The comment ‘not another Lionel’ is a long-standing joke between a good friend of mine and fellow historian, Graeme Sisson, who was the Archivist of the Police Historical Society of WA at the time. It came to refer to any research inquiry that we were working on that was ‘more’ than a little complicated and involved.
This is the story of the first ‘Lionel’.
Lionel Bradley, Sgt Major in the Victorian Mounted Rifles in Ballarat, VIC – 1892
Lionel Bradley in full uniform in Ballarat, Vic, c 1892
In 2007, I entered into a correspondence that was to last some time. It started with an inquiry from Michael Evans of Victoria, who was searching for his great-grandfather’s grave in Menzies. He said he was a serving police officer in the West Australian police. As I have copies of the Menzies Burials and my friend Graeme Sisson was the archivist at the WA Police Historical Society, I thought that this would be a very straightforward inquiry. With a name like ‘Lionel Bradley Pilkington’, it would suggest this would also make a search easy.
So no problems there!!! so I thought.
The first hurdle was that there was no death registered for a Pilkington in the Menzies Cemetery or anything even close. So on to Graeme’s efforts with the Police Historical Soc records on Mike’s behalf, this is what he found:
Lionel Bradley Pilkington joined the WA Police Force as ‘Lionel BRADLEY’. It is not known why he dropped his surname, preferring to use his middle name as his surname instead. The Western Australian BDMs have his surname as Bradley on his death certificate; all other particulars are ‘unknown’ except his age of 30 years at the time of his death in 1896. With the date of birth that Michael had given me, he should have been at least 40 years old. To add to the confusion, the police records have him as age 34 in 1895. The English 1861 census shows Lionel as a 5-year-old with a DOB of about 1856. On the police records, he gave his wife’s name as Agnes McMillen (which is correct) and his birthplace as Yorkshire, England; he was, however, born in Ireland. Then, on his daughter’s birth certificate, he gave his place of birth as Doncaster, England.
Grave of Lionel Bradley, Menzies Cemetery, WA supplied by Michael Evans – (nothing remains today of this grave)
The photographer of Lionel’s grave was Albert Rossell of Menzies, who had a photography business in Menzies between 1897-1900, when he moved to Day Dawn. So this fits the photograph.
There has been no last will for Lionel that has been found. His mother-in-law left nothing to her daughter, Agnes and granddaughter Ida, in her will, which seemed surprising, as they were living together when she died and were presumably being looked after by Agnes from 1896 to 1908. They could possibly have had a falling out, maybe to do with the illegitimate child, a boy, Agnes had who died aged 5 months, the same year she married Lionel in 1891. It may or may not have been his child. Or possibly she may have been left money by Lionel, so she was well provided for.
We will never know!
My husband and I took a trip to Menzies and scoured the cemetery, but there was no trace at all of Lionel’s headstone. I could see that the fencing in the photograph looked like wood and would not have lasted, but the memorial in the photograph looks quite substantial, and others from the same era are undamaged. It’s a mystery. Usually, if a tall headstone falls, it remains there. I can see no reason why it would be removed completely. However, the Police Historical Society have now placed a plaque at the cemetery’s entrance for Lionel; it is not possible from current records to find an unmarked burial plot.
This is Lionel’s last letter to his daughter Ida, then aged about 4, late in 1895 from Western Australia:
My darling little Girlie
I am writing to wish you a merry Xmas and hope that you will be a good girl next year and the years after and love Mama and Papa and be a good little lady and not do naughty things. You must be a great big girl now, and I don’t suppose I will know you again. Good Bye my pretty little dear – Your loving Papa xxxx
Ida Bradley Pilkington, age 3 yrs – Photo Michael Evans
‘I think that his words ‘I won’t know you again’ were not because he knew that he was ill and would die, but perhaps that she would have grown a lot by the next time he saw her.’
Ida Bradley Pilkington, age 20 -Prahran VIC – Photo Michael Evans.
Lionel Bradley Pilkington (1856-1896) – by his great-grandson, Michael Evans.
My grandfather was born into a prestigious English family. His grandfather, Henry Pilkington Esq, of Park Lane, was a Barrister at Law. His father, Henry Foster Pilkington Esq, was Captain of the 21st Riding of the Yorkshire Rifle Volunteers (1860). In 1848, Henry Foster married Maria Dunsford (born Guignard), widow of Harris Dunsford, MD and lived in Ireland for a time, where census records state all his children to Maria were born (including Lionel).
By 1861, the family were living in West Riding, Yorkshire. Maria was to die in 1863, and Henry remarried Hannah C Hoyle, taking her to Ceylon where he became the acting Post Master General.
Lionel and Agnes Bradley (Pilkington) married in Fitzroy, VI,C 1891 – Photo Michael Evans
Lionel, his third son, attended boarding school in Great Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England. In 1871, Henry Foster died on his return voyage to England. At some point between 1871 and 1891, Lionel travelled to Australia while serving in the British Army. This was possibly when they were recruiting Drill Instructors. In 1891, he was living in Lygong Street, Ballarat, Victoria.
That same year, he married Agnes Catherine McMillen, who was born in Liverpool, England and who had travelled to Australia in 1871 at the age of three and had settled with her family in Queenscliffe, Victoria. Agnes was living in Nelson St, Ballarat, at the time of her marriage, which took place in the Fitzroy Town Hall. Lionel always preferred to be known as Lionel Bradley, although he never legally changed his name; thus, the references to ‘Pilkington’ on official documents. On his marriage certificate, Lionel states his occupation as a Clerk; however, on the birth certificate of his only child, Ida, born in Wendouree Parade, Ballarat on the 22nd May 1892, he gives his occupation as ‘Drill Instructor’.
Lionel Bradley Pilkington taken at Great Grimsby, England, where he attended boarding school in his 20s – Photo Michael Evans
Amid the depression in the 1890s, Lionel changed vocations and joined the police force in Western Australia. He left his family in the care of his mother-in-law in Queenscliffe. Lionel commenced as a constable in the WA Police
force on 1st January 1895 and was transferred to Menzies in August of that year, where he contracted typhoid fever and died on 27th April 1896 and was buried in the Menzies cemetery.
A few weeks after his death, the following article appeared in many newspapers all over Australia. It’s not known if these claims are true or if the letters have survived:
Western Argus 14 May 1896
The Pilkington Coat of Arms
A memorial service was held in 2005 at Kanowna for Lionel and the other members of the force struck down by this typhoid epidemic. It is not possible to change the police records to the correct name, but all this information and the photographs are stored in their archives. This was, without a doubt, one of the most complicated enquiries I have ever dealt with. I’m sure Graeme will agree with me.
Moya Sharp
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Thank you Moya for this intriguing life story.