Robert Tilbury's descendant in Australia, Archibald William Tilbury

 

DESCENDANTS OF ROBERT TILBURY
Walthamstow, England - Sydney, Australia

 

 

Archibald William Tilbury in Australia

As told by Ian Tilbury, Grandson

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Archibald William Tilbury (son of Frank Yaxley Tilbury and Esther Rebecca Joyce), or Arch as we all knew him, was born in Haggerston England in 1886 according to his birth certificate, but he never had a copy of his birth certificate. I remember when he remarried in 1965 he made a statutory declaration that he was over 21 years of age, supported by his son�s birth certificate.

It was the belief of his offspring that he was born in Leyton (his death certificate records it as Leighton). Research now shows that the family did move to Leyton, after Arch was born, and in fact a younger sister was born at Leyton that we in Sydney had no knowledge of. I have found that much of the history verbally passed down to us was not quite correct, but when researched the errors could be explained.

Arch worked as a Metal Turner in England, and I followed in my Grandfather's footsteps and served my apprenticeship in engineering. I remember well his graphic tales of �turning� on vintage lathes with none of the refinements that I had on my machines in the early 60s.

When Arch moved to Sydney Australia in 1923 he worked as a Tool and Cutter Grinder with AEI - a large Sydney engineering company. After retirement he was called in to work one day a week as he had special skills and knowledge that were hard to replace.

(I also remember well his Rhyming Cockney slang and renditions of Marriott Edgar�s �The Lion and Albert� and �Albert Returns�.)

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Minnie Rosa Vicarey from Islington married Arch in 1915 at Stratford and initially they lived in Walthamstowe where the two eldest sons Roy Arch (my father) and Frank Alfred were born. After they moved to Sydney the twins Ronald Deacon and Donald Yaxley were born in 1925.

Frank Edgar, Arch�s brother, was fighting in Belgium when Minnie and Arch married, and I have letters which say that the wedding reception will be delayed until his return. Frank Edgar died two months after the wedding and I have his last letter to the newlyweds wishing them well. In typical English humour he states that the sandbagged trenches stop bullets well, but do little to stop bombs.

Arch and Min lived in a few houses around Sydney before building their modest home at Padstow next to the Georges River and the boys spent a lot of time on their power launch, fishing and cruising the river. The launch was collected by the government during the war, as there was a concern that boats could be used by an invading Japanese army. All boats were hidden inland for the duration and after the war the Tilbury boat was unrepairable, as the timber clinker design had not survived the dry storage.

Minnie�s sister, married to Alfred Diss, also moved to Sydney with them and built in Padstow where they ran a small engineering tool manufacturing business. Their son Doug later expanded the business.

 

Minnie and Arch with Frank and Roy
Walthamstowe 1923

 
Arch�s Sons

Roy Arch was a Watchmaker for most of his working life. He married Sylvia Frances Ryan and lived at Yagoona. The area was an old dairy with milk cows still around when he built his house but now it is considered part of metropolitan Sydney. Roy had two children Ian and Margaret. Ian has three children and six grandchildren and Margaret is survived by one child. Roy remarried after the death of Sylvia in 1971 to Shirley Cole in 1972.

Frank Alfred worked for a well known large business machine company and them managed his own company for the rest of his working life. He married Betty Eileen Williams and settled in Killara in the Sydney North Shore area. Frank had two children Ross Arthur, who has married twice and has two children. Jennifer Anne his daughter married Ray Cooper and they have four children. Frank Alfred served in the RAAF during the Second World War.

Ronald Deacon and Donald Yaxley were twins; both commenced engineering apprentiships with James N Kirby a major Sydney engineering company.

Ron stayed with the company until his retirement and moved to the far south coast of NSW. He married Shirley Jean Hessian, built two homes in Padstow over the years and had three daughters. All daughters are married and there are six grandchildren.

Don never married and lived in the family home at Padstow until his death in 1998. After leaving James N Kirby, Don worked for Colourfilm, maintaining the technical film processing equipment, which processed many well-known Australian 35mm films like �The Sundowner�, �A Town Like Alice� and �Skippy� the TV series. He would tell interesting stories of the activities on the set during the filming of the movies. Don also spent some time working on a gold dredging operation in Papua New Guinea and being a keen photographer had some interesting photos of natives he met there.

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Letters from England in my possession show the difference in the lives of the Tilburys separated by long distance during the Second World War. The letters from �home� tell of the stress of living through the blitz, which must have been hard to read here in Sydney. Examples of content are,

 
�a V2 rocket went down the street today�
 
�an oil bomb landed in the back yard next to the scullery window and burnt the back wall�
 
and
 
�today the ceilings of most of the houses in the street collapsed after a bomb landed in the street and we need to wait our turn for repairs�.
 

Arch's parents, Frank Yaxley Tilbury (Bookbinder) and Esther Rebecca Joyce, lived at Wathamstowe.

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I thank AS (UK) and JT�s Tilburygen website for their assistance in researching my family history to date. The task continues.
 

 

Family Archives & Intellectual Property of IT:AU - December 2003

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