Supported by a Create NSW Arts and Cultural Grant
Fixer Upper: ‘Ben Doran’
It took John Yelverton Mills—a local, born on Marsden Street, Parramatta, who was the ideal combination of a ‘pocket edition’ estate agent and son of a Methodist preacher man ‘of recognised pulpit ability’—to see the potential in the ‘desolate and uncared for’ parsonage.[1] True to form, for J. Y. Mills, the senior partner of the Mills and Pile real estate firm, it was all about the ‘location.’[2] The situation of the parsonage and the three acres of attached land, which ‘command[ed] an extensive view of the whole town and district,’ was so striking that when Mills bought the property in 1880, he saw fit to honour it above all else by renaming it Ben Doran, erroneously believing that this meant ‘beautiful hill’ in Scottish Gaelic.[3]
Having purchased the property on a ‘repairing tenancy…under heavy mortgage to Miriam Sally Emily Hayden (née Chauvel), a wealthy Darlinghurst resident,’ Mills soon ‘altered the whole appearance of the place’ to transform Greenway’s parsonage into his new, thoroughly ‘modern’ Victorian mansion.[4] Mills was not merely being extravagant by purchasing such a large property for his private residence: whereas Reverend Robert Lethbridge King had felt as though he was rattling around the large building, every square inch of the spacious residence would have been essential to accommodate the large (and still growing) young family of Mills and his wife Alice Clara, which at the time already included daughters Ethel Helena ‘Effie’ (1869–1964), Alice Evelyn ‘Lyn’ (1872–1967) who would grow up to be a ‘well-known vocalist,’ Isabel Una (1874–1969), Ella Clara (1876–1971), and Ada Meta (1878–1967).[5] ‘The front was made up to date, greatly adding to its beauty and monetary value. Wings were added, the garden attended to, and the whole place made one of the beauty spots of Parramatta,’ wrote the Illustrated Sydney News in March 1883.[6] Balconies had also been wrapped around the entire frontage on both the ground and first floors to maximise the occupants’ and guests’ enjoyment of the views afforded by the site’s ‘elevation’; the resulting ‘view of Sydney and suburbs…obtained from the balconies,’ was so ‘good’ that ‘the time ball at the Observatory … [and] the Town Hall at Sydney’ were ‘easily seen.’[7] The newspaper revealed the full extent of Mills’s Victorian modernisation of the Georgian parsonage by offering their readers some obligatory ‘Before and After’ images.
!["AFTER": "Parramatta Associations. The Old Parsonage Modernized [sic]," "The Old Parsonage, Parramatta," Illustrated Sydney News (NSW : 1881 – 1894), Saturday 17 March 1883, p. 16.](https://parramattaburialground.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/ben-doran-1.png "Ben Doran (1)")
In the three years since Mills had bought and revamped the building, Ben Doran had witnessed the Mills family experience everything from losing (and hopefully locating) their black retriever dog, the birth of their sixth child and first son, Edgar Yelverton (1880–1955), the passing of Mills’s mother-in-law, Susan Bowden, the birth of another daughter, Susan Murial Bowden (1883–1963), and another son Percy Hope (1884–1907), as well as ‘some person or persons, lacking more profitable employment,’ vandalising ‘several Norfolk Island pines growing in the grounds surrounding [the] house…by breaking off their tops.’[8] But after all this, the Millses were apparently planning to move on, because in December 1886 Mills and Pile advertised that Ben Doran was for sale—revealing in the process more of the building’s considerable features and particularly the ‘modern’ improvements Mills had made to the parsonage:
These costly renovations may well have led Mills to struggle under the weight of that ‘heavy mortgage,’ in which case the sale was more a case of needing to leave than wanting to leave their home. The fact that the mansion did not sell on this occasion, then, would have been a source of immense stress.[9] In spite of this, the well-situated parsonage still had some charms left in store for the Mills family.
Six months later, Ben Doran would have been an especially stunning sight to behold from afar. High on the hill, the mansion was ‘a blaze of light’ as the Millses, along with other Parramattans, honoured Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee on 20 June 1887 with celebratory illuminations.[10] Mills may have even told his children that night the story of how, some twenty years earlier, their grandfather the Reverend John Mills had given a sermon on a day of ‘solemn and reverent thanksgiving’ requested by Queen Victoria to show gratitude for her son’s recovery from typhoid fever’; how his sermon was subsequently ‘printed and published in pamphlet form’ and a copy…was forwarded to the Queen with the loyal and respectful compliments of the preacher, and setting forth the time and place and circumstances of its delivery’; that, ‘[i]n due course an acknowledgment was received from the Private Secretary of her Majesty, expressing her thanks, and closing a donation to be used for any purpose in connection with the church in which the sermon was preached’; and that ‘a finial, in the form of a Prince of Wales’ feather wrought in stone,’ thus came to be added to the front elevation of the Methodist Church at Dundas in Dharug Country, which then stood on Carlingford Road.[11] The illuminations were among the last significant memories the Millses made together at their not-so-humble abode, because in less than a year, a perfect new buyer was found—right under their noses, as it happens—and a new family began making their own memories and adding to the many layers of the building’s rich history.
The perfect buyer turned out to be Mills’s own business partner of eleven years, George Pile.[12]
‘The Cedars’
By the time fifty-four-year-old George Pile became the owner of the former parsonage on 15 February 1888, he had already led an eventful life, having migrated to the colony from London with his parents around 1849, at about age fifteen.[13] His working life was no less eventful, marked as it was by rapid, frequent, and extreme changes. He had started out ‘grubbing, clearing…and assisting to build the [family] homestead’ as an adolescent, but the discovery of gold in the British settlement of Bathurst in Wiradjuri Country saw him ‘divert his energies’ to gold mining for years.[14] Later engaging in ‘timber getting, timber splitting and kindred work,’ Pile held a lease to a large property in Worimi Country at what the newcomers called ‘Port Stephens’ and then was a farmer at ‘Stroud,’ also in Worimi Country.[15] In 1862, however, Pile shifted from working on the land to working as a ‘council clerk and road inspector to the Municipality of Marrickville’ in Cadigal Country ‘at a salary of £120 a year,’ and eventually took on the additional role of council clerk at Darlington, also in Cadigal Country.[16] But the old gold fever was not yet out of his system, so the news of gold being discovered at Hoki-tika on the West Coast of Aotearoa (New Zealand) saw him resign from his well-paid job and migrate again. Whilst in Aotearoa (New Zealand), he worked as a storekeeper and founded and edited the Nelson Evening Mail, a daily newspaper. Upon his return to Cadi (Sydney), Cadigal Country, via Muloobinba (Newcastle) in Awabakal and Worimi Country, Pile was engaged to canvass advertisements for The Sands Directory, and ultimately ended up compiling the directory twice. ‘In 1869, he obtained the appointment of town clerk and surveyor of the Borough of St. Leonards,’ in Cammeraygal Country, which he held for four years, and by 1877 Pile was an auctioneer and estate agent and Mills’s partner in the firm Mills and Pile.[17] To make the former parsonage his own, George Pile immediately changed its name to The Cedars.[18]
Pile might have questioned his move to Parramatta in Burramattagal Country, however, when only five months after the sale he became the victim of a burglary at the mansion with a large amount of silverware and gold jewellery stolen.[19] Though it seems the thieves were not identified nor the items recovered, the experience might have inspired yet another role for Pile, because by October that same year, Acting Secretary for Lands Sir Henry Parkes listed ‘George Pile, The Cedars, Parramatta’ in Governor Charles Robert Carrington’s list of gentlemen appointed as ‘Magistrates of the Colony.’[20] The following month, local newspapers would erroneously refer to The Cedars by its previous name Ben Doran and compound the error by circulating a false rumour that Mr. Eddy, the new Chief Railway Commissioner, was leasing the property—a rumour The Cumberland Argus quickly put to rest.[21] For, in reality, The Cedars was very much the Pile family’s main base; indeed, just a few months later it was the location of the first of undoubtedly many significant Pile family events. George and Emily Pile’s eldest daughter Isabel Annie married C. W. Holland Atkinson of Coolamon, with the ceremony officiated by none other than one of the building’s former occupants, ‘the Venerable Archdeacon Günther,’ and presumably attended by the other former owner of the property, J. Y. Mills and family.[22]
Like Mills, Pile had an extensive family. Prior to their eldest daughter’s marriage there, the mansion was home to all twelve of George Pile and wife Emily Langridge’s children: Isabella Annie Pile (1865–1951), Emily Mary Pile (1867–1959), Grace Georgie Pile (1869–1953), George Pile (1870–1954), Ethel Maud Pile (1873–1953), Stanley Langridge Money Pile (1875–1950), Constance Beatrice Pile (1877–1939), Claude Tudor Pile (1879–1953), Olive Claire Pile (1881–1979), twins Ronald James Pile (1883–1958) and Norman Wallace Pile (1883–1915), and finally Margurite Gipsy Pile (1886–1971).[23] Unfortunately, some of Mills’s additions to the parsonage proved to be equally as hazardous as they were attractive in a property in which so many active, young children resided. In May 1890, five-year-old Norman Pile ‘met with a serious accident’ whilst ‘romping with his brothers and sisters in the northern verandah.’[24] ‘The little fellow’ tumbled from the verandah steps ‘and his mouth came into contact with the corner of one of the bricks of which a flower-border is formed, his upper lip was divided as though cut through with a knife, and four teeth knocked out.’[25] Sadly, this unfortunate, painful episode was only the beginning of an all-too-brief life marred by pain and misfortune. Following a ‘very anxious’ letter of enquiry from his sister, ‘E. M. Pile,’ it was revealed that, a mere six months after enlisting, No. 984 Private Norman Wallace Pile had been killed in action during the Battle of Hill 60, the Allied forces’ last offensive action of the Gallipoli Campaign, in Turkey:[26]
[A] witness [Pte. W. H. McFarlane] says that on the evening of 27.8.15 he was in the supporting trenches on Hill 60, and saw Pile leaning back in the trench. His eyes were staring wide open and witness took his hand and said: “Hullo Pile” but there was no answer, and his hand was cold and clumsy. He was dead. Witness could see no shot mark on him, and he seemed to have been killed by concussion. The 75 shells were bad that night. Witness says he went on from the support trench to the fire trench and never saw Pile again. On the following day a number of bodies were taken out of the trenches to heighten the parapets, and Pile’s may have been amongst them.[27]
Norman was unmarried and just one month shy of his thirty-second birthday.[28] Norman’s five-year-old self, however, had not been beyond medical intervention: a ‘Dr. Waugh was called in, who sewed up the damaged feature, and the child is progressing favorably [sic],’ The Cumberland Mercury dutifully reported on one of Parramatta’s leading families three days after the event.[29]
The month before Norman’s accident, The Cedars itself must have suffered some damage of its own. The borough council was somehow implicated in the unspecified damage to the property because a Mr. Piggott, representing Pile, ‘suggest[ed] action’ be taken by the council ‘to prevent a further destruction of his…Western-road…property, if they desired to avoid legal proceedings.’[30] There were no subsequent reports detailing legal proceedings on Pile’s behalf, so we may assume that the council rectified the situation, unless Pile chose not to (or could not) pursue the matter further. The latter is a distinct possibility, considering the circumstances that soon brought an end to the Pile family’s time at The Cedars.
For over a decade, the firm of Mills and Pile had been immersed in the world of the old parsonage—investing in it, transforming it beyond recognition, loving it, and raising their families within its thick double brick walls. But whilst the eighties had seen the likes of Mills and Pile benefiting from a property boom, of which the development of the parsonage was clearly a part, by the early nineties the bubble had burst and ultimately, by 1893, that property speculation—combined with an international depression—had resulted in a severe economic depression and the collapse and/or temporary closure of a number of Australian banks.[31] Mills would go bankrupt a number of times in this period.[32] Perhaps these conditions were already causing his partner George Pile to feel the pinch, too, because by 1890, Mills and Pile had dissolved their partnership, by mid-1891 Mrs. Miriam Hayden had ‘foreclosed on The Cedars to take full ownership,’ and ‘[w]ithin a month of repossessing The Cedars,’ on 1 August, the mansion was listed for sale in the Sydney Morning Herald.[33] Again, the advertisement emphasised its location by calling it ‘one of the most fascinating views obtainable,’ and provides us with further insight into the long-gone property’s features, as well as how the latest occupants, the Pile family, had used each of the building’s many rooms:
As before, the property did not immediately find a buyer, so Mrs. Hayden, clearly desiring to offload the property, repeated the same advertisement the following year in The Cumberland Mercury on Saturday 15 October 1892.[34] Again, there was no sale. Nevertheless, by late 1894, the parsonage-turned-private mansion had already entered its next phase.
Boarding House
The size of the building and its many rooms and bathrooms had made it the perfect place to raise a large family, and the same features were equally ideal for a boarding business. Mrs. Flora McLeod, who had been the proprietress of a boarding house in nearby Wentworth Street, Parramatta, became the old parsonage’s latest tenant, and in December 1894, and again in February and April 1895, announced to the public that ‘Mrs. McLeod’ of ‘The Cedars, Parramatta,’ was now offering ‘BOARD and Residence, handsome suite of Apartments, also Bedrooms,’ with ‘hot, cold baths,’ and a splendid view, overlooking Parramatta.’[35] The boarding house did not figure highly in the newspapers otherwise at this time, with the exception of a very brief entry in The Cumberland Mercury on 23 February 1895 stating that there would be ‘A Gaelic service at “The Cedars, Parramatta,” on 27th instant.’[36] Maybe the new tenant’s Scottish surname explains why this Gaelic service was held in the old parsonage, though it may just as easily have been hosted by The Cedars’ owner, Mrs. Miriam Hayden, who was the widow of Reverend Thomas Hayden, the former rector of St. John’s Church of England, Darlinghurst, and an Irishman.[37]
However well suited the parsonage was to a boarding business, Mrs. McLeod’s stay there was also brief. In September 1895, she informed the public that she had ‘removed from THE CEDARS to’ the elegant ‘St. JOHN’S LODGE, Macquarie-street, Parramatta,’ and that she was again open for business.[38] It is possible that the boarding house business was only ever intended to be a temporary revenue-raising venture for the owner Mrs. Hayden while certain key elements of a more grandiose plan for the parsonage fell into place.
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CITE THIS
Michaela Ann Cameron, “Lost Landmark: St. John’s Parsonage, Parramatta,” St. John’s Online, (2020), https://stjohnsonline.org/about/the-parsonage/lost-landmark/part-ii-victorian-mansion/, accessed [insert current date].
Notes
[1] J. Y. Mills was “often called the ‘pocket edition’ on account of his short stature,…[He] was senior partner in the old firm of Mills and Pile, and a very successful auctioneer. He also wore his hat when in the box…He was a well-known figure round Sydney, being one of the last adherents of the top hat.” See “Real Estate in the Eighties. Men of the Early Days,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Wednesday 18 March 1931, p. 6. John Yelverton Mills’s father, also named John Mills, was a preacher at the Methodist Church at Dundas on Carlingford Road in the 1860s. According to a newspaper report in 1929, “Mr. Mills, a local preacher residing at Checkley…” who had been a school teacher but was by the 1860s “following orcharding” was “a man of some culture and of recognised pulpit ability.” See J. E. C., “A Royal Donation. In the ‘Sixties. Memory of a Thanksgiving Day,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Monday 17 June 1929, p. 10. For the ‘desolate and uncared for’ quotation see “Parramatta and its Associations — the Old Parsonage Modernised,” Illustrated Sydney News (NSW : 1881 – 1894), Saturday 17 March 1883, p. 3. Regarding J. Y. Mills’s birthplace being Marsden Street, Parramatta, see “Mr. J. Y. Mills. Picturesque Figure Passes. How Sydney Grew,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Monday 29 December 1924, p. 8.
[2] “Real Estate in the Eighties. Men of the Early Days,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Wednesday 18 March 1931, p. 6.
[3] “The present name [Ben Doran] is taken from one of the spurs of the Ben More Range, and “Ben Doran” is celebrated in Gaelic song as the Beautiful Hill.” Ben Doran actually appears to directly translate as ‘Otter Hill,’ from the Scottish Gaelic doran meaning “shy otter.” See James Brown Johnston, Place-names of Scotland, (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1903), p. 1, where he notes the Gaelic tendency to name places after the animals associated with them. A Scottish Gaelic song transcribed in 1862, ‘Tha sìor chóineadh am Beinn-Dórain’ [There is constant wailing in Ben Doran] may have led to the mistranslation of the word as something more romantic. See “Appendix A: Chronological table of the songs in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society, vol. iv, no. 16, London, December 1911,” in Ethel Bassin and Derek Bowman (ed.), The Old Songs of Skye: Frances Tolmie and Her Circle, (London and New York: Routledge, 2016), p. 178.
[4] Bronwyn Hubbard, Tara: A Telling of the Tapestry, (Masons Drive, North Parramatta: Tara Anglican School, 1997), p. 39 and “Parramatta and its Associations — the Old Parsonage Modernised,” Illustrated Sydney News (NSW : 1881 – 1894), Saturday 17 March 1883, p. 3.
[5] “Parramatta and its Associations — the Old Parsonage Modernised,” Illustrated Sydney News (NSW : 1881 – 1894), Saturday 17 March 1883, p. 3. For references to Lyn Mills as a vocalist see, “Mr. J. Y. Mills. Picturesque Figure Passes. How Sydney Grew,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Monday 29 December 1924, p. 8 and “Miss Lynn Mill’s Concert,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Saturday 25 May 1912, p. 18, for but one example of an article reporting on her musical abilities as a principal vocalist of classical music.
[6] “Parramatta and its Associations — the Old Parsonage Modernised,” Illustrated Sydney News (NSW : 1881 – 1894), Saturday 17 March 1883, p. 3.
[7] “Parramatta and its Associations — the Old Parsonage Modernised,” Illustrated Sydney News (NSW : 1881 – 1894), Saturday 17 March 1883, p. 3; “Historic Parramatta House. Over 100 Years Old. Now Being Demolished,” Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 – 1931), Saturday 2 January 1909, p. 3.
[8] J. Y. Mills, “Advertising. Reward, Lost from Ben Doran, a Large Black Retriever Dog,” The Cumberland Mercury (Parramatta, NSW : 1875 – 1895), Thursday 18 November 1880, p. 2; “Births. MILLS. November 20, at Ben Doran, Parramatta, Mrs. J. Y. Mills, of a son,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Wednesday 24 November 1880, p. 1; “Family Notices. Deaths. BOWDEN. October 18, at Ben Doran, Parramatta, the residence of her son-in-law, Susan, relict of the late T. W. Bowden, Esq., in her 79th years,” Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 – 1931), Tuesday 18 October 1881, p. 2; “Family Notices. Births. MILLS. January 22, at Ben Doran, Parramatta, Mrs. J. Y. Mills, of a daughter,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Thursday 25 January 1883, p. 1; “Local and General. Vandalism,” The Cumberland Mercury (Parramatta, NSW : 1875 – 1895), Saturday 21 June 1884, p. 4; “Family Notices. Births. MILLS. June 18, at Ben Doran, Parramatta, Mrs. J. Y. Mills, of a son,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Monday 23 June 1884, p. 1.
[9] As Bronwyn Hubbard notes, J. Y. Mills went bankrupt a number of times. After all the costly renovations he made to the parsonage, therefore, it may have been less a case of wanting to leave than needing to leave so as to offload the repairing tenancy and get out from under the ‘heavy mortgage.’ See Bronwyn Hubbard, Tara: A Telling of the Tapestry, (Masons Drive, North Parramatta: Tara Anglican School, 1997), p. 40.
[10] “The Illuminations,” The Cumberland Mercury (Parramatta, NSW : 1875 – 1895), Wednesday 22 June 1887, p. 2.
[11] See J. E. C., “A Royal Donation. In the ‘Sixties. Memory of a Thanksgiving Day,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Monday 17 June 1929, p. 10.
[12] Mills and Pile became business partners in 1877. See “Mr George Pile Dead,” Truth (Sydney, NSW : 18094 – 1954), Sunday 8 December 1912, p. 4.
[13] “Property Sales. Ben Doran, the property of Mr. J. Y. Mills, to Mr. Pile,” The Cumberland Mercury (Parramatta, NSW : 1875 – 1895), Wednesday 15 February 1888, p. 3.
[14] “Mr George Pile Dead,” Truth (Sydney, NSW : 18094 – 1954), Sunday 8 December 1912, p. 4.
[15] “Mr George Pile Dead,” Truth (Sydney, NSW : 18094 – 1954), Sunday 8 December 1912, p. 4.
[16] “Mr George Pile Dead,” Truth (Sydney, NSW : 18094 – 1954), Sunday 8 December 1912, p. 4.
[17] “Mr George Pile Dead,” Truth (Sydney, NSW : 18094 – 1954), Sunday 8 December 1912, p. 4.
[18] We know the name was changed almost immediately, because when a burglary occurred there in July the same year Pile bought the property, it was officially reported as ‘the residence of George Pile, The Cedars, Western Road, Parramatta.” See “Burglaries, stealing Premises, &c. Parramatta,” New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime (Sydney : 1860 – 1930), Wednesday 4 July 1888 [Issue No. 27], p. 208.
[19] “Burglaries, stealing Premises, &c. Parramatta,” New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime (Sydney : 1860 – 1930), Wednesday 4 July 1888 [Issue No. 27], p. 208. The article reports, “Parramatta. Stolen, on the 29th ultimo, from the residence of George Pile, The Cedars, Western Road, Parramatta,—One silver Jewish ornament, representing four lions with tongues protruding, and emblems of the Jewish Church around it, and gold crown on top; five small salt spoons with twisted silver handles and gold bowls, “H. & Co.” stamped on handles; one silver napkin ring, ivy-wreath worked round it; one silver season ticket, 1st class, Parramatta to Sydney, for “G. Pile”; one gold watch, maker “John Walker,” London, No. 2598, silver Albert chain, curb pattern, and 10-cent piece attached; and a small gold brooch, pearl in centre; total value, £40. Identifiable, except money.” When the Cumberland Mercury went to print the same day they reported on “The Recent Burglaries” and stated “Up to the time of our going to press no arrest had been made in connection with the recent burglaries at Mr. Pile’s residence, “The Cedars,” Parramatta, and Mr. Hills’ public-house, Auburn.” “The Recent Burglaries,” Cumberland Mercury (Parramatta, NSW : 1875 – 1895), Wednesday 4 July 1888, p. 2.
[20] For the magistrate listing see Henry Parkes, “Colonial Secretary’s Office, Sydney, 19th October, 1888,” New South wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 – 1900), Friday 19 October 1888, [Issue No. 654 (SUPPLEMENT)], pp. 399–400.
[21] “Summary,” The Australian Star (Sydney, NSW : 1887 – 1909), Tuesday 6 November 1888, p. 4; “Brevities,” Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 – 1931), Wednesday 7 November 1888, p. 6. The rumour was laid to rest in “Current News,” The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 – 1950), Saturday 10 November 1888, p. 2.
[22] See “Marriages. ATKINSON—PILE,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Monday 4 March 1889, p. 1.
[23] One these daughters was the ‘Miss Pile’ recorded as a resident of The Cedars in 1888, in “St. John’s Annual Floral Fete,” The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 – 1950), Saturday 27 October 1888, p. 5.
[24] “Local and General. Painful Accident to a Child,” The Cumberland Mercury (Parramatta, NSW : 1875 – 1895), Wednesday 14 May 1890, p. 2.
[25] “Local and General. Painful Accident to a Child,” The Cumberland Mercury (Parramatta, NSW : 1875 – 1895), Wednesday 14 May 1890, p. 2.
[26] Norman Wallace Pile enlisted on 2 February 1915 at Liverpool and served in the ‘B Company’ of the 18th battalion, 5th brigade. National Archives of Australia: Australian Imperial Force, Base Records Office; B2455, First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914–1920, PILE NORMAN WALLACE, Attestation Paper of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad: PILE Norman Wallace: Service Number – 984: Place of Birth – Petersham NSW: Place of Enlistment – Liverpool NSW: Next of Kin – (Mother) PILE Emily, (8016504), p. 27, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8016504, accessed 23 April 2020.
[27] National Archives of Australia: Australian Imperial Force, Base Records Office; B2455, First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914–1920, PILE NORMAN WALLACE, Attestation Paper of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad: PILE Norman Wallace: Service Number – 984: Place of Birth – Petersham NSW: Place of Enlistment – Liverpool NSW: Next of Kin – (Mother) PILE Emily, (8016504), p. 27, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8016504, accessed 23 April 2020.
[28] Norman was born 24 September 1883. He is noted as ‘unmarried’ in his mother’s communication with the Base Records Office of the Australian Imperial Forces establishing her status as ‘nearest next of kin’ so she could obtain his War Medals. The following year, his sister would also enquire about obtaining his personal effects—there were none recovered, as the exact whereabouts of his body were never even determined. He is honoured at the Lone Pine Memorial. National Archives of Australia: Australian Imperial Force, Base Records Office; B2455, First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914–1920, PILE NORMAN WALLACE, Attestation Paper of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad: PILE Norman Wallace: Service Number – 984: Place of Birth – Petersham NSW: Place of Enlistment – Liverpool NSW: Next of Kin – (Mother) PILE Emily, (8016504), pp. 11, 25, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8016504 and https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8016504&S=11&R=0, accessed 23 April 2020.
[29] “Local and General. Painful Accident to a Child,” The Cumberland Mercury (Parramatta, NSW : 1875 – 1895), Wednesday 14 May 1890, p. 2.
[30] “Parramatta,” Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 – 1931), Wednesday 2 April 1890, p. 2.
[31] Bronwyn Hubbard, Tara: A Telling of the Tapestry, (Masons Drive, North Parramatta: Tara Anglican School, 1997), p. 40.
[32] Bronwyn Hubbard, Tara: A Telling of the Tapestry, (Masons Drive, North Parramatta: Tara Anglican School, 1997), p. 40, who notes in the associated footnote that Mills’s descendants stated that John Yelverton Mills was declared bankrupt on several occasions. See also: “J. Y. Mills’ Insolvency,” The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 – 1950), Saturday 16 May 1891, p. 7; “J. Y. Mills’s Bankruptcy,” Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 – 1931), Tuesday 31 January 1893, p. 4; “In Bankruptcy,” New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 – 1900), Friday 17 July 1896 [Issue No. 551], p. 4916.
[33] Bronwyn Hubbard, Tara: A Telling of the Tapestry, (Masons Drive, North Parramatta: Tara Anglican School, 1997), p. 40; “Heights of Parramatta,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Saturday 1 August 1891, p. 15. Regarding the timing of the dissolution of the Mills and Pile firm see “J. Y. Mills’ Insolvency,” The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 – 1950), Saturday 16 May 1891, p. 7.
[34] “Advertising. Heights of Parramatta,” The Cumberland Mercury (Parramatta, NSW : 1875 – 1895), Saturday 15 October 1892, p. 5.
[35] “Advertising. Apartments, Board and Residence,” The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 – 1930), Thursday 13 December 1894, p. 8; “Advertising. Apartments, Board and Residence,” The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 – 1930), Wednesday 6 February 1895, p. 8; “The Cedars, May’s-hill, Parramatta. Rooms to Let,” The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 – 1930), Saturday 20 April 1895, p. 8.
[36] “No title,” The Cumberland Mercury (Parramatta, NSW : 1875 – 1895), Saturday 23 February 1895, p. 4.
[37] Bronwyn Hubbard, Tara: A Telling of the Tapestry, (Masons Drive, North Parramatta: Tara Anglican School, 1997), p. 44.
[38] “Mrs. McLeod,” The Cumberland Free Press (Parramatta, NSW : 1895 – 1897), Saturday 21 September 1895, p. 5.
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