Great Grandparents; Frederick Jessep and Leila Winifred Gillies

Leila Winifred Gillies (1893-1974)

When Leila Winifred Gillies was born in 1893 in New South Wales, Australia, her father, Alexander, was 35, and her mother, Florence, was 29. She married Frederick Ernest Jessep on April 20, 1910, in Waverley, New South Wales, Australia. They had four children in 11 years. She died on April 22, 1974, in Umina, New South Wales, Australia, at the age of 81.

My mother recalls her as a plain, dull woman, married to my pleasant grandfather Frederik Jessep, mother of four boys. Although her son Billy, my grandfather, sadly died young at age 25, she did not seem to show any special sentiment to my father or grandchildren.

 When my father visited her as an adult she remarked that it was no good visiting as he would not be endowed with anything from her in her will. This hurt him.  I don't know if she was senile.  We tried to visit her humble Umina house as a child.  Telephones were not common in those days so we could not ring in advance to arrange a visit. My poor mother, with four little kids, walked from our home at Ettalong to hers at Umina but she was not home. I only remember lots outside the house with mosquito wrigglers in them, waiting a good while then returning home.  I did not really know who she was.  

Apparently that Umina house was built by my great grandfather, Frederick Jessep, initially as a holiday house.  They had lived at Waverley (51 Spring Street) and also at Bondi and raised their children there. 

My grandmother, Edna Jessep (nee Brown) recalled that the family of boys revered their mother and that they were a lot of fun to be with.  She said that they used to pass much time gathering and playing cards. I remember my father telling me that one must not wash up the baking dish because Nanna Jessep held that the dripping must carry over from meal to meal to create the right flavour. One day we visited Bondi with my father and he pointed out places where her family had lived, including some grand places.

As I traced her family tree, hoping to find some pathetic convict with a redeeming story, I found a very interesting family tree, full of remarkable people, going back to 777 and including all the kings of England, Europe, and assorted somebodies including Duke Rollo of Normandy (of "Vikings" fame). I think that Nanna was very aware of her proud family/ancestry as this was regarded as important in her day. My cousin, Bronwyn Jessep (Sandell) has told me that Nanna had a number of notable suitors but she chose Frederick who was from an ordinary background.  However, from what I can see, it seems that she married Frederick in the April and gave birth to my grandfather, (William, (Billy)), in the June.  This would mean that she was seven months pregnant when she was married, which would have been extremely shameful in those days.  She was only 17.

Frederick Ernest Jessep (1889-1966)

When Frederick Ernest Jessep was born in 1889 in New South Wales, Australia, his father, William, was 47 and his mother, Ellen, was 37. He married Leila Winifred Gillies  in 1910 in Waverley, New South Wales, Australia. They had four children (sons) together. He died on July 30, 1966, in Waverley, New South Wales, Australia, at the age of 77.

Fortunately cousins in the Jessep family have done extensive research into their family and have a website with details of family history called Jesseps Down Under (http://www.jessep.com/blog/index.php/thomas-william-thomas-frederick-ernest) .  The following excerpt is from the website (particular thanks to Bill Jessep);

"Frederick Ernest was born on the 9th October, 1889 in the family home at Bourke Street, Waverley, New South Wales, to William Thomas and Ellen.  Frederick was their tenth child and at the time William was 46 years old and Ellen was 37 years old.

Just four years later on the 4th February, 1893 Leila Winifred Gillies was born at 25 John Street. She will eventually meet Frederick and fall in love.

Frederick grew up in Waverley and married Leila on the 20th April, 1910 at the Methodist church in Waverley, New South Wales.  Frederick’s brother and sister, Joseph and Lily, were the witnesses to the marriage performed by Rev Holmes.

The couple settled down at 65 Mill Hill Rd while Frederick was working as a Labourer. They moved to 51 Spring St, Waverley and then onto 18 Alt Street, Waverley.  Frederick was then working as a driver.

Frederick retired from work around 1954 and moved to 178 Bourke Rd., Umina. The couple had 4 children.  William Frederick born 7th June, 1910, Alexander Leslie born 10thFebruary, 1912,  Joseph Henry born 12th July, 1913 and Jack Roy born 11th January, 1922.

Frederick passed away on the 31st July, 1966 in Sydney, New South Wales. He was interned in the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park on the 02nd August, 1966. Leila Winifred Jessep passed away in 1974."

Above ; Frederick Jessep                                     Above; unknown, Frederick Jessep, Leila Jessep, Berice Jessep (child), Trevor Jessep (baby), Edna Jessep, William (Billy) Jessep

Her Family

The original Gillies family had originated in Scotland, the Isle of Skye.  Apparently their condition was quite wretched due to overpopulation and the potato famine so the Reverend Dunmore Lang petitioned the British government to provide transportation to any that would come to give them a new life in Australia and to bring new good stock to the colony.  He was very unimpressed with convict stock and thought that the colony needed building up with good Protestants.

This account is found on a site called "Hunter Valley Settlers".

CONDITION OF A CLUSTER OF HIGHLAND EMIGRANTS IN NEW SOUTH WALES.....  

In a late article on the destitute condition of the population of a large district of the Highlands, mention was made of the improvement which had taken place in the circumstances of a particular individual who had emigrated from Skye in 1837, and settled upon the property of Mr Lang, on Hunter's River in New South Wales. We are now able to present an  account of the improved circumstances (cluster of Highland emigrants to which that individual belonged. We derive our information from a private letter of the Rev. Dr Lang to Mr John Bowie, W.S., Edinburgh.

It is first to be observed that these men were generally in the most wretched state before they left Skye. They were totally unable to pay their own passage-money, and consequently were carried out at the expense of the colonial emigration fund. Many of them had no property whatever besides their clothes, and some had to be assisted even with clothing, before they could undertake the voyage. One or two excerpts from the notices of the Skye parishes in the New Statistical Account of Scotland, will help to complete the idea of how these poor men and their families lived in their native island. We quote from the notices of several of the parishes, which are all in the same condition :—" The poor tenants are almost invariably under the necessity of having their cattle under the same roof with themselves, without partition, without division, and without a chimney ; the houses, therefore, are smoky and filthy in the extreme, and, having little either of night or day clothing, and their children nearly approaching to absolute nakedness, they are fully as much without cleanliness in their persons as they are in their houses. No people on earth live on more simple or scanty diet than those in this parish. The greater number of them subsist on potatoes of the worst kind, sometimes with, but oftener without fish.

The inhabitants may be characterised as sober and active, but it must be admitted that they want that persevering industry which is necessary to improve their condition. The able-bodied among them, after their potatoes are planted in the end of spring, go to the south in search of employment. They return again at Martinmas, and their earnings go to pay the landlord's rents, and to support the weaker members of their families. The winter is almost altogether spent in idleness. There is no demand for labour in the parish, and hence there is only occasional exertion on the part of the people. As the summer earnings are spent during the winter, there is seldom or never a fund laid up for sickness or old age, and when cither of these comes, there is great poverty and privation. Their clothing consists of cloth of their own manufacture ; this they find fitter to resist the weather than any manufactured in the south. Their food consists principally of potatoes. Oatmeal is a luxury among them, and butcher-meat is seldom tasted. Their poverty arises very much from overpopulation. There are 500 families in the parish. Of these only six pay upwards of L.50 yearly rent; 269 pay from L.10 to 7s. 6d. per annum; and there are 225 families, comprising upwards of 1100 individuals, located in different parts of the parish, who pay no rents, deriving their subsistence from small portions of land given them by the rent-payers for raising potatoes. These are a burden to the proprietor, inasmuch as they destroy the land in cutting fuel and turf, and are a grievous burden to the inhabitants generally, from the extent of pauperism prevailing among them.

The flocks of the large sheepowners are annually thinned by those who feel the pinching of famine; and to such an extent is this system carried now, that it has led to the proposal of establishing a rural police throughout the island, which is expected to come into immediate operation— a measure completely unprecedented in the history of the Highlands. Such being the condition of vast numbers of people in the Highlands, it must be gratifying to every humane mind to learn how greatly the condition of our emigrants has been improved, even within the first year of their residence in Australia.

It had occurred to Dr Lang that it would be desirable to keep the Highland emigrants together if possible, instead of dispersing them as labourers throughout the colony, as in the former case they might have schools and churches suitable to their own wishes. It was determined to try an experiment to that effect, and accordingly the twenty-three families in question, who had landed from the Midlothian in December 1837, were transferred to Dunmore on Hunter's River, an extensive and nourishing district to the north of Sydney, belonging to Mr Andrew Lang, the government previously agreeing to give them two months' provisions. Dr Lang observed their progress for a year, but was then obliged to revisit his native country, where, in September 1839, he wrote the letter which we are about to quote. "My brother's estate," says he, "consists of about 2500 acres of land, of which about 1500 are alluvial land, formed by successive depositions from the river, of the first quality, and of the utmost fertility; and the portion of it on which the Highlanders are settled is within two miles of the village of Morpeth or Greenhills, from which there is a daily communication by steam-boats with the town of Sydney, which, of course, affords an eligible market for farm-produce of every description. Alluvial land, when clear of timber, in that neighbourhood, has been let at as high a rental as 30s. per acre; but the terms on which the Highlanders were settled were as follows :—Small farms, of from twelve to thirty acres, were measured off to each family—partly clear land and partly wooded. Leases of these farms were granted them for seven years, at the rate of L.1 per acre of yearly rental for the clear land—the wooded land being rent free for four years. Rations, or provisions, with implements of agricultural labour, were also advanced to them on credit, till they should be enabled to pay for them from the produce of their land.

The Highland settlement, which was known in the neighbourhood by the name of Skye, was formed in the month of January 1838 ; some of the Highlanders preferring to have their land all wooded, that they might sit rent free for four years, and others to have it all clear, that they might have it immediately under cultivation. Houses, tolerably comfortable in some instances, were easily erected by means of saplings found in the neighbourhood—the roof consisting of reeds or bark. By a little economy, the Highlanders were enabled to make the government ration of beef, which had been granted them for two months, last out four; and my mother, who happened to be residing with my brother at the time, taught the women how to prepare porridge and bread for their husbands and children, from the Indian corn or maize meal of the colony, which they procured at a comparatively cheap rate ; supplying them, at the same time, with various little indulgences, which could easily be spared from a large colonial establishment. To enable them to get in their crops with greater expedition, my brother also supplied them by turns with a plough and bullock team, a ploughman and bullock-driver, receiving payment in labour ; a day's ploughing being reckoned to so many days' labour. And when their crops were in, those of them who were inclined to be industrious obtained employment at remunerating wages—either on my brothers property or on others in the neighbourhood.

By this means, most of them acquired a little money for the purchase of pigs and poultry, and, in some instances, even of cows. When the settlement was thus fairly formed, and when various additional Highland families by other ships had joined it, my brother built a school for their children in a central locality. The school is also used as a temporary chapel on Sabbath, as often as the services of a minister can be procured to officiate, either in the English or Gaelic languages. It is a neat brick building, covered with stumps or wooden slates, with glass windows and a deal floor. It cost L.150, including school apparatus—the government contributing the one-half of the expenditure and my brother the other. The schoolmaster, for whom I succeeded in obtaining a salary from the colonial government of about L.75 per annum, before I left the colony, is Mr John Whitelaw, of the normal seminary of Glasgow, formerly a student at the university of that city ; and in the month of December last, when I visited the school, the number of pupils in attendance was upwards of sixty.

My colleague, the Rev. W. McIntyre of Sydney, has hitherto visited the district about once a quarter, on which occasions he officiates both in the school-house and in the church at Maitland, four or five miles distant, in the Gaelic language ; but the Presbyterian minister at Maitland, the Rev. Robert Blain, frequently officiates in the settlement in English. I have brought home a requisition, however, for a Gaelic minister for the settlement, signed by ninety-nine adult Highlanders, most of whom are residing on my brother's property. A schedule drawn up by Mr Whitelaw, in January last, shows the state of the settlement at that time. The wheat harvest had terminated in the month of November 1838, and the maize, or Indian corn, and tobacco had been planted about the same time or shortly before, either on the stubble land from which the wheat had been reaped, or on other land which had been cleared while it was growing. In short, the original settlement had been completely successful, and a number of additional families of emigrant Highlanders had also been permitted, at their own earnest request, to settle in the mean time on other small farms in their immediate neighbourhood and in the same way.

The schedule referred to gives a minute statement of the condition of the twenty-three emigrants in January 1839. It is too formal a document for these light pages, but its details are most interesting. We find, besides a column for the number of acres each man had in cultivation, such notices as the following after almost every one:—" Has two cows and two pigs ;" " Has two cows, one pig, and a small stock of poultry ;" or at least Has a small stock of poultry." When these possessions are contrasted with the want of all things experienced in their native country, and when we consider that but a year had then elapsed from the commencement of the settlement, we cannot doubt that a few years will see a cluster of miserable Hebridean peasants transformed into a set of farmers equal to those in the average districts of their native country.....Chambers Edinburgh Journal    

References:

(1) Queensland, Australia: a highly eligible field for emigration, and the Future Cotton Field of Great Britain ... By John Dunmore Lang

Another Account; from The Family of Malcolm McKinnon (1802 - 1852) by L.M. McKinnon

Growing population, coupled with a destroyed economy, and recurrent famines made emigration the only alternative to starvation for thousands of Gaelic speaking people in Scotland's Highland and Island regions. Thus it was that the British Government extended the Government Assisted Migrant System to enable Scots to leave their native land for the promising colonies. On March 13th. 1837 the first of the Government Assisted Migrant ships bound for Australia departed from Dundee. She was the 'John Barry', with 323 emigrants, and July she was followed by the 'William Nicoll', with a further 321 emigrants. In the three years 1837 to 1840 a total of twenty such ships sailed from Scotland with a total of some 5,263 people anxious to find a new life for their families.

Malcolm McKinnon came to Sydney on the third of these ships, the 414 ton barque 'Midlothian', under the command of Captain Morrison. On the ship there were 127 adults, with 129 children. They were attended by their own Presbyterian minister (i), Rev. William MacIntyre, who conducted public worship for the congregation in their native Gaelic language. Dr. R. Stewart, another Gaelic speaker also came as medical superintendent. During the voyage typhus and dysentery broke out, with the result 7 adults and 17 children died before they reached Sydney on December 12th. 1837. They had departed from Loch Snizort in Skye on August 8th., so the trip had lasted a long 127 days.

It was a Monday when the 'Midlothian' arrived in Sydney Town. At 6 p.m. on the following Sabbath the migrants, with other Highlanders of the town, assembled in Scots Church (ii), Church Hill to offer up prayers and Psalms of praise at the throne of the Almighty, for His guiding hand in bringing them safely to their new home. The service was conducted by Mr. MacIntyre in Gaelic (iii), and it is believed that this was the first time that the ancient language had been used for public worship in New South Wales.

The 'Midlothian' migrants claimed that they had been promised land grants in N.S.W., but authorities here had not been informed of any such promise by their masters in Britain. The Highlanders therefore memorialised the acting Governor, Colonel Kenneth Snodgrass, praying that they settled in a district where they could have a minister of their own persuasion and language. This proposal was not without opposition, as can be seen from two letters which appeared at the time in the Sydney Morning Herald (iv):-

"The public desires to know by what authority the Highland migrants, who latterly came out to New South Wales, have been treated so differently from any previous migrants? Where they have been maintained for so unusually long a period at the expense of the colonial taxpayers? Whether it is 1 that they have been supplied with working tools at public expense? Is the disposal of the Colonial Land Fund to be for ever made a job of, under every possible shape again, why are these Highland migrants allowed to settle in a body, any more than other emigrants? The colonists of N.S.W. who contributed to the Land Fund, do they pay their money for the purpose of forming a Highland settlement for sectarian purposes in some part of the interior. The pretence under which these emigrants are to be located together is that they may have their own clergyman over them... The public ought to recollect that the cost of carrying this Highland scheme has been defrayed, in a great measure, by the English Episcopalian and Irish Roman Catholic taxpaying colonists..." (Sydney Morning Herald, February 22nd., 1838).

"Clannishness...The minister who came out with them, instead of proceeding to the Hunter (River) where the greatest number of the highlanders are settled, is to remain in Sydney to perform Divine service at Scot's Chapel on Church Hill...they could receive the ordinances of their religion in the language of their forefathers, from the Rev. MacIntyre. In a late Colonist (v) it is stated that a deputation of Highlanders were sent down to the Hunter to inspect various farms and see which they would like to be settled on best...very few of these persons can speak English which is a great drawback to their usefulness as labourers...A Settler" (Sydney Morning Herald, March 5th.1838)

In his "Reminiscences of my Life & Times", the Rev. Dr. J.D. Lang, the first Presbyterian minister in N.S.W., records his account of the occasion:-

"The first of eighteen ships (vi) that carried out the four thousand Highlanders to Sydney and Melbourne, in consequence of the severe famine in the Highlands and Island of Scotland, was the 'Midlothian', which arrived in Sydney in the month of December, 1837, and of which I had succeeded in getting the Rev. William McIntyre A.M., appointed as chaplain, with the usual allowance for the passage and outfit. I had happened to reach Greenock by a steamer from England on a Sabbath morning, and found Mr. MacIntyre, with whom I was previously unacquainted, officiating for the day in a church (afterwards a Free Church) in the town. I then formed the highest opinion of Mr. McIntyre, who, I felt assured, would be one of the ablest and best ministers, as he certainly was. A single incident, however, had occurred in the case of the 'Midlothian'. Her passengers, who were all from the Isle of Skye, and had somehow supposed that the Colonial Government were bound not only to give them a free passage out, as they had actually done,but also to settle them on the land with their minister, refused to hire themselves as the various other immigrants of the period were doing to the colonial proprietors who were offering to engage them; remaining from week to week in the Immigration Barracks at the public expense. The Government had consequently to hold a meeting of the Executive Council on the subject, to which I, as the author of the movement at Home, and Mr. McIntyre, as the chaplain of the first ship, were both summoned to give evidence, as to whether the Imperial Government had given any such pledge was either asked or given; but the Government, rom a kindly feeling towards the Highlanders, agreed that any colonial proprietor should be willing to settle them in a body on his estate they would be allowed a passage at the public expense, either by land or water, to whatever part of the colony such proprietor might reside in,with rations from the Queen's stores for six months. The only proprietor, however, who offered to settle the Highlanders in a body on this estate, on terms mutually agreeable, was my brother, Mr. Andrew Lang, of Dunmore (vii), whither the Highlanders were forwarded according by steamboat, and received the rations promised; my mother, who was then alive and residing at Dunmore, showing the Highland women how to prepare the maize meal, which then formed a part of the colonial rations, but which they had never seen before".

Another account of the Highlanders move to the Hunter River district has been proved by the late Mr. Gordon Dennes, a man who was remarkably familiar with the people and their descendents:-

"Various proposals were made for the settlement of these memorialists. The first considered most eligible was that of Mr. Eales, of Hunter's River. The Skye-men decided to take no step in the dark. Two of their number were sent to the Hunter to examine the site of the proposed settlement and to report as to its suitability. The deputation found that Mr. Eales' land was subject to flooding. They then proceeded to Dunmore, Paterson River, the estate of Andrew Lang, another who had offered to locate them. The deputation recommended settling there.

"So much time had been consumed in delays that half the number of families had secured employment by this time. Twenty five families adhered to the original plan. They, with eight other families, totalling in all 162 individuals, proceeded to the Hunter River on January 23,1838, by the steamers Tamar and Sophie Jane. The names of the heads of the families who settled as tenants at Dunmore on that portion of the estate which was formerly owned by Mr. Standish Lawrence Hughes (viii) were:-

Angus Beaton; Donald Campbell; Donald Gillies; Alexander, Donald and John McAulay; Angus (2), Hector, John and Neil McDonald; John McIntosh; John McKay; Alexander and John McLeod; John, Malcolm, and Neil McKinnon (ix); Donald McMillan; Archibald McQueen; Alexander McRae; Angus, Donald and John McSwan; Donald Munro, and Donald McDonald, a bachelor.

More on the Clearances

From Wikipedia; In the late 18th century the harvesting of kelp became a significant activity[72] but from 1822 on cheap imports led to a collapse of this industry throughout the Hebrides.[73] During the 19th century, the inhabitants of Skye were also devastated by famine and Clearances. Thirty thousand people were evicted between 1840 and 1880 alone, many of them forced to emigrate to the New World.[2][74] For example, the settlement of Lorgill on the west coast of Duirinish was cleared on 4 August 1830. Every crofter under the age of seventy was removed and placed on board the Midlothian on threat of imprisonment, with those over that age being sent to the poorhouse.[75

Her Father

Her Mother

Her mother was Florence Cooper.  Florence had many famous ancestors, which can be traced back to Rollo Of Normandy, Edward the First etc.

For example;

Relationship between Henry 111 Plantagenet King & Leila Jessep nee Gillies

Her Grandfathers were George Sisson Cooper and George Ashley Cooper, founding fathers of New Zealand.  George Ashley Cooper was signatory to the Treaty of Waitangi.

Her Uncle;  Malcolm Macpherson Gillies, 1907 - 1976Malcolm Macpherson Gillies was born on month day 1907, atbirth place, to John Gillies and Lily Gillies (born Anderson Beveridge).

John was born on May 26 1867, in Millers Forest, Raymond Terrace, Nsw.

Lily was born on April 10 1874, in St George Parish, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Malcolm had 5 siblings: Lilian Janet Gartrell (born Gillies),Winifred Margaret Brown (born Gillies) and 3 other siblings.

Malcolm married Freda Sidney Gillies (born McFadzean) onmonth day 1935, at age 28 at marriage place.

Freda was born on January 12 1909, in Ashfield, Nsw.

They had 2 children.

His occupation was occupation.

Malcolm passed away on month day 1976, at age 69 at death place.

Her uncle; Gillies, James Hynds (1861–1942)

by Allan Knight and Ann G. Smith

This article was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 9, (MUP), 1983

James Hynds Gillies (1861-1942), inventor and industrialist, was born on 11 November 1861 at Millers Forest, New South Wales, son of Malcolm Gillies, farmer, and his wife Margaret, née McPherson, migrants from the Isle of Skye, Scotland. With a strong Presbyterian upbringing, Gillies intended to study for the ministry; but instead, from about 1887 until 1894 he sold real estate through the Eastern Suburbs Agency Co. at Paddington, Sydney. On 25 August 1886 at East St Leonards he married Annie Griffiths with Congregational forms; they had six children.

In the mid-1890s Gillies qualified as a metallurgist in Sydney, and spent several years working on various mining fields. In 1905 he became manager of the Gillies Sulphide Concentrating Machine Ltd. The company erected a plant, including mechanical patents invented by Gillies, to treat tailings from the Block 10 Mine at Broken Hill, using the (C.V.) Potter process: the attempt failed. Next year Gillies moved to Melbourne and in 1907 took out patents in the United States of America, Germany, Belgium, Mexico and Australasia for an electrolytic process for the treatment of refractory zinciferous ores. After an experimental plant in Melbourne succeeded he floated the Complex Ores Co. in 1908 and proposed to set up a full-scale works in Tasmania, utilizing hydro-electric power from the waters of the Great Lake and the Ouse and Shannon rivers.

The hydro-electric scheme had been suggested to Gillies by Harold Bisdee and Professor Alexander McAulay and was the subject of negotiations with the Tasmanian government in 1908 and 1909. Gillies's original proposal was for the government to harness the power and sell it to the Complex Ores Co. at a cheap rate; when this proved unacceptable he sought the right for the company to generate the electricity itself at Waddamana. Gillies had to contend with much local opposition: although he insisted that he needed the cheap power only in order to operate his metallurgical reduction works, he was attacked as a monopolist, especially by the Hobart Gas Co. and Edward Mulcahy, later minister for lands and mines; the Hercules Mining Co. also withdrew support for the scheme in favour of its own proposed method of zinc extraction. The requisite authority was granted in the Complex Ores Act of 1909, which allocated a site at Electrona, a deep-water port on North West Bay, for the proposed refining plant, but clauses were inserted requiring completion of the scheme by January 1914 and the company's continuous use of 3000 horsepower in metallurgical works.

To finance the hydro-electric development the Complex Ores subsidiary Hydro-Electric Power and Metallurgical Co. Ltd was formed in January 1911. Gillies, who travelled to London to raise the capital, found it expedient to include a calcium carbide works in the scheme as added security to shareholders. He was later to argue, successfully, that completion of these works, even without the zinc treatment plant, would fulfil the requirements of the Act. Work began in August and contracts were let for the lighting of Hobart streets and the operation of flour and woollen mills.

By the end of 1912 an expansion of the original hydro-electric project, coupled with bad weather and trouble with carriage, trade unions and the contracting engineers from British Westinghouse Co., plunged the company into serious financial difficulty. Gillies believed that matters were worsened by adverse publicity and that the parliamentary resolution setting up a select committee of inquiry that year was prejudicial to the company: 'It is not advisable when a man is hard up to advertise it from the housetops'. An intransigent man, he reacted violently against attempts by Henry Jones to gain control of the company. Unexpectedly, Gillies could not raise further capital in London and in May 1914 the hydro-electric undertaking was purchased by the Earle Labor government at cost price and a State Hydro-Electric Department established.

After the sale of the concession Gillies abandoned his zinc extraction scheme and concentrated on his carbide enterprise at Electrona; but difficulties in obtaining materials retarded progress and it was not until after World War I that production began. In 1921 Gillies was managing director of Carbide & Electro Products Ltd with his eldest son Percy McPherson manager of the works. Meanwhile, in 1916, the government, with surplus electricity supply on its hands, entered into a contract with Amalgamated Zinc (De Bavay's) Ltd to produce zinc at Risdon.

In 1924 Gillies's company went into receivership and was taken over by the Hydro-Electric Department. Gillies moved to Sydney where he continued to exercise his inventive bent, taking out patents for improved car lighting, sound-proofing with diatomaceous earth and for a new type of refrigeration using dry ice. In 1935, when virtually bankrupt, he was granted an annual pension of £350 by the Tasmanian government for services rendered to the State. He died, 'disillusioned … frail, disappointed', on 26 September 1942 at South Camberwell, Melbourne, and was cremated, survived by his wife, three sons and a daughter. Gillies was a member of the Royal Society of Tasmania from 1920. Ida McAulay described him in his younger days as 'a sanguine, enthusiastic little man with bright eyes', 'an inventor and a dreamer—a gentleman who took no account of the ways of big business and men with financial power'.