Sunday, March 6, 2022

 Dear all,


With pain in my heart, I would like to let you know that Mona AINSLIE (1927-2021) passed in her retirement village in Marshall, Victoria, Australia, on 19th August 2021.

She was the only child of George Alexander Campbell Ainslie (1869-1952) and Isabella Clementina Raff (1888-1979). As far as we know she was also the last descendant of Robert Raff (1845-1920) and Isabella Rachel (Bella) TOWNSEND (1852-1931).
 
She married late in life with Douglas Bruce (Bruce) Thomson (1926-2016) and had no descendants. 
Her memories were razor-sharp and was able to contribute to the TOWNSEND research until the last few weeks of her life. We will dearly miss her.

A longer bio is listed below.

PS. Should you wish to see a picture of her, send me your email address to thomas@helmer.com
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Mona AINSLIE (1927-2021)

Mona was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, on the 22nd October 1927 as the only child of Isabella Clementine RAFF and George Alexander Campbell AINSLIE.

Her mother, Isabella Clementine RAFF was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, on 31st March 1888 of Robert RAFF (1845-1920), a pearler, son of the Moray Field Sugar Factory and plantation owner, and Isabella Rachel TOWNSEND (1852-1931), a Netherby shipwreck survivor who widowed young from her first marriage to Donald Grant MACLEAN, on the 4th of April 1874, in Brisbane, and had lost her son Donald Fitzroy “Fitzy” MACLEAN, born on the 26th of February 1875, who was dropped to the floor soon after his birth by the nurse.

Her father, George Alexander Campbell AINSLIE was born in Bellary, India on12th august 1869. Soon after his mother died. As his father was in the army at that time and would not be able to look after the child, he arranged for the child to be sent back to England to be taken care off by his sister. George was christened twice, once in India and again once he arrived in England. He became a master mariner and married his first wife, Edith Bliss MCCARTHY, in England and moved to Australia where they lived in Hamilton, a suburb of Brisbane, and went to the Anglican church in the area. His best friend, Douglas PRICE, a Methodist reverend, was instrumental in getting George to come to Australia.

Isabella Clementine RAFF married to George Alexander Campbell AINSLIE in New Farm, Brisbane on 19th June 1915, after his messy and much publicised divorce.

Her parents lived in rented quarters and rented rooms to boarders most of the time. As her father was a avid gardener, every time they settled in a new house, the garden would become so beautiful that the owners would sell the property forced the family to look for another house. The family was very religious and attended to the Anglican services. 

Mona’s father, George Alexander Campbell AINSLIE died on 7th May 1952. She was very fond of him as he spend so much time with her, whilst her mother went out a lot.

Her mother did not like her RAFF brothers very much, in particular (her younger brother) Charlie as she was expected to be his ‘slave'. As fast as she could, she left the parental home and hardly maintained contact with the RAFF or the AINSLIE family. The only RAFF Mona remembered ever meeting was Harry RAFF (1856-1949, eight son of George RAFF) as her parents helped him with gardening when he was an old man. Harry was a surveyor in Brisbane after he created his wealth from mining gold. Apparently he was a good shot and readily shot at anybody in the dark nearing his tent at the time. He even lived with het parents at one stage until his death. 

Once Mona was old enough to go to school, she did not want to go, as she had no shoes and no decent dresses until her uncle bought them for her.

At one point in time Mona was close getting engaged with someone she met in the church circles, but as her mother did not approve, she let the opportunity pass, which she regretted so many years later.

Mona worked as secretary in a physiatric practice for many years, of which she has fond memories. She continued living at home and handed her full pay to her mother until her mother, Isabella Clementine RAFF, passed on 13th December 1979. 

It was only after the her mother passing that Mona bought a place of her own in a forested area of Tambourine, Queensland.
 
For many years Mona maintained an intense correspondence with Douglas Bruce (Bruce) THOMSON, born 19th July 1926 in Newtown, Geelong, Victoria, which she adored. Regrettably she did not keep the letters. Not sure how they came in contact with each other, but it was most likely through the Anglican church. After many years they decided to take a holiday to New Zealand where they finally met face to face.

They married in Mount Tamborine, Queensland, Australia on 16th June 1986. He was a very popular music teacher and played the organ in the churches where ever they lived. Soon after their marriage, Bruce insisted they should settle in Geelong forcing her to sell up in Queensland, a move she regretted very much later in live. They lived at another address at first before they settled in 105 Maudstreet, Geelong.

Her husband, Douglas Bruce (Bruce) THOMSON died of a heart failure in an hospital in Geelong, Victoria, Australia on June 30 2016.

Her eyesight had deteriorated severely making it near impossible to look after herself and live alone.
In May 2017 she moved to the retirement home in Rice Village, 7 Moylan Loop, Marshall,
3216 Victoria, Australia. Soon after she sold her home at Maudstreet well above the reserve.

The Moray Field Sugar Factory clock Mona inherited from her grandmother Isabella Rachel RAFF née TOWNSEND was donated to the Caboolture Historical Society for display in the museum.

Mona was well able to communicate and had a great recall of memories until the she had a massive stroke around 08:00 hrs on 20th August 2021, lost consciousness and died two hours later.
She was a caring person and great company to be with. She will be sadly missed.

Friday, June 18, 2021

 Dear all,

The 155th anniversary of the Netherby shipwreck on Kings Island will be on the 14th July 2021. It was five years ago that many descendants met on Kings Island to reflect about this extra ordinary event when no lives were lost.

An extensive and well-researched book about The Netherby is in preparation by Helen Vivian, Melbourne, which will most likely be published by the University of Melbourne. We will share the details on this blog once Vivian's book is available.

She asked for contributions and photographs of the people who were on board.

Together with other descendants of Captain William Townsend, we pulled a story together about how the family fared after the disaster and found a number of pictures. We have no idea which parts will feature in Vivian's book, however, should you be interested to get a copy of our contribution only, send me a personal email to thomas@helmer.com with details of your link to the descendants.

Best wishes, Thomas Helmer


Friday, July 29, 2016

Cecilia Jemenria TOWNSEND


Dear Bloggers,

Need your help. 

In his draft manuscript Geoff identified a child of Captain William Townsend of who I cannot find any
supporting documents.

Cecilia Jemenria TOWNSEND b: 2 Oct 1854, Padang, Sumatra’s Westkust,
Indonesia. Married Edouard August KLUIJVER on 5th April 1879. 
It is assumed that she stayed with one of her married siblings when her father and the others left for England and Australia. Nothing further has been found of her life or descendants.

Really appreciate it if any of you have any information that confirms Cecilia Jemenria to be a child of Captain William Townsend.

Regards,
Thomas.

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Netherby Descendants Reunion, King Island, Tasmania, Australia

Dear all,

The four-day Netherby Descendants Reunion, King Island, Tasmania, Australia, will draw to a close on 18 July 2016.

Some 140 people gathered, many descendants, for the events which took us around the island to see everything there was to see.

The Townsend family was represented by Brian Raymond Townsend and myself.

The next reunion will most likely be in five years time and I can surely recommend it.

Today, during the Bush Dinner and Dance event, a new book "Cradled by Man" by Jennifer Cover (daughter of the writer Joyce Hammond), was launched about the family of the child "Netherby" that was born on the beach whilst the survivors were waiting to be rescued. The book is available through Amazon.

During the event we met up with Helen Vivian, the daughter of Cynthia Vivian, who will publish the  "Wreck of the Netherby" manuscript her mother had been working on for more than 20 years. John Townsend contributed over the years with fact-finding in England.

She is keen to have photographs of as many survivors in the appendix of the book for which I sent the photos I have on file. However,  I am short of a photo of Victor Louis Townsend as a boy and of Elisabeth Salmon Thomas, Captain William's third wife.

Should you have any of these, I would be most pleased to pass them on to Helen for inclusion of the book. She expects that the book, 25 x 20 cm, will have some 150 pages with over 60 photos.
If you want to pre-order a copy of the book, please send an e-mail to Helen on: artmoves@bigpond.com.

Best wishes,
Thomas

Thursday, October 22, 2015

150 years since the Netherby wreck in 2016

Dear all,

In 2016 it will be 150 years since the Netherby wreck
occurred. They want to make contact with the descendants of the Netherby
passengers to celebrate the survival of all on board & give thanks to their
stoic determination & bravery. The main event will be held on King Island. 

If you are a descendant, the organising committee would love to hear from you by email:  netherby2016@gmail.com 
or post to: 
Ann Rutte, 
P.O.Box 272, 
Eltham Victoria 3095.
Australia

Best wishes,
Thomas.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

2014 Jaarboek van de Indische Genealogische Vereniging 27

Dear all,

The latest captioned annual publication (294 pages) dropped in my mailbox a few days ago and has a number of very interesting articles about Sumatra and specifically Padang. Regrettably it is in Dutch for whom it is recommended reading.

The previous annual publication 2013 Jaarboek van de Indische Genealogische Vereniging 26 had an interesting article about the Familie Maidman. Remember Adeline Jessy Maidman was married to our Captain William Townsend in Padang on 18th January 1864. If have since established contact with decedents of Adeline Jessy Maidman in The Netherlands.

The focus of the "Indische Genealogische Vereniging" is about European people who settled in South- en South-East Asia, as well as Afrika en the Caribbean (including Suriname).

Membership is Euro 38/year (address in The Netherlands), Euro 41 (Europe) and Euro 45 (outside Europe). The individual annual books can also be ordered through their website: www.igv.nl.

I will endeavour to post salient points from this annual publication on this blog.

Best wishes,
Thomas.

Friday, February 27, 2015

Captain William Townsend blog continues...

Dear all Captain William Townsend blog followers,

Last year August, I was fortunate to travel to Brisbane for a few days. Together with my distant cousin Janis Morec-Townsend, we visited Geoff Drew's widow and daughter to pay our respects on behalf of all Captain William Townsend bloggers. 

We also visited the Bald Hill cemetery, where Captain William Townsend and his wife Elisabeth Salmon Thomas are buried and the Toowoong Cemetery where a number of our relatives are buried including Victor Louis Townsend in an unmarked grave, a number members of the Raff family and Shirley Daisy Ferrers. 

We visited Frank Purssell who's wife Gloria Purssell-Carmody was a very active family researcher until her untimely death on 6th March 2013. Her archive is still intact and we do hope Frank will find a suitable destination of the files to secure Gloria's hard work. I visited her grave as well as well as the places Captain William Townsend lived in Sandgate including the “Mango Cottage”, 32 Park Parade, Sandgate.

At the Sandgate Historical Society and Museum I met Fay Hebbard and checked what they have on file.
Sandgate Historical Society and Museum
150 Rainbow Street, Sandgate, 
QLD, Australia, 4017
Email sandgatemusm@bigpond.com
Phone  07 3869 2283
Business Hours  Wednesdays and Sundays from 10 am to 3pm

With support from the late Geoff Drew's family, I have been added to this blog as editor to keep it in the air. That way we will be able to keep all of Geoff's contributions and those of others.

Next, I will be looking for a few more volunteers to join the editor's committee to secure continuity. As a minimum, I would like to have two based in Europe and two in Australia. Ideally, I am looking for a custodian for each branch of Captain William Townsend's children. 

We have also been fortunate to retrieve the latest Captain William Townsend manuscript Geoff had been working on with the help from blog members.

Similarly to the blog, I intend to seek co-editors, to validate the entries and complement the stories with anecdotes and pictures.
Once the editor's are happy with the quality and completeness, I intend to provide hard-bound copies to family members at cost. 

Publication as e-book will have hurdles to overcome about copyright of the photo's and censorship of people living.

Hope you will continue to support this blog and provide new and interesting anecdotes related to this illustrious family that have spread the globe.

Best wishes,
Thomas.