Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

My name is Betty Robertson and I am the youngest child of James and Marcella Mary (Kitty) Egan. James was born 22nd October 1889 to a Richard Roland Egan and a Mary Ronan, at Bathurst NSW. I have been unable to trace either of his parents probably due to insufficient record keeping in those early days. I think James is probably related to the Egans of Teapot Swamp now known as Moorilda and probably the Richard that died in Camooweal Qld in 1947 is his father, but of Mary there is no trace. Actually my father was raised for much of his early life by an Aunt Anne who with her sister Mary immigrated to Australia from County Mayo in Ireland. Anne came to be the owner of a rather up-market boarding house in Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains which is where my father would have spent his school holidays.

James and a friend made during their war service (I think), Sidney Ray (Rae) bought a banana plantation at Billinudgel in the Northern Rivers District of NSW after they returned to Australia in 1919 and then in 1921 my father met and married Marcella Bryant at which time he sold his share of the banana farm to his partner and bought a dairy farm on the banks of the Brisbane River 5 miles east of the little country town, Toogoolawah which is about 70 miles or so North West of Brisbane.

He was engaged to my mother when he left to inspect this part of the country and was away for more than 3 weeks during which time my mother never heard a word from him. I wonder what she was thinking. Anyway, when he returned and said he'd bought a farm and told her all about it, naturally she asked "and what was the house like Jim"? "Oh" he replied "I never looked at that". After getting to know my father, I would say these things were pretty typical of him - like "don't sweat the small stuff".

Both my parents loved dancing and always attended the country balls travelling thereto by horse and sulky in the early days. My mother was something of a beauty and loved clothes and had she not been a very clever seamstress, I doubt she would have been able to attend the balls in the lean years, of which there were many.

Anyway, the house may not have been much when he bought it, but once the family started to arrive, bit by bit he made improvements and when I became old enough to appreciate it, I thought it was beautiful. High set, very large light, airy rooms upstairs and a lovely cool living area downstairs. I think I would be happy to live in it today. No mod-cons of course in those days and with 3 children in 3 years it must have been very hard on my mother. I was born 5 years after my youngest sibling.

Both my parents loved dancing and always tried to attend the wonderful country balls the transport to which was of course by horse and sulky. My mother was something of a beauty and loved clothes and had she not been a very clever seamstress, I doubt she would have been able to go to the balls.

James Egan was a most successful farmer and I think I could honestly say he was a man ahead of his time in the way he farmed although like everyone else during the depression years, he found times very tough, yet he insisted on sending his daughters away to school for their secondary education which must have made things even tougher for him and my mother. His only son, Allan my brother, ran the farm from 1948 when my father retired to Brisbane for the sake of my mother who had very severe rheumatoid arthritis. Apart from medical attention she also needed a few mod-cons to make life a little easier. My father died in 1975, two years after the death of my mother.

Need I say he never spoke of the war except to say how much the horses suffered and how sometimes with the noise and mayhem they would go into an almost catatonic state. In these last years of my own life, how I now wish I had asked more questions about his life as a child and perhaps had we asked about his war experiences, he may have told us more. The climbing of the cliffs with ammunition at Gallipoli, the endless mud in France and the suffering horses were all he ever mentioned. It was obvious he felt more concern for the horses than for himself. He was a slim man and only mentioned the climbing of the cliffs because he was actually heavier when he left the peninsula than when he arrived and he couldn't understand that. Now that I know more about the human body, maybe he'd increased his muscle mass.