5/52 Branching Out: Emily Mary Godlee

 5/52 Branching out

Emily Mary Godlee. 1888 - 1927

Miles Franklin in All that Swagger speaks of ‘Orchards of family trees’. Certainly I belong in an orchard. There are many trees, hundreds of branches. The Godlee Tree, rooted by the sea in Suffolk spread broadly across London and Sussex.  The Australian branch broke away when John Godlee migrated to Adelaide in 1838, established itself in South Australia, growing seven more branches: Mary Rickman Burnett, Arthur John, Charles Burwood, Frederick Oscar, Alfred, Charlotte Lucy and Theodore. I am fruit from Theodore’s branch. This story follows Emily Mary from Charles Burwood’s branch, a branch which was  severely pruned like an espaliered tree, only allowing limited shoots to develop. Emily Mary was my first cousin, twice removed.  That is to say Emily was my grandmother’s cousin. 

Charles Burwood Godlee and Emily Kent married  ‘by special licence’ in the Police Station at Venus Bay, South Australia. It was said to be ‘of special license' because it wasn’t in a church. Presumably there was no church in Venus Bay, on the northwestern side of Eyre Peninsular, Emily Kent was born at a nearby station, Lake Hamilton Station. Charles managed sheep stations in the area: Kalka, Penong, Chandada Stations.  

When their sixth child Emily Mary was born in February, 1888, they had had Jack, (1877) Maggie,(1879) Charlie,(1882) and Maud (1884) and Allan 1886. Following Emily there was Milly, (1890) Fred, (1894) and Clarice, 1899. 

Allan had died at 16 months, in April 1887, ten months before Emily was born.. The notice in the paper says ‘Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?’ Charles and Emily may well have asked that question again and again over the course of their marriage. However hard they were tried, they did not lose their faith.  

When Emily was 14, in 1902, her sister Maud, aged 18, died from peritonitis  The newspaper notice says ‘Sisters, brothers, relatives and friends mourn her decease.’ It says in Health Direct: ‘Peritonitis is a life-threatening condition that needs urgent medical attention. A person with peritonitis can die within a few hours or days if not treated.’ Medical services available in Streaky Bay in 1902 would have been limited. 

 Two years later, another child died. Clarice was 5 years old A notice in the paper said this: ‘Mr and Mrs C.B.Godlee desire to THANK all kind friends for expressions of sympathy, telegrams, letters and floral tributes in their late sad bereavement’ also Mr Wilbe for his unremitting attention.’ So, at least there had been a doctor, maybe. 

Earlier that year, the oldest son, Jack, had married Alice Mudge in Streaky Bay, the bride sporting a crown of orange blossoms. They danced until dawn. His brother, Charlie, was the best man. But in 1905, a month after the birth of her son, Alice died in Streaky Bay. 

It was too much. 

The Godlees left Streaky Bay.  They had been there for ten years managing the General Store. In 1906 it is reported that Charles took up a portion of Wynarling Station, near Keith in the south east. 

In 1912 there was a public meeting of the Streaky Bay Progress Association to discuss the construction of a hospital in Streaky Bay. They took public subscriptions and donations and in a month after the inaugural meeting they had raised £1000. The government subsidised the venture by 30/- for every pound raised. The buildings were complete by March, 1914. Items, no matter how small, towards furnishing the hospital were sort and the newspaper noted a donation of six pillow slips, for example and a donation of an air cushion and a bed. Emily would return to Streaky Bay to work as the Matron of the hospital in 1922. How she would have felt to be working there after she had experienced the death of two of her sisters during her teenage years! Was the death of her sisters the motivation for her choice of nursing as a career?  How different would it have been had medical services been more accessible! 

They soon became part of their new community in Keith. By the following year,1907, Emily, now aged 19, took part in a concert at the Keith Hall to raise money for Narracorte Hospital and the Mt Monstar School Library.  She played the part of France in a costume recital, Britannia’s Tea Party,  where others represented Australia, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, America, Japan, Spain and Italy, each dressed in their national costume. Miss Beatrice Hender, a neighbour, played the part of Italy. Unfortunately the reviewer notes that there was want of space on the stage so the performance was rather stiff and crowded. 

In 1908 there was another happy occasion, a Spring wedding,  when oldest sister, Maggie, got married to Percy Laffer. They got married in Norwood at St Bartholomew’s Church. In the absence of her father, she was ‘given away’ by her cousin, Charles Burnett, from another branch of the Godlee family, the oldest male relative. Her sister Milly was the first bridesmaid, the second bridesmaid, a 9 year old cousin from the same branch as Charles Burnett. They held the reception at her aunt’s place in Norwood: Mary Rickman Burnett, Charles’ sister.   All the Godlee women were there: Mrs Emily Godlee, Miss Emily Godlee and Milly, but none of the men who were probably busy on the farm, planting Spring wheat.

By 1914 Emily had started studying to be a nurse. She was at Port Augusta hospital in 1914, possibly beginning her training. There was a typhoid outbreak while she was there. She passed her exams with first class results and was awarded a gold medal. In 1915 the Royal British Nurses Association, South Australian Branch, accepted nurse Emily Mary Godlee into membership. 

When the war came, everyone was called to do their bit. The neighbouring Hender boys signed up in 1914, but Charlie waited until 1916. The family were involved in a fundraiser for the Red Cross in Keith, the Strawberry fête: Fred was on the cool drinks stall and Emily and Milly were on the Jumble sale. Fred felt the pressure to enlist and didn’t like it. He held out as long as he could but by Christmas 1917, Fred was gone. 

Maggie was now the mother of five girls, living northwest of Adelaide in Owen.  Emily was working at the Adelaide Hospital where she was in charge of the Ophthalmic Ward.  They both came home for Xmas and Mrs CB Godlee (Emily)  received a cable from Fred to say he had arrived safely in Egypt.  

But at the end of February 1918, the Border Chronicle reported that ‘quite a gloom was cast over the town on Sunday last when word was received that Lance Corporal C. Godlee had died of wounds in France.’ One of his cousins who saw Charlie in France, remarked that he had died from ‘war weariness’. In his official record it says he died of ‘illness’ on February 7th. Five Godlee cousins went to the First World War, from three different branches, and only two came home. Fred was one of those. 

He married Gladys Hender in March 1921 and Milly married Arthur Stuart Hender in April.  Milly called her first child after her brother, Charles Harry.

Emily was the Matron of various country hospitals: Lameroo, Orroroo, Streaky Bay and Eudunda. She had an illustrious nursing career. 

In 1927, she came home to Keith to help out. Her father Charles was now 80 and perhaps frail. Milly, on a neighbouring farm, had three children under 5.  One day, 18th, February Emily was doing domestic work in the bathroom of Milly’s home. Her nephew, Charlie’s namesake, came into the room and picked up a loaded gun which, bizarrely, was in the corner of the room. He played with it and Emily was shot in the side. She was rushed to the hospital, the Tatiara Memorial Hospital in Bordertown. She lived until March 1st. It is said she died from ‘shock’. Perhaps that means, loss of blood. She was buried in Bordertown. Her grave says ‘Thy Will be done’. Charles died a few weeks later. . His grave says ‘At Rest’. Emily Godlee, mother, who had given birth to 9 children and lost 5 of them, died the following year. Her gravestone says ‘Re-united with her loved ones.’ 

 

Emily Mary Godlee’s grave stone in the Bordertown Cemetery : Emily Mary Godlee, March 1st, 1927, aged 39 years. THY WILL BE DONE.