Leslie Kenneth Clark (1883 - 1978)

Born 18 Dec 1883 in Bulga, New South Wales, Australia

Ancestors

Husband of Mabel (Asher) Clark — married 1911 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Descendants

Died 14 Jan 1978 at age 94 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Denise Perkins [send private message]

General Notes: Leslie CLARK - Sadly, Les' mother died just a week after his birth, and as their good friends John & Jane HAYES at "Rock View", Bulga had just lost a baby daughter Bertha, she took young Les and raised him along with her own four children Millicent, Tommy, Howard and Mabel. They all went to the little school at Bulga.

Les' foster parents, John and Jane HAYES, were English folk who had come out in 1855 at a time when orchardists were in great demand. The son of Mabel HAYES and Edward McAlpin ROSER, Donald, married Muriel FROST and built a house on "Rock View" and his sister Nina married Henry LYONS of Collarenebri, a cousin to Les CLARK, so we can see how the families of that time and area, very much intermingled by marriage and friendship.

Les CLARK & Mabel ASHER

Les Clark married Mabel ASHER, daughter of Frank and Rebecca ASHER nee OSBORNE, in 1911. Les and Mabel met at Collarenebri where Mabel had been sent for her first appointment as a school teacher. Charles had been asked by his daughter Ida to keep an eye out for Mabel. Ida had been living with relatives or friends at Muswellbrook or Maitland and was a friend of Mabel's sister Violet ASHER. Mabel was boarding at the school house at Collarenebri with the schoolmaster and his wife and family by the name of McCAULEY. Mabel used to be invited to Charles CLARK's "Wirrabilla" property for weekends and Les used to be sent by buggy, a distance of about four miles, to bring her out and take her back.

Violet ASHER was also a teacher by profession. Her first teaching post was at Broken Hill. It was at the Turramurra, Sydney home of Violet and her husband Leslie PIGGOTT that Norman CLARK met his future wife Beth who lived next door to the PIGGOTT's. Jack, Elsa and Norman spent a number of years living with the PIGGOTT's, receiving an education in Sydney whilst their parents and Trixie lived at Collarenebri, and later, Merriwa.

Les CLARK left Collarenebri about 1927, when he purchased a property 23 miles north of Merriwa, on the Liverpool Range. The property, "Inglewood", had been purchased from the LADMORE family and was originally part of BLAXLAND's grant. The property was about 3,500 acres, and a portion of it contained about half of Oxley's Peak, named after explorer John OXLEY. This mountain was 4,500 feet above sea level. Vincent POTTS owned the other half of the mountain, and he and Les were firm friends. Vincent's wife Olive, nee CAMERON, was a relative through the ROSER family. Ann ROSER's sister Harriette had a daughter Mary who married Lachlan CAMERON and Olive was one of Mary's children. In later years, Elsa, John and Norman used to ride their horses over the mountainous terrain to "Chelsea", the CAMERON property, to play tennis with their CAMERON cousins, and it was nothing for them to make the five mile journey home in the dark. See ROSER History.

Les was at the property for about two years before he was joined by his wife and family. The property remained in his possession until 1972 when Les, his unmarried daughter Elsa, and his other son, Jack, moved to Sydney.

Jack made his home with daughter Juliette, who was working at that time in a nursing home at Terrey Hills, where they rented a house in Myoora Road. Jack had worked on the property for most of his life. He was a very versatile man and when there was not much work on the property, he went shearing or fencing, or worked as a bush mechanic, on other properties, and was very much in demand.

Elsa never married, and had trained as a nurse in Sydney. She worked for many years as a highly regarded theatre sister at the Scottish hospital in Paddington, and when she returned to " Inglewood" in later years to care for her ailing mother, she subsequently worked part-time at Merriwa district hospital in the theatre. Juliette remembers when she had her tonsils removed at age seven, Elsa was the theatre sister at the Scottish, and at age twelve she had her appendix removed and Elsa was then the theatre sister in Merriwa. It was a great comfort to have her there!

Elsa and Les went to live with the widowed Violet PIGGOTT, sister-in-law to Les, and Les remained there until his death in 1978 at the Tudor Hall nursing home where he had briefly been in residence. Violet had by then died, and Elsa lived there alone until she sold the house and moved to the Mowll Village at Castle Hill in 1982, where she lived until her death in October, 1999. Jack died in Plateau View nursing home in 1974, his wife Barbara nee LAWLER, having by that time separated from him. Juliette was their only child. His brother Norman died in 1984, in Concord hospital.

Norman was involved in World War 2, going in as AC 1779 and right at the end of the war became a sergeant or the equivalent but never got his pay rise or his stripe. He was a riveter and in charge of his group. He was at Ultimo, Richmond and Wagga Wagga in NSW and then in Ascot, Victoria and Birdum in the Northern Territory. He joined up early in the war and started on Wirraway aircraft. He made wonderful brass models of these aircraft, which used to grace his parents' mantelpiece . Norman and Beth had a property at Cunnamulla, called Middleton Station, and their son Allan lives there still. Norman and Beth had four children: Ian, Christine, who died in infancy, Allan and Robyn.

Trixie, after her marriage to Saxon BURNET in 1938 in Sydney, lived on the property "Murrunjai" which Saxon owned with his brother Colin. This property was approximately ten miles north of Merriwa where they raised their four children - Sandra, Saxon, David & Anthony, known always as Tony. They later sold their share of the property to Colin and moved to Pymble in Sydney, probably to further the education of their children. Saxon worked as a salesman for Cruikshanks real estate in Wahroonga, until his death in 1972. Trixie married Maurice FERRAN in 1978 and they live at St Ives.

Juliette CLARK, daughter of Jack CLARK, met Colin HENDRY, a Parkes man, through their mutual interest in breeding pedigreed dairy goats. They met in 1976 and moved to Forbes and married in 1978. They have no children from the marriage but enjoy Colin's children from his previous marriage - a daughter, Glenis, who is Julie's age, John, who is older than her, and a son Colin who is the baby of the family. Another son, Patrick, was killed in a motorcycle accident in the 1970's.

Colin was in World War 2; first in the army then based in England with the Air Force, where he flew 42 missions over Germany in Mosquito bombers. He was awarded the DFC. Julie later gave him a book on the Mosquito aircraft and when he saw the plane illustrated on the front cover, he exclaimed "That is the plane we flew in!" recognising it from the registration letters which tallied with his flying records.

Biography

This biography is a rough draft. It was auto-generated by a GEDCOM import and needs to be edited.

Data Changed

Data Changed:

Date: 2 AUG 2005

Time: 10:53:23

Prior to import, this record was last changed 10:53:23 2 AUG 2005.

Sources

• Birth Death Marriages N.S.W. Reg no. Birth 30357/1884
• Birth Death Marriages N.S.W. Reg no. Marriage 178/1911
• Birth Death Marriages N.S.W. Reg no. Death 1602/1978
• Find a grave.com image Available Click Here
• Ryerson Index Death Notices CLARK Leslie Kenneth Death notice 14JAN1978 Death 94 late of Turramurra, formerly of Merriwa Sydney Morning Herald 18JAN1978

• WikiTree profile Clark-10078 created through the import of family tree files use this.GED on Dec 19, 2012 by Phillip Clark. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Phillip and others.