Sydney Alexander Duncan Turnbull (1880 - 1931)

Born 1880 in Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia

Ancestors

Husband of Alice Ellen (Matthews) Spargo — married 1908 in Victoria, Australia

Died 6 Jul 1931 at about age 51 in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

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Biography

Sydney Alexander Duncan Turnbull was born in 1880 in Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia, son of Mary Jane (Macey) Turnbull and John Morier Turnbull.^[1]

He is named in the Victoria Police Gazette indexes.^[2]

He married Alice Ellen Matthews in 1908 in Victoria.^[3] There does not appear to be any children from the marriage between them. They married the same year that his brother filed for divorce from her sister Adelina for adultery citing Sydney as the co-respondent.^[4] Adelina gave birth to Edna in 1909, and Sydney is recorded as the father on her birth certificate and Adelina as the mother.

Sydney died on 6 July 1931 in Canberran Capital Territory, of natural causes.^[5]

Research Notes

Unable to find divorce record yet between Alice and Sydney.

Many newspaper articles on the Trove data base about his criminal history - where he is referred to as a habitual criminal, and where in one instance he escaped with three other convicts from French island reformatory.

Sources

1. ↑ Victoria Birth registration 8791/1880. https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/research-and-family-history/search-your-family-history
2. ↑ Victoria Police Gazette Indexes. CD-ROM. Ridgehaven, South Australia: Gould Genealogy and History, 2009.

   Victoria Police Gazette 1906: TURNBULL, Sydney, 29543; tried at Fitzroy P.S., 12th August 1905, for larceny; 3 months hard labour; for imposition; 3 months hard labour; 23rd August 1905, for assaulting constable; £5, or 1 month; native of Victoria, bootmaker, born 1880. 5ft. 8in., fresh complexion, brown hair, hazel eyes. Seven prior convictions.

3. ↑ Marriage Record: # 2098 / 1908 BDM Victoria (Name: Alice Ellen MATTHEW and Sydney TURNBULL)
4. ↑ "Divorce court." 20 May 1908. The Argus (Melbourne), page 8. Retrieved 29 May 2022 by Clare Spring from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/10663833.

   Frederick Phipps Walter Turnbull, 25, night-watchman, of Newry-street, Fitzroy, asked for a dissolution of his marriage with Adelina Esther Turnbull, 25, on the ground of infidelity. Sydney Alexander Turnbull, brother of the petitioner, was joined as co-respondent. Mr. Arthur appeared for the petitioner. The parties were married on August 10, 1904, and there was one child a year old. The evidence disclosed that the woman had run away with the co-respondent. A decree nisi, with costs, and the custody of the child was granted.

5. ↑ New South Wales, Australia, Registers of Coroners' Inquests, 1821-1937; State Archives NSW; Series: 2767; Item: 3/958; Roll: 343.Ancestry Document Viewer: Coroners Report

• "A remarkable story." 6 October 1908. The Age (Melbourne), page 7. Retrieved 29 May 2022 by Clare Spring from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/202195077.