Edith Hannah May (Birch) McKee (1880 - 1936)

Born 9 May 1880 in Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia

Ancestors

Died 30 Nov 1936 at age 56 in Perth, Western Australia, Australia

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Biography

Edith was born in 1880. She was the daughter of Richard Birch and Eliza Wiley. She passed away in 1936.

Edith was born on Sunday 9th May 1880 in Fremantle and was the oldest of the last four children for Richard and Eliza - all girls. The lives of the four women - Edith, Ruth, Vera and Onie together with nieces Muriel and Audrey - were intertwined as they shared homes, holidays and ultimately, final resting places.

A regular part of Edith’s early childhood life was seeing seriously ill and injured people carried through her house to be nursed by her parents in the back room. She was eight when the Fremantle Casualty Ward finally moved out of the family home.

When she was fifteen, Edith was enrolled to help her mother in the organising of the ‘Dolls and Toys’ stall at the annual Fremantle Spring Fete and Exhibition. This community fundraising event was organised by her family church - Scots Church - in 1895 and 1898 and Edith assisted her mother on each occasion.

Like her siblings, an important part of Edith’s education was music and after school she performed at various charity concerts in her local community, often with her younger sister, Ruth. One such performance was at the Fremantle Sailors Rest in November 1901.

Edith had a large extended family and was particularly close to her cousin on her mother’s side, Caroline Jane Mews, known as Carrie. Edith was a bridesmaid when Carrie married Harold Coe in Scots Church, Fremantle two days before the Christmas of 1902. Edith and another cousin, Hilda Allpike, wore white muslin dresses, veils fastened with red roses and carried bouquets of red roses. They both wore gold brooches that were a gift from the groom.

A few years later, Edith was back at Scots Church but this time as the bride. She married the purser of the S.S Charon, Noel McKee, whom she had perhaps met during her charity work with the Fremantle Sailors Rest. Noel was the son of the late Roger McKee of Liverpool in England and his second wife Elizabeth Williams. Roger had first married Elizabeth Lloyd and they had a son George. After the early death of his first wife, Roger married again and had two sons. The first was Robert Henry McKee who unfortunately passed away in Liverpool when he was only six years old. The second son was Noel. Elizabeth raised her step-son George as her own before he became a seaman and left to see the world. Following the untimely death of her husband, Roger, Elizabeth ran a boarding house in the Egremont area of Liverpool while Noel got employment as a clerk with the Mersey Dock Board. When Noel migrated to Western Australia, Elizabeth was left alone. After several lonely years, she made the long trip to Perth for her son’s wedding in 1906 and never returned to England.

On the day of the wedding, Noel’s ship was decorated with flags “from stem to stern” in honour of the event and many of the officers attended the happy event. Edith’s bridal gown was cream silk trimmed with Maltese lace and she carried a beautiful bouquet of hyacinths, carnations, tuberoses, chrysanthemums and maiden hair fern. While her sister Ruth, who was bridesmaid, wore a cream crepe-de-Chine dress and carried a bouquet of red carnations and asparagus fern. Her other two younger sisters, Vera and Corona, wore green while her mother wore black. Noel’s gifts to his new wife were a Brinsmead piano and silver backed brush while Edith presented Noel with gold cuff links.

The couple took up residence at 54 Hampton Road, Fremantle together with Noel’s mother. Noel continued to work as a purser. The following year, they welcomed their first child, a girl, Audrey Vera. Two boys were to follow - Robert Reginald in 1909 and Douglas Birch in 1916. The same year that Douglas arrived, the family moved to 51 John Street in Fremantle (later renamed Fothergill Street) and lived there for eight years. One of Edith’s younger sisters, Corona, also lived with them here for some time as well as Noel’s mother Elizabeth.

For a while Noel lived on his own in Moss Street, East Fremantle in a home he named ‘Egremont’ after the area in Liverpool he and his family had lived in for so many years. Noel’s mother Elizabeth passed away in May 1924 at the home in Fothergill Street, aged 83. With his beloved mother now gone, Noel moved back in with his wife and children at 82 Woolwich Street, Fremantle. This did not last long however and the couple again lived separately. Edith, now known as May, took up residence at 90 Coghlan Road in Subiaco with her three children and niece Muriel. It was here that May began to feel very unwell and was later diagnosed as having hepatitis. She passed away from the disease in the Mount Hospital in November 1936. Her children described her as “a perfect mother”. She is buried in Karrakatta Cemetery.

Noel had left the sea behind and was now a salesman. He lived on his own in various residences such as Francis Street, North Perth; Leonard Street, Victoria Park; Aberdeen Street, Perth and Boronia Crescent in Wembley. He was living with his son Doug’s family in Kingland Avenue in City Beach when he passed away in February 1952. He was 69 and is buried with his wife in Karrakatta.

The Bicentennial Dictionary of Western Australians

BIRCH, Richard, b. 3.1842 (Australind), d. 27.6.1910 (Frem), son of Lewis & Hannah, m. 17. 3. 1866 (Guildford) Eliza Anne WYLEY b. 1847 (Ireland) d. 25.1.1931 (Prem), she arr. 8.4.1863 per Burlington. Chd. Charlotte Maud b. 1866 (S.A.) d. 1918, James Oliver b. 1868 (S.A.) d. 1951. William Brown b. 1871 (W.A.) d. 1956. Richard Aubrey b. 1873 d. 1955, George Walter Herrington b. 1875 d. 1967, Clement Wyley b. 1877 d. 1920. Edith Hannah May b. 1880 d. 1936, Eliza Ruth b. 1882 d. 1974. Vera b. 1885, Corona Violet b. 1888 d. 1972. Apprenticed as pharmacist in family business. 1866-1869 to S.A. on staff of F.H.Faulding & Co., returned by 1870? Worked with brother Edmund at Perth. 1875 in own business Frem: Perth Druggist. 1877. 1891-8 with partner A.E.Webster. Was at Rottnest & later at Perth: Member of 1st Pharmaceutical Council. Member Rechabite Lodge & Sec. of Good Templars' Lodge No. 5 (Congreg). ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ The Bicentennial Dictionary of Western Australians, pre-1829-1888, Vol 1, B, pg 222. [compiled by Rica Erickson] https://www.friendsofbattyelibrary.org.au/bicentennial-dictionary

• Death Certificate
• Papers/letters of Ruth Gwendoline DONALDSON (nee BIRCH) held at Battye Library, Perth, Western Australia, MN1217
• Metropolitan Cemeteries Board at www.mcb.wa.gov.au
• Death Notices in "The West Australian" newspaper