Key Dates

 

1911               

Harry Bracher is selected to play cricket for Victoria

1910               

Sarah Fanny and Robert Disney Jones are living in Seddon

1915               

Herbert Henry Gladstone (Harry) Bracher married Ethel Ashton Parker at St Johns Church, Footscray

1927 July 28

Death of Fanny Victoria Bracher in Camberwell of cancer

1936               

Death of Sarah Fanny Jones (nee Bracher) in Camberwell

1940               

Death of Robert Disney Jones in Camberwell

1939               

Death of Catherine (Kate) Bracher in Royal Park

1945 July 25

Death of George Henry Bracher in Footscray

 

The death of Sarah Louisa Bracher (nee Hall) marked the end of nearly 50 years correspondence between mother and daughter. There exists a few letters written between other relatives, but not enough to match the detailed picture of family life between 1860 and 1910.

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The eldest Bracher child, George Alberto Reginald, was the last in the long line of ‘George’ Brachers. He started his working life in administration at a Bendigo company, then worked for Vergoe Son & Chapman at 189 William St, Melbourne, before joining Colonial Oil in 1904, aged around 24.  Colonial became Vacuum Oil Co, then Mobil. He was posted to Hobart in 1915-16 and this letter written to his father from his temporary home provides a glimpse into interpersonal relationships at the time, and the lives of other family members:

 

“….I was glad to learn of yours of 10th that everything is going on nicely with you and the business and hope that the year’s turnover will show a good increase over last year. I was also glad that my birthday greetings to you were so acceptable, being the only ones you received. I suppose all the other members of the family are so concerned in their own affairs that they could not spare five minutes to think of their father, who has done so much for them during their life and who is still willing to do something to help them find an easier path through life. By jove, I think you’ve put Harry under a pretty good debt and gratitude to you. It sometimes makes me think that it’s not the best thing to be the eldest boy of the family – you get grown up too soon. Of course I fully appreciate all you have done for me in the past and will repay you as soon as I can. I have been wondering lately if it would be best for me to get rid of that piece of land of mine as I do not know when I’ll be back in Victoria. I have one year more to pay off it and will take three pounds fifty a foot for it. I would like you to see what prospect there is at the present time of getting a buyer for it. It’s just the sort of block that Uncle Jones might like as it must (???) into money. That part of Malvern is progressing wonderfully and perhaps before I get it paid off someone will come along and build next door and call for half cost of fencing. That would hurt just now as this move has nearly left me high and dry…..Harry’s letter of course was brim full of the coming event and the possibilities of the future – looking through rose coloured glasses as per the usual thing with people at that stage of their lives. However, I hope everything prospers for them and that they’ll miss as many of the hidden rocks as possible…..Floss cannot get accustomed to the place, with so many things different to what she has been used to. The youngsters are in good health and spirits and do not care whether they live in Hobart or elsewhere. Of course I’ve simply got to like it as I’ve no choice. You needn’t be afraid of the children forgetting their only grandfather. They talk of you very often and wonder whether you’ll ever come over to Hobart to see them…Give our best love to Ma, Ella, Fan and the boys, and don’t forget we have only letters to look forward to here. “.

 

After Hobart, George Reginald Alberto headed back to Melbourne, where he lived for the rest of his life in Burke Road, Camberwell.  After leaving Mobil he worked for Malvern City Council for many years and, even in his nineties, he took on a job with a local real estate agent. He died in 1972 at Malvern, aged 92

 

Second son Harry did a number of jobs with stock agents, rising to become Stock Manager with the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co. Ltd some time during the 1920s. “ He began in Footscray, sitting on the fence with other young men, counting the sheep and directing them into different pens. He became very interested in country properties, country people and country life in general “. (Audrey Ware, interview 2004).

 

Harry’s position with New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency meant that he was required to have a telephone installed in the Dillon Grove house, after they moved to Hartwell in the mid 1920s.

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“ We had the only telephone in the street and mother used to get a bit annoyed because other housewives would come and say ‘do you mind if I use the phone’.  It would ring after hours and it would be some station owner or sheep property owner in the Riverina. Mother would say ‘Jerilderie calling’ or ‘Moulemein’, or ‘Corowa’. Dad would write down ‘six trucks of ewes or six trucks of wethers’, which would be arriving at Newmarket next morning”. (Audrey Ware, interview 2004)

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Harry began playing cricket in 1906 for North Melbourne in Melbourne District Cricket. He played 161 games with the club from the 1906/07 season until 1922/23 season, accumulating 4,630 runs including seven centuries and 21 half-centuries. His cricketing reputation reached a new level in 1911, when he was selected to play for Victoria:

 

“ In 1911 I was surprised to receive notification by letter that I had been selected to play for Victoria (which surprised the family as on no occasion had they ever attended a match in which I had been playing). Their interest was mostly to remind me whenever I made a poor score”. (H.H.G. Bracher ‘My Cricketing Days’)

 

Harry played for Victoria between 1912/13 and 1921/22 in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, often against teams that included some of the best players from Australia’s First Eleven. He averaged 18.36 runs, scoring his highest in his last of seven matches at the WACA in Perth on 10-13 March, 1922, when he made 75 in 134 minutes. Harry was now 36. They played on matting over asphalt in Kalgoorlie, then went on to Perth to play two matches; one against a town and country eleven, and the other match against W.A, Bill Woodfull, in only his second first class match, top scored with 153, with Harry the next highest. His partnership with Woodfull reached 44 runs when Bill was dismissed.

 

In his first year, Victoria won the Sheffield Shield competition and Harry, together with the rest of the team, was awarded the Sheffield Shield medal. He was known as a batsman, but was not highly regarded as a bowler. His lack of bowling prowess was probably as a result of a childhood polio-like affliction, which left him with considerably reduced strength on one side of his body.

 

“ Once in Queensland, just before lunch, the Captain asked who was the worst bowler in the side and by a huge majority of the team they said ‘Harry’. The Captain replied “Alright, you can bowl the last over before lunch… To the amusement of the fellows I clean bowled the champion of Queensland in my first over. “(H.H.G. Bracher ‘My Cricketing Days’)

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A Melbourne newspaper article of 1913 featured a picture of Harry in sporting pose with the following text:

 

‘Century and a Half’

Playing for North Melbourne against Essendon on Saturday Bracher made 159 not out. It was a great innings. Bracher is naturally a dashing batsman, who scores at a rapid rate, but on this occasion he was less aggressive, and took fewer risks. He utilised strokes all round the wicket. Like most left handers, he was particularly severe on anything on the leg side, and he did not give a chance. It is five years since Bracher first entered the North Melbourne eleven, and in that time he has made several big scores, and been generally consistent.”

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He noted in his memoirs that he had difficulty balancing work and cricket training. His daughter Audrey remembers that he would sometimes lament that other fellows in the cricketing world used to get time off from their employers, because their bosses were proud of the fact that their employee was playing Sheffield Shield. Harry’s employers were not particularly proud and would often refuse his requests. However, he never lost sight of the fact that, in those days of amateur sport, the development of a solid career to fall back-on was a fundamental requirement:

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“ My attitude to the game was always as a pleasant pastime and if you received some slight recognition there was always a feeling of having achieved something worthwhile. There is also a tragic side to the game, as the extra good players devoted their lives to becoming champions and, when they could no longer hold their place in top cricket, soon became back numbers and had nothing to fall back on as they had “chirped away their summers”. It’s quite tragic to think back, as I knew probably a dozen Australian Eleven cricketers brought to my notice as ‘wanting a job’ “(H.H.G. Bracher ‘My Cricketing Days’)

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On the occasion of his retirement from the North Melbourne Cricket Club, the former club captain and stalwart of the Club, Bill Johnson, was quoted in the December 6th edition of The Sporting Globe as saying:

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“ Bracher is one of the best sportsmen to have in a club I have ever been associated with….Bracher played cricket for the love of the game and his service to North was very fine. He was essentially a club man, and put the club before himself. I would rather have him in my team than most Australian Eleven or interstate players, some of whom are more concerned with averages than anything else. Bracher put his club before himself and that is why he was a fine cricketer. As a batsman he was brilliant, though not always consistent”. (The Sporting Globe, December 6th, 1924, p7)

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The name ‘Bracher, H.H.G.’ is listed on the honour board of Victoria’s top cricketers at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

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After Harry and family moved to Hartwell in 1924, he was induced after about four years to play with the local club. He was an original member of the Hartwell Sports Club and was instrumental in its establishment. He also played cricket for them and Hartwell won the A Grade premiership in 1927/28 and in 1929/30. Hartwell were runners-up in 1928/29.  He played with Hartwell until the 1931/32 season. Harry was awarded Life Membership of the Hartwell Sports Ground in 1959.

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Harry Bracher had met Ethel Ashton Parker through involvement with St Johns Church in Footscray, where they married in 1915. Ethel’s father, Arthur Parker, was the son of John Parker and Mary Ashton of Limerick in Ireland. Arthur was born in Charleville, County Cork in August 1841and the family settled in Footscray in 1854. His father eventually returned to Ireland, but Arthur carved-out a very successful career as a Chemist and Metalurgist. He established the Victorian Smelting and Metallurgical Works in Hyde Street, Footscray in 1877, with its head office located at 456 Collins Street.  He operated the business until his death in 1920. He had married Caroline Youell (1859-1941) in 1879 and they had 12 children, including Ethel. Caroline’s father had been a prominent Town Clerk of Footscray Council during the mid 1800s, so the marriage of Arthur Parker to Caroline Youell was something of a local society wedding. However, Arthur’s exemplary life as citizen and industrialist received a set-back in 1913, when at age 72 he was charged with attempted murder in the Melbourne City Court. Convinced that his daughter Grace Parker had been seduced by a fellow worker at Hooper and Co. in Footscray, Arthur stalked George Mc Kenzie for several months in the hope that he would marry his daughter. It culminated in Arthur forcibly abducting Mc Kenzie as he stepped off the train in Spencer Street. When Mc Kenzie fled Parker’s carriage into a warehouse, Parker fired two shots at McKenzie, which narrowly missed a warehouse employee. Parker was committed to trial in the supreme court in September 1913, but he was found not guilty by the magistrate on the basis that it was believed that Mr Parker had fired the shots to merely frighten the fellow.

 

In 1928, at age 42,  Harry began a new career when he bought into the business of A.B. & R.W. Johnson, a real estate business at 789 Rathdowne Street, North Carlton. He bought it in a 50/50 partnership with a ‘Mr Brown’ of Toorak, whom he knew as a client of the New Zealand Mercantile and Loan Company. For several years he helped Brown with stock matters for his country property and, upon Brown’s death, he acted as his executor. It was Brown’s largesse that enabled Harry to get out of the stock industry and into real estate.

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Melbourne was still in the grip of The Great Depression. Carlton at that time was a stronghold of the Jewish community. He had 600-700 houses on his rent roll, but Harry's nephew ken Bracher, who worked with him for two years., recalled that about 200 of them were empty during the depression years and of those that were occupied, Harry's son Geoff Bracher recalled that a good half of the properties couldn’t pay their rent. Harry's eldest child Audrey joined him in the office from 1932, performing secretarial duties.

 

The statement of receipt and expenditure for H. Bracher & Co. between 1928 and 1949 shows that during the Depression the receipts for commission earned on rent collections and sales of property averaged between 1,400 and 1,600 pounds, with Harry’s personal income drawings averaging 440 pounds. With the return of better times the income jumped dramatically to about 2,000 pounds by 1935 and was almost 3,000 pounds by the start of the war years. Harry’s drawings rose to over 500 pounds by 1935 and to well over 800 pounds by 1939. However, while income remained steady at about 2,000 pounds throughout the 1940s, Harry’s personal drawings from 1941 averaged between 300 and 400 pounds for the decade, largely as a result of a significant leap in staff wages bill.

 

G.A. Thomson’s ‘Memoirs on the activities of the REIV 1936-1980’ recalls that

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“ It was not uncommon to have 40 or 50 houses to let in the early 30’s. Many were in disrepair through vandalism and some owners could not afford to carry out the necessary repairs and renovations. In fact, many were still paying off debts on money borrowed. The cottages were let readily if renovated so, like many other real estate agents, we found ways and means through our unemployed tradesmen to buy material and carry out renovations, and retain rents until sufficient money was in hand to pay for the job…… Early in 1934 the average rental for a four room cottage was between twenty-two shillings and sixpence and twenty-five shillings per week, depending on the state of repair and, of course, position. Rental for six rooms would average about 30 shillings and eight rooms, thirty-five shillings to thirty-seven shillings and six pence, sometimes two pound per week. The commission for managing these properties was five percent, but there were quite a few cases where an agent would collect for two and a half percent. Deduct from this commission just normal expenses, and it would be appreciated the work involved to earn a reasonable income.”

 

Harry rose to prominence in the local industry, including a term as President of the Real Estate and Auctioneer’s Association (REAA) during 1942-1943. It later became the Real Estate and Stock Institute of Victoria.

 

“..It was about this time that I first met Harry Bracher. He called at my office late one afternoon and introduced himself as the real estate agent who had taken over the business of AB & RW Johnson in Rathdowne Street, North Carlton. Prior to that he had been for many years a senior member of the staff of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co. Ltd…..He called to congratulate me for now being the owner of my own business and to offer any assistance he could give……Harry had a very happy disposition. He loved to yarn about his office and real estate generally, also sport and especially cricket….Harry was very REAA minded and, although he would not sit for the examinations, he was invited to attend some of the Central Council meetings as an observer.”( G.A. Thomson- Memoirs)

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Harry and George Thomson resurrected the Carlton/Collingwood/Fitzroy/ Richmond and Abbotsford branch of the REAA and were delegates to the Divisional Council of the Association for many years. A preoccupation with them both over many years was to persuade the Government to review the rent control that had been imposed on landlords, which they, and many others, claimed was holding back necessary improvements to properties. The bond between Harry and George grew even stronger in July 1950 when, rather than Harry retiring from his business, he sold it to George Thomson, with Harry remaining to look after his old clients. Harry was given his own office in the G.A. Thomson Elgin Street office, where he worked for nearly a decade. George Thomson also took on Harry’s staff of four people, including his nephew, Ken Bracher. Ken Bracher left a year later to commence with another firm, of which he soon became a partner.

 

Harry retired at 75 during the early 1960s, although his account books indicate that he continued to transact personal loans and mortgages well into the late 1960s. Years later, Thomson told Harry’s third daughter, Valerie, that her father had done very well in the real estate business, but that he could have done very well if he had been prepared to take some risk. Ken Bracher believed that Harry probably sold the business prematurely, as it was a period of great post WW2 prosperity that continued right into the late 1960s, especially after the lifting of the government-imposed housing controls. Ken himself built a successful real estate and valuation business for himself during this period 'Coghills', specialising in the Hawthorn-Canterbury-Kew area.

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Harry’s post-retirement business interests were mixed with golfing at the Kew course and playing bowls with Hawthorn West Bowling Club. In the last paragraph of his memoirs, George Thomson leaves no doubt about his admiration for Harry Bracher’s contribution to the industry and its people:

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“Perhaps the happiest of these memories was the Christmas meeting of the Carlton/ Collingwood, Fitzroy/ Richmond/ Abbotsford branch with all the boys I have already named, and in the hey-day of our champion, Harry Bracher”.

 

Harry and Ethel’s first four children were born at home at 127 Hyde Street, Footscray: Audrey Ashton in 1916; Marjorie Ethel in 1919; Valerie Mildred in 1920; and their eldest son, Lloyd Gladstone, in 1922. Their youngest child, Geoffrey Herbert Winston, was born at Hartwell in 1928.

 

They were the first to tenant the Hyde Street house, which was one of a number built in a similar style in the street. Their first born, Audrey, was six when they moved away, but she recalled:

 

“ It was brand new, with gas, running water and electricity. I remember that it had a tin bath, which was part of what they called ‘the wash house’, but it was all under the one roof. It was a commodious house and mum and dad thought they were pretty lucky and grand. It was right on the edge of a right-of-way, which went down to a gas works. When we had whooping cough at one stage, dad used to march us down to take a deep breath of whatever was in this gas thing – coal gas. ”

 

However, Harry believed that for his family to progress they needed to get out of Footscray and move to the eastern suburbs. They moved to a weatherboard home at 4 Dillon Grove, Hartwell in 1924. It had been farmland, which was subdivided by the State Savings Bank to help returned servicemen under the bank's credit foncier scheme. Harry and Ethel chose one of the several house plans offered by the bank. All the children attended Auburn and Hartwell State Schools.

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“I can remember the day we moved from Footscray. We walked from the Glen Iris station because dad had gone in the van. I know that dad wanted to get us out of Footscray, which was a smelly place in those days, so we went to countrified Burwood, with paddocks all around us. Lloyd and Geoff used to go off to a dam to get yabbies. I think our street was on the edge of the development and then there was what they used to call the Big Paddock; trees, bracken fern and stuff, but that was developed while we were there”. (Interview with Marjorie Taylor (nee Bracher), 2006)

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About 1935-36 the growing Bracher family had outgrown Dillon Grove and they moved to a substantial solid-brick, Federation-era house at 5 Cowper Street, Hawthorn. It remained in the family until Harry’s death in 1974. Harry and Ethel’s niece, Yvonne Wray (nee Simmons), was in her mid teen years when her aunt and uncle moved to what was then known as ‘Upper Hawthorn’. The size and style of the house made an impression on her:

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“I remember when they moved into their Upper Hawthorn home - you couldn’t call it a house – that gorgeous grandfather clock in the hall – the three girls’ bedrooms all decorated in pastel shades – and Lloyd and Geoff’s bedroom down the back – the sanctum into which I (a girl) was not allowed – the dog, a spaniel called ‘Flash’. I remember it well, Sunday night’s tea when Ol (ie sister Olive) and I were allowed up to the sitting room to play the pianola and sing ourselves hoarse. Nobody minded and, because I didn’t like piano practise, Auntie Et’ was always telling me how ‘Geoff gets up at 7am in  the morning to practice ! I was appalled; what would my family think of waking everyone up at that ungodly hour to plonk away on the piano – you see, Geoff ‘played’ and I ‘plonked’…” (memoirs of Yvonne Wray (nee simmons), February 2011)

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During their years living in Cowper Street, Hawthorn they became staunch supporters of St Marks Anglican Church, Camberwell. Ethel’s funeral was held at St Marks in 1972 and Harry’s in 1974. They were 83 and 88 respectively. A processional cross was commissioned by their children to record their parent’s commitment to St Marks over the 40 years.

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Aunt Sarah Fanny and Robert Disney Jones remained significant figures in the Bracher family well into the 1930s. They had moved from Portarlington to Hobbs Street, Seddon sometime before 1910. In 1923 their address was 15 Derby Street, Camberwell, which was where they celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary in 1932. Numerous letters of congratulation were written to them by friends and members of the Temperance Union, the Methodist Church and the Masonic Lodge. Their great, great niece, Yvonne Wray (nee Simmons), remembers the Derby Street house and recounts her wonder of it through the eyes of a youngster:

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“ My first recollections of 15 Derby Street were of a largish house filled with nice things, very dark bathroom and a toilet ‘out the back’. I remember vividly going there when the indoor toilet was put in, as the two got too old to go down the back. I remember that the block, on which the house still stands today, ran right through to Palmerston Street. If Ol (ie sister Olive) and I ventured right down to the back fence….plenty of fruit trees.” (memoirs of Yvonne Wray (nee Simmons), Feb 2011)

 

From the early 1900s, as they entered their older age, Sarah Fanny and Robert Disney Jones were assisted by their niece, Fanny Victoria Bracher. She lived-in as their companion and housekeeper until she died in a private hospital of breast cancer in 1927, aged 48.  Sarah Fanny died in 1936, aged 91, and Robert Disney Jones died in 1940, aged 94. Their nephew, Lionel Bracher, greatly assisted the couple in their older life and acted as executor to their estate.

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Of all the Bracher couples, the late union of Sarah Fanny and Robert seems to reflect the greatest love and devotion. They staunchly bound their lives to Methodist doctrine and had an abiding sense of duty to each other and family. Lacking children of their own, they particularly attached themselves to George and Kate’s (Catherine’s) children.

 

Their grand-nieces and nephews remembered them as stern, fairly humourless disciplinarians. No doubt this impression was formed because of the large age difference between the children and the ancient couple. However, the recollections of the couple in their younger wedded life by their nieces and nephews show them in a more kindly light. A large wooden games set, still in the hands of the family, was owned by Sarah Fanny and Robert during the 1890s. Harry Bracher recalled that it was brought down from a high cupboard for the children to entertain themselves when they visited their aunt and uncle.

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Early life in Footscray provided the Bracher family with many happy memories, but the second generation children were upwardly mobile and one by one moved out of the west and took their place in Melbourne's eastern suburbs. Ken Bracher mentions that it was not always socially easy to make the move from west to east. He says that Sarah and Robert Disney Jones had a problem settling into the milieu of Camberwell from Seddon, and when Ken's family moved moved from Footscray into Canterbury in 1932, his mother told her children to not tell people where they had come from.

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There were many Bracher relatives within close proximity to provide destinations for walking trips after church and Sunday School, then later car excursions. George Bracher and his wife Florence and five children had returned from living in Hobart around 1920 and, after living for a short time with Louisa Hester (nee Bracher) in Elwood, moved to 189 Burke Road in East Malvern in the early 1920s.  Ella Bracher had married Birmingham saddlery representative and, later, a handbag manufacturer, Sydney Simmons, in 1916. Ella was working in her father’s saddlery in Footscray, which Sydney frequented as a leather goods rep’. They first lived in Moresby Street, Canterbury, then later on the corner of Prospect Hill Road and Dryden Street, Their youngest daughter, Yvonne Wray (nee Simmons), recalls countless trips throughout the years to visit her aunts and uncles, plus 22 cousins, many of whom lived in the area. Lionel –the youngest son of George and Kate (Catherine) - lived with his wife Kitty and children Ken and Muriel, just around the corner, in Maling Road, Canterbury. Many of the others were only a brisk walk away. The bond between brothers George, Harry and Lionel is mentioned frequently as they raised their growing families. Tall stories, ditties and songs around the piano were commonplace in that pre-television era. Lionel had been a very good amateur wrestler during his Footscray years, while no doubt Harry regaled all with his cricketing stories.

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“ We had quite a lot to do with Uncle George’s family in Burke Rd, East Malvern (opposite Sacre Coeur Convent). We’d all walk from Burwood to Glen Iris. There were a lot of cousins and they were a good fun family. They had a lot of art in that family. Aunty Ella’s family had four girls in Prospect Hill Road (near the Camberwell High School). We would trot off on foot to see them.

(Interview with Marjorie Taylor (nee Bracher), 2006).

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The only two Bracher children not living in the area were Louisa Hester and Amy Sampson. Amy and Frank Sampson lived in a two storey home in Kooyong, on the edge of Toorak. Frank Sampson was a very successful traveler for the soap makers, J. Kitchen & Sons.

 

Louisa Bracher had married London-born Robert Ferdinand Hester (no relation to the Hester relations of Western Australia). They built a house close to the bay, in Dawson Avenue, Elwood.  Ferdinand was manager of the western branch of the English, Scottish, and Australian Bank in Collins street, but he suffered from alcoholism and died in 1932 at a relatively young age. Louisa was left to raise the older child, Neville, and the younger daughter, Joy. Louisa and Neville operated a real estate business 'L&N Hester' in Gardenvale during the 1930s and 40s. Joy Hester became one of Australia’s most significant and controversial artists of the 1940s and 1950s.

 

“ We thought she was a bit eccentric and Aunty Lou was much troubled. Her husband died quite early on and she was pretty upset about Joy. She was at the National Gallery School for a while, where she met Albert Tucker, and they were married at a little church called St Catherines, out beyond Eltham in Greensborough. Then of course she belonged to the Heide Gallery lot. She died about the age of 40 of some rather unusual medical condition (Hodgkinsons Disease). (Interview with Audrey Ware, 2004)

 

Amy and Lou had been teachers at different times. Both taught at Footscray at one stage. Audrey Ware (nee Bracher) fondly remembered the artistic streak of both her aunts, but also the rivalry between them:

 

“ They had ideas of what was beautiful. Aunt Amy made all her own clothes; beautiful things. They both built nice houses and I remember that I loved going to either of them because all young women like beautiful things. Yes, but there was a fair amount of enmity between the two sisters, Amy and Louie, because they both had this artistic bent. That’s where Joy (Hester) got the strong streak from. Uncle George also drew very well. One of Uncle George’s daughters, Marie, also had the touch, but she went in for hat designing.” (Interview with Audrey Ware, 2005)

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Yvonne Wray (nee Simmons) also recalls the tension between her three aunts:

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“Auntie Lou owned a car and drove to our house to have lunch with mum quite regularly, even though dad had forbidden her and mum to meet after Uncle Ferd’ died in 1932. Dad was at the factory and stacks of times I begged to be allowed the day off from school so that I could accompany mum to Dawson Street, Elwood for lunch with Auntie Lou, and maybe, just maybe, stay their long enough for the gorgeous Joy to get home from her ‘big’ school – she was the prettiest blonde young thing and very personable………Amy, Lou and mum were not a happy threesome. Eventually Amy was ousted and mum and Lou used to refer to her as the ‘Mayoress of Toorak’ (memoirs, Feb 2011)

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Not much is known about George Henry and Catherine (Kate) Bracher as they entered old age. After starting his working life with the gas company in Footscray, their third son Lionel joined him in the business at 29 Hopkins Street, Footscray. The business letterhead of the time was headed 'G.H. Bracher and Son' The Farmers Saddlery & Harness Supply Stores. George Henry retired from his business about the mid 1920s, when aged almost 70. A letter from a West Australian relative visiting Melbourne in 1927 mentioned George’s retirement from the ‘Land Agency’ and the fact that he seemed to have secured ‘a good bit of property’. She says that he was drawing 14 pounds a week from the business at the time “which should mean comfort for himself and Kate.”

Lionel bought out the stock of his father’s business and operated it for a short time before the ravages of the Great Depression brought it to an end. Lionel was also co-editor of the Footscray Commercial Gazette for a short time during the early 1930s. Lionel’s son, Ken Bracher, fondly recalled being wheeled by his grandfather in a wheelbarrow as a small child, to collect the rents from his several properties during the 1920s.

 

While most of the family were living in Footscray they had regular contact with their parents and grandparents, who lived at 251 Geelong Road. When the next generation moved into the eastern suburbs the contact became less frequent, especially in an era before widespread car ownership. Christmas usually saw George and Catherine (Kate) visit by train, but most of the grand children cannot remember much other contact.

 

“ All I can remember is Grandma coming out occasionally and we’d sing at the piano

Dad used to play all the old tunes and she’d be singing away. She seemed a nice old girl, but he seemed a rough and ready fellow. He was one of the original fellows with a crew cut. The only other people who had their hair cut like that were in jail.” (Interview with Geoff Bracher, 2005)

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“ I can remember him coming across the T.M. Burke paddock near the railway station. He was always marching ahead of her, about 20 yards…..I think she was just ‘there’. I’m not sure whether it was a period when the husband was complete boss. We had very little to do with him, or I did anyway…we didn’t go out to visit them much. They were a different breed.”

(Interview with Lloyd Bracher, 2006)

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Grandma seemed to be a nice woman. She was a sweet, plumpish person with white hair, but Grandpa was a bit distant; not too interested in the kids - we didn’t feel at all close to him…….I don’t think he looked after my grandma very well…the thought in the family was that he neglected his wife quite horribly. He used to go away every winter to Queensland to get out of the cold, but apparently grandma could suffer the cold. He was a selfish old fellow I think.

(Interview with Marjorie Taylor (nee Bracher), 2006).

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Audrey Ware (nee Bracher) remembered them as being good humoured, and her grandfather as a free-spirit and "a bit mean with his money". However, the youngest grand child, Yvonne Wray (nee Simmons) has quite different recollections of the old couple, and, despite the distance from Canterbury to Footscray, she regularly took the train trip with her mother Ella and father Syd during the 1930s to visit them:

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“ Arriving there, grandma would be getting the tea and grandpa would be down the yard feeding the chooks, and we were always greeted with a hug and a kiss. Then there was a penny each from grandpa and we were both allowed to run all the way down to the local lolly shop to buy some lollies…after tea we were allowed into the sitting room to play on the big rocker, while the grown-ups talked in the other part of the house…I loved those visits – and sometime we would hang over the front gate and watch the drover drive the sheep up the Geelong Road to the tannery – nearly opposite the house – heady days!” (memoirs, Feb 2011)

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Many of the relatives recall George Henry’s increasing eccentricity. Their marriage appears to have been beset with emotional difficulty and, perhaps, some incompatibility from early in their relationship. Undoubtedly, Catherine (Kate) immersed herself in the never-ending tasks involved in raising seven children, probably in the hope that the activities of her gregarious and self-centred husband would comfortably secure them into their old age. The task of running the household and raising children on her own for eight years, while her husband was in the West and in Melbourne, was a feat in itself.

 

Some of the descriptions in early family letters indicate a possibility that Catherine (Kate) may have suffered a depressive illness during the earlier years of her life, possibly exacerbated by a domineering husband and an interfering mother-in-law. The family recalls her as a sweet grandmother who, during her later years, became an inveterate dabbler in religions of many kinds, including Christian Science and spiritualism. Perhaps this was her consolation when the children had left home and she faced the remainder of her years living with the difficult George Henry. Catherine (Kate) Bracher entered an advanced state of dementia around 1938 and she died the following year, age 84. George had attempted to place her in an asylum, but her children intervened and at one stage during her latter years she lived with her son George and family in Malvern Road, and at 151 Prospect Hill Road, Canterbury, with her daughter Ella, husband Syd and their family. Yvonne Wray (nee Simmons) recalls:

 

“ I quite vividly remember her wandering aimlessly around the house – losing her glasses, not knowing who we all were, or what day it was – until they (dad, mum and Lionel) got her into a private place over near the corner of Balwyn and Mont Albert Roads…..Shortly after this, a place was found for her at ‘Royal Park’ in Parkville, where she eventually passed away. I remember my poor little mother so upset that the place was horrible (as they were in those days) and mum couldn’t do anything about it” (Yvonne Wray- nee Simmons- memoirs, Feb 2011)

 

George Henry Bracher died on July 25th, 1945. He was cremated at Fawkner Cemetery two days later. The death certificate lists him as a saddler and harness maker, 87 years, living at 251 Geelong Road, West Footscray. It states that he suffered Arteriosclerosis for ten years and Prostatic Hypertrophy for five years. Like his mother and father before him, George Henry had outlived the average age of death for a male in Australian in 1945 by a further 25 years. The longevity gene was becoming a feature of the Bracher line.

 

Even in death George Henry managed to create consternation. His Will left the proceeds of his estate to be divided between Harry and Ella. To Louisa, Amy, Lionel and George he left ‘one pound’, after payment of 100 pounds to his son-in-law and executor, Sydney Simmons. He owned two houses; his own at 251 Geelong Road, and another at 21 Hotham Street in Footscray. His Will stipulated that the widow, Mary Ann Godfrey, be allowed to remain living there until her death. He also noted in his Will, written in 1929, “ I desire, in the event of one of my executors dying, the remaining one to appoint a substitute, but such substitute must not be a blood relation of mine.”