Leah Harriet (Crombie) Wheelhouse (1881 - 1933)

Born 24 Jan 1881 in Kerang, Victoria, Australia

Ancestors

Wife of Mortimer Moss Wheelhouse — married 27 Jun 1901 in Inglewood, Victoria, Australia

Descendants

Died 6 Mar 1933 at age 52 in Mooroopna, Victoria, Australia

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Biography

Leah was born in 1881 ^[1] the daughter of Edward Allan Crombie (1844-1914) and Harriet Collins (1856-1902).

She was living in Swan Hill when in 1901 she married Mortimer Moss Wheelhouse (1873-1936) a labourer from Whela at St Augustines Church Inglewood. ^[2]

When Leah and Mort married she had a 15 month old child Herbert Sydney Crombie (1900-1981) (no name appears on his birth certificate for a father). While Uncle Herb, as he was known to his nephew Gary Goodson, later used the name Herbert Sydney Wheelhouse, it was common knowledge in the family that he was not Mort's and he was not listed as issue on Mort's death cert.

Together, Mort and Leah had 7 children. The oldest born in Whela before the family moved to Strathmerton between 1902 and 1904. Sometime after 1909 and before the birth of Myrtle in 1916 the family moved a short distance away to the neighbouring town of Bearii where the youngest two were born. Strathmerton can be found in between Numurkah and Barooga:—

Frederick James "Fred" (1902-1969) m. Doris May Humphries

Leslie Francis Mortimer (1904-1982) m. Lillian Harriet Wheeler

Ethel May (1907-1986) m. Gordon Harold George Evans 1940

Clarence Oswald (1909-1996) m. Evelyn Beatrice Taylor 1945

Gladys Hazel "Hazel" (1911-1997) m. Robert Burchell Dick 1934

Myrtle Wheelhouse m. Harold Goodson 1940

Ellen Percy (1918-2013) m. Kenneth Edward McKenzie 1940.

About 1920 the family moved to Toolamba.

After a long battle with cancer, Leah passed away in hospital in 1933, aged 50 [52y 1m 11d]. ^[3]

Obituary. ^[4]

Mrs. Wheelhouse, whose husband and family reside at Toolamba, died in Mooroopna Hospital on Monday and the burial took place at Toolamba on Tuesday. The Rev. C. Patmore read the burial service. The funeral arrangements were conducted by Messrs Kittle Brothers.

Her passing greatly affected her children. Particularly her youngest daughters Myrtle and Ellen who were 16 and 14 respectively at the time. After she herself passed, her mother's obituary was found carefully kept amongst Myrtle's possessions. The newspaper clipping would have been 66 years old.

Leah and Mortimer are interred in Toolamba Cemetery, Toolamba, Greater Shepparton City, Victoria, Australia.^[5]

Notes

The registry records age as 50, the headstone as 51. If the birth date as shown is correct, then she was actually 52.

Sources

1. ↑ Vic BDM. Births. 5908/1881.
2. ↑ Vic BDM. Marriages. 2201/1901.
3. ↑ Vic BDM. Births. 13013/1933.
4. ↑ 1933 'OBITUARY', Shepparton Advertiser (Vic. : 1914 - 1953), 9 March, p. 5., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168642213
5. ↑ Interred: Find A Grave: Memorial #206867502 Leah Harriet Crombie Wheelhouse Accessed 30 Apr 2023

• copies of Birth Death marriage reg entries held