Edward Brettle - 45

Edward Brettle – 45

Edward Brettle, born in August 1880 was one of the surviving children of Timothy and Lucy Brettle.  He married Ellen Walker (usually called Nellie)  in 1903 and in 1911 they are recorded as living in Ashley Street, Blackheath, again quite close to the previous addresses of Edward’s parent in the Blackheath area, with their four children Lucy, Albert, Alfred and Walter.  Edward was shown as being employed as an “end welder” and in the earlier 1901 census as a tube welder.  I suspect that he worked at the nearby large Stewarts and Lloyds Coombs Wood Tube Works.  His wife, Nellie had no occupation recorded, a change from an earlier generation where he probably would have been a miner and Nellie a nail or chain maker.  The 1911 census submission had been recorded by hand by Edward Brettle who appears to have been quite literate from his handwriting style.  This was not always the case with those born earlier in the 1800s as it was not until later in the century that education became compulsory.

The main reason for including more detailed information on Edward Brettle is that in 1922 when he was forty two he emigrated to Brisbane, Australia on the Thermistocles with his wife, Nellie, and children Lucy, Albert, Alfred, Walter, William and Nellie jnr.  Oddly a similar record can be found for immigration on the Oronsay with the same dates and family membership.  Both Thermistocles and Oronsay were ships on the regular immigration voyage from UK to Australia so there seems to be some confusion in the Australian immigration records as to which ship they sailed on.  Family sources tell me that Edward and family lived under canvas when they first arrived in Australia and Edward started a small iron business remelting bits of scrap: he probably then made small iron products with the metal he had produced.  I have quite a lot of information on Edward, Nellie, their children and their later life in Australia as well as their descendants down to their great great grandchildren in the Brisbane area.  It would be nice to think that Edward and Nellie were the original “Australian Brettles”  but this is not so, references to Brettles much earlier than 1922 in Australia can be found so it appears that there are multiple Brettle families there who arrived at different times originating from different Brettle lines in the UK.

Edward and Nellie came back to the UK for a holiday in 1946 to visit family staying with Nellie's sister Annie, returning to Australia Sept 1947.  

Nellie and Edward Brettle in Australia