George Henry Collett

GEDCOM Note

<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">Born during the reign of: Victoria, 'Alexandrina Victoria' (20 June 1837 - 22 January 1901)</p> <p> </p>

GEDCOM Note

<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">14O25 George Henry Collett was born at Gorse Hill in Swindon on 20th September 1881, the birth recorded at Highworth (Ref. 5a 2). He was another son of George and Kezia Collett who had been living at the High Street in Stratton St Margaret just six months before he was born. However, it may have been at Hinton Street in Gorse Hill that he was born and it was there also that he and his family were living in 1891, when school boy George Collett was nine years old. Upon leaving school, George secured work with the Great Western Railway, like his father before him. The GWR Staff Records confirmed that his employment with the company commenced on 6th February 1899 and that he initially learned the trade of a coach builder at the Swindon Works. Just over two years later, when he was 19, the census in 1901 recorded that he was in lodgings in the St Mary’s district of Reading, midway between Swindon and London on the GWR main line, where he was employed as a locomotive engine stoker.</p> <p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">By the time of the next census in April 1911, George Henry Collett from Gorse Hill was 29 and employed by the Great Western Railway as a carriage lifter, who hadreturned to Swindon, where he was living with his parents George and Kezia Collett. It was around that time in his life, that he had met Kate Wallace who was born at Rodbourne Cheney in Swindon in 1884. On the census day in 1911, Kate Wallace was 27 years old and was living with her older married brother William Edgar Wallace in Swindon, from where Kate was an overlooker (supervisor) at Messrs Compton Clothing Factory. Two months later, George and Kate were married at St Mary’s Church in Rodbourne Cheney on 3rd June 1911. At that time George’s age was recorded as being 29 years 8 months 13 days, while Kate was 27 years 11 months 7 days. The wedding of George H Collett and Kate Wallace was recorded at Swindon register office (Ref. 5a 111) during the second quarter of 1911.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">Sometime during her life, it is understood within the family, that she had an operation on an ear, as a result of which, Kate became partially deaf. The couple’s first child, tragically, did not survive long enough to be named, the birth and death both recorded at Swindon register office during February 1912. That was a very sad time for the newly married couple, just setting out on their life together. In an attempt to ease their grief, Kate’s sister Ada contacted the couple and suggested that they might like to make a new start in Australia,to where Ada had emigrated just a few years earlier, to be married to Percy Gilbert Matthews. However, Henry and Kate’s move to Australia was not been as straightforward as it might have been, since their first application to Australia House was rejected. The application had been sponsored by Kate’s sister Ada who was listed as not having an occupation, and that may have been the reason for the rejection. It was only when a second application was made, listing their brother-in-law and butcher Percy Matthews, as the sponsor, that the couple were finally granted approval to settle in Australia.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">At that time, George and Kate were living at 12 Beatrice Street in the Gorse Hill district of Swindon and close to the railway works where George was employed. 12 Beatrice Street is still there today. So it was from there that they left England and sailed on the RMS Roscommon to Cairns in Queensland, where they arrived on 3rd September 1913. The story told within the family is, that upon disembarking and seeing the aboriginal workers on the quayside at Cairns, Kate was so afraid that she wanted to re-board the ship and return to England. In the end she was persuaded to stay, and she and George lived at Cairns and very likely in a house on the corner of Grove Street and McLeod Street in Cairns, where the last of their four children were born. Around 1923 George and Kate and their children left Cairns and sailed the one thousand miles south on the ship Canberra to Brisbane. The Canberra was later renamed ‘Centaur’ and was called into service as a hospital ship during the Second World War. It was however sunk by the Japanese just off Cape Moreton, with a great loss of life.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">Upon arrival at Brisbane, the family initially lodged with George’s sister-in-law Ada Matthews and her family at Paddington. That was to allow George sufficient time to find a place for him and his family to live, which he did, and they then moved into the house at 18 Shaw Street in the Auchenflower district of Brisbane. And it was at Brisbane where Kate Collett nee Simpkins died on 30th January 1966 and was buried there at the Mount Thompson Crematorium. George survived for a further eleven years and when he died on 13th May 1977. Due to his failing health he was staying at St Luke’s Nursing Home in Brisbane, from where his body was taken to be buried with his wife, four days later. The cause of death was recorded as being bronchopneumonia and cerebral atherosclerosis. During his life in Australia, both at Cairns and at Brisbane, George continued the career that he had started in Swindon by working for the Queensland Railways. There was another time in his life when he worked as a butcher, probably thanks to his brother-in-law Percy Matthews. It was also around that time when George and Kate were still living at Auchenflower wherethey received the sad news that their son Cyril had been killed in action in Papua New Guinea in 1942.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">14P9 unnamed Collett son - Born in 1912 at Swindon; died 1912</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">14P10 Harold Fleming Collett - Born in 1914 at Cairns, Australia</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">14P11 Cyril Horace Collett - Born in 1916 at Cairns, Australia</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">14P12 Vera Maud Collett - Born in 1917 at Cairns, Australia</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">14P13 Arthur James Collett - Born in 1918 at Cairns, Australia</p>
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