From the Archives

Rev Tim Daniel during WWI, courtesy Australian War Memorial.

By Shannon Lovelady Warning: Sensitive content. All names of the Daniel family have been changed.

For this edition, we thought we’d share some of the in-depth research we undertook for Dr Susan Maushart in her writing of our centenary history, This Little World. This is one of the stories we did not include.

To tell it, we go back to 1916, when Ellen Daniel came to PLC. Back in 2013 we found ourselves wondering why her recorded guardian was our Founder, the Rev George Nisbet Dods, as both her parents were still living. We decided to look further into it and did not expect to find what we did!

Ellen’s parents, Tim and Lilly (six years older) married in Ireland in around 1898. Their children William and Ellen were born in July 1900 and December 1901 respectively. Tim Daniel was an ambitious Presbyterian minister who arrived in Fremantle with his wife and children in July 1902. A third child, a little boy, was born in January 1903 but, sadly, died two months later. We began tracking their movements after they arrived in WA. Rev Daniel was very active and there was much reported on him in the newspapers. We looked in the social pages for mentions of what Lilly was doing, alongside her prominent husband. We checked for all the usual things - charities she supported, people she visited, dances at Government House, afternoon teas and important events she attended, all the usual mentions ... but there was nothing. A very big silence all around her. In 1915, Rev Daniel enlisted to serve in WWI as a military chaplain. He stated he was married, so we could presume Lilly wasn’t dead, but it was very unusual for him to name his 15-yearold son, William, his next of kin. Ellen was put into PLC and William into Scotch College. At night, and on weekends, Ellen went home to Rev Dods’ home in West Perth, as Rev Dods had a daughter, Chrissie, around Ellen’s age. William was initially also under the care of Rev Dods too but, after a few years at Scotch, his guardian changed to P C Anderson, who was then the Principal of Scotch College. Ellen finished her schooling here at the end of 1919 and Rev Daniel returned from the war in 1920, very highly decorated. He gathered Ellen and headed off to South Australia from where Ellen wrote back, quite cheerfully, of her services as her father’s aide, standing by his side. Again, we wondered, where was Lilly? And then we found her dying in Claremont years later, and an awful realisation hit. She might have been in Claremont Lunatic Asylum. Going about confirming this required some thinking outside the box and a welcome collaboration with mental health services and historian, Dr Philippa Martyr, and a week or so later we’d done it - confirmed poor Lilly Daniel had indeed been admitted to Claremont by her husband on 1 December 1911. Her admission form records that he told them she had, naturally, become quite depressed after the loss of their baby boy in 1903 and that she had been mentally unwell, on and off, for the past 6-7 years. Periodically, it says, she neglected herself and

the household duties and refused to dress, wash, or prepare food. She was monosyllabic on admission, but said “do not burn me!” The poor woman believed she was in hell. Maybe she was. When we retrieved her record from the State Records Office, we saw that, like most patients in the Asylum, this poor woman was seen by a doctor just once a month after which, on average, just six words were written on her evaluation sheet. Often there is just “no change”, on the line below the month before. Incredibly, in this manner, Lilly Daniel passed the next 24 years. She died on 6 July 1935, aged 69 and was buried in a pauper's grave at Karrakatta, reserved for residents of Claremont Asylum, meaning she was never even given a headstone. Who attended her funeral? Not her children, for they lived in other states. And because there were no death notices placed for her in the newspapers by anyone, we wondered if they even knew what happened to her. They would have only been 10 and 11 when she went in there, after all. But now we know what happened. And, a few times now, we’ve gone and laid flowers on her grave.

Ward at the Claremont Asylum taken on 22 August 1909 by E L Mitchell, courtesy State Library of Western Australia 154092PD

Dining Room at the Claremont Asylum taken on 22 August 1909 by E L Mitchell, courtesy State Library of Western Australia 154093PD

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Recent Accessions

Thank you to those who have recently donated items to our Archives.

Jill Slatyer (Bird 1955) 1954 Kookaburra

Christine Hebiton (Alexander 1969) 1969 Speech Night invitation; 1972 Invitation to the official opening of the new Library and Classrooms; 1989 Order of Service for the Memorial Service for Heather Barr; 1996 IGSSA Swimming programme; 1999 Speech Night programme.

Wendy Addis (Head Prefect 1954) The Sherwood Papers: A Swan River Story, by Margaret Love (Sherwood 1954).

Jodie Nunn (1989) A 1989 Boarders’ Leavers’ shirt featuring a herd of bison saying “As if we all know where we’re going.”

Thanks to

Archives Volunteers

Huge thanks to Jane Meneghello (McGibbon) who has returned again this year to assist in the Archives, a job she has realised is never ending! She is painstakingly arranging the Photographic Collection into chronological order and demetalling, flattening, and organising archival documents.

Olive ‘Dosh’ Cusack nee Drummond (Deputy Principal 1941-1962) as a teacher at Perth Modern School (middle, back), c1921.

Digital Accessions

Lucy Hair (Williams 1989) The slideshow and seven significant photos from the Pipe Band’s 40th Anniversary event on 31 August 2021 (see pic); Agendas, Minutes and Reports from the Friends of Pipe Band; Jane Anne McLarty’s (Symington 1964) final list of all PLC Pipe Band 2 and Senior Pipe Band members from 1981-2021; Oral histories from Peter and Kerry Jones; Ailsa Miller; and Hazel Day; List of engagements at which the Pipe Band has played, 1981-2021; The unabridged version of Proud to be PLC, with notes.

Kathy Bonus (Lefroy 1983) via Lucy Hair (Williams 1989) Ten photos of Boarders in the Pipe Band at PLC and on tour to Townsville, 1983. Jo Pope (Lapsley 1981) via Lucy Hair (Williams 1989) Ten photos and a 1978 note thanking Jo for playing at Speech Night that year from Miss Heather Barr (1949; Principal 1968-1989).

Carol Dodson (1971) Ten images of Carol and her friends during her years at PLC (1968-1971).

Emma Withers Perth Modern School Photo of Olive ‘Dosh’ Cusack (Deputy Principal 1941-1962) when a young teacher at Perth Modern School, her alma mater, c1921.

Barry Green, widower of Helen Green (Novakov 1961) Two photos of Helen at School, in 1956 and as a Prefect in 1961.

Meera Honan (Sinnathamby 1988) via Jessamy Mahony (Carroll 1988) Photo of 1988 Leavers in Year 7W (for Williams), 1983.

Pipe Band on the Quad with Lyn Cairns, 1983

1983 Pipe Major, Drum Major and Leading Stroke, 25 June 1983

L-R: Kathy Bonus (Lefroy 1983), Roslyn Cvitanovich (Samson 1983) and Kathryn Mathwin (Miles 1984)

PLC’s first Pipers at the 40th Anniversary celebration of the Pipe Band, 31 August 2021 L-R: Ashley Mottershead (Fraser 1981), Fiona Cumming (1981), Jo Pope (Lapsley 1981) Susan Johns with the PLC and Scotch Presentation books. Photo courtesy Paul McGovern, Post Newspapers

The Power of a PLC Presentation Book

Local resident, Timothy Johns, was cycling with his children on Monday 2 May 2022 when he came across a big pile of papers, a video, old photos and other family treasures under a bush beside the Claremont railway track.

They took it home and rang the police, who said they likely wouldn’t be able to find the rightful owner. Timothy’s daughter, Susan (10) was particularly concerned that these items wouldn’t go back to whoever had lost them.

Among the items was a PLC Presentation Book awarded to Debra Warren as Dux of her class in 1967. Timothy picked up the phone and called PLC Archivist, Shannon Lovelady.

Ms Lovelady was able to find information on Debra, where she is now, and that she has a wonderful long history with PLC, starting with her mother Siddy Crampton, one of our lovely Old Girls from the early 1930s. Debra was a day girl from 1965-1971, and her daughter Emma graduated from here in the 1990s with her own daughters now on the list to attend within the next year or two.

Debra was contacted straight away and reported to Ms Lovelady that they had indeed had a break-in on the Thursday night prior and that many precious things had been stolen, including these family items. She was so pleased to know she would get them back.

“And the book I won as Dux!” she said, “It was the only year I ever won, and I’m never letting it go!”