CLARK, Adeline Agnes

In Ballarat, towards the end of 1900, Annie Henry (nee Poole) and her husband James welcomed their third daughter, naming her Adeline Agnes.

Sadly, this child was destined not to have her mother in her life for a long period. In what was the first blow in Adeline’s life, just before her eighth birthday in 1908, Annie passed away leaving James to care for six children aged between 3 and 10. The family surmises that aunts and uncles may have provided support until James remarried ten years later.

Regretfully the family has no record of her schooling, but one imagines that Adeline would have grown up very quickly, assisting the older girls, Mary and Jessie, with the care of Alexander, Annie, and little William, and when of an appropriate age helping the family financially. The first evidence of Adeline’s employment shows that she was a domestic at Reid’s Guest House in Lydiard Street.

21-year-old Adeline married Reginald Berriman Garfield Clark, a 25-year-old butcher from Sebastopol in 1921, two years after Reg had returned to Australia following active service at Gallipoli and throughout the Western Front. They set up a home in Ballarat and later that year Dorothy, their first child, was born.

Another blow was to follow in 1923 with their second child, Reginald Max, living for only three weeks. He was buried in the Old Cemetery with his recently deceased paternal grandfather.

Adeline and Reg added three more daughters to their family in Ballarat, before moving to Mildura where Reg was offered work. Mildura was the setting for both joy and despair in 1934 – firstly the arrival of a son in March, followed in December by the death of 6-year-old Hazel from diphtheria. One can only imagine Adeline’s distress at this tragedy, and her fear that the other children may succumb.

Shortly afterward the Clarks returned to Ballarat, but all was not well. No one in the family can pinpoint just when the marriage soured but it appears that for quite a while Adeline had been experiencing behind closed doors something that wasn’t spoken about publicly. With hindsight, it is obvious that Reg had been affected by his war service, and he wasn’t always a good husband and father. Countless other families were similarly affected. This insidious condition still exists today and is recognised as PTSD. Regretfully by the mid-30s separation dealt the final blow to Adeline’s hopes of a contented family life. Divorce followed, meaning that Adeline was a single mother needing to provide physical, emotional, and financial support for her five children, with one still a toddler. By this time Dorothy was of an age where she could gain employment to assist.

Adeline’s earlier experience at Reid’s stood her in good stead as she took over the running of a boarding house at the corner of Main Rd and Humffray St South. This provided income, as well as a roof over their heads.

The final place of employment in Addy’s later life was at J S Vickery and Sons, a long-established and progressive manufactory. Beginning with soap and candle making in the late 1850s this business, in the shadow of Black Hill, went on to produce a huge variety of products such as OVO egg preservative, citrus health salts, chicken feed, custard powder, washing soda, and Vicsol polish for lino, furniture, and boots. A newspaper advertisement quoted ‘Carnation Self-Raising Flour, made under a new process, has already become firmly established in the favoritism of housewives’.

Adeline supplied some of these branded flour bags to her oldest daughter Dorothy who cleverly turned them into a unique baker’s outfit for her son to wear at a Neil Street Sunday School fancy dress parade in the early 1950s.

Her grandchildren can only remember Nana Clark as a single mother, but one who was always smartly dressed and well-groomed. They fondly recall family social evenings at her home in the Centennial Flats on Mair Street. ‘Housie Housie’ (forerunner of Bingo) was the usual entertainment, with Adeline being the “caller’ and delivering strange phrases such as clickety click - 66, two little ducks - 22, and two fat ladies - 88. It was such simple fun.

For Christmas 1954 Adeline gifted her four surviving adult children, Dot, Jess, Elsie, and Billy, a colour photographic portrait. In a lovely blue dress, she presented as a confident, serene and healthy woman, with no inkling of past troubles and certainly no hint of a dark cloud that would bring the final blow. Sadly, eighteen months later Adeline, in her mid-fifties, died unexpectedly from a brain tumor. She was buried with her mother in the Ballarat New Cemetery, Presbyterian B, Section 7, Grave 24.

Adeline’s story no doubt bears a strong resemblance to that of many other resilient women of the era. These women formed the backbone of families and communities. Their stories, though simple, should be remembered and celebrated.

Adeline had three daughters, each of whom in turn had a daughter. These three women appreciate and celebrate their ancestry and have recorded the Clark/Henry family history for perpetuity. Helen, Marion, and Glenda admire their maternal grandmother for her strength, resilience, determination, and style. They regret the short time that Nana Clark was in their lives.  

Thank you to Marion Snowden for submitting this story on her grandmother.