Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

The youngest child and only daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Cock. Alice's mother was formerly Elizabeth Chalk, whose family was amongst Brisbane's earliest residents; Chalk Street, Kedron is named after the family.

John Chalk, Alice's uncle, owned and operated the first bus service in Brisbane, building up an empire of horse drawn buses servicing all of Brisbane, from the South Side to Bald Hills.

Alice's father, Thomas Cock, owned a Slaughter Yard in Rode Road, Chermside. (Rode Road was originally named Cock's Road.) During the 1890's, in conjunction with the Slaughter Yard, Thomas Cock started a small cannery business, with the brand name "Devonia" named after Devon in England, from where the family originally came. The initial shipment of canned corned beef was donated to the Lord Mayor of London. The cannery was forced to close in 1901, because of the effects of a severe drought.

Alice attended the Chermside State School from 6th August 1900 to 30th June 1905 along with her brother John. After training for four years at the Brisbane General Hospital, now the Royal Brisbane Hospital, she became a qualified nurse, receiving her Certificate on the 31st January, 1917.

She enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service on the 29th December, 1917 and was posted overseas. While serving on active duty she contracted the Pneumonic Flu along with other Australian service personnel. Alice's Service Record notes that she spent about seven weeks in hospital with Influrnza. This may or may not have have been the Pneumonic or Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-19.

Nurse Cock returned to Australia on the 14th January, 1919 and was discharged from the Nursing Service.

Somewhere Alice met James Woodside 15385. It is possible thay met when James was hospitalised in England and Alice may have been nursing in the hospital. Mary Lark wrote "my guess would be that James would have met Alice while convalescing at Harefield Park Hospital." (Harefield Park House)

The Service Records show that James was at Harefield Park 1st Aust. Aux. Hospital and Alice was at Southall 2nd Aust. Aux. Hospital. Both were at other hospitals for short periods.

In any case James bought a five-diamond engagement ring on his way back from England from Prouds Jewellers, Melbourne for £10/10/-. It seems that he definitely had someone in mind!

James and Alice went to live on a property Warrawee, south of Miles which is 340km west of Brisbane on the Warrego Highway. In 1921 James bought an adjoining property, Wallace Brae in the name of Alice Mable Woodside. When Alice died it was transferred to his mother Ellen Blanch Woodside.

This was a working homestead with no 'mod cons' but rather the bare essentials for frontier life.

The iron roof kept the rain out and the heat in especially if there was no ceiling. The wide veranda kept the rain off the walls and enabled the use of external studs (uprights). The weather boards nailed on the inside of the studs kept the wind out and acted as lining boards on the inslde. This was a big improvement on the split slab walls that were still in use in the 1920s.

The roof acted as a catchment for rainwater to fill the tanks which supplied most, if not all, of the domestic water supply.

 
Tragedy on Tragedy
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James and Alice Woodside's first daughter, Eleanor May, tragically died, aged 8 hours on 11 January 1922 in Brisbane and is buried in Toowong Cemetery.

On the 30th December 1923 Alice Mable died at the age of 33 years giving birth to their second daughter, Helen who also died within a few hours and is thought to have been buried, like her sister in Toowong Cemetery. However I have not been able to find any record of such a burial.

Alice Mabel is buried in Nundah Cemetery in the Cock Family Grave.

After less than four years of marriage James Woodside was left a childless widower at the age of 36 years, which must have been devastating for him. His mother had endured a similar fate when James was only four months and she was 27.

Nurse Cock was one of the many service personnel who continued suffering from the effects of the war and, as a consequence, died, in her case at the early age of 33 years.

When the Chermside & Districts Historical Society Inc. restored the vandalized missing names on the Marchant Park World War I Memorial Gates (1914-19) at Chermside her name was added. She is the only female whose name appears on the marble tablets and on the original Chermside State School Honour Board.

 
Epilogue - On a Happier Note
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On the 26 May 1926, James Woodside at the age of 38 years was married for a second time to Mary Emma Hamilton (Molly) Wallace aged 29 years of Old Warrawee, Kergunyah in north-east Victoria.

They were married at St George's Presbyterian Church, East St. Kilda, Melbourne. Mary Emma Hamilton Wallace was called Molly and she was born on 22nd June 1896,

There were three children born to Molly and James Woodside as follows:
• Ian Stewart Woodside b. 8 September 1927
• William (Bill) Woodside b. 21 June 1929
• Mary Woodside b. 9 May 1934

 
Anzac Day in Harefield Village
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Harefield Park House was owned by an Australian, Charles Billyard Leake. When World War I began he offered the estate as a convalescent centre for injured Australians and New Zealanders. A series of inter-connected wooden huts were built in the grounds, and during the course of the war the facility expanded into a hospital, ultimately treating around 50,000 injured servicemen and women. It was known as the No. 1 Australian Auxiliary Hospital.

From the website for Harefield Hospital.

Every year St. Mary's Church in Harefield village holds an ANZAC day service in remembrance of the servicemen who died in the hospital during the Great War. Over a hundred soldiers of the First Australian Imperial Force are buried in the churchyard. (A section of the churchyard was set aside for the Australian dead and is still maintained today.)

http://www.chermsidedistrict.org.au/01_cms/details.asp?ID=332&fbclid=IwAR0KMuTh9HLXadj9wgiSkXaRXYy9Q6XfDPLf00a3l4V5vdEHbYq1UvSgiFQ (www.chermsidedistrict.org.au)