Marj (Williams) Pobke

Ancestors

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Biography

Marj's birth was registered by her father, Thomas, who couldn't spell 'Eileen' which is how she ended up with 'Ileen'. It was a story she told often and throughout her life she always spelled it the way it had been registered. ^[1][2]

She grew up on a small holding in Alma, South Australia with her parents and younger brother, Frank. Her father was the local blacksmith. The family eventually moved to Adelaide. ^[3]

During the war she met and married Albert Pobke while he was working as a hospital porter at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. They married later in life (she was thirty-two, he was fifty). ^[4]

They had three children. Their first child, a son, was stillborn and named after Marj's older brother who lived for only five days. They went on to have a son and a daughter. ^[3]

After Albert's death Marj lived with her daughter. She remained active all her life and was a loving and devoted mother and grandmother. ^[3]

Marj enjoyed playing the piano. ^[3] It was a skill she acquired through her mother's family. Her great-grandfather, Charles William Skegg (her mother's grandfather) had been a pianoforte maker in London in the mid-nineteenth century. Her mother, Lena, taught piano and Marj passed her musical skills on to her daughter and through her son to her granddaughter.

Marj was a committed Christian Scientist. Her final years were spent enduring breast cancer which she did with extraordinary stoicism. She was transferred to a nursing home during the last year of her life at her own insistence. Her final hours were spent with her family and she drew her last breath with her daughter sitting at her bedside. ^[3]

She was interred with her husband, Albert, at Centennial Park Cemetery. ^[3][5]

Sources

^{[1] [2] [4] [3] [5]}

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Macbeth Genealogical Services and South Australian Genealogy and Heraldry Society South Australian births, registrations 1907 to 1928. South Australian Genealogy & Heraldry Society; Hampton, Vic.: Macbeth Genealogical Services, Adelaide, S. Aust, 2005.
   
   Surname: WILLIAMS Given Names: Marjory Ileen Mary Date: 1912-06-21 Sex: F Father: Thomas George WILLIAMS Mother: Selina Emily SKEGG Birth Place/Residence: Forestville District Code: Ade Symbol: Book: 890 Page: 90
   
   
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Pobke, Marjory Ileen Mary. Personal recollection, unknown date, discussed informally with Tamara Pobke.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6} Tamara Pobke. Personal recollection, 15 Apr 2018.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Original marriage certificate seen by Tamara Pobke. Date and details withheld on the grounds of privacy. To be released when South Australian marriages for that period become public.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Centennial Park, "Marjory Ileen Mary Pobke" Cemeteries, https://www.centennialpark.org/memorial-search/marjory-ileen-mary-pobke-203610/, accessed 15 Apr 2018.