Thomas Yeo Russell (1902 - 1997)

Born 19 Sep 1902 in Telarah, New South Wales, Australia

Ancestors

Husband of Kathleen Ethel (Patmore) Russell — married 10 Jan 1931 in Katoomba, NSW, Australia

Descendants

Died 10 Jul 1997 at age 94 in Springwood, New South Wales, Australia

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Biography

Thomas Yeo was the first-born of the the three children of Thomas William & Edith Clarice (Blanchard) Russell. He was called Bon by the family. [His middle name recognized paternal Grandmother, Mary Ann (Yeo) Russell; his brother Henry Nichols was named for maternal Grandmother, Lydia (Nichols) Blanchard, as was his sister, Clarice Lydia.]

Tom followed his father and uncles into the building trade, which his brother also joined. In the difficult years when the effects of the World Depression came to Australia, he sought work far from his home at "Ardell", Campbell's Hill, West Maitland, initially around the New England region but then further afield. For a time he had work in Kangaroo Valley and then in the Wollongong area (where his future wife's family lived).

When there was no building work to be found, he spent some time gold prospecting around the Barrington Tops, and opal prospecting at Lightning Ridge in far northern NSW.

As a young man he had been Treasurer of the Maitland Bachelors' Club. (It was a formally-structured club for single men, with rooms in Hills Chambers, West Maitland. As well as the comradeship the club provided for its members, it was also much engaged in organizing charitable and community functions.) Tom was also a member of the Lodge of Unity No. 4 at West Maitland.

Thomas Yeo Russell married Kathleen Ethel Patmore at Katoomba, NSW, on 10 January 1931. The early years of their marriage were spent at Wollongong where their first child was born in 1932. They moved to Springwood in the Blue Mountains of NSW in the late 1930s and lived there the rest of their lives. (Kathleen taught at Springwood Public School for much of her career.)

During WWII, Tom was employed at the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation factory at Lidcombe where aircraft engines were produced, having earlier received defence industry training in precision machining. Later he was transferred to the Munitions Factory at St Marys where he remained until War end in 1945.

After the War years Tom became well-known as a builder around the Blue Mountains, preparing the architectural plans and specifications for several of those clients. (His meticulous attention to detail may have been less welcomed by his sub-contractors.) His last work was undertaken in his 70s as Project Manager for a small factory. He was much involved in community committee work: the town Progress Association, the Historical Society, the School of Arts, and for many years as Chairman of the Springwood & Districts Building Society and of the Springwood District Committee of the Blue Mountains City Council.

Thomas Yeo Russell died at his home on 10 July 1997, a little short of his 95th birthday. [His brother had died in Maitland three days earlier; his sister a year earlier.] Kathleen (Patmore) Russell had died on 26 April 1996.

Sources

• Birth: NSW Registry 33118/1902
• Marriage: NSW Registry 1820/1931
• Death: Personal knowledge and Ryerson 1997
• "Russells of Burwash", Jean (Russell) McPherson, 1988