The Rumble Family History

Henry Euean Rumble

The Descendants of Henry Euan Rumble, and their families

 

JOHN EUEAN RUMBLE  3. 8.1875

After working in New Zealand, John and his family visited Kate and Harry Rumble on their way home to England.

John, the son of Henry Euean Rumble and Grace Martha Humfrey, was born on 3 August 1875 and died on 26 May 1944. He married Gladys Scott at Bray Co., Wicklow on 29 March 19161. The London Records Office2 recorded his birth as "John Enean" in the parish of Eastbourne, England for the quarter: October-December 1875, reference 2b 56. John and Gladys had two children, John Faithful Scott ("Jock") and Thomas Euean ("Tim").

Jock and Tim


1 Information supplied by Michael Rumble 16001M

2 Information supplied by Brenda Rohl 17033F in 1989. The name was clearly a misprint

Dorothy Fall3 said that John Euean became an engineer with Vickers Armstrong. In 1924 he worked in New Zealand until 1928 when he returned to England. His sister-in-law, Kate Rumble4 recorded his address in her 1926 diary as:

c/- W.G. Armstrong Whitworth & Co. Ltd., Aongatate(?), Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.

A later entry states:

23rd November 1928: Letter from John Rumble in Sydney, that he is returning with his wife and children to England, calling at Fremantle about 3rd December.

They were in Fremantle on the third and fourth of December, travelling on the ship "Balranald". Kate recorded their visit in her diary:

Mon. 3rd. .. Eric rang us at 8 a.m. that the 'Banranald' came in last night, instead of tonight as advertised, so he motored Horace down at ¼ to 9 to fetch John with his wife & 2 boys up to stay with us. They all stopt at Horace's house for morning tea... At 12.15 Eric arrived here with the visitors, who can remain until Tuesday night. After dinner John & Gladys took Jock and Tim to see Foy's toy fair, & see their Punch & Judy show. Back here for afternoon tea. Then after 6.30 tea they went to Town Hall to meet Horace at ¼ to 8 and he took them to the "Ambassadors" theatre. “Dad and I did not sit up - they returned 11.30 p.m”.

Tues. 4. Got breakfast for our visitors at 8 a.m. Then soon after 9 Eric & Issie arrived in their car, to motor them to Mundaring Weir, whilst I cooked the dinner, they returned for, at 1 o'clock - the boys had a rest in the afternoon, but John & Gladys went to Boans to get biscuits etc. for the boat. Gladys bought me a grass shopping basket I lined afterwards with green to match, to strengthen it. They returned to afternoon tea at 3.30 then we all went to Hyde Park till 5 p.m. returning in time for Eric to fetch them from his office, & motor the 4 of them out to tea at his place, so we said a final goodbye, as their boat was leaving in the morning. After tea at Eric's, he fetched Humf. and Muriel up to meet them - then at 8.30 he motored them to Nedlands, where they remained for supper with Horace and Vera, seeing his 4 children, & at 10.30 Horace and Eric motored with them to Fremantle and remained talking on the boat till past midnight.

The entry in the Index of Wills states:

Photo :Gladys and John at left

Rumble, John Euean of 24 Queens Road Hereford who died 26 May 1944. Probate Llandudno 1 March to The Public Trustee. Personal Effects £9,901 17s 3d.

Resealed Singapore 21 January 1947

SCOTT GLADYS MAUD 06-07 (1???)

2 Date supplied by Michael Rumble 16001M

Little is known of Gladys, the wife of John Euean Rumble. Horace Rumble1 said that Gladys came from Ireland and that she married John when he, Horace, was in London - This was 29 March 19162. Once, when she was returning to Ireland, Horace said that he took her up to Glasgow. They had lunch there and then he put her on the ship for Ireland. He remarked that she seemed a very "nice girl".


Back row, John, Vi, Boy, Nettie

Front row, Jock and Tim.  Vi and Nettie were Gladys’ sisters, and Boy was her brother.

Gladys died at Dover on 21 November 1964. The entry in the Index of Wills states:

Rumble, Gladys Maud of 20 East Cliff Dover in the County of Kent who died 21 November 1964 Admin with will London to John Faithful Scott Rumble Dental Surgeon and Thomas Euean Rumble Buying manager Personal Effects £2,586.

John Faithfull Rumble (Jock) 1933.

Jock went to Dover College School and later qualified as a dental surgeon. John felt unable to send both boys to private school. Tim went to the Grammar school, was doing well in the army, but came out and after was a lorry driver. Jock practiced dental surgery at Sevenoaks in Kent. He developed Hodgkins disease which he battled against for 10 years before succumbing. Tim developed coronary heart disease in his later years, and had angina and died of a heart attack. Jock married Judy Rose.

 


Judy in centre. Left Frances, right George Baynton.

4 This date is at variance with the year 1878 supplied by Michael Rumble 16001M                    

Photo at Hastings, so approx 1933.

Ernest

Ernest Duncan Lambert Rumble, the son of Henry Euean Rumble and Grace Humfrey, was born in 1874 at Eastbourne, England. He died on 11 August 1952 at Dover. Dorothy Fall1 said that he married Martha, a Belgian Refugee. His sister-in-law Kate2 noted in her diary for 17 July 1918 that she "received a letter from Ernest in Folkestone telling us he was going to be married." Next day Harry Rumble3 "sent his nine illustrated books of celebrated artists by parcel post to Ernest for a wedding present." Kate, in her 1926 diary gave his address as: Ernest Rumble, Manager, Westminster Bank Ltd., Ware, England.[1]

The Westminster Bank at Ware, where the family lived in the mid 1920’s. The house on the left was missing in 1998, and then a carpark[2]. The house had a river at the back (see foot note, if you put the mouse cursor over the note number, it will show)

Joe, Sylvia, Jock, Frances, Tim.

They were in Hastings in the 30’s.

Ernest and Frances outside the house in Hastings.

Frances, Joe, Tim, Jock.

Elphinstone Mount, Hastings.

 

The London Records office shows the birth of Ernest as recorded in the parish of Eastbourne for the quarter: January - March 18744, Reference 2b 63.

Ernest and Martha had two children, Frances and Joseph5.

Frances

Frances, Martha, Joseph

Joseph

Joseph

Joseph, Frances, friend Sylvia

Frances, Joseph

When Ernest's sister, Eueanita Blanche Rumble6, died in 1949, she left him her gold watch and "the little blue album containing drawings by his brother Joseph[3] with my love."

The entry in the Index of Wills states:

Rumble, Ernest Duncan Lambert of 17 East Cliff Dover in the County of Kent who died 11 August 1952 Probate London to Westminster Bank Ltd. Frances Martha Rumble spinster and Joseph Duncan Rumble Dental Surgeon Personal Effects £6,656 17s 9d. He left 17 East Cliff to Frances, and 19 East Cliff to Joseph[4].

Frances in a 1990 letter to John Fall wrote: My father Ernest was a magnificent painter equal to many of the great Victorians. It was his hobby only - he would never sell any of his painting - both oil and water colours. When he died my brother and I gave quite a few away to relatives and friends as I just did not have the room to keep them.[5] I lived in a small flat in those days on my own, my mother having died (aged 42) when I was just 19. I wish now that I had been able to keep more of them, as I would have liked to give them to my nephew and nieces ... but, at the age of 19, you don't see so far ahead. It is obviously inherited and Grace, Blanche and Mercy painted quite nicely, and I have some nice drawings done by their brother Joseph who died young from diabetes....

Mercy and Limber, who had just taken a prize.

Mercy Rumble, youngest daughter of Henry Euean Rumble. She never married.She showed her dogs at local shows. She lived with Blanche at Cherry Tree cottage in Penn, Buckinghamshire. Ernest used to visit at that time; they would walk the dog in the woods at High Wycombe[6]  as Ernest has sketched there. Later he lived for some years on her own at Worthing, where she bred budgerigars She finished her days at Dover. She had been kept by her elder sister Blanche, also unmarried, who had worked as a private nurse and had a job looking after the children of a foreign King.

Martha with Joseph and Frances

SAELENS MARTHA  (21. 5.1896) 

Martha, a Belgian refugee, was born on 21 May 1896, married Ernest Rumble in 1918 and had two children, Frances & Joseph. Martha was an orphan. When she was about twenty years of age, she became a nanny to the Mayor of Bruges. In c.1916, during World War I, she escaped with him and his family to England on the last Mail Steamer to leave Ostend1.

Martha one more above, on right; and at above as a young girl. Always happy and jolly, Ernest said he married her “as much for her humour”, as for her beauty.[7]

 She died on 10 January 1939, of a cerebral haemorrhage, she had had one, seemed to recover, but had a second 10 days later that proved fatal. 

 RUMBLE HARRY HUMFREY 10-16 (21. 6.1866)

1 It is possible that after marriage they lived at 41 Waylen Street, Reading, Berkshire, since John Fall (16021M) has an envelope with that address (10 Jan 1889), addressed to Mrs Rumble.

In 1881 Harry & Kate lived in the same street in Eastbourne. 

Harry, the son of Henry Euean Rumble and Grace Humfrey, was born on 21 June 1866 at Eastbourne, Sussex, England. He trained as an architect and engineer. At the age of twenty-one he married Kate Rosaline Knight on 30 July 1887 at Greenwich, England. For a time they lived at Reading1 and their first two children were born there. Following a family quarrel, he and his wife migrated to Australia, finally settling in Western Australia. There he worked as an engineer for the Public Works Department until retirement in 1928. He raised a family of seven children, and died on 4 July 1948 in Perth, Western Australia. Photo about 1947.

The 1881 British Census for Eastbourne shows that Harry then lived with his parents at 27 Hyde Gardens. He was fourteen years of age and a scholar. Anthony and Letitia Knight lived at 28 Hyde Gardens. The 1881 census shows that of Anthony's children only Mary2, aged nine, and Churchill3, aged two, were in the house on that night. Kate may have been away at school. It seems probable that Harry and Kate met through being neighbours.

Early education

Harry's parents were deeply religious people, and hoped that Harry would be drawn to the Anglican ministry. They directed his early schooling to this end, and he gained a profound knowledge of Scripture, and of the Greek, Latin and Hebrew languages. But his parents desires were not fulfilled.

Harry studied Civil Engineering and Architecture and then worked for the London County Council .

4 See the entry for Kate

A family quarrel caused Harry and Kate to Migrate to Sydney, Australia, eventually moving to Fremantle

Life in Sydney

Harry studied and qualified both in civil engineering and architecture and worked for a period for the London County Council. Between 1889 and 1900 he had seven children: Horace, Eric, Maude, Leslie, Euean Humfrey, Phyllis and Dorothy. While working for the London County Council there was a family quarrel, the details of which no one is sure4. Probably as a result, he and Kate left Britain at the end of 1891 with their young family and, travelling on the "Oonah," landed at Sydney at 11.30 p.m. on 12 February 1892. He then took a job in Sydney.

In 1991, his granddaughter Jean5 recounted the story that she had been told by her father, Horace6:

They were very poor when they arrived in Sydney. Granny didn't know that you had to work to earn money to live. Having come from a family with private means, she thought that you just had money, because that was the way she had been brought up. No one in her family had gone to work from nine to five. Twice her father had taken the entire family, complete with the servants, to New Zealand while he attended to business. Kate was born in New Zealand on the first of these trips.

My grandparents had nothing when they arrived in Sydney. Grandpa didn't have a job. They lived in one little room in Balmain, which had an open fireplace, over which they hung a curtain. They used that as a cupboard to store their food. There was a mattress on the floor on which they slept. There were four of them initially: Harry, Kate, Horace who was two and a half, and Eric who was one.

Leslie, in his autobiography, states that he arrived in Western Australia when he was three years old. This is at variance with the NSW birth of his brother Humfrey in 1896 and the arrival in WA in 1897. 

Three other children, Leslie, Maude and Humfrey were born in Sydney before they came over to Western Australia by ship in 1897, landing at the long jetty at Fremantle.

There is some uncertainty about the number of children. Seven survived, but daughters Phyllis7 and Dorothy8 always maintained that there had been a total of thirteen. Granddaughters Miriamme9 and Joan10 discussed this in 1990 and confirmed the number as thirteen. Joan said that one child had fallen down the stairs and been killed. Another had died on the boat coming out from England. Some children, on being born, died, and, being so poor, they had been buried in the garden. John Fall11 remembers his mother talking of this. Joan said that her mother, Dorothy, was the thirteenth child. Nothing is known about those that died. It is possible that some were miscarriages, maybe at an early stage of pregnancy.

On 1 May 1897 Harry obtained a Government position as a civil engineer in the Public Works Department, and stayed with them until retirement.

They first lived in a two-storey house in Henderson Street, Fremantle

In 1989 his eldest son, Horace, recalled the house in which they had first lived:

I remember that we were in a two-storey place in Henderson Street, Fremantle, because on the day we sailed on a yacht to Rottnest at daybreak, when I was ten, we came back with a lot of fish on board. There was a smart sea breeze and she rolled the whole way home. They sat me up on the deck with my right arm around the main stay - and I copped every wave! When I got ashore, the whole place reeled about, and I was still physically reeling about when I tried to go up the stairs to my bedroom. So I remember the Henderson Street House. Today there is a parking lot near the police station. That's where it was. There were four, two-story houses just there. We lived in the second one from the left.

They moved to Marmion Street, Plympton. Phyllis & Dorothy were born there.

The Plympton school opened in 1898 and changed its name to the East Fremantle School in 1914.

Horace continued to reminisce:

When we lived at Henderson Street I went to Fremantle Boys School, but then, when we moved to Marmion Street, Plympton, I went to the East Fremantle School, which was just opposite our house. At about that time I stayed home from school for a whole year. My mother became ill and my father kept me home to help my mother do all the domestic work. I was about ten years old at the time; Dorothy and Phyl were both born at Marmion Street and I used to wheel them about in their prams, and I did their washing.

Before leaving Fremantle, Harry worked on the North Mole

Before my father left Fremantle he built the second half of the North mole. He brought granite down from Mundaring, or somewhere. The two moles were originally made of sandstone - not worth a damn - and he opened up a big quarry at Darlington and brought down these big lumps of granite. He put a railway line up to the quarry - and later he did the same thing at Bunbury when he put a railway line out to the quarry at Roelands.
Transferred to Perth he worked in the old barracks

When Harry finished work in Fremantle he was transferred to Perth and worked in the old Barracks building at the top of St. George's Terrace. Many years later, when the Mitchell Freeway was built, the Barracks building was demolished, and only the arch now remains.

Harry became a Catholic in 1902 but changed religion several times.

12 See the comment in the entry for Leslie 15013M.

Harry became a Catholic in 1902. His wife's diary states that he was received into the Church on 18 January 1902. We do not know what led to this conversion. Kate became a member of the Church shortly afterwards. His youngest daughter, Dorothy, said that her father was always interested in religion and that he changed his religion several times. She recalled that in the early days, being a Victorian father, every time he changed religion, the whole family had to change with him.

He appears to have left the Catholic church from 1914 to 1921 but returned to it on 12 October 1921. Kate's diary shows that during this period, while he was in Bunbury, he belonged to a Masonic Lodge. All his sons drifted away from the Church except Leslie12, who became a priest.

The family moves to Colin Street and then to Aberdeen Street.

Around 1903 Harry and his family moved to 1 Colin Street, West Perth. The small cottage, with its three dormer windows, was still standing in 1994, surrounded by office blocks. From Colin Street, the family moved to 102 Aberdeen Street, Perth. Kate in her diary for 14 March 1912 has an entry: `Daddy came at a quarter to eight and saw our electric lights on for the first time.' There is no mention of the form of lighting before this.

From 1912 - 1915 he made many country trips

On 29 June 1912, Kate wrote in her diary: `Daddy applied today for another billet at £600 a year still under Government.' She did not record the outcome of this. During this period, and until 1915, Harry made many short trips into the country, presumably inspecting and supervising work for the Public Works Department.

Kate's diary records him visiting such places as Wongan Hills, Kununoppin, Korrelocking, Toodyay, Bolgart, Yilliminning, Corrigin . . . Whenever he went on these trips he sent a telegram or card back to Kate on his arrival, and then sent a letter or postcard to her almost every day.

Once Kate went with him to a camp at Bolgart

* buggy = a two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage with or without a hood.

Kate recorded an occasion when she travelled with Harry to one of his camps:

Thursday 19 February, 1914 Got up at 5.30. dressed, packed and caught the train with Daddy for Toodyay to visit his camp till Saturday. Riley met us with buggy* & Jack at station, and Dad and I drove 25 miles to Bolgart, reaching camp just as Mr. Young was making afternoon tea. Had dinner at 7 - curried tongues, stewed cherries and blancmange. Sat in tent door for evening.

Friday 20 Camp bed lovely - tea brought at 6.30 - breakfast at 8, eggs & boiled bacon. Sat in tent till 11 a.m. cup of tea, then dressed and drove 25 miles back to Toodyay hotel. Had tea there and slept the night.

Saturday 21 Got up at 5.30. Cup of tea at 7 and caught the 7.30 train to Clackline with Daddy, where he put me into the Albany express for Perth, and I got to our house at a quarter to one. Sent Dad a wire at once. He sent me one from Toodyay and another from Bolgart to say back in camp.

On 24 April 1914 the family moved again, this time to Mr Curlewis's house at 17 Heytesbury Road, Subiaco. Curlewis was the Government Astronomer, and known to the family.

In 1915 Harry was appointed resident engineer at Bunbury

* Newton Moore,

State Premier 1906-1910

13 Now known as

Stirling Street

In 1915 Harry became resident engineer at Bunbury, and extended the breakwater there. He left Perth for Bunbury on 10 August 1915, his family following later. Initially the family stayed at Miss McKay's Boarding house and then, on 9 October 1915, they rented Newton Moore's* house on the corner of Moore Street and White Road13.

He built a quarry at Roelands

Part of Harry's work entailed establishing a quarry at Roelands to provide stone for the breakwater. Kate recalled the first "big blast" in her diary for 17 May 1917:

Pa motored to Roelands to meet Chief & Mr Carlin, who brought him down oak framed photo picture of his "big Blast", 1915.

In 1917, the following notice appeared in the local paper:

On Sunday morning the second big blast was carried out successfully at the Roelands Quarry, when over a ton of explosives was discharged, 68ft. from the crest, and over 50ft. behind the face. It is estimated that 30,000 to 40,000 tons of stone were blown down on to the floor. The blast was fired with dynamite fuses about 100ft. long. The explosive this time was in very fissured ground, though it was cemented in as before. This will probably provide enough material for the next six months without further blasting. The Engineer-in-Chief and Mr. Carlin (of the Harbours and Rivers Department) were present and congratulated Mr.H.Rumble, the engineer in charge, on the highly successful issue of the work, which exceeded expectations, as it was feared, owing to the ground being fissured, that much of the force of the explosion would be lost.

A further comment on his work appeared in the paper in July 1917:

A severe storm in 1917 damaged his harbour work

When a week ago one of the severest storms which have ever been known in this portion of the State swept over Bunbury, it left the superstructure of the new Bunbury mole a perfect chaos. Railway lines and all the paraphernalia of a great public work were twisted and dismantled. After the storm the spectacle must have been anything but pleasing to the eyes of those entrusted with the undertaking. We are glad to say, however, that the work of making good the damage was tackled with such good heart that the first truck of stone after the storm was tipped today. Such expedition does the Engineer-in-Charge, Mr. Rumble, and those associated with him every credit.

In 1918 he received an increased salary but stayed in Bunbury

On the 29 and 30 April 1918, Kate recorded in her diary:

Daddy to a conference with the Minister and Chief at the Council Chambers over the Harbour works . . . Dad had a meeting with Minister and Chief at his office at 9.30. He is to be kept on here, have a bonus, also a rise in salary. Girls and myself most disappointed not to go to Perth.
There was another storm that caused damage. On Sunday 22 June 1919, Kate wrote:

We all went in the launch to see the damage done to the end of the mole in the late storm, viewed Pa's extension work, then they dropped me at our jetty and went up to Turkey Point, returning for dinner.

Family life and entertainment in Bunbury

When they lived in Bunbury, the life of the family centred around home entertainment, tennis, swimming, fishing, crabbing in the estuary, and boating. They established a wide circle of friends, and Kate held regular "At Home" days. On 26 May 1920 she wrote in her diary:

Wet and stormy today - We entertained this evening Captain Pearson and Mr Webster (from the ship "Huntress"), Mrs Forrest and Doris, Mr and Mrs Johnston of Moore Street, and Mr. Phillips - so stormy they stayed here till a quarter to two a.m., when Dad lent the ladies overcoats, boots, hats, etc., and they left their best gowns here!

Kate gives another example of their home entertainment in her diary for Saturday 25 September 1920. That day, Phyllis and Maudie had come down on the train from Perth.

In the evening Captain Pearson, Mr.Webster, Mrs Telford, Mr.Coles and Doris Bettesworth came for banjo, piano, recitations and some jazzing to wind up with till 12.30. Bed at 1 a.m.

The S.S. "Huntress" often came into Bunbury harbour, making trips to and from South Africa, and the Rumble family became firm friends with the Captain and officers. Webster eventually became the Captain and, as he played the banjo "beautifully", became a frequent visitor. Kate referred to him as "Uncle Webster."

Harry bought a telescope in 1921

Harry had always hankered after a good telescope. He ordered one from Britain, and it arrived in Bunbury on the 17 July 1921. The next day the Huntress was leaving Bunbury after one of its many visits. The family took out the new telescope to watch the ship steam away.
The family assembled in Bunbury for Easter and Christmas

14 See the "Crocodile" photo, page 86

15 2/6d = 2 shillings and six pence = 25 cents Family members working in Perth usually came down to Bunbury for Easter and Christmas. Easter, 1916 is a good example. Kate recorded:

Friday: Humfrey arrived a quarter to nine just in time for breakfast. Maudie at dress rehearsal at the "Lyric" in the afternoon. Dad, Humfrey, Phyl, Dolly, and I rowed to mouth of Preston River in afternoon.

Saturday: . . . Dad and I rode round the Ocean Drive at 5 p.m. for the first time on our bikes. At 6 p.m. Horace and the girls did the same. Horace and Vera went to tennis in the afternoon . . . Pa, Humfrey and I played "Bobs."

Easter Sunday: Horace hired another rowing boat and we all went up (in the two) the Preston River to Glen Iris for a picnic. Dad photoed us all several times14. Dolly lost the rowlock of the hired boat, so Holl and Humfrey had to tow it back with Pa and I in with Phyl and Doll, so it was long after dark when we got back.

On the Monday evening The Rustics - a local amateur group - gave a concert in the Lyric Theatre and Horace, Humfrey, Vera, Phyl, Dolly, Harry and Kate went along to the 2/6d15 seats with friends Kitty and Frank McAdam. Kate wrote:

Maudie got on wonderfully, quite one of the stars! We all went to the station afterwards and saw them off for Perth on the night train.

In 1916 Harry bought a motorcycle 

It was also in 1916 that Harry bought a motorcycle. In her diary for 30 September Kate wrote:
Dad got up at 6 a.m. to see his motorbike, a Triumph, which he wheeled up last night from the station. Rode four miles today after his alterations had been made to it by Mr. Clifton.

On 11 November he went out to Waterloo, on the outskirts of Bunbury, inspected, and then bought a second-hand sidecar for £3.10.0d16. Next day he went out at 1.15 a.m. for a moonlight ride on the bike, returning a little after 3 a.m. "All the worse for it", Kate recorded. Kate did not go for a ride in the sidecar until Saturday 24 March 1917, when they rode to Collie bridge and back. In April the sidecar broke down, so Harry sold it. In June he bought another one. Kate recorded:

Saturday 2nd June: Pa and I walked down town in afternoon and had a peep at my new sidecar, coming home tomorrow . . . Sunday 3rd: Dad took me for a ride in our new sidecar at 11 a.m. and again after 4 p.m. to call on the Johnston's at Leschenault.

Harry was very cautious on his motorbike. Everyone laughed at him because he refused to drive at more than five or, at most, eight miles an hour. Once, the local policeman stopped him for obstructing the traffic. On Saturday 22 June 1918, the following notice appeared in the "South Western Times":

He and Kate went to Perth by motorcycle

Mr. and Mrs. H.H. Rumble, who are to be complimented on their courage, went through to Perth on a sidecar on Monday and Tuesday. They were incidentally bogged two or three times and had to lever the machine out, and passed through several vivid thunderstorms, which were an experience in themselves; but they were out for a holiday and thoroughly enjoyed the novelty of their experiences.

It all depends on the point of view.

Kate's diary records that they set out at 10 am on the Monday travelling 48 miles to Waroona, putting up at the "Farmers Arms". On Tuesday they reached Armadale and stayed at the "Olde Narrogin Inn". Kate wrote: Dad Banjo'd in evening, also at Waroona, greatly appreciated. On Wednesday they pushed through to Perth.

The motorcycle was sold
17 A carriage especially a light, two-wheeled one

The motorcycle was not without its problems. Kate, on 29 September 1918 wrote in her diary:

Hot sunny day, Dad took me for a motor to Dardanup . . . broke down, our second in 3,500 miles, walked to the Johnston's at Leschenault. Worty drove me home in their trap17, towing Dad behind . . . I went to bed after dinner with a bad head.

Finally on Friday 15 October 1920, Dad sold our motorbike and sidecar . . . this morning for £95 cash down.

In 1919, Harry was elected a member of the South Western Club, attending his first meeting on 30 August. Kate also records that on 14 November 1919, Pa went to (Masonic) Lodge Banquet and banjo'd in front of the Governor.

Harry took three months' leave in 1921, rented a cottage at Darlington and was then transferred back to Perth. (See the entry for Kate.)

Late in 1921 Harry took three and a half months' leave, spending part of the time with Kate and some of the family in a rented cottage at Darlington. He returned to work in Bunbury on Wednesday 18 January 1922 to find a letter awaiting him, telling him that he was transferred to Perth. The following Saturday he took the train to Perth, leaving his family temporarily in Bunbury. So ended his seven-year sojourn in that town.

Harry and Kate looked around to buy a house. Kate wrote:  2nd February, 1922: Wire from Dad for me to come up to Perth this afternoon . . . Dad met me and we went and had supper, then to 257 Hay street East to sleep.

They buy a house in North Perth

The whole family helped to establish the house

3rd February, 1922: After breakfast went to bank, then tram'd to North Perth to see over Mrs Solomon's house, corner Vincent & Fitzgerald streets. Ended by buying it off her. Final payment on possession on 30th April next.

This was the first house that they had owned and not rented. Presumably an inheritance received by Kate made this possible. The family moved to Perth on 29 April 1922. In the following months they set about furnishing the house and reestablishing the garden.

Early in June there was much activity. Harry planted three Virginia Vechii plants at the side of the house and started making a trellis for passion fruit. Kate purchased a new occasional drawing-room chair, while Harry bought a new piano stool and Maudie made drawing-room blinds. Humfrey came round and helped Harry paint the chimney. Harry also started painting the tank that held rainwater from the roof, but then decided to replace it. The new tank arrived on 17 June, and he painted it red.

In July, Eric came to dinner and put up the drawing room-bookcase; Humf came and strengthened a form in the Hallway. He also made Harry a ladder. Harry painted the front verandah roof, then the main roof and finally "the new roof to the back porch red, to match the house roof." They also had carpenters make alterations to some woodwork. This was completed on 18 November 1922.

Harry appealed successfully against his classification as Assistant Engineer

On his return to Perth, Harry became dissatisfied with the Public Works Department. He was now to work on roads and bridges, classified as an Assistant Engineer. He appealed against this and sought a higher classification, although his Department stated that the work of roads and bridges was always paid at a lower scale and could not be compared with that of an engineer constructing a large harbour. A report of the appeal appeared in the paper:
A.S. Galbraith, City Engineer, gave evidence in support of the appellant's claim. H.H.Rumble, assistant engineer (first class) sought a classification of £708 - £804, with a salary of £804, together with the title of supervising engineer. His present range was £504 - £576, with a salary of £504. He had been 6½ years in sole charge constructing the Bunbury Harbour works, and during the whole of that time he was officially addressed as resident engineer. He considered that the title assistant engineer usually referred to a young man who worked under a senior. During the time he had been at Bunbury they had spent a fifth of a million of money on the works. He had also to take charge of the Geraldton harbour works. Calculating on the basis of the salary received by the resident engineer at Bunbury in 1900, he should be paid £780.

The board adjourned until 10.30 a.m. today.

Kate recorded in her diary on 30 May 1922 that the appeal finished this morning. A most successful hearing.

He became in charge of Geraldton Harbour works and travelled to and from Geraldton

Harry was always a cause of worry to his wife and family. He once said that he wanted to marry a woman he met while in Geraldton.

Taking charge of the Geraldton harbour works meant that he now often travelled to Geraldton. His first trip was on Monday 26 June 1922, when Kate recorded, Dad left at 5 p.m. for Geraldton with Mr Carlin, till Thursday.

He was now travelling back and forth, but kept in constant touch with Kate. Between November 1922 and April 1923 he made nine trips away from home, most of them to Geraldton. Kate became worried during April when Harry failed to write. On 19 April she sent him an urgent, reply-paid telegram. She received the reply:

Quite Well. Cannot leave til Tuesday. Love Father.

On the first of May, the PWD informed Harry that he had officially been appointed Resident Engineer at Geraldton. His family remained in their new home at North Perth, and he continued to make trips to and from Geraldton, sometimes staying up there for lengthy periods.

On 4 August 1923 he returned from Geraldton and brought home a new banjo. Early in October, he had a telephone installed at the North Perth home. The technicians started installing the wires on the first of October, and completed the work on the fifth. Kate wrote the telephone number in her diary: "5784".

A small notice appeared in the Geraldton paper in October:

CATHOLIC CHURCH

St Francis Xavier's Cathedral


A Special Mass will be said at 10 o'clock on Sunday (the 21st inst) for the prosperous construction of the New Harbour Works.
He retired from the PWD in 1928
18 Public Works Department

Harry was not always pleased with his working conditions. For example, on 4 May 1926, Kate wrote in her diary, Pa came home in afternoon very disgusted with the Govt.'s treatment of him. He retired from the PWD18 on 30 April 1928.

Kate died in 1932, and he survived until 1948, when he died on the fourth of July. He was brilliant but eccentric and gave the family many problems through excessive drink

His daughter Dorothy said that her father was a brilliant but eccentric man. He gave the family many worries through excessive drink, and ruled the household as a true Victorian father. Although Kate kept a detailed diary, there are only oblique references to his drinking problems. For example:

Monday 25th November, 1918: Mr Burns brought Dad home and put him to bed.

In 1921 Kate wrote:

July 20: Had a bad night with Pa, so I stayed in bed all day....

July 21: Mr. Burns came up to see us at a quarter to 11 and again at 2 p.m. to let me and the girls go to town. . .

July 22: Not well so stayed in all day . . . I moved my bed into the back room, the girls fixed up for me.

July 24: Pa better.

And again:

October 6: Pa due home on 6.20 train. Dolly had a cup of morning tea ready for him - but no appearance - wire came from Pinjarra at 10.15 a.m. to say arriving 1.30 . . . Pa did not come home after the 1.30 train came in.

October 7: No sign of Pa. Maudie rang up a car at 10 a.m. and we went to see Mr Burns at office - who soon located Pa at Picton and promised to motor for him this evening . . . Burns arrived with Pa at 7.15. Maudie sat up with Pa all night. He gave her £1 in the morning.

October 8: Pa got better middle day. I amused myself making a new Will.


It is not clear that all these, and similar diary entries, related to Harry's drinking problems. Mr Burns appears to have been a younger man, with a young family, who worked in Harry's Bunbury office, and obviously helped Kate in times of trouble.

Harry made Horace his executor, but changed this when Horace was firm with him over his drinking problem.

Humfrey becomes Harry's executor.
Harry appointed his eldest son Horace as his Executor, but eventually became unhappy with this and asked his youngest son Humfrey to take over his affairs. Horace's daughter Jean19 recalled how this was due, in part, to her father's lack of sympathy for Harry's alcoholic binges:

Grandpa got Dad to handle his affairs, and Horace was his executor. But Grandpa went on these benders every now and again, and Granny would ring up Dad and ask him to come over to the North Perth house. Dad wasn't very sympathetic with Grandpa. If Harry was put in hospital, or if one of the other family members looked after him, they would wean him off the alcohol by watering it down, bit by bit. Dad didn't do this. He locked Grandpa in the bathroom, and said "There you are. There's a tap if you want a drink." He gave him a pillow and said, "You can come out when you are sober."

Dad would then return home, leaving him locked up all night. First thing next morning, before Dad went to work, he would go over to the house and let him out. One time Dad said that Grandpa was a cunning old devil. During the night he found a nail file and used it to file the wood around the lock. By the time Dad returned in the morning, Grandpa had just about got the door open.

Jean did not know how bad these binges were because it was kept very quiet in the family and the children were not told. Horace always wanted to keep such matters "Hush-Hush." Later Horace said to his daughter, "Pa didn't like me anymore. He's taken his affairs away and given them to Uncle Humf. He's executor now."

His daughter Dorothy related anecdotal stories about him.

20 15016F

21 16021M



ANECDOTAL STORIES

REVEALING

HARRY'S CHARACTER

Harry's youngest daughter Dorothy20 told her son John21 that her father was not a person you could ignore, and recounted several anecdotal stories:

Harry played the banjo and, with Kate at the piano, they entertained their friends, or gave an item at a concert. Sometimes he would wake up at two or three in the morning, sit up in bed beside Kate - who was trying to sleep - and practice his banjo.

Dorothy also said that the family had a difficult time when Harry bought a violin. Kate recorded this in her diary for 10 March 1923:

Dad came back from Geraldton at 10 a.m. He changed his banjo at Flight's for a violin, worth £17-7-0, this afternoon and bought a tutor to teach himself. I went to bed with a bilious attack.

He had a strong sense of humour, and always said what he felt, whatever the company. One afternoon in Bunbury when Kate was entertaining a group of friends, including Canon Adams, Harry walked into the room just as the vicar was taking a large bite of sponge cake. "Ah, Reverend," he said, with a mischievous glint in his eye, "about your Father's business as usual, I see."

Usually he went to bed at 10 pm and if Kate had friends in for the evening, he would come into the room precisely at ten, ostentatiously wind up the clock and pronounce, in a loud voice: "I don't know about you, Mother Darling, but I am going to bed." All the ladies would scurry home as fast as they could.

Once, when he was due to return from a bush camp, an amused boy delivered a telegram to Kate: "Hot Bath. Macaroni Cheese. 8.30pm."

He did not believe that everything in the newspaper was suitable for his children to read - especially the girls. So he cut out anything of which he did not approve. Dorothy and the others received the paper with little pieces missing.

When he studied the bible carefully, he cut out of it all those passages with which he did not agree.

22 This was to walk

diagonally across a busy street from one side to the other.

Many years later, in the early 1940s, long after his retirement, a photo appeared on the front page of the daily paper. This showed him, arm raised over his head, laying down the law to a young policeman. At that time a traffic law had been introduced forbidding people to "J-Walk"22 across the street. The police officer had caught Harry allegedly doing this in the centre of the city. Harry always spoke with great certainty and authority. He expostulated with the young policeman:

"J-Walking? J-Walking? I am not J-Walking, young man. I am walking along the street."

He was cautioned.



THE POSITIVE SIDE OF

HARRY'S CHARACTER



23 It seems that they permitted Eric to take a bank loan, lodging the title deeds of their North Perth home with the bank as security.

In spite of all his eccentric ways and problems, he did many things for his family, and Kate stuck by him and defended him always. Her diary reveals a strong positive side to him, as well as a negative. He and Kate appear to have helped their son Eric financially when he set himself up in business23. He also helped his daughter Maude financially when she and her husband Frank were first married, and bought a house in Goomalling.

Kate's diaries also reveal how she dealt with some of Harry's problems. For example, a cryptic entry in 1918 about "Whisky Tax" reveals that he had to pay her a tax of eight shillings every time he brought a bottle into the house!

He invented an ingenious Quay wall to minimise harbour silting

Dorothy said that, when her father was in Bunbury, he invented an ingenious quay wall to minimise harbour silting. Kate stated in her diary on 31 October 1917 that Harry received a wire calling him to Perth to see the Commonwealth Committee about his invention. Further diary entries followed:

12 March, 1918: Dad shewed the Harbour Board, Mayor, Jack Anderson and Mr. Paisley over the mole, also his patent and working model . . . .

16 March: An account of Dad's mole and quay wall invention in today's paper.

Unfortunately, Harry was egocentric and wished to claim total credit - and benefit arising from the invention - for himself, rather than share with colleagues. As a result he was thwarted by others, and nothing came of the idea.

Dorothy said that, after her marriage, whenever she came up to North Perth to stay with Harry and Kate, she would arrive at the house after a weary trip with small children. Even before she stepped in the door, Harry greeted her with the words: "When are you leaving?"



His granddaughter Jean recalled that sometimes, when she was eight or ten, the grandchildren gathered at the North Perth home if one of them had a birthday, or was up from the country:

Before long, Grandpa would have us all sitting round in a semicircle, cross legged, and he'd get these wretched peppermints out of his pocket and break them into about a quarter each, because he said they were very strong. We would have to sit and suck these peppermints while he played his banjo to us. That could have gone on until I was about ten, I suppose, from when I was little. We didn't dare speak, and I don't think we enjoyed it very much.

Jean continued:

I was terrified of Grandpa. I didn't say a word in front of him. Also, I didn't like it when he wanted to kiss me, because of his moustache. I remember when he was old my brother Bob once drove us to the home at which he was staying. I refused to go in because I thought he would kiss me. Then he came out to the car and kissed me.

Grandson Jim remembered him as an old man after Kate had died

24 16009M





25 1927 - 1929

In 1989, Jim Rumble24, Harry Rumble's eldest grandchild, recalled some memories of his grandparents:

I don't remember much of Harry pre-second world war. He and Katie used to visit us at 419 Rokeby Road, Subiaco, on a Sunday afternoon. He would leave sixpence or threepence for us. My mother, Isabel, would provide afternoon tea, then they would catch the tram back to North Perth. I would have been eight, nine or ten at that time25.

My father told me that he wondered how Harry kept his job with the PWD - but no-one ever knew, because he would be on drinking bouts, sometimes for days on end. They would find him thrown out of an hotel, or wherever it was, and he would be brought home in a horse and cart. Where they got the horse and cart from, God only knows.

He lived in a succession of boarding houses whose landladies took advantage of him

After Katie's death in 1932, he must have sold the North Perth residence; I can't remember where he took up residence then. I remember he visited my father's place at 2 Webb Street, Cottesloe. He then lived at John street, Cottesloe and got involved with some landladies - there was a little bit of shade around some of the landladies who would get hold of his pension. He used to discuss this with me. He bought one of them a car at one time; I remember my father telling me this.

I went to see him at his boarding house in John street; this rather fat woman, who was older than I, was there at this time. She was the one who had been getting at his money. Aunty Phyl also had said that he bought them a piano. The landladies would get all sorts of gifts out of him, plus money.

It was at this stage that this woman wouldn't have drink in the house. Harry used to get me to smuggle it in. Every Tuesday on my way to Fremantle for Rumbles Limited, as a Rep., I would call on him at a quarter to nine in the morning, and he would give me six times one and tuppence - or whatever the beer was in those days. This must have been postwar, since I would not have been allowed into a pub until I was twenty-one in those days. He used to get me to purchase this material for him. I would have my lunch at Fremantle, call back on my way through Cottesloe, and drop the grog off. Before I left he would pull the tops off the six bottles and put them in his wardrobe; they used to go flat and warm - he never refrigerated it.

Jim did his banking and bought him beer

On occasions, when I would call there on a Tuesday morning, he would have consumed the lot and have been without beer for a day or two. At that stage, since the woman wouldn't allow it in the house, he couldn't get out to buy it for himself. I would always bring it in a box - she would never know what I had there.



This went on for a few years. Always he would give me the great sum of two shillings and sixpence for my labour. I also did his banking: draw his money out of his savings bank: the Commonwealth Savings Bank in Fremantle. He always kept the passbook. Whether he strapped it to his waist to keep it out of the woman's sight, I do not know.

He never drank spirits, only beer. Always Emu Bitter, the other was too sweet for him. I always saw him each week, and the experience was repetitious. He would grizzle about his gout and get me to cut his toe nails, because he couldn't reach them. He wouldn't go to a chiropodist because that would always cost him money.

He had money, but he never gave anything to me. Except that he said he was going to die one night. I was called down there in a hurry, and he was convinced he wasn't going to last the night. I was given his beautiful barometer - which was his retirement present from the PWD. Then, when he didn't die in the next couple of days, he wanted it back. But, No Way! I've still got it. This was the only gift I had from him, other than the two and sixpence.

His only interest was

the bible

He had few interests. His only real interest was the bible - which he cut to pieces with scissors: pieces he didn't like he would cut out. After I married - this would be wartime - my wife Joan sometimes came with me to see him. He would greet her with: "What are you doing for the war effort?" This put Joan on the defensive since she said she wasn't doing anything much in those days, apart from working in the "colour patch" tea rooms and restaurant, where the proceeds were given to military camp comforts.

He went to stay at the Esplanade Hotel Fremantle

26 1946 - 1947

Following a difference of opinion, somebody got him to leave the clutches of this boarding-house woman. He went to live at the old Esplanade hotel in Fremantle. I called on him there for years26. He became quite frail 27 To give, or pay for

He was pretty frail at times. He would walk with a shuffle; always have slippers on. He would never come down into the street to see me off. I would always say "cheers" to him in his bedroom. He never shouted27 me a meal: never would I have had lunch there. There was just this two and sixpence given to me.
Once he got to the hotel I ceased buying him beer. It was supplied by the hotel, but it was always soft. He always took the tops off.
He was an eccentric. He would lecture me on religion and how he fought with this priest and with that, and he was swapping from one religion to another during the latter part of his life. He got back into Catholicism time and time again." His granddaughter Jean recalled that when he was staying at Cottesloe and, she thought, almost eighty years of age, he was sued for breach of promise. She did not know the details, but said:

It's only what I overheard, and I think it was in the paper. At this time Grandpa was receiving periodic payments from Granny's estate. Whenever the money arrived, he splashed it around, and his landlady thought he had plenty of money. One time when he got on one of his periodic alcoholic benders, she got a proposal out of him. Of course, when Grandpa sobered up, he wasn't having anything to do with it. The landlady sued him for breach of promise.

Other members of the family recalled that it cost Grandpa some money to get out of the difficulty.

Because of his domineering ways his children were reluctant to have him live with them, although he asked most of them to do this. He ended his days, a lonely man, in a boarding house in Rivervale. He died on 4 July 1948.

---

-PN- GN -FN- G SURNAME GIVEN NAMES CH.FNs BIRTH DATE

---

007A 14 004A F KNIGHT KATE ROSALINE 1866 10-16 (15. 3.1866)

R

Kate was born on 15 March 1866 in Christchurch New Zealand when her parents, Anthony Knight & Letitia Hochee, spent some years there after their marriage.

Kate & Mary run away

from boarding school





1 Oral Source: Kate's

youngest daughter Dorothy 16021AF

When the family returned to England, Kate and her younger sister Mary were sent to boarding school while they were very young. Mary became very homesick, so Kate decided that they would both run away from school and return home. This they did. When they arrived home, they received no sympathy whatsoever from their mother Letitia who forthwith packed them off straight back to boarding school1.

Kate married Harry Rumble in 1887

2 See entry for Harry

Kate married Harry Humfrey Rumble on 30 July 1887 at Greenwich. Both of them were then twenty-one. In 1881 her parents were living at 28 Hyde Gardens, Eastbourne, while Harry's parents were at 27 Hyde Gardens2.
The severe family quarrel
3 Oral Source: Joan Dougan

(16020AF) related the account given to her by her mother, Dorothy (15016AF)

We know very little of a family quarrel that followed. One account is as follows3:
Kate's parents decided that she should marry Harry Rumble, although at the time she did not particularly like him. However, Kate and Harry eventually fell in love. All seemed well until Harry decided to change his religion and become a member of the Plymouth Brethren. Kate's parents were horrified, and told her to break off the engagement, forbidding her to marry him. When, at the age of twenty-one, they married despite her parents' wishes, they threatened to cut her off from all inheritance, and her father refused to have anything to do with her.
We do not know whether this is a true account.
Oldest son, Horace (15010AM), said that he did not know the cause of the quarrel

In 1989 Horace Rumble spoke about the violent quarrel between Harry and other members of the Rumble family. He said:
I don't know why my Father left England: It was a mystery. In 1916 I visited a Great-Uncle of his. Apparently this uncle had found my father a job in the London County Council. I don't think he was a Rumble but, when I saw him, he was very old and very funny and he wouldn't have anything to do with any of the male members of the family.
When he heard that I was the son of Harry Humfrey Rumble - for whom he found a job - he saw me. You see, Harry Humfrey Rumble left that good job that had been found for him, without telling anyone. Something funny went on and I have never been able to find out why he came to Australia. There was some family quarrel. I could have asked my Granny, Letitia, when I was in England, but I wouldn't. I thought that if she wanted to tell me she would volunteer it. In the same way I could have asked my Mother and Father but, if they wanted to tell me, they would have. So I never found out why they came, but there was some family feud because I remember my father's brother, Bertie, once saying he was coming out to shoot my father - so it must have been a severe family feud.
4 Jean Warren (16005AF), daughter of Horace.  When Kate broke the silence and wrote to her parents, she was too proud to say they had lived in poverty
In 1897, Kate's younger brother Henry wrote a letter of Conciliation
Henry St.John Knight = 14015M

At some stage after settling in Australia Kate broke the silence and wrote home. Granddaughter Jean4 said:
Because Granny came from an affluent home with servants, she was too proud to tell them of the way in which they had lived in Sydney. She wrote home telling them she was doing well, and that they had servants of their own. This, of course, was untrue, as they were living in poverty. Later, when my Dad, Horace, visited Kate's mother Letitia in 1916, he told her the truth.
On 18 June 1897, after Harry and his family had arrived in Fremantle, Kate received a letter from her brother Henry St.John Knight. This started as follows:
I have just heard from Father of your present abode and address and also of the terrible experiences you encountered on your voyage to Australia presumably, I suppose, from New Zealand.
You must be anxious I know, as so many years have passed since we heard anything of you or you of us, to know the news at home. I feel so sorry that you have kept yourselves outside the family circle for so long but now I have your address and, as I bear no ill-will to either of you, I cannot but write and tell you what news I can remember since November 1889 - the last we saw of you. You must yourselves have had a very trying time but I earnestly hope that you have sought the Lord's guidance and not passed His love unheeded and that 'ere long we shall rest in the spirit of love.

Family Reconciliation in 1912.
5 Kate kept extensive diaries. In 1990 some were in the possession of John Fall (16021AM). Others were held by Miriamme Young (16014AF)
6 Anthony Knight(13007M) 7 Mary (14001F) Kate was reconciled to her family in 1912. Her diary5 records:

Friday 19 January, 1912: Long letter from Daddy6 - wrote a letter of reconciliation to my sister7.
Several lines in the diary following this were erased. Two days later she wrote a long letter to her mother, Letitia, recording this in her diary, but again erased a line or two that she had first written. Her father died a few months later, on 25 May 1912, although she did not hear of this until she received a letter from her mother on the third of July. Reconciliation with Harry's brother Bertie may not have been until 1920
8 Herbert (14001M) 9 Blanche (14008F) = Sister to Harry 10 Harry Humfrey Rumble

It appears, however, that Harry and his brother Bertie8 may not have resolved their quarrel for some years. On 28 November 1920, Kate wrote in her diary: Letter from Blanche9 and one to Pa10, that Bertie's affair is settled amicably at last.
On the 30 July 1912, Kate and Harry celebrated their silver wedding. Horace placed the following notice in the paper: Silver Wedding Anniversary on 30 July, 1912

RUMBLE - KNIGHT (Silver Wedding). - On July 30, 1887, at Blackheath, London, S.E., Harry Humfrey, eldest son of the late Henry Euean Rumble, of Eastbourne, Sussex, to Kate Rosaline, eldest daughter of the late Anthony Knight, of Vanbrugh Terrace, Blackheath. Inserted by their children Horace, Eric, Leslie, Maude, Humfrey, Phyllis and Dorothy, wishing them many happy returns of the day.
Kate wrote in her diary that day: The whole family came to Mass and Communion, kneeling together at the rails and immediately on our return home Horace brought me the daily paper, shewing me the advertisement of the Occasion, he had had inserted by all the children. Then breakfast and I opened all my presents, during which Doris and Hilda Hedges came in with another present from next door and stayed to see the fun.

Gifts they received
11 Harry Humfrey Rumble from my Daddy 11 gold Mizpah ring, satin eider-down quilt, wedding dress, cake, etc., etc, Horace  Silver and cut glass salad bowl and helpers. 1 dozen afternoon teaspoons, S.W. notice in paper.

Eric two silver and glass butter dishes

Leslie  silver thimble in case

Maudie a holy card and a lovely seal stole and pretty petti made by herself trimmed with Valenciennes lace and insertion

Humfrey a silver "golf-stick" hat pin

Phyllis

a holy card and silver butter knife

Dorothy a holy card and silver butter knife. She also received presents from several friends. Her diary entry continued:
After the presents, the boys went to work, but Maudie got the day off to decorate up the dining room. The table was partly finished when Les came home at noon and photoed it, but it was not so good as when finished at 3 o'clock, when Mrs Hedges came in to inspect and admired Maudie's blue ribbons, twisted with asparagus fern from the centre electric light to the four corners of the table, tied with bunch of jonquils and fern. At 5.15 I dressed in all my new bridal array, wearing one red rose Horace brought, and we sat down to the Wedding Breakfast an hour later, at which, by the uproar, all enjoyed themselves immensely.
News that nephew Freddie is going to New South Wales 12 Frederick (15018M) 13 See entry for Frederick Knight Later that year Kate received a letter from her mother on 20 November telling her that her nephew Freddie Knight12 had left Britain for New South Wales on the "Orama." Some years later, in 1919, she was to receive a letter from Freddie asking for financial help in setting up a farm13.
Kate's father dies in 1912. Matters concerning the Will 14 15015M

15 14013F When Kate's father, Anthony, died in 1912, he left his entire estate to his wife Letitia. However, on 11 February 1914, Kate received a letter from her brother Henry St.John14 enclosing an "Indenture" for her to sign, to provide something for Jennie15 out of her father's Will. Jennie was the wife of her brother Valentine who had died in 1904. Apparently Kate did not approve of this as her diary for 16 February records `Posted letter to Henry returning the 'Indenture' with a protest.'
Harry caused the family problems through excessive drink As shown in his own entry, her husband, Harry, caused many problems for his family through excessive drink. Kate and her children suffered through this, but she stood by her husband always, in spite of the difficulties and sufferings that he caused. Her diary does not record his drinking bouts, but there are several entries such as `brought Dad home', `Dad did not come home', or references to him being ill in bed that may be oblique references to his problems. Whenever he was away on jobs, they corresponded almost daily and they clearly had a close relationship.

How they spent their evenings She and Harry played the piano and banjo together. In the evenings they played cribbage or card games - always for a very small wager, and she recorded in her diary who won. Once, her diary stated that they had learnt a new game called "Rummy." When they lived at Bunbury, she held "At Home" days. In June 1917, the Bunbury paper had the following notice:
Mrs Rumble and Miss Maudie Rumble, left Bunbury for Perth today, and Mrs Rumble wishes to intimate to her friends that she will not be "at home" for a month.
Kate had a wide circle of friends and kept in close contact with all her children She made a wide circle of friends, and people were always coming in and out of her house. She was interested in gardening. As the family grew, and left home, they often returned to visit her. Kate kept in very close contact with them, either by letter, or by visiting them. Often on the train she sent packages of "goodies" to her children. Her children, on reflection in later life, considered her a caring, loving, and almost saintly person.

Horace went to the war. She and Harry campaigned for conscription.
AIF = Australian Infantry Forces While Horace was serving in the AIF overseas, she received his pay and banked it for him. In 1916 she and Harry campaigned for the introduction of conscription. On the thirteenth October Harry bought a 'Union Jack' flag and hung it on their front verandah to show they favoured conscription. On the sixteenth she attended a meeting on the subject at the Council chambers. The next day they went to the Lyric theatre in the evening to hear Sir John Forrest and Frank Wilson speak for conscription. On the evening of the twenty-sixth they went to an anti-conscription meeting in Bedford Hall. Next day they were at a meeting in the afternoon about the forthcoming referendum. That evening they went to a stormy meeting in the Lyric theatre that was addressed by Mr Thomas, MP and Mr Gardiner. Finally, on Saturday the twenty-eighth, she bicycled to the polling booth and voted "YES."
In 1920, Major Brearley in his aeroplane made an exciting appearance
Radio Aircraft were seldom seen in Western Australia in the early days, so their appearance caused much excitement. Kate wrote in her diary:
Saturday 24th April, 1920: We saw Major Brearley flying his aeroplane over Bunbury for the first time this morning . . .
Sunday 25th: (Dad) motored me to Leschenault fields in the afternoon to see the aeroplane start and return twice. Great crowds there.
Many technical changes took place between 1920 and 1930. The first radio station in Australia, 2SB, opened on 23 November 1923, and radio quickly spread in popularity. On 18 December 1925, Kate wrote in her diary:
Ted came in evening and accompanied Phyl to the Williams' to hear their `listening in' set.
In 1920 they had a Perth holiday from Bunbury. Harry had a poisoned foot. 16 Daughters
Lysol = Trademark. A clear, brown, oily liquid, a solution of cresols in soap; used as a disinfectant and antiseptic

In October 1920, Kate and Harry took the train to Perth for a week's holiday. They travelled on the afternoon train as far as Pinjarra where they broke their journey, staying overnight at Jackson's Hotel. Next morning they continued to Perth and booked in to a boarding house at 257 Hay street East at 30/- for six nights. Harry had contracted a poisoned foot and wanted to consult a Perth doctor. He also wanted to buy a new suit. Kate wanted to visit Maudie and Phyl16 who were working at the Children's hospital.

Harry's foot proved quite troublesome. Sometimes, after a walk, they returned to their lodgings to boil a kettle of water. He then bathed his foot in hot water and Lysol.

They often went to the (motion) pictures

While they were in Perth they went several times to the pictures. Going to the "Pics" was a very common outing in Bunbury. They usually went at least once a week. Sometimes, with a group of friends, they booked an entire row at the Lyric theatre. After the film, everyone returned to their home until quite late for supper and entertainment - music, recitations and games.
In 1921 Harry had three months' leave. They rented a cottage at Darlington
17 Eric = Second son, married to Isabel Anderson

Late in 1921 Harry took over three months' leave. In October they rented a cottage at Darlington for five weeks at 25/- per week. They took the train to Perth from Bunbury, stayed the night with Eric17 and Issie and then, next day, Kate wrote:
Saturday 22nd October: The motor came at 7.30 a.m. and we all went to Subiaco station, catching the early train for Darlington. Jack and Ralph Pilgrim were on the Subiaco station to see us before leaving for their house we are renting for 5 weeks. Changed at Midland Junction . . . We were all delighted with this house in the hills, it's so comfortably furnished . . .
They went for long walks, played rummy in the evening, had visits from family members on the weekends, and made frequent train trips to and from Perth.
Harry was then transferred to Perth from Bunbury . On their return to Bunbury, Harry discovered that the PWD had transferred him to Perth. He left almost immediately. Kate packed some possessions to take with her, while disposing of other items. She sold her dining table to Mrs Lloyd for £5, and two old iron beds were taken by Chadd's, who owned the shop next door, for £1. On 29 April 1922, Kate left Bunbury on the 2.30 p.m. train, to live at 317 Fitzgerald Street, North Perth. Before moving into their new house, they stayed at the Commonwealth hotel.

The following notice appeared in the paper:

Mr H. Rumble, accompanied by Mrs Rumble and his family, arrived in Perth from Bunbury last week. They will in future reside here. Mr. Rumble had been stationed for many years in Bunbury, as resident engineer of the Bunbury Harbor works.

In 1920 Kate learns of her mother's illness and death.
18 Mary Gerard Rawlinson (14014F) wife of

Frederick Knight On the 29 March 1920, Kate received a letter from her sister-in-law Mary Gerard Knight18 telling her that her mother, Letitia, was very ill. She immediately wrote back to Mary Gerard. On the fourth of May she received a registered letter from Letitia, enclosing a twenty-first-birthday letter and gold chain with diamond and pearl pendant for Phyllis. Another letter came from Mary Gerard on the twenty-eighth of June to say that Letitia was now expected to be a permanent invalid. On the twelfth of July Kate received a cable from her brother Fred stating that Letitia had died on the ninth. Kate pasted into her diary the death-notice she received:
Knight - On July 9th, Letitia Charlotte, widow of Anthony Knight, of 2 Vanbrugh Terrace, Blackheath, aged 85. An old and respected resident in Blackheath for about 40 years.
Kate received a copy of the local Blackheath paper with an account of her mother's funeral. Unfortunately the paper was not kept. The House at Vanbrugh Terrace was sold quickly, and her brother Fred sent her some postcards of the old family residence. Fred also sent her a power of attorney for her to sign concerning her mother's affairs and, on 15 November 1920, a small box arrived from Mary Gerard containing Kate's share of her mother's jewellery.

In 1922 she sent money towards the maintenance of her parents' grave On 30 March 1922 she sent a registered letter to her brother Henry St.John containing two guineas towards the cost of maintaining her parents' grave.
Kate received several legacies.
She received several legacies
19 13062M 20 14063M 21
This was possibly from Katherine Chapman, nee Knight (13061F)
22 Sydney (13039M) died in 1922. 23 see entry for Letitia Hochee (13007F) She noted in her diary the receipt of a legacy from "Uncle Henry" on 1 July 1915. She received a further £10.14.4d on 6 January 1916. It is presumed that "Uncle Henry" was Henry Knight19, a brother of her father, but it could have been Rev. Henry Shortland20, who married her father's sister, Alice. We do not know the date of death of these relatives. Kate was in the habit of referring to other people in terms of their relationship to her children. "Uncle Henry" could even refer to her brother who might simply be passing a legacy on to her.
She also received a small legacy of £25 on the third of April 1919 from "Aunt Kate"21.
In his Will, her Uncle Sydney Poole Lowdell22
, who married Henrietta Hochee, left £2,500 stg. to Letitia. However, Letitia died before Sydney. Under the provisions of Sydney's Will, the sum was then divided equally between Letitia's children. Kate received news of this from her brother Henry on 1 June 1922. Kate received about £500 sterling.
On 29 March 1921, she received a letter from Beaumont's, the family solicitors in England, regarding her mother's estate, and enclosing a cheque. Letitia left Kate an inheritance of about £1,70023. She also received another letter from Beaumont's regarding the estate of her grandfather, John Hochee, and enclosing another cheque.

Through various legacies Kate had a considerable estate of her own.

24 The Australasia Bank. Cooper was probably the manager. Kate thus had some means of her own. From her diaries it appears that besides some legacies as lump sums, she also received periodic income from England.
For example, her diary states:
1st. February, 1922: Biked to Cooper's Bank24 at 11, to get £28 awaiting me there from Beaumont's; 10th March, 1922: Letter from Beaumont's notifying my January money sent out, and the yearly account of estate. 25th January, 1923: Letter from London Lawyers, ½ yearly income sent.
Kate's Will provided her husband and children with income from her estate, but no share of its capital.
25 Maude had died in 1926

When Kate died, her private estate became the subject of a complex Will, drawn up, it was said, under the influence of Harry. Dorothy Fall said that her father did not want the capital of Kate's estate to go to her children. Under the terms of the Will, dated 14 March 1932, she gave £1,000 to her son Lesley who had become a priest. Half the annual income from the estate (or £120, whichever was the greater) was to be paid for life to her husband. Half the remainder of the income was to be shared between her two daughters25, and the other half between her other three sons. When any son died, his share went to his wife. When a daughter died, one half of her share went to her husband, while the other half was to be shared between all surviving grandchildren. As each child and their partner died, their share was to be divided between all the grandchildren. Only when the last child and partner had died was the entire estate to be converted to cash, distributed between all grandchildren, and the administration of the estate completed.

Kate's children were unhappy with this Will. It seemed much more reasonable that, at least on the death of both Harry and Kate, the estate should be wound up, and the capital distributed among all the children. In this way, each would receive a worthwhile sum. 

According to the terms of the will, the entire income was distributed each year. The Will made no allowance for inflation. As each year went by, the real value of the estate and its income declined. It was over sixty years before the estate was wound up and the capital sum, no longer of any real value, was distributed amongst a great many grandchildren.

She and Harry were received into the Catholic church in 1902

* From the 14th to 24th of April

We do not know the circumstances that led Kate and Harry to become Catholics.

In the back of one of her diaries she made the entry: Dad and I received into Catholic Church at St.Patrick's, Fremantle, by Rev.Fr.Cox in 1902. Dad on 18th January, myself  on 1st March.

From that time until April 1914 Kate and Harry went to mass almost daily. The family then moved from 102 Aberdeen street to 17 Heytesbury Road Subiaco, before which there is a ten-day gap in her diary* and following which there is no further mention of church.

There was no mention of church in her diaries during the years in Bunbury Through the years 1915 to 1922, when they were at Bunbury, there was no mention of church, but she and Harry had a social association with the Anglican clergy. It can only be presumed Harry had changed religion. Seven years later, in 1921, both started attending mass again. While they were holidaying at Darlington, Kate recorded that she attempted to go to confession and mass at Midland Junction with Harry, but finally felt too unwell to make the journey. On 18 December 1921 she wrote in her diary:
Rose at 6 a.m. and accompanied Pa to Mass and Communion in honour of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. My First Mass for seven years.

In 1921 Church again became a central part of her life She double underlined the last sentence. She and Harry then went to Mass on an almost daily basis, and the church again became a central part of her life. Kate noted her attendance at mass and the taking of Holy Communion in her diary. She established strong relations with St. Brigid's church and convent at West Perth. She carried on daily devotions. In the diary for January 1930 she made a marginal note:
Have several times missed saying the Litany of the Sacred Heart since getting ill health, that I have said regularly since 1922 - so determine from now to initial each day I say it to help me not miss any more.

Each of the following days has the initials "L.S.H." in the margin.

Declining health. 26 See entry for Maude (15013F)
Kate died of a heart attack on 31 October 1932

Official papers show Kate's second name as Rosaline but members of the family often called her Rosalie. Her oldest grandson, Jim, recalled her death
27 Jim (16009M) = Son of Eric Rumble (15011M)
See also the entries for her children, as these contain extracts from her diary.

In later years Kate was often unwell with a heart problem. When her daughter Maude died in October 1926 about a month after giving birth to her daughter Miriamme, Kate was very upset26. Kate and Harry looked after Miriamme for a considerable time until she was adopted by Phyllis after she married Ted Chown. Her diary entry for Sunday 1 December 1928 states: Too ill to get up - only Pa and Ted went to Mass. Phyl could not leave me and baby. They rang up doctor early and she came along about 11 a.m. and gave me a thoro' overhauling - heart trouble again thro' getting run down. Also patch on 1 lung accounted for my cough. She ordered anti-flo across my back and hot water bottles . . . Pa took baby's cot into his room tonight, and she only disturbed him once, so Phyl and Ted got a decent night's rest, she needed badly.

Harry kept the baby in his room for several nights, and on one night had to get up to her four times, and slowly Kate recovered.
Kate died of a heart attack on 31 October 1932. The following death notice appeared in the West Australian newspaper:

RUMBLE. - On October 31, 1932, Kate Rosalie, dearly loved mother of Horace, Eric, Leslie, Maudie (deceased), Humfrey, Phyllis (Mrs.E.J.Chown), and Dorothy (Mrs. V. G. Fall), and grandmother of Jean, Bob, Peter and Nancy; Jim, Ross and Elsa, Miriamme, Lesley and Ailsa, Joseph, and Joan and Jack.

In 1989, Jim Rumble27, Kate's eldest grandchild, recalled: Grandma died in 1932 and I remember this very well; it stuck in my memory - she was the first dead person I had ever viewed in my life. I was at Hale school at the time. I remember going in the morning of the funeral to a service in their lounge room. The priest and everybody was there, waving the smoke around. Everybody had to view the body and her face. She was dressed in white in a high collar, as she always had done: I never saw her in anything else; lying in her open coffin. We subsequently went to the funeral; there was Eric my father, myself, . . . I don't remember Ross being there, he was a bit on the young side. I remember that to this day, because of the shock to me of never seeing a dead person before.

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-PN- GN -FN- G SURNAME GIVEN NAMES CH.FNs BIRTH DATE

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001A 14 005A M RUMBLE HENRY SINGLE (1861?)

1 15016F

Son of Henry Euean Rumble & Grace Humfrey; his date of birth is not known, but Dorothy Fall1 stated that he lived only one or two months before dying. Dying as an infant, Henry did not have a will. However an ADMIN (or Administration) appears in the records for Henry. An ADMIN is not a Will. It is a legal document that allows someone (usually a relative or direct descendant) to take the property of a deceased person who had not left a Will. The Admin for Henry states:

RUMBLE Henry of Speen, Berkshire died 12 September 1863. ADMIN London 6th October to Grace de Brotherton Wall (Wife of Robert Wall) Effects £99 10s 2d.

The Admin shows Henry Euean Rumble as his natural and lawful fath The entry in the Index of Wills states:

Rumble, Herbert Montague of Ackriggs Fremington Devonshire who died 4 April 1942. Probate Llandudno to Mary Georgina Rumble Widow. Personal effects £164 11s 8d
 
MARY GEORGINA KNIGHT   (1872?)

3 Will obtained by Brenda Rohl 17033F in 1990
 

Mary, the daughter of Anthony Knight & Letitia Hochee, was probably born in 1872. In 1891 she married Herbert (Bertie) Rumble and had five children. Her sister Kate1 married Bertie's brother Harry. Mary died at Barnstaple, England on 3 April 1949. Her death, at the age of 77, is recorded in the parish of Barnstaple for the June 1949 quarter, reference 7a 259. In 1922 she inherited £500 sterling from her uncle Sydney Poole Lowdell2. Mary's Will3 is dated 27 October 1948. She was then living at "Two-Trees", 12 West Avenue, Sticklepath, Barnstaple, England. She made small bequests of personal items to her children, left her house and furniture to her son, Montague4, while the residue of the estate was divided equally between her five children.

The entry in the Index of Wills states:

Rumble, Mary Georgina of Two Trees, 12 West Ave Sticklepath Barnstaple Devonshire Widow who died 3 April 1949 Probate London to Lottie Georgina Williams5 (wife of Herbert Graham Richard Williams) and Cyril Fortescue Rumble6 Surveyor.

Personal effects £7,989 5s 2d.



[1] Has anyone seen or heard of this book or indeed the collections of Henry Euean, dispersed by his will, of which this may have been one? – Mark.R.

[2] I was in Ware for a medical meeting, 1998. The river runs along the back of the garden. Sylvia lived almost next door, the gardens were adjacent, Aunty Fra tells me. Tim and Jock lived at Hertford, and they were commonly visiting Saturdays and Sundays. All five played together. – Mark.

[3] Uncle of above Joseph, my father.

[4] My father and my Aunt inherited the two houses. Grandfather had lived in the first floor flat at 17 with Aunty Fra, at the time of his death, whilst my father had his dental surgery on the ground floor of no 19, and some equipment in the basement there. This was from when I was 4, so he set up practice there in 1951. Aunty Dorothy – Dorothy Chips, nee Edwards, my mother’s, aunt, lived in the top flat at no 17. She was a widow then, having married Jack Chips, a sea captain, who had previously been engaged, I understand, to my maternal grandmother Marjory Caesar, nee Edwards. Aunty Gladys, then widow of Jock, took up residence at no 20 on the first floor until she died. My grandparents, Leslie and Marjory Caesar took my fathers first floor flat at no 19 from when I was about 14, about 1961, and I lived with them about 6 months in 1963 whilst our house at Folkestone was being built, and my parents and sisters lived during that brief period in the basement of the same flat. At that time there were a large number of pictures by my grandfather Ernest in the basements of both buildings. Neither my parents nor Aunt had any idea what to do with these and they were almost all destroyed. All three relatives argue to this day as to who was responsible! Mark Rumble.

[5] See note 2, at least those ones are probably safe somewhere for posterity; perhaps more should have been given away. Mark Rumble.

[6]it appears; Aunt Frances told me they walked there in the woods, I have the sketch, the rest is inference. -Mark

[7] I added the last phrase as unexpressed – Mark.