MINNIE MEWETT
(nee Barrand)
- 1959
By Janette Menhennet and Jacqueline Law-Smith
Based upon an Interview with Lil Crosby, July 2005 with supplementary material from the letters of Gordon Law-Smith, an interview with Vi Brooks and information from George Rau.
It all began when a South Australian Pastoralist, Gordon Law-Smith wrote to his sister in London appealing for her help.
“Yaringa”
Gawler
24 November, 1924
“My Dear Nellie,
Owing to the extreme dearth of domestic servants I took it upon myself to invite your assistance by sending the cable to you a few days ago asking if you would be kind enough to secure a brace in your part of the world. In this State (SA) at the present time they are just about as rare as Icebergs on the Equator.”
Soon after an advertisement appeared in a London Newspaper requesting the services of an English maid for a South Australian family.
“English maid wanted to work on property in South Australia, comfortable quarters electric light, shared sitting room”
If it weren’t for that fateful advertisement Lil’ Crosby (nee Mewett) and her sisters Edna and Marjorie would never have been born. Their mother, Minnie Barrand was one of two girls who were “secured” by Gordon’s sister Nellie to sail to Australia and work on the property outside Gawler.
Minnie Barrand was in love with a man she couldn’t have so an adventure in the antipodes offered a new beginning, a way out of an impossible, clandestine romance. Despite the moral sanctions of the time Minnie’s mother had given her “her blessing” to live with the man, who was the husband of another, but Minnie felt that it would not be “right”.
Born into a close family in the rural Lincolnshire village of Wellingore, Minnie’s childhood had conditioned her well for the life that was before her. Her father was crippled as a result of working in waist deep water in the canals which ribbed the flat fenlands around their village. He stayed at home with the children while the mother went out to work to support the family. Minnie had many fond memories of her father, who was affectionate and “fun” despite his painful disability.
Minnie’s childhood taught her two invaluable lessons, acceptance of hard work and the vital importance of community. Those lessons would have been reinforced by her first job, working in a “Foundling Hospital” an institution which cared for abandoned babies. Having been in service since the age of 14 Minnie was also used to separation from the home and family to which she was so deeply attached
A handsome woman with a finely structured face, Minnie had deep and vibrant eyes, thick bobbed hair and a neat figure. She was bright and intelligent, an impression reaffirmed in a reference from a former employer.
Oxford
6th October 1924
“I have much pleasure in giving a reference for Minnie Barrand. For I have known her since childhood and her family are most respectable people. She was in my service for two years and seven months and was one of the best maids I have had. Strongly reliable in every way. Besides being most capable and efficient in her work and always bright and pleasant. She deserves everything that is good and I hope she may find a suitable post’.
M.L. Usher.
After a long arduous sea journey, Minnie Barrand arrived in Port Adelaide together with a fellow domestic employee. Correspondence dated 18th May 1925 from the Harris Scarfe Office in Adelaide to Mr Gordon Law Smith read:
Dear Sir
RE English Maid.
“We have just received a cablegram from our London Office dated 15thMay reading as follows:-
“Servants sailed s/s Bendigo”. This vessel is at present scheduled to arrive at the Outer Harbour, Port Adelaide, on the 28th of June next’.
The girls were met at the Port and transported to their new home, a prosperous property nestled between the hills east of Gawler. After the busy bustle of London their new home must have felt quiet and isolated to the English girls. It was a dramatically different landscape, dry and brown in summer, green in winter, spacious without fences to divide the great paddocks into little fields. Even the red earth stained merinos would have been a stark contrast to the woolly white sheep of England.
The wide open spaces and the sparse local population increased a sense of emptiness in the girl from a land wherein whatever direction one looks there was a farm, a pub, or a village. Nestled in a gentle valley Minnie’s new home was secluded from the surrounding area.
The gracious two stories stone homestead with its wide verandahs looking out over the broad sweep of paddocks was built in a style foreign to the British girls. Beyond the immaculately maintained gardens was a huddle of galvanized iron roofed shearing sheds, servant’s quarters, outhouses and a towering windmill. With four servants in residence, a cook, gardeners, farm hands and the annual influx of shearers the property was not so much a home, as a lively community.
To this day there is a small room behind the nursery in the main house which was used by the nanny. Minnie, and two other girls shared the weatherboard cottage behind the windmill which was specifically built for servants. The maids each had a generously proportioned room with French doors opening out onto the verandah. They shared a sitting room with an open fire. The cottage was cosy in winter, easily cooled in summer, and boasted superb views over the surrounding landscape. The accommodation was vastly superior to that which servants were used to, in England they were generally quartered in shoe box sized rooms crammed either into attics or down behind the boiler at the back of the kitchen; uncomfortably hot in summer and smelling of boiled cabbage all year round.
In his letter of November 1924 Gordon Law-Smith describes to his sister Nellie the living conditions,
“Each maid has a room to herself with electric light but alas we have not got a moving picture show on the place.”
Gordon goes on to set out the terms of employment. In return for their passage to Australia the girls were to work on the property for a minimum of 12 months. The girls had two full days off every four weeks. The wages were 30/- per week “generous” in comparison to contemporary working wages. The girls would have considered themselves fortunate.
Mr and Mrs Law Smith were “exacting” employers, those who were loyal and hardworking were well rewarded and cared for. Those who were not soon parted company. The family never forgot their loyal former staff. In her later years Molly Law Smith would visit several of the girls who had worked for her many years before. Lil fondly recalls a visit and kind words from Molly when her mother, Minnie, passed away in 1959.
The family owned one of the few cars in the district at the time. Most people still relied upon horse and buggy for transportation. If the girls were lucky they might have a “suitor” with a horse and jinker otherwise they must find their own transport. The property was within walking distance of Gawler. Some of the girls rode pushbikes into town. Though only three miles the long uphill ride back would have required well developed leg muscles. They were permitted to occasionally attend dances at the Institute in Gawler on a Saturday Night but the tell tale crunch of feet on the graveled drive presented problems if they returned too late.
A strong sense of community developed on the property between staff and their employers. Gordon’s letters express his feelings of responsibility and respect for his workers. He comments on the care and attention shown to his young son, David then aged 5 years.
Although the speedy onset of romance curtailed Minnie’s career in the household a lasting relationship developed between her family and the employers who brought her out from England.
Whatever downfalls to life in the “colony’ for the homesick English girls, there was some excitement to compensate. The rumour spread quickly around the Gawler district that two good-looking young English maids had arrived, and soon there were plenty of young suitors beating a path to the door.
A young local butcher, not long out from Yorkshire, was the first to arrive on the doorstep brandishing a bottle of beer and all the bravado he could muster to ask young Minnie out. The beer was not to Minnie’s taste so the young hopeful’s kind offer was declined. Within a short time a local farm hand, Alfred Mewett of the Mewetts of Williamstown succeeded in catching Minnie’s eye. The lonely English girl was ready for romance.
Within a few months Minnie was “walking out”. Alfred had a horse and buggy so he could take Minnie for rides through the countryside and into Gawler to “movies”, then silent, on her days off. Within a year of arriving in South Australia she was at Alfred’s side at the altar. Minnie had worked on the property for exactly twelve months as per her agreement.
After their marriage Minnie and Alfred settled into a small stone cottage on Para Road (then Government Rd). After the warm comfortable environment of Yaringa with electric light, plenty of food and firewood, moving to a tiny cottage with no modern conveniences must have tested Minnie’s fortitude, but she was never heard to complain. Such is the power of love.
Arthur worked as a farm hand prior to their marriage and he continued to follow rural pursuits. For some years he carted hay to Adelaide, leaving at 2.00 am to be in the city in time for the markets. He always kept horses and a few sheep in the yard behind the cottage in Evanston.
In the spring of 1926 the Mewett’s first child, a daughter, Evelyn Lily (known as Lil’) was born. Weighing a mere four pounds, she was immediately wrapped in blankets and rushed to the local hospital run by Dr Dawes. Fortunately Lil’ survived her precarious beginning and is still alive, bright and very active today.
Only two years after moving to Australia Minnie was followed by her sister Elizabeth, her husband Harry Jackson and family. Elizabeth decided to immigrate after being warned that her delicate son would not survive the cold and damp of England. She had already lost one son due to illness.
Ironically after all the effort to save their young son from certain death in a cold climate, Sydney Jackson was killed in WW2 when the Lancaster in which he was flying, was shot down over the English Channel. After the pilot “ditched” into the sea, the plane sank within minutes. The pilot and several crew members were rescued by Germans off the coast of Holland. Sydney who was the rear gunner was not so fortunate. His body was found washed up on a Dutch beach six months later.
The Jackson family first settled near Minnie in Gawler. Harry Jackson found work at the May Bros Foundry. Within a few years he secured permanent employment on Koonoona Station, near Burra. This well known sheep grazing property was owned by Molly Law-Smith’s father Waldemar Hawkes & the estate of his late Uncle Walter Duffield MP. of the splendid Para Para House, Gawler. Grandson Kenneth Duffield worked as a Jackeroo on the property at the time. These family connections are further evidence of the enduring and supportive relationship between the Mewetts and the Law-Smiths.
As a child Lil recalls trips to Koonoona to visit her Aunt. These visits offered a welcome respite from the poverty and ubiquitous hard work that characterised life for the Mewetts in their little cottage on Para Road in Evanston.
Married life was not easy for Minnie. Despite Alfred’s willingness to work and resourcefulness the economic conditions of the time caused the family continual hardship. In 1929, when Lil was only three the crash of Wall street in the US plummeted the world into “depression” and Australia was one of the countries hardest hit. With 30% of the countries “breadwinners” unemployed the Mewetts were not alone. Once again a strong community spirit was integral to their survival. People helped each other, the moral support as essential as the physical assistance.
Parcels were regularly sent from Koonoona by Elizabeth to her sister Minnie in Gawler. Lil fondly remembers her excited Mum collecting the parcels from the Station. Inside the wooden boxes they would find carefully wrapped cold chickens and eggs, items greatly appreciated by the depression-hungry Mewett children.
Alfred began quarrying his own stone to construct a house for his family but when a neighbour appealed to him to sell the stone to complete a barn Alfred agreed. He was unable to quarry any more stone so his house remained half built. Eventually in May 1930 an interest free loan from Gordon Law-Smith enabled him to complete the family home. Lil recalls proudly carrying the kerosene lamp when her family moved from the old cottage on Para Road to the new home at number 87 a few hundred meters further down the road. Sadly the house that Alfred built and the barn built from the stone he quarried by hand are to be demolished to make way for the Evanston Industrial development.
Two more daughters were born to the Mewetts, Edna and Marjorie. Lil recalls a happy family life despite the economic difficulties. “We were a close family living within a caring community”. They always knew when need arose they could rely upon the assistance of a neighbour, just as those neighbours knew that Minnie would be there to assist them. On one occasion the creek near the house flooded and Minnie fled with the girls to the safety of a neighbour’s house until the danger had passed.
Despite the different stations in life the strong connection between the Mewetts and Minnie’s former employers endured. At some time during the depression years Alfred secured employment possibly as a result of the recommendation of the family. He was given twelve months work as a caretaker on the property of the Parker family, who were going to England. The Mewett’s moved into a house up in the gully east of Gawler. Each evening Minnie would take her children for a walk up a nearby hill. From the summit one could see across the coastal plains to the silvery water of the distant gulf. Lil realized that her mother was looking at the sea and thinking “home”. The sea represented the passage to England, exacerbating her yearning to return to home and family. The evocative image of her mother standing silently at the top of the gully looking longingly over to the sea, was forever imprinted on Lil’s memory.
When the Parker family returned from England the Mewetts returned to their home on Para road. Struggling just to feed and clothe her family Minnie must have despaired of ever revisiting the fertile green fields and fens of her home. Being a proud and stoic English woman Minnie would never admit in her letters to her family in England or her young family here of her sadness and yearning.
The depression was considered over by 1935 but unemployment in Australia remained high until the outbreak of war in 1939. The hard times were certainly not over for the Mewetts. In 1937 persistent ill health (probably resulting from a work related injury) forced Alfred Mewett to apply for an invalid pension. This was a difficult step for a proud and hard working man in a era when men were judged by their working capability.. In a letter dated 22nd June 1930, to his wife, then visiting England for the coronation of George the VI, Gordon Law Smith expresses his concern for them.
“The Mewetts are only just struggling along. He has not been able to do any work at all for twelve months and is now getting the invalid pension which is a help. The children don’t look very gay so I dug up some things for them. Minnie has asked me to thank you for them. I also sent them a big truck load of firewood last week.”
Lil fondly recalls the day when parcels of toys and ‘lovely new winter woollies” arrived from Yaringa. “It was like Christmas.”
Although unable to afford the fare for the long voyage to England or even to talk by phone, Minnie’s ties with family and home remained very strong. She wrote regularly “always a happy cheerful letter” (quote daughter Lil), and persuaded her daughters to do fancy work to send to her family. During the war years a picture of Winston Churchill hung on the Mewetts’ kitchen wall.
Minnie did no paid work after her marriage as was the convention at the time however she worked ceaselessly for others. During the war years she and a neighbour regularly walked four kilometers from Evanston to the Gawler Hospital to do voluntary work in the laundry. Work in a hospital laundry in the 1940s was very taxing with huge hot steamy machines, heavy tubs to lift and piles of noisome soiled sheets to handle. It was not a task for the faint hearted.
Mrs Covernton, the local Doctor’s wife, befriended Minnie and asked her if she would help a lady in Lyndoch with the grape harvest. Due to the internment of many locals the English Vineyard owner was unable to find help, so several days a week Minnie went to Lyndoch to pick grapes.
While picking grapes in Lyndoch and labouring in the local hospital laundry Minnie still found time to help friends and neighbours in need. She also helped serve supper at Gawler Red Cross fundraising Balls. Lil recalls “Mum excitedly woke us up at 2.00 am when she had returned from the Ball, with the leftover cakes. “Look at all the lovely cakes. Come and have a cake”.
Times continued to be tough for the family though Alfred was working once more, carting sand from the river that wound through the hills east of Gawler.
When Lil turned 14 she was granted a scholarship to continue her education. She said she would have liked to take that up but knew her parents could not easily support her, though they never said. She turned down the scholarship and went to work in a local bank in what was considered a very good job at the time. Lil had the satisfaction of seeing how the money she earned eased the hardships of her family.
Lil recalls that the house at 87 Para Road was “small but tidy”, just adequate for the family’s needs. There were no luxuries. “Dad wouldn’t have the power on even though the lines went straight past our house”. When Lil went into the Airforce during WWII she had never used an electric iron. While visiting with her sister sometime later, Lil dropped something on the floor and after scrambling around in the poor lighting trying to find it both girls demanded “Dad for goodness sake get that power on.” Alfred finally conceded. It was 1945.
The high regard in which the Mewett family were held in the community is reflected in the reference written on Feb 5th 1945 by Gordon Law-Smith for one of the Mewett girls.
To Whom It May Concern
I have no hesitation in stating that I have known Miss Edna Mewett since her early childhood days. She comes of very good stock. Both her parents are well known to me and are respected by all with whom they have come in contact.
I can confidently recommend Edna to faithfully and ably carry out any reasonable duties to which she may be assigned.”
Gordon Law Smith.
Minnie spent her whole life dedicated to her family and the service of others, often walking miles to assist a neighbour in need, but too proud to ask for any help for herself. This triggered the illness that would prematurely terminate her own life. Inevitably it was on her way to assist a friend living four miles away that Minnie collapsed on Adelaide Road. Two ladies in a passing motorcar picked her up and drove her to “the Hutch’”. She was diagnosed with a terminal heart condition, undeterred when released from hospital she carried on doing arduous tasks for others with little regard for her own delicate state of health. Minnie was then only 54 years of age.
She made a pact with a neighbour, Gertrude Lowry who was also ill, when the need arose one would nurse the other. As fate would have it, contrary to the predictions of the doctors who believed that Minnie would die first, she became the nurse of her dear friend. As a gesture of her gratitude Gertrude left her treasured neighbour and friend a legacy enabling Minnie to finally cross the dividing oceans to revisit her beloved England in 1957, 32 years since she last saw those “green and pleasant shores” Minnie arrived home, just in time to see her last surviving siblings before they too passed away.
A year after her return to the little house in Evanston, Minnie Mewett died. She was only 64 years of age. A photo taken shortly before her death shows her to have been still beautiful despite her illness, with clear skin and finely structured face. Her eyes still shone with intelligence, spirit and pride. But there is an impression of sadness and an almost overwhelming tiredness. It is the face of one who has worked and suffered but never been defeated.
All through her married life Minnie was active within her community, helping a neighbour or a friend, doing arduous voluntary work or assisting with suppers, at Red Cross Balls. Her labour was given freely and willingly. She never complained not even to those closest to her. By modern standards her life was relentlessly hard but one of the striking features of Minnie’s story is the manner in which she embraced her life without bitterness and found delight in small achievements. Though life was tough she was unfailing in her support of others. She never gave in, not even after discovering she suffered from a terminal heart condition. In the grand scale of things her life could have been considered unremarkable but her spirit was certainly not.
Note From the Authors
When we first talked to Lil’ Crosby, about her mother it was to research into the history of the Law-Smith household. But Minnie’s story demanded to be told, such was the essence of the woman conveyed through her photographs, her daughter’s words and the letters of Gordon Law Smith. The lives of women like Minnie are rarely told. They live in obscurity and only those who knew and loved them remember them. Yet Minnie touched the lives of so many people. She laboured unceasingly to ease the hardships suffered by others, rarely finding any relief from her own hardships. She was essential to the community in which she lived.
As indefatigable as her mother Lil, at the age of 79 still works for the Burge Family winemakers at Lyndoch, as a bookkeeper, a testament to her quick intelligence as well as her dedication and fine genetic inheritance. She has also been President or secretary of several local clubs and finds time to help her daughters, one of whom has cared for foster children for many years. Lil’s children have continued the commitment to community which so distinguished their grandmother, and mother’s lives.
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