Stephens Family

In 1911, widow Mary Stephens and her adult daughter Chrystabel, immigrated to Western Australia from Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. They were followed by four more of Mary’s ten surviving children who all contributed greatly to society in Western Australia and the war efforts overseas.

Mary Oliver married Henry Stephens in 1867, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire. They had twelve children including Chrystabel born 1875, Isaac in 1877, Lucy in 1883, Joseph in 1884 and Elizabeth in 1885 (reference, reference).

Sadly, Henry, who worked as a bricklayer, died at the young age of 51 in 1895, leaving Mary to bring up four children under the age of twelve by herself, with presumably help from the older unmarried children (reference).

In 1901, Mary was working as a draper in Burton, with her daughter Lucy, assisting her (reference).

By 1911, only Chrystabel remained at the family home and was listed as an elementary school teacher. Elizabeth had moved to Wandsworth Workhouse Infirmary in London, where she had qualified as a nurse, Joseph was teaching at a school in Jesmond, Northumberland. An exact location for Isaac cannot be verified (reference, reference, reference).

It is not known who ventured first to Western Australia, as passenger lists don’t readily identify Joseph and Isaac, but on 29 September 1911, Chrystabel and Mary departed London on board the ship “Orvieto” (reference).

Teachers’ records show that Chrystabel’s first position was at Southern Cross in 1912 and at Bunbury in 1914. An article in the Bunbury Herald on 1 December 1914 detailed a concert at the Senior State School (the forerunner of Bunbury High School), listing Chrystabel as the first mistress and sports teacher (reference, reference, reference).

She never married and initially resided in Carey Street, Bunbury with her mother in 1914 and by 1916 they were living at Stockley Road. In the 1949 Electoral Roll we can ascertain that they were living at 56 Stockley Road (reference).

On 27 April 1912, Elizabeth and Lucy departed Liverpool on the ship “Belgic” bound for Fremantle and arrived on11 June (reference, reference).

Lucy married Bertram Talbott in 1915 in Perth, who had arrived in Western Australia in 1911. At some stage between 1911 and 1915, Joseph Stephens made the trip down under and stayed with Bertram (reference, reference, reference).

In the 1915 Electoral Roll, Elizabeth was working at Bunbury Hospital and she later moved to Narrogin Hospital (reference, reference, reference).

On 13 September 1917 at Fremantle, Elizabeth enlisted into the Australian Army Nursing Service as a Staff Nurse. On 23 November 1917, Elizabeth embarked Fremantle on board HMAT “Canberra”, two of her fellow passengers were Staff Nurses Bessie Proudfoot of Subiaco (formerly of Boyanup) and Flora Larsen of Harvey. They arrived in Egypt on 21 December 1917 and Elizabeth’s first posting was to Abbassia Hospital. The following month, as was common practice, Elizabeth started three to six months rotations to outlying hospitals.

On 1 January 1918 she worked at Suez Government Hospital. In May she moved to Port Said Hospital, the following month to the convalescent home in Alexandria, where she stayed until September when she returned to Port Said Hospital until the end of the year. It was presumably during one of her stays at Port Said, that she met Lieutenant George Vernon Evans.

George enlisted on 17 November 1914 at Holsworthy, NSW as a Trooper in 6th Light Horse Regiment. He saw service at Gallipoli in mid 1915 and quickly rose through the ranks, becoming Sergeant by the end of the year. After the evacuation of Gallipoli, the 6th Light Horse Regiment resumed mounted roles in Egypt where they stayed for the rest of the war fighting the Turks in Sinai and Palestine. George attended the School of Instruction in Moascar from 24 June - 10 October 1917 during which time he was promoted to Lieutenant. He rejoined his Regiment who took part in the Battle of Beersheba in late October 1917. The infamous surprise charge by another Australian unit, the 4th Light Horse Regiment, still stands today as a significant event in Australian history.

This was followed by the successful capture of Jerusalem by year’s end. However on 30 March 1918, in the mountains at the Battle of Amman, George suffered gunshot wounds to his left shoulder and was one of two hundred and forty wounded men that needed to be evacuated. The following day, orders were received for the allied forces to withdraw and all faced the treacherous task of returning down the slippery mountains, exhausted and under fire as they travelled to safety to the other side of the Jordan River.

George was treated at medical stations along the route to safety, but didn’t reach hospital until 14 April at Kantara, Egypt. He was shipped to Port Said Hospital soon after (reference).

This is where George and Elizabeth’s paths crossed.

George spent a couple of weeks in hospital, then at rest camps at Port Said and Moascar, where he remained on the wounded list. From 6 June, Elizabeth worked at the convalescent home in Alexandria. She transferred back to Port Said Hospital on 27 September and stayed there till its closure at the end of the year.

The war may have ended on 11 November 1918, but Elizabeth would have seen an increase in hospital admissions at this time due to illnesses such as dysentery, malaria, pneumonia and bronchial pneumonia. The latter two may have been incorrectly diagnosed, as "Spanish Flu" cases were being reported in Egypt from mid 1918. When Port Said Hospital closed at the end of 1918, Elizabeth returned to Abbassia Hospital including a month at Choubra Infectious Hospital.

The Light Horse contingency were called upon in early 1919 to assist the Egyptian Police in an uprising, brought about due to months of a lack of food for the locals who for the past four years, had greatly assisted the allied forces. The medical staff were required to remain until the situation eased (reference, reference).

On 27 June 1919 Elizabeth boarded HMAT “Madras” bound for Australia, with the remainder of the 6th Light Horse Regiment, including George. She continued her nursing duties on board which may have been traumatic, as newspapers reported forty nine passengers came down with “Spanish Flu” and were quarantined at Woodman Point on arrival in Fremantle on 27 July 1919. It is assumed that Elizabeth would have been quarantined too (reference, reference, reference).

Elizabeth and George married in Bunbury on 8 January 1920 and moved to George’s property at Barellan, NSW, where they had three children (reference, reference, reference).

By 1931 they had moved back to Western Australia to a large wheat growing property at Meckering. By the end of the 1930’s they were living at 15 Ashburton Street, Victoria Park. In 1942, George aged 57, like many other men of his era, signed up for duty in the reserves in World War 2 (reference, reference).

Sadly, Elizabeth passed away in 1944, aged 59. The following year, their only son, Neil Vernon, who enlisted in the RAAF in 1942, was killed after the plane he was a navigator in, was shot down over Zaasch near Halle, Germany in 1945, aged 23 (reference, reference, reference).

Elizabeth’s mother, Mary, died in Bunbury in 1934. Chrystabel taught at Bunbury High School for twenty two years, retiring in 1940. Chrystabel died in Perth in 1955, aged 80 (reference, reference, reference).

Lucy Talbott, Elizabeth’s sister, passed away in 1956 in West Perth (reference).

Joseph taught at various schools in the Wheatbelt from 1916 to 1927 then settled down to married life in Collie, where he was assistant teacher from 1928 for twenty one years. He died in 1979 in Collie, aged 94 (reference, reference).

Isaac, also a teacher, was a member of staff at Margaret River school during 1916 to 1917, then, like Joseph, moved around country WA teaching, until 1924 when he spent four years at Bullsbrook School. He went on to teach at Perth Technical College from 1929 to 1943. Isaac passed away in Perth in 1950, aged 73 (reference, reference).

George later remarried and died in 1962 in Perth (reference).