ISHERWOOD, Eileen (or Aileen) Marjorie
Born February 1901; died 21 November 1918; buried 22 November 1918; age 17
RAMSBOTTOM-ISHERWOOD, Reginald James (Jim)
Born July 1904; died 24 November 1918; buried 26 November 1918; age 14
Siblings Aileen and Jim (as they were known) lived in Rongotai Terrace, Miramar and died 3 days apart. They were buried in the same grave in Karori Cemetery.
Their parents were both New Zealand born. Their mother, Mary Ada SHANAGHAN (known as Ada Mary), was born in early 1877 to Mary Josephine (possibly a music teacher) and James Shanaghan. Among other places, Ada attended school in Sydenham, Christchurch for just a few days in 1892 while living at 83 Harper Street, as well as an Auckland convent school (i).
In September 1900 she married William Herbert Ramsbottom Isherwood whose own father, James Clarendon Ramsbottom Isherwood, was born in France in 1845.
James had a colourful life, coming to New Zealand from England on the Glenmark in 1866 after having fought in the Crimea. He then resigned his army commission to take up land in New Zealand, granted for a time to new settlers from the Imperial Army (ii). He also fought in the New Zealand land wars, including in the Patea district where he had command of the Manawapou Redoubt and the Turuturumokai Redoubt, and with Titokowaru at Waihi. He also had command of the No 2 division of the Armed Constabulary at the time of the attack by Wellington troops at Tengutumotemanu, his bravery being mentioned in despatches (iii).
The year before sailing to New Zealand, James Isherwood had married Mary Jane McCORMACK (born Malta) on 30 December 1865 in Farnham, Surrey. The first of their eight sons and four daughters was born on the migration voyage.
Although described in 1880 as a ‘gentleman’ of Wellington where he lived for 2 decades, James Isherwood was bankrupt more than once in his early years as a migrant. News reports showed creditor indignation when his wife offered nothing towards his debts despite continuing to receive a regular remittance of £20 a month from ‘home’ (iv).
James was a keen player of representative rugby and the first president in 1871 of the-then Wellington Football Club, doing much to help the game develop and prosper, including using the hallmark oval ball then obtained from Melbourne (v). He also belonged to the Christchurch Musical Union and worked as a brewer at Mangatainoka where he appeared on the electoral roll in 1896 (vi).
Meanwhile his son, William worked as a clerk for James’ brewery operation, moving to Wellington by 1911 with his wife Ada and taking up the drapery trade. Their family had grown from Eileen (Aileen) Marjorie b 1901, to include Maurice Edmund b 1902 and Kenneth Wilfred b 1903. Further children were given the family surname ‘Ramsbottom-Isherwood’ including Reginald James (known as Jim) b 1904, Ralph Paul b 1908, Beatrice Mary Elfreda b 1909, Mary Josephine b 1912, and Joan b 1916. In 1911 the family lived at Victoria Road, Roseneath, which is now Robieson Terrace (vii).
By 1914 William, describing his occupation as ‘clothier’ on the electoral roll, lived with his family at 19 Ellice Street, Mt Victoria, though in the same year, school records for his son Jim showed that he had moved in September 1914 from Worser Bay School to Clyde Quay School while living at 108 Austin Street.
Meantime, Aileen in the same year attended what was then known as the Sussex Square Convent High School (part of St Joseph’s parish close to the Basin Reserve) where she won the reading prize in class I of the Preparatory School (viii). Her subsequent education took place at St Pat’s Kilbirnie and Lyall Bay schools, after which she left for work in late 1917 (ix). At this time the family was living in Rongotai Terrace, Miramar. They had moved house a lot by this time in their Wellington years.
When the influenza epidemic struck in 1918, both siblings were well outside the main age group of those worst affected, not that that afforded them any protection. Aileen, then 17, had begun her working life in what was known as the Central Agency Ltd (x). She was taken to the temporary hospital at Seatoun School. This had a ‘really well-appointed hospital… connected with the telephone (by switch) from the Masonic Hall’, which received calls for help from the local community.
A news report on 22 November showed that 10 people were in the Seatoun temporary hospital under the care of Dr Alice Gow, using the Karaka Bay motor bus as an ambulance to deliver the sick. Although ample food supplies were being brought in by residents, the major need across Wellington (apart from trained medical staff) was for ‘lady helpers’ to keep the temporary hospitals going. Crude journalistic motivation in the same article took the form of a heading ‘Are Wellington Women “Slackers”?’ (xi).
Aileen’s death on 21 November 1918 was only the second at the Seatoun temporary hospital. Her burial took place the next day by which time her third brother, Jim, a schoolboy of 14, was also ill at the Wellington College Temporary Hospital, where he died three days after his sister, on 24 November. He was buried 4 days after his sister in the same grave in Karori Cemetery.
The siblings’ shocked family inserted a death notice in the Evening Post on 22 November 1918 for Aileen. Their Shanaghan grandparents in Ponsonby placed a notice in the Auckland Star on 25 November 1918 for both grandchildren.
The family was still in Wellington in Rongotai Terrace in 1919, at which time their father’s occupation was listed as ‘buyer’ in electoral rolls, but by 1928 they had moved to Parnell in Auckland where both parents then stayed. They are buried in Hillsborough Cemetery (Ada in 1945 and William in 1957).
Aileen and Jim’s brother Kenneth purchased the siblings’ unmarked burial plot in Karori Cemetery, in 1964.
Aileen and Jim were buried in Public 2, plot 438H.
Researched by Beverley Hamlin and Jenny Robertson and written by Jenny Robertson
Sources:
(i) And possibly other convent schools, the records for which have not been digitised so far.
(ii) Unfortunately, New Zealand legal provision changed on such grants while James Isherwood was at sea in 1866 and he spent many years unsuccessfully petitioning Parliament for land to be made available to him. (He did not apply for a grant for his military service in New Zealand.) See Archives New Zealand file 18569/1012 LS69 Rec 8097947 ISHERWOOD, James Clarendon Ramsbottom. The repealed powers for such grants were extended for 3 years by the Auckland Waste Lands Act 1867 and while Isherwood was granted a land order on 31 January 1871, he did not select his area in the time available and the order became void. Neither did he meet the residency conditions required to be eligible. He contended that the land offered in the Kaipara was not worth the expense of fencing and without a base he could not meet the expenses of relocating his large family to meet the residency condition.
(iii) Waikato Argus 1 July 1910, page 4. According to the Evening Post 15 February 1913, page 10 Captain Isherwood had joined the 69th Regiment at Aldershot in 1865. It was then known as the South Lincolnshires forming the 2nd Battalion of the Welsh Regiment at Cardiff.
(iv) Evening Post 5 November 1880, page 3. Archives New Zealand file 18569/1012 LS69 Rec 8097947 ISHERWOOD, James Clarendon Ramsbottom gives information on the Isherwoods also living 16 years in Palmerston North, 4 years in Petone, and 3 years in Lyttelton where James died in 1913.
(v) Obituary in Evening Post 15 February 1913, page 10.
(vi) Feilding Star 19 July 1895, page 2.
(vii) 1911 Wellington East electoral roll
(viii) New Zealand Tablet 31 December 1914, page 19.
(ix) NZSG KiwiCollection v2, 2015
(x) Evening Post 20 November 1920, page 1.
(xi) New Zealand Times 23 November 1918, page 7.
Born February 1901; died 21 November 1918; buried 22 November 1918; age 17
RAMSBOTTOM-ISHERWOOD, Reginald James (Jim)
Born July 1904; died 24 November 1918; buried 26 November 1918; age 14
Siblings Aileen and Jim (as they were known) lived in Rongotai Terrace, Miramar and died 3 days apart. They were buried in the same grave in Karori Cemetery.
Their parents were both New Zealand born. Their mother, Mary Ada SHANAGHAN (known as Ada Mary), was born in early 1877 to Mary Josephine (possibly a music teacher) and James Shanaghan. Among other places, Ada attended school in Sydenham, Christchurch for just a few days in 1892 while living at 83 Harper Street, as well as an Auckland convent school (i).
In September 1900 she married William Herbert Ramsbottom Isherwood whose own father, James Clarendon Ramsbottom Isherwood, was born in France in 1845.
James had a colourful life, coming to New Zealand from England on the Glenmark in 1866 after having fought in the Crimea. He then resigned his army commission to take up land in New Zealand, granted for a time to new settlers from the Imperial Army (ii). He also fought in the New Zealand land wars, including in the Patea district where he had command of the Manawapou Redoubt and the Turuturumokai Redoubt, and with Titokowaru at Waihi. He also had command of the No 2 division of the Armed Constabulary at the time of the attack by Wellington troops at Tengutumotemanu, his bravery being mentioned in despatches (iii).
The year before sailing to New Zealand, James Isherwood had married Mary Jane McCORMACK (born Malta) on 30 December 1865 in Farnham, Surrey. The first of their eight sons and four daughters was born on the migration voyage.
Although described in 1880 as a ‘gentleman’ of Wellington where he lived for 2 decades, James Isherwood was bankrupt more than once in his early years as a migrant. News reports showed creditor indignation when his wife offered nothing towards his debts despite continuing to receive a regular remittance of £20 a month from ‘home’ (iv).
James was a keen player of representative rugby and the first president in 1871 of the-then Wellington Football Club, doing much to help the game develop and prosper, including using the hallmark oval ball then obtained from Melbourne (v). He also belonged to the Christchurch Musical Union and worked as a brewer at Mangatainoka where he appeared on the electoral roll in 1896 (vi).
Meanwhile his son, William worked as a clerk for James’ brewery operation, moving to Wellington by 1911 with his wife Ada and taking up the drapery trade. Their family had grown from Eileen (Aileen) Marjorie b 1901, to include Maurice Edmund b 1902 and Kenneth Wilfred b 1903. Further children were given the family surname ‘Ramsbottom-Isherwood’ including Reginald James (known as Jim) b 1904, Ralph Paul b 1908, Beatrice Mary Elfreda b 1909, Mary Josephine b 1912, and Joan b 1916. In 1911 the family lived at Victoria Road, Roseneath, which is now Robieson Terrace (vii).
By 1914 William, describing his occupation as ‘clothier’ on the electoral roll, lived with his family at 19 Ellice Street, Mt Victoria, though in the same year, school records for his son Jim showed that he had moved in September 1914 from Worser Bay School to Clyde Quay School while living at 108 Austin Street.
Meantime, Aileen in the same year attended what was then known as the Sussex Square Convent High School (part of St Joseph’s parish close to the Basin Reserve) where she won the reading prize in class I of the Preparatory School (viii). Her subsequent education took place at St Pat’s Kilbirnie and Lyall Bay schools, after which she left for work in late 1917 (ix). At this time the family was living in Rongotai Terrace, Miramar. They had moved house a lot by this time in their Wellington years.
When the influenza epidemic struck in 1918, both siblings were well outside the main age group of those worst affected, not that that afforded them any protection. Aileen, then 17, had begun her working life in what was known as the Central Agency Ltd (x). She was taken to the temporary hospital at Seatoun School. This had a ‘really well-appointed hospital… connected with the telephone (by switch) from the Masonic Hall’, which received calls for help from the local community.
A news report on 22 November showed that 10 people were in the Seatoun temporary hospital under the care of Dr Alice Gow, using the Karaka Bay motor bus as an ambulance to deliver the sick. Although ample food supplies were being brought in by residents, the major need across Wellington (apart from trained medical staff) was for ‘lady helpers’ to keep the temporary hospitals going. Crude journalistic motivation in the same article took the form of a heading ‘Are Wellington Women “Slackers”?’ (xi).
Aileen’s death on 21 November 1918 was only the second at the Seatoun temporary hospital. Her burial took place the next day by which time her third brother, Jim, a schoolboy of 14, was also ill at the Wellington College Temporary Hospital, where he died three days after his sister, on 24 November. He was buried 4 days after his sister in the same grave in Karori Cemetery.
The siblings’ shocked family inserted a death notice in the Evening Post on 22 November 1918 for Aileen. Their Shanaghan grandparents in Ponsonby placed a notice in the Auckland Star on 25 November 1918 for both grandchildren.
The family was still in Wellington in Rongotai Terrace in 1919, at which time their father’s occupation was listed as ‘buyer’ in electoral rolls, but by 1928 they had moved to Parnell in Auckland where both parents then stayed. They are buried in Hillsborough Cemetery (Ada in 1945 and William in 1957).
Aileen and Jim’s brother Kenneth purchased the siblings’ unmarked burial plot in Karori Cemetery, in 1964.
Aileen and Jim were buried in Public 2, plot 438H.
Researched by Beverley Hamlin and Jenny Robertson and written by Jenny Robertson
Sources:
(i) And possibly other convent schools, the records for which have not been digitised so far.
(ii) Unfortunately, New Zealand legal provision changed on such grants while James Isherwood was at sea in 1866 and he spent many years unsuccessfully petitioning Parliament for land to be made available to him. (He did not apply for a grant for his military service in New Zealand.) See Archives New Zealand file 18569/1012 LS69 Rec 8097947 ISHERWOOD, James Clarendon Ramsbottom. The repealed powers for such grants were extended for 3 years by the Auckland Waste Lands Act 1867 and while Isherwood was granted a land order on 31 January 1871, he did not select his area in the time available and the order became void. Neither did he meet the residency conditions required to be eligible. He contended that the land offered in the Kaipara was not worth the expense of fencing and without a base he could not meet the expenses of relocating his large family to meet the residency condition.
(iii) Waikato Argus 1 July 1910, page 4. According to the Evening Post 15 February 1913, page 10 Captain Isherwood had joined the 69th Regiment at Aldershot in 1865. It was then known as the South Lincolnshires forming the 2nd Battalion of the Welsh Regiment at Cardiff.
(iv) Evening Post 5 November 1880, page 3. Archives New Zealand file 18569/1012 LS69 Rec 8097947 ISHERWOOD, James Clarendon Ramsbottom gives information on the Isherwoods also living 16 years in Palmerston North, 4 years in Petone, and 3 years in Lyttelton where James died in 1913.
(v) Obituary in Evening Post 15 February 1913, page 10.
(vi) Feilding Star 19 July 1895, page 2.
(vii) 1911 Wellington East electoral roll
(viii) New Zealand Tablet 31 December 1914, page 19.
(ix) NZSG KiwiCollection v2, 2015
(x) Evening Post 20 November 1920, page 1.
(xi) New Zealand Times 23 November 1918, page 7.