Kate wrote to me at length as I mention in my comment up above. I loved that you knew and remembered my great uncle Frederick, Stevie as she called him. Sadly she last wrote at length in 2015. I assume seeing she was 91 then that she had passed.

From: Kate Evans
To: ‘peta opie’
Sent: Tuesday, April 7, 2015 1:53 AM
Subject:

Dear Peta,

I hope I’ve attached a picture of Henrietta’s daughter Lil’s wedding. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I placed a piece of see-through paper over the photo numbering the people from left to right, top row first. So they are as follows; 1? 2 my father, Richard Clement Kane, 3 Henrietta, 4? 5 the bride Lily, 6? 7 Uncle Stevie, 8? 9? 10 Dad’s second wife Ethel, 11 Lil’s sister but I’m not sure which one Etty or Mary Daisy 12?13?14 Lil’s other sister either Etty or Mary Daisy, 15,16,17??? The little ones could belong to Etty or Mary Daisy. Henrietta and Tom Ryan had two boys Tom and John. They could well have been numbers 4 and 6 or 8 and 9. I knew Jack very well and loved him to bits when I came west with my parents when aged 3. Jack was born 16th June 1908 while Henrietta went over to Bendigo. I think she was having a bit of trouble with her old man at the time. Jack used to take me to Trouchet’s the Chemist who had the first Milk shake Bar set up in his shop where he sat me on a twirly high stool and bought me what we called “Spiders”, an icecream in a big glass on top of a drink of cola, lemonade or any fizzy drink. He was dad’s favourite nephew so I had to be amused while they talked!

I’ll send this off, hopefully and later today after we’ve had lunch I’ll tell you about aunty Hetty. Cheers, Catherine (Known by most as Kate) my name Catherine Mary caused me many problems which I’ll also explain later.

Hi Peta I would love to see the photo of Lily’s wedding – my email is moyasharp@westnet.com.au

Hi Susan, Frederic Stephen was my great uncle. I can’t refute your story about him, as my mum never told me anything about his life other than we have photos of him in uniform for WW1. Through Ancestry .com I ‘met’ a Catherine(Kate) Evans who was somehow related to Henrietta. She was 91. When we last wrote several years ago she was telling me of her fond memories of Uncle Stevie, and his warm laugh. That’s nice for me to know. I never met him or my grandfather, his brother, as both passed in 1946. I have a wedding photo of Lily’s wedding in 1913 if you’d like to see it. Catherine sent it to me.

Peta

Yes, you are correct. He was a Baker, The family story goes that he changed his name to his mother’s surname as it gave him better odds in the Stawell gift footraces. I haven’t found evidence of him winning the overall race, however the heats can be interesting as far as laying on of betts are concerned. I believe he did this under his new name, backing himself heavily, won his heat and used the winnings to get to WA.. I have found mention of his father and him in old paper records in Bendigo where he lived in Kangaroo Flat. I was told that Jospeh Baker was a Fenian and fled Ireland, along with his fellow conspirators, when the plot as uncovered The usual situation was the plotters were in cells of no more than six and only one person from each cell communicated with another. The was to avoid all the plotters being found out if someone informed. It makes some sense at the most successful mien was called the Fenian. Thomas Ryan also donated money to the IRBrotherhood, the antecedents of the IRA.When Tom died he left his fortune to his wife, some say the will was changed on his deathbed by the solicitor, Dick Haynes, putative farther of the last son, to exclude all of Tom’s relatives. Henrietta turned the Baker’s off Killara station where they were living, fully expecting Tom would get around to signing the papers over to them. She also refused to allow her son, Jack to own and run the last of the significant possessions, the Commercial Hotel. Jack was so upset he never saw his mother again after her refusal. This story was told to me by my Aunt Deirdre who had travelled up to Meeka with her mother, Dais, and the grandmother. Henrietta lived in the Savoy Hotel in the best suite with her lover, Stevie, who became her much younger husband ( a cougar) and didn’t do a stitch of work for over 20 years. Most of the wealth went on high living and the horse races. Stevie died before her of alcohol related causes.

Hi Sue, Re the Papal knighthood being issued to Thomas question, I presume this issue was relative to his time in Australia rather than in Ireland as he would only have been about 20 years old at the time of leaving Ireland. Can you confirm this as he wouldn’t have lived long enough to get a knighthood.

There are some records around of the issue of these Knighthoods which have a format similar to the UK system but its not complete online. Most of them Thomas would not have been eligible for as they are church/political/entertainment industry appointments but like the UK system, it has provision for lower order awards for community service. Also some suggestion of influence of issue based on exchange of money but nothing concrete that I can find so far.

Thanks Noreen, I have corrected this!