AUGUSTUS THORN
by Lyn Beard
The death of Augustus Thorn does not appear to have been registered and the burial did not show up on any of the usual resources for graves. The only record of his death in 1932 seems to be this small article in The Goldfields Observer of 17 July 1932.
He has proved a difficult character to research, but this is the story I have pieced together. He appears to have been born in Sweden about 1858 and arrived in Australia as crew on a ship in 1877. He was naturalized in 1884 in New South Wales, as Augustus Thorn, but he signed as Augustus Loftus. At some time in the late 1880s, he began to live with Elizabeth Laurence (nee McInnes) and they moved to Melbourne, but there is no record of them marrying, for reasons that became obvious.
Elizabeth was born in Scotland about 1859 and arrived in Rockhampton, Queensland in November 1876 with her husband, James Lawrence, and their infant son, James (also known as Harold James). James Clarkson Lawrence was an engineer who came out to Rockhampton to work on the construction of a bridge over the river. Later, the family moved to Sydney and James worked as a hydraulic engineer and invented the Lawrence hydraulic lift, which was installed in some public buildings and warehouses, before a change in regulations meant it could no longer be used. [1]
In 1893, James married Maud Moreau Palmer of Bathurst in Sydney. It is not clear whether he was still married to Elizabeth Jane at this time or even whether they had been married at all – she would only have been about 15 at the time they were supposedly married. James and Maud had one daughter, Jean, born in 1895, and a son, Eric, born and died in 1913. Maud died in Narrandera, NSW in 1931 and James in 1933.
Few of the births of children appear to have been registered and some of those born to James and Elizabeth took the name of Thorn after he and Elizabeth became a couple. It is very difficult to determine who were the children of each father. The children born to Elizabeth may have included the following:
Harold James/James was born in England in 1875 and took the name of Thorn when his mother moved to Melbourne with Augustus Thorn in the late 1880s. He married Florence Bryden in 1905 and had at least three daughters, before his death in Brighton, Victoria, in 1952.
Stella Constance was born about 1876. She was later known as Stella Constance Seymour, but no record of her marriage has been located. She appears on electoral rolls in Boulder, WA, as a milliner from 1910 to 1920, then at Widgiemooltha in 1925 and Victoria Park in 1928. In 1911 she was a partner in the Sign of the Cross West Gold Mine near Southern Cross, and in 1920 she and her father were partners in the Bobby Dazzler mine at Widgiemooltha. She died in Frankston, Victoria in 1940 with her parents registered as Augustus Thorn and McInnes.
Mary was born while James and Elizabeth were living in Queensland in 1877. Nothing more is known of her.
William George was born in Sydney in 1879 and died in NSW in 1883.
Ernest Frederick Laurence Thorn was born in Sydney in 1881, registered as the son of Elizabeth Jane McGuinness and Augustus Laurence Thorn. This suggests he may have been the first child born to Augustus and Elizabeth. He died at Northcote in Victoria in 1939.
Eleanore was born in Sydney in 1884 and possibly died in NSW in 1888. Alice was born about 1886.
Lillian May was possibly born in 1887 but is reported on her engagement to Henry Josephs in Boulder in 1908 as being the second daughter of Augustus Thorn, late of Coolgardie and formerly of Heidelberg, Victoria. She did not marry Henry but instead married Oscar Stuart in Boulder in 1909. He died in 1911, but she went to work as a nurse for Joseph Webber and his wife, had a child with him and after he divorced, they married in Perth in 1925. They had several more children. She died in Perth in 1947, aged 60, and he died in 1968 at the age of 93.
Gertrude was born in Victoria in 1889, married Albert Edward Mountford in 1917, and died in Frankston. In 1956 she submitted information to the Royal Historical Society of Victoria that she was born at Albert Park the daughter of Augustus Thorn from Sweden and Elizabeth Jane Murray McInness of Edinburgh who arrived in 1875 aged 15. Gertrude said her father was an hydraulic engineer who invented the first electric lift, constructed in Finks Buildings, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne – but there seems to be some confusion between this and the story of James Lawrence. [2]
Robert Theodore was born in 1893. He enlisted in World War I naming his sister Stella Seymour of Boulder as his next of kin and married Ruby Ethel Spike in England. She came to Western Australia with him after the war but returned to England in 1929. In 1934 he married Mavis Emily Beatrice Thomas in Kalgoorlie and they moved to Melbourne. He worked as a prospector, clerk, accountant and journalist and died in Melbourne in 1968.
Charles died in Meekatharra in 1940. His death notice shows he was married with two children and was the brother of Robert, Stella (Mrs. Seymour of Victoria), and Lillian (Mrs. Webber of Victoria Park). His age was given as 43, meaning he was born about 1897. However, no record of his birth was found. He had been a prospector and woodcutter working in Norseman and Meekatharra.
I hope this has shed some light on a pioneer who has been forgotten because much of his life was not reflected in official Government records. I would be interested to hear from anyone who knows more about this family.
Lyn Beard – parkybe@gmail.com
[1] Narandera Argus and Riverina Advertiser 27 June 1933 Obituary James Clarkson Lawrence
[2] www.gsv.org.au Ancestor Magazine March 2013, p.42
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