in Naval Intelligence. After the war, Jack joined London Transport Board, ultimately becoming Chief Building Engineer, responsible for the infrastructure of the bus and underground railway system in London.
Billie and Jack lived all of their married lives in Oxshott in Surrey. There, they took a great interest in the community life of the village and were air-raid wardens during World War II. After the war, they provided a home for their nephews, Bruce and Richard Farrar while they were at school and their parents were in British Guiana. When Jack retired in 1958, they went to live in Devon. After Jack’s death in 1959 at ‘Hemerdon’, the Woollcombe family home in Plympton, Devonshire, Billie settled in Hindon in Wiltshire where she lived until her health began to fail. She died at Woodbury House, Farley Hill, Berkshire. Billie is remembered by those who knew her well as a generous person with a strong character who had a great love family and of animals.
Chief building engineer for London Transport
252. Sir Harold Bruce Gardiner Austin
Born at Enmore, Barbados, he was educated there at Harrison College. Known as H.B.G., he was an excellent cricketer and was the prime mover in the formation of the West Indies Cricket Board of Control. He was the first captain of the first West Indies team and was due to take the team to England in 1900. Unfortunately, the Boer war intervened and instead of going to England H.B.G. went to fight in that war in South Africa. He joined Major General Arthur Paget’s 20th Brigade, becoming a Major in the Royal Artillery, but fell ill and was repatriated without having seen service. In World War I, he served with the Royal Ordnance Corps. He captained the West Indies cricket team on other occasions, taking it to London in 1906 and in 1923. He is regarded as one of the fathers of West Indian cricket and his portrait hangs at the Lords ground of the M.C.C. He was featured on one of a set of five postage stamps issued in Barbados in 1988 to commemorate famous Barbadian cricketers. H.B.G. also excelled at tennis and golf.
He revived the firm of Michael Cavan & Co. in Barbados after his father’s sudden death, changing its name to Gardiner Austin & Co. It was a successful venture, partly due to the spectacular rise in the price of sugar during the 1914-1918 war.
In 1915, he was elected to the House of Assembly as a representative of the City of Bridgetown, so beginning a political career of outstanding merit, which was to extend over a period of 26 years and which culminated in his election as Speaker of the House of Assembly, the highest political honour Barbados had to offer, and the subsequent knighthood (Kt) conferred by the Crown in 1935 (he had been awarded the O.B.E. in 1927). He represented Barbados at the Jubilee celebrations of King George V in London. He also became the Swedish Consul for Barbados and for this he was awarded the order of Vasa. He lived at Enmore in Barbados, the house of his father. After he died, an editorial tribute to him in the Barbados Advocate said ‘As long as cricket is played in the British Empire, the name of H.B.G. Austin will be remembered.’ Again from the Barbados Advocate : ‘Sir Harold’s success in politics and in commerce was the reward of infinite pains. As a politician, as Speaker, and as President and member of the Chamber of Commerce, no aspect of any subject under discussion was too unimportant to be considered. And he was always scrupulously careful to marshal his facts before attempting to express an opinion on any matter. This was for him an abiding principle, and gained for him a reputation for strict unimpeachable veracity. It was this and his laborious zeal for public service which gave him the weight of esteem of his fellows.’
H.B.G. was a founding member of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society which came into being in 1933. The Rev. Canon Piercy Austin Farrar (see Chapter 17) was the first Curator of the Museum which, owing to the state of finances of the Society, was an honorary post.
. Harold married in St Lucia in 1904 Lillian Marie ( -1949), daughter of Dr Dennehy from St Lucia and a French mother, and they had two children. After her husband died, his wife sold Enmore and retired to England. Since then, the house has, sadly, been destroyed and the site redeveloped as a hospital, though the gazebo still stands
Daughter of Dr.Charles Dennehy of St.Lucia
She married Richard Arthur Collins in the Brompton Oratory in 1937, but had no children. Richard Arthur became a Colonel in the Royal Artillery and was awarded the D.S.O. whilst serving in Burma during World War II. Pat was a WVS driver during the war.
Lieut.Cl. Richard Arthur Collins D.S.O.
R.H.A.
Killed in motor acciden
254. Malcolm Burnett Gardiner Austin O.B.E.
He was born in Tytherington, near Gloucester and married Muriel Jane Craigen from British Guiana. Her brother was a well-known medical doctor in British Guiana. Malcolm joined the firm of Curtis Campbell & Co. in British Guiana and in 1945 became managing director of Bookers in the colony and lived at Colgrain House in Georgetown. He was a member of the Legislative Council of British Guiana and was awarded the O.B.E. in 1938. He played cricket for Demerara. Malcolm had two children, and was known to his nieces and nephews as ‘Uncle Pecksniff’ and ‘Uncle Pecky’, though more widely as M.B.G. He retired to Barbados and lived in the Balmoral Flats, Hastings, until his death. His grandson Martin Borrett Austin Wickham remembers him and his wife Muriel very fondly and has contributed the following recollection: ‘In 1947 my parents and I were invited to spend my father's long leave with Granddad at a rented house (‘Harcliffe’) in the St. Lawrence Gap. I learned to swim and surf really well, to catch crabs and to find the marvellous shells which, then, were regularly thrown up on the beaches. I also learnt all the nooks and crannies of Barbados as we often went on car outings to every part of the island. Later, I was invited to come on my own to spend most of my summer holiday with Granny & Granddad at the Balmoral Flats in the period 1952 - 1956. Granddad always took me for rides on the old ‘open air’ buses where the conductor swung along the running boards issuing wonderful coloured tickets. These visits were almost always to the Yacht Club or to Bridgetown, and if to the latter, Granddad would take me to Goddard's (department store) for a ‘Bentley’ and to visit the book section of other stores - from which he left considerably the poorer. Granddad also organised an annual sweepstake at the Balmoral Flats when the horse racing was on, and when I was there I was his ‘salesman’. He also always took me to the real thing ... to ‘see them run’ at the Garrison Savannah. Granddad was ‘old school’ - he expected respect and good manners, but was unfailingly kind and generous to me, and always humorous. Sometimes he would have a sneezing fit; I always laughed and that egged him on to sneeze some more - counting each sneeze loudly. This drove Granny crazy and she would disappear leaving Granddad to sneeze some more and me to laugh some more. Last thing at night, we had a little ritual. When I was tucked up in bed, he would bring me a very cold glass of water, and when I finished drinking it I would sigh hugely. Granddad would then always say ‘Sweet eh, sweet like sweet corn!’ At various points during those halcyon years I learnt about my Austin heritage, met and visited many relatives including: Bruce and Marion Austin who lived at ‘Greentrees’, their children John Bruce and Brigid (Biddy), Great Aunt Meta Burslem (Granddad’s sister) and her daughter Aunt Dorrie, Audrie Manning and three of her children, Caroline, Rachel, and David, Aunt Gwen Manning and her husband Clifford. Clifford was a member of the Magic Circle, loved kids and was always ready to amaze us with superb card tricks and other forms of sleight of hand. My favourite was the one where you picked a card from a fanned deck, made a note of it and were then told to ‘phone the senior barman at the Yacht Club and ask him what was the card you picked.’ Of course the barman always got it right!! I also remember Granddad encouraging me to ‘go and see some good cricket at the Wanderers Cricket Club.’ The club was just a short walk away and was where the many Austins, Challenors and others of that vintage had played their cricket. History there was quite palpable. My last memories of Granddad are of him, in the final years of his life, sitting in his Berbice Chair next to the window overlooking the roof of the lower flat. In my mind's eye I see him throwing out bits of bread from a large glass jam jar for the sparrows and doves on the roof outside. It is August, the heat is intense, the doves are cooing ... and so is Granddad!’
After her husband’s death, Muriel returned to British Guiana to be with her children.
Her brother was a well-known doctor in Georgetown, Alan. He had 2 sons, Tony and Christopher.
Tony was a doctor in Cambridge in the 1950s.
255. Francis Elwyn Wilday Gardiner Austin
He was born at Enmore, Barbados and was the tenth and last child of John Gardiner Austin Jnr and Dora Grant. Known as Frank, he married in 1909 Gwendolen May Francis (1885-1981) from England, whose father was an agronomist, and they had four children. He played cricket for Barbados against the M.C.C. and in Inter-Colonial matches.
Edith Alleyne Dickson (1868-1906) who married Olof Yngström (1860-1911). Olof owned property and was in the timber industry in Sweden. He and Edith had a son, Carl who married Ingrid, but Carl and his wife are now dead.
259. Axel James Austin Dickson
Axel James Austin Dickson (1869-1945) who first entered the Swedish Navy as a midshipman, later became a planter in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) being associated with numerous estates there. He married Norah Scrope Hutchinson (1881-1971) and had five children