CHARLES HENRY TOMKINSON (1890 - 1962)
Charles was the third generation of the Woodrow family who came out to Western Australia as part of the Convict Department scheme for warders. His grandparents were Edward and Mary Anne Woodrow and their biography can be read here. Josiah was a warder on the convict hulk “Defence”, moored at Woolwich in London and he brought his wife and daughter Emily to Western Australia in 1855. Emily went on to marry William George Tomkinson in 1880 in Bunbury and they had four children, Charles being their youngest son. Charles’ uncle, Edward Woodrow, was Postmaster for Bunbury 1877-1904 and his biography can be read here.
Charles attended Bunbury State School where in 1904 he entered the annual musketry course and came joint third (reference). The majority of the Bunbury cadets taking part in this competition would use these skills ten years later in the First World War, including Charles.
On 10 August 1915 he enlisted as a Private in the 10th Light Horse Regiment (reference). He left Fremantle on 22 November 1915 on the RMS Mongolia bound for Port Suez, Egypt where he arrived on 14 December 1915 (reference, reference). In 1917 Charles’ parents received information from the Defence Department that he was admitted to hospital with synovitis (joint inflammation) (reference).
Charles survived the war and returned to Bunbury where his name was included on the Bunbury State School Roll of Honour board 1914 - 1919, designed by Axel Nilsson, now located in the Bunbury RSL.
Charles was discharged on 2 November 1919 (reference).
For an indepth account of Charles’ service record please see Jeff Peirce’s research at https://anzacheroes.com.au/anzac_heroes/tomkinson-charles-henry/
In October 1921 Charles married Edith Lilian Murray at the Bunbury Methodist Church (reference). After the wedding, the couple left for Perth to spend their honeymoon for several weeks (reference; reference). They bought 2 Jarrah Street also in 1921 where they resided for the remainder of their lives.
In 1925, Charles purchased the Fouracre & Wass butcher’s store in South Bunbury. A magnificent “Arts and Craft” building designed by architect Eustace Cohen and built in 1910. On 24 November 1910, the Bunbury Herald gave a detailed description of the shop picking out features such as the attractive small dome which was
“of exceptional utility acting as it does as a lantern light and providing a cool current of air through the shop even on the hottest and stillest of days” (reference).
Eustace Cohen’s biography can be read here.
In 1929 an accident occurred at his butcher shop when an employee had two fingers of his left hand severed and another badly crushed when his hand was caught in a loose pulley of a sausage machine (reference).
Charles had a few appearances before the magistrate for minor issues. In 1925 Charles was fined for riding his bicycle without a light on Arthur Street (reference). Along with Ernest Walker and Thomas Smeet, he was fined for drinking at the Parade Hotel on 1 January 1932 during prohibited hours (reference). He was also in the Court of Western Australia when some land in Bunbury was contested (reference).
Charles passed away in 1962 at 72 years old and his wife Edith died in 1972 aged 81. They are buried together at Bunbury Cemetery (reference).