COLEMAN Victor William
Born 1882; died 22 November 1918; buried 23 November 1918; age 36
Victor William COLEMAN (sometimes William Victor, but known as Victor) was a South Australian (i). He was born on 27 May 1882 to Benjamin Coleman and Mary Ann MITTEN. His parents had married in Dunedin in 1866 and crossed the Tasman to raise their family of 14, of whom Victor was their eighth child with 10 sisters and 3 brothers.
Sometime before 1905, Victor struck out for New Zealand. From early on he worked and lived as a steward at the Fernhill Club (ii) at 33 Melville Street, South Dunedin according to the electoral roll for 1905/06. Still in Dunedin 5 years later, he married Emily Allan GRAHAM, who had been born on 30 July 1888 in Clyde Street, the daughter of Mary and William Graham, a hammerman. The couple married in 1910 and shortly after, they moved to Invercargill where at some point, after working at the Invercargill Club, Victor took on the running of the Southland Club Hotel in Dee Street (iii).
Born 1882; died 22 November 1918; buried 23 November 1918; age 36
Victor William COLEMAN (sometimes William Victor, but known as Victor) was a South Australian (i). He was born on 27 May 1882 to Benjamin Coleman and Mary Ann MITTEN. His parents had married in Dunedin in 1866 and crossed the Tasman to raise their family of 14, of whom Victor was their eighth child with 10 sisters and 3 brothers.
Sometime before 1905, Victor struck out for New Zealand. From early on he worked and lived as a steward at the Fernhill Club (ii) at 33 Melville Street, South Dunedin according to the electoral roll for 1905/06. Still in Dunedin 5 years later, he married Emily Allan GRAHAM, who had been born on 30 July 1888 in Clyde Street, the daughter of Mary and William Graham, a hammerman. The couple married in 1910 and shortly after, they moved to Invercargill where at some point, after working at the Invercargill Club, Victor took on the running of the Southland Club Hotel in Dee Street (iii).
Southland Club Hotel, Invercargill from Stone’s Otago and Southland Directory 1913, page 194
(Now the Tuatara Backpackers in Dee Street, Invercargill)
Photo by kind permission of NZ Micrographic Services Ltd http://www.micrographics.co.nz/digitise/stones-directories/
(Now the Tuatara Backpackers in Dee Street, Invercargill)
Photo by kind permission of NZ Micrographic Services Ltd http://www.micrographics.co.nz/digitise/stones-directories/
Victor made his will on 15 December 1910 while in Invercargill, leaving everything to Emily and appointing her sole executrix of his estate.
Their only child, Dorothy Meryl Coleman, was born in Invercargill on 23 April 1913.
In 1905 the local community voted for prohibition and many Invercargill hotels were closed from July 1906. There was no compensation for those who lost their livelihood (iv). Neither was their much margin for others, such as Victor ,who took on former hotel premises to run as boarding houses.
Victor was charged in May 1914 with keeping the premises of the Club Hotel (of which he was then the proprietor) as a resort for the consumption of liquor in a no-licence district under the Licensing Amendment Act 1910 (v). Regarded as a test case under the new legislation, the matter turned on whether the class of offence was one of permitting certain things to be done as opposed to doing certain things. While initially the court came down on the Victor’s side, a police appeal saw the decision reversed making it impossible for Victor to facilitate the consumption of alcohol in unlicensed premises.
A drop-off in patronage, a strike in Wellington, rising costs and other challenges with the start of the war saw the business become more of a boarding house. It did not do well, and Victor’s time in Invercargill came to an end with bankruptcy in September 1915. Newspapers reported that he owed 14 secured creditors over £2500 and significant sums to over 57 unsecured creditors, including his Caversham mother-in-law; the overall net deficiency exceeded £400 (vi). The official assignee arranged for creditors to be paid out a first and final dividend of 1/10d in the £ (vii) and Victor was granted an order of discharge from bankruptcy in March 1918, by which time the family had relocated to Wellington.
The Brunswick Hotel in Willis Street employed Victor as a barman at the time he was called up for military service in 1918. At attestation in May, Victor gave his address as 14 Parliament Street in Thorndon.
Their only child, Dorothy Meryl Coleman, was born in Invercargill on 23 April 1913.
In 1905 the local community voted for prohibition and many Invercargill hotels were closed from July 1906. There was no compensation for those who lost their livelihood (iv). Neither was their much margin for others, such as Victor ,who took on former hotel premises to run as boarding houses.
Victor was charged in May 1914 with keeping the premises of the Club Hotel (of which he was then the proprietor) as a resort for the consumption of liquor in a no-licence district under the Licensing Amendment Act 1910 (v). Regarded as a test case under the new legislation, the matter turned on whether the class of offence was one of permitting certain things to be done as opposed to doing certain things. While initially the court came down on the Victor’s side, a police appeal saw the decision reversed making it impossible for Victor to facilitate the consumption of alcohol in unlicensed premises.
A drop-off in patronage, a strike in Wellington, rising costs and other challenges with the start of the war saw the business become more of a boarding house. It did not do well, and Victor’s time in Invercargill came to an end with bankruptcy in September 1915. Newspapers reported that he owed 14 secured creditors over £2500 and significant sums to over 57 unsecured creditors, including his Caversham mother-in-law; the overall net deficiency exceeded £400 (vi). The official assignee arranged for creditors to be paid out a first and final dividend of 1/10d in the £ (vii) and Victor was granted an order of discharge from bankruptcy in March 1918, by which time the family had relocated to Wellington.
The Brunswick Hotel in Willis Street employed Victor as a barman at the time he was called up for military service in 1918. At attestation in May, Victor gave his address as 14 Parliament Street in Thorndon.
14 Parliament Street, Thorndon, the home of Victor Coleman in 1918
He was recorded as being 5’5” tall and weighing 146 lbs. A football accident had left his right ankle swollen and he also had a damaged left knee at the time he was taken into camp on 29 August 1918 for training.
But a medical examination the following month records that then it was his right knee that was in doubtful condition and the new soldier was also experiencing tachycardia (a racing heart). In the end, he was found to be fit for C2 service, that is, permanently unfit for active service but fit for service in New Zealand.
When he got sick with influenza, Victor was taken to the Sydney Street Temporary Hospital close to home in Thorndon where he died on 22 November. Emily put the following notice in the newspaper announcing his death:
COLEMAN.—On the 22nd November, 1918, at Sydney-street Temporary Hospital, of pneumonia, William Victor, the dearly loved husband of Emily Coleman, 14, Parliament-street, aged 38 years. Deeply regretted. (Dunedin and Southland papers please copy.)
On his burial record Victor’s occupation was given as storeman; it is not known when he moved from work in the hotel trade or whether he was looking after alcohol stores in his work as well as bar tending.
Emily was unable to meet Victor’s funeral costs, which were covered by a public health grant of £7 (viii). She did, however, purchase Victor’s burial plot in Karori Cemetery on 19 February 1919 and arranged for a headstone to be erected:
In loving memory of dearly beloved husband of Emily Coleman who died 22 Nov 1918. ‘Dearly loved, sadly missed. To forget is vain endeavour, love’s remembrance lasts forever.’
Although Emily and Dorothy had moved from Thorndon to 156 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn by early 1919, they shortly after moved back to Dunedin, perhaps to the welcome support of her family of origin. There Dorothy attended Macandrew Road School, then Musselburgh School from 3 November 1919 while living at 76 Princes Street, Dunedin. By this time, she was using Merle for a second name rather than the Meryl of her birth registration. In 1930 Dorothy married Charles Garfield HUNT. She died in 2018.
Victor’s widow, Emily, remarried Alexander Glendinning YOUNG in 1926 and she died in 1956.
Victor William Coleman was buried in Public 2 section of Karori Cemetery, plot 298I.
Researched by Penny Holden and Jenny Robertson and written by Jenny Robertson
Sources:
(i) Victor was born in Rosewater, Port Adelaide, South Australia according to an Ancestry family tree, but in Alberton (neighbouring Rosewater), South Australia according to his 1918 army attestation
(ii) New Zealand Times 26 March 2014 page 11. Now known as the Dunedin Club.
(iii) Don Street was the Colemans’ address given in 1911 and 1914 electoral rolls. The Southland Club Hotel was sited in Dee Street. The Lake County Press 9 March 1916, page 6 refers to Victor previously working at the Invercargill Club before moving to the Southland Club Hotel. An earlier listing in Stone’s 1913 Otago and Southland Directory gives Victor Coleman as being late of the Fernhill Club Dunedin and the Invercargill Club.
(iv) Prohibition had some perverse effects such as the holding of keg parties, sly grogging, and drinkers travelling outside the district which greatly benefited the licensed trade there. Liquor licensing was not reintroduced in Invercargill until 1944. Southland Times 2 July 1976.
(v) Essentially the allegation was that in providing and charging for mixers and glasses for customers bringing in their own alcohol, the trade was still being facilitated.
(vi) Southland Times 8 September 1915, page 7.
(vii) Southland Times 3 August 1916 page 3.
(viii) E Morris jnr funeral register in Turnbull Library.
But a medical examination the following month records that then it was his right knee that was in doubtful condition and the new soldier was also experiencing tachycardia (a racing heart). In the end, he was found to be fit for C2 service, that is, permanently unfit for active service but fit for service in New Zealand.
When he got sick with influenza, Victor was taken to the Sydney Street Temporary Hospital close to home in Thorndon where he died on 22 November. Emily put the following notice in the newspaper announcing his death:
COLEMAN.—On the 22nd November, 1918, at Sydney-street Temporary Hospital, of pneumonia, William Victor, the dearly loved husband of Emily Coleman, 14, Parliament-street, aged 38 years. Deeply regretted. (Dunedin and Southland papers please copy.)
On his burial record Victor’s occupation was given as storeman; it is not known when he moved from work in the hotel trade or whether he was looking after alcohol stores in his work as well as bar tending.
Emily was unable to meet Victor’s funeral costs, which were covered by a public health grant of £7 (viii). She did, however, purchase Victor’s burial plot in Karori Cemetery on 19 February 1919 and arranged for a headstone to be erected:
In loving memory of dearly beloved husband of Emily Coleman who died 22 Nov 1918. ‘Dearly loved, sadly missed. To forget is vain endeavour, love’s remembrance lasts forever.’
Although Emily and Dorothy had moved from Thorndon to 156 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn by early 1919, they shortly after moved back to Dunedin, perhaps to the welcome support of her family of origin. There Dorothy attended Macandrew Road School, then Musselburgh School from 3 November 1919 while living at 76 Princes Street, Dunedin. By this time, she was using Merle for a second name rather than the Meryl of her birth registration. In 1930 Dorothy married Charles Garfield HUNT. She died in 2018.
Victor’s widow, Emily, remarried Alexander Glendinning YOUNG in 1926 and she died in 1956.
Victor William Coleman was buried in Public 2 section of Karori Cemetery, plot 298I.
Researched by Penny Holden and Jenny Robertson and written by Jenny Robertson
Sources:
(i) Victor was born in Rosewater, Port Adelaide, South Australia according to an Ancestry family tree, but in Alberton (neighbouring Rosewater), South Australia according to his 1918 army attestation
(ii) New Zealand Times 26 March 2014 page 11. Now known as the Dunedin Club.
(iii) Don Street was the Colemans’ address given in 1911 and 1914 electoral rolls. The Southland Club Hotel was sited in Dee Street. The Lake County Press 9 March 1916, page 6 refers to Victor previously working at the Invercargill Club before moving to the Southland Club Hotel. An earlier listing in Stone’s 1913 Otago and Southland Directory gives Victor Coleman as being late of the Fernhill Club Dunedin and the Invercargill Club.
(iv) Prohibition had some perverse effects such as the holding of keg parties, sly grogging, and drinkers travelling outside the district which greatly benefited the licensed trade there. Liquor licensing was not reintroduced in Invercargill until 1944. Southland Times 2 July 1976.
(v) Essentially the allegation was that in providing and charging for mixers and glasses for customers bringing in their own alcohol, the trade was still being facilitated.
(vi) Southland Times 8 September 1915, page 7.
(vii) Southland Times 3 August 1916 page 3.
(viii) E Morris jnr funeral register in Turnbull Library.