BIDDLECOMBE — THE WOMAN BEHIND THE NAME

Janet Russell by Matthew William Webb, 1890. State Library of Victoria, Golf Hill collection.

Janet Russell Biddlecombe

“I am so very glad that the Music School is proving its worth, and in these days of turmoil and cruelty is helping, in however small a way, keep alive a desire for the more beautiful things of life.”

Janet Biddlecombe’s words to Geelong Grammar School’s headmaster, Dr James Darling, were written in the midst of wartime in August 1942. Darling regarded music and art as spiritual food balancing an educational diet that otherwise nourished only brain and body, and never was this more important than when the world seemed dark. In 1938, Janet and her nephews and niece, Max (GGS’04), Alan (GGS’10) and Gladys Bell, donated to the School a modern and exquisitely designed Music School in memory of the Bell siblings’ mother, Janet’s sister, Anne Carstairs Bell. At a cost of £10,000 – over $900,000 in today’s money – no expense was spared, from the tasteful and luxurious furnishings, to the parquet floor, and the roof of Cardova tiles; it was so impressive that it was regarded by the School Council as “a miracle … provided quietly and unobtrusively by four generous people”.

The Music School was but one example of the family’s benefaction. The Bells had already donated the Lunan Gates in 1913, and in 1931 one of the chapel’s beautiful Napier Waller windows was given in memory of their brothers John (GGS’05) and Russell Bell (GGS’10), both of whom were killed in World War One. Other gifts were given, including tracts of land, and Gladys left a generous bequest in her will that provided for a refurbished staff common room. Chief among the family’s philanthropists were the Biddlecombes, Janet and her husband John, a childless couple who chose to bestow their generosity on a range of institutions. In the early 1920s, when Geelong Grammar School was under-resourced, the Biddlecombes donated six masters’ residences of superior quality which helped to attract the best educators to Corio despite the meagre wage on offer. Their generosity was acknowledged in the naming of Biddlecombe Avenue, the main north–south axis along which the houses were built.

Janet Biddlecombe inherited much of her wealth from her father George Russell, a pastoralist who in 1836 had followed John Batman’s early explorations into Victoria, becoming the manager and later a partner of the Clyde Company. By the time it was dissolved in 1857–58, the Clyde Company had returned more than a quarter of a million pounds from an initial investment of £15,000 in pastoral runs. Recognising the importance of the Clyde Company’s role in the early development of Victoria, in the 1930s Janet sponsored historian Philip Brown (M’22), son of Geelong Grammar School headmaster Rev. Dr Francis Brown, to edit and transcribe the Company’s papers. The resulting works, The Narrative of George Russell, published in 1935, and the seven-volume Clyde Company Papers, published between 1941 and 1971, are considered to be among the finest examples of Australian historical scholarship ever produced. Without Janet’s energy and inspiration, an extraordinary record of early Victorian history would never have emerged. Several members of the Russell family attended GGS.

Following her father’s death in 1888, Janet took on the management of the family estate of Golf Hill, near Shelford, which had been left to her only brother Philip, who had proved unequal to the task before his death in 1898. In 1900, she married Commander John Biddlecombe, a naval officer who was involved in suppressing the Boxer Rebellion and later served in the South African (Boer) War. In John, a kindly and generous man, Janet found a partner in philanthropy

Golf Hill c.1880

“I am impressed by Janet’s fortitude and her dedication in many areas. Many of the Biddlecombes’ legacies were directed towards education, which strikes a chord with me. I find her fascinating and inspiring.”

Sue McKnight, Biddlecombe Society member and together they gave regularly, and mostly anonymously, to institutions such as the Bethany Babies Home, the Australian Red Cross Society, the Victorian Association of Braille Writers, the Victorian Society for Crippled Children, the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and Shelford Presbyterian Church. It was only after the Biddlecombes’ lifetimes that many of these institutions learned the identity of their benefactors, through ongoing bequests provided by Janet’s estate.

At Golf Hill, the Biddlecombes restored the estate to stability and founded a Hereford stud, developing it into one of the leading herds in Australia and eventually the world, as well as producing some of the best comeback wool in the Geelong region from a flock of 25,000 sheep. John died in 1929, but Janet continued to invest in the stud, maintaining the herd’s pre-eminence through sound and careful management. Australian showrings became accustomed to Golf Hill champions in almost every category. Janet loved nothing more than being in her paddocks among the cows and calves, but in 1953 made the difficult but prudent

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“Sam is an extraordinary young man, and I knew from my very early correspondence with him that he would go on to achieve great things. I even kept his letters because they demonstrated a maturity, humility and understanding way beyond his years. He was determined to make the most of every opportunity GGS offered with, I believe, the ultimate goal of helping others.”

Toni Armstrong, Pierce Armstrong Foundation “Janet’s relationship to the land, and her generosity in such a diverse variety of charities is amazing. She didn’t look for recognition; she did it because she was in a position to be generous. To give to something you love is very rewarding.”

Janet in later life with one of her prize bulls

decision to disperse of her herd, by which she hoped to improve the Hereford breed throughout Australia. After scooping her final two prizes at the Melbourne Cattle Show for a yearling named Invincible and a heifer named Pearly Gates, the stock sale at Golf Hill raised £125,000, making headlines across the world and setting a new British Empire record for any breed, as well as directly benefitting the various charities to which Janet donated the proceeds.

Only months later, on 15 February 1954, Janet died at Golf Hill, aged 87. The passing of a woman revered for her kindness, charity and self-effacing nature, and who was a last living link to early settlement in Victoria, was widely lamented. “Her most enduring achievement would be her example; her greatest wealth was her character”, noted one obituary, while another reflected that “It was not the honour and glory of winning prizes that appealed most to Mrs Biddlecombe, but the thought that she was doing something for Australia”. A t Geelong Grammar School, the name Biddlecombe is at the heart of the School’s identity, not only by providing its physical street address but also through the naming of the Biddlecombe Society, which exists to honour, during their lifetimes, those who have left a bequest to the Geelong Grammar Foundation in their wills. It is entirely fitting that the society is named in honour of two people whose generosity in life was matched only by their humility, and whose only motive was altruism. John Biddlecombe is commemorated in the Chapel with an elegant plaque, erected soon after his death, but Janet’s memorial is more ethereal; just as she was once described as the “grand old lady” of Victoria’s pastoral industry, so too is she the matriarch of all Geelong Grammar School’s benefactors.

Postscript

The author of this story lives in one of the Biddlecombe houses. A century later, this generous gift is still making staff comfortable as Janet intended.