Blackman Info 2i: Ernest claxton (Gus) Blackman 1884 - 1955 |
Ernest claxton (Gus) Blackman 10th child of Mary jane Cox and George Blackman
b.16jun1884
d.09may1955 aged 70
|
m.05jun1909
|
Elsie gwen daughter of Mary Jane Pearce (1861-1961)
Davies who married George Davies (1860-1925) on 04apr1883
b.12aug1886
d.05mar1963 aged 76
|
| Children born Stawell, Victoria
|============|============|============|============|===============|===========//=
Albert Stella Ernest Leslie Victor (Mick) Walter
arthur (Al) irene claxton jnr. (Jake) charles pearce (Cookie)
b......1909 b.16nov1910 b.13jun1912 b.18aug1914 b.23feb1916 b.27feb1918
d.07may1972 d.15may1992 d.21jun1998 d.08feb2000 d.15sep1994 d.24apr1996
| | | | | |
m......1941 m......1936 m.22dec1938 m1......1938 m......1940 m......1944
| | | | | |
Margaret Charles Maud (Dolly) Joan Lilah Daphne
elvie ferdinand evelyn rennie evelyn Elliot
Burns Krus(z)e Bell Inglis Cock
b......1913 b. b.12aug1917 b. b.05may1916 b.....~1922
d......1970 d. d.09jul1997 d. d.28nov1986 d.13may2012
| | | |
|==========|| | |============|==========|| |============|==========||
Eon arthur | Robert Brian Frederick Beverley
| charles leslie pearce faye
b.....~1942 | b.....~1941 b.....~1946 b.10may1948 b.....~1959
| d. d.22dec1995
|============|==========|| | |
Thelma Gary james m......1962 m.....+1963
| |
Jocelyn alice Jill dawn
Nickles
=//|============|================|==========||
Robert Lorna Hazel
james victoria elsie
b...apr1919 b.24may1922 b.06apr1924
d.10jul1920 d.28aug2001 d.15oct1991
********* | |
m...oct1950 m......1950
| |
George Edward
McCann george
Hutchings
b.13sep1922 b......1917
d.22sep2001 d.02oct1980
| |
|=======|=======|======|======|| |==========||
Julie Kerrie Gayle Trevor Gregory edward
b.....~1951
| Ernest Claxton (Gus) BLACKMAN was born in Stawell on 16 June 1884
(Vic BMD 20766/1884).
Elsie Gwen DAVIES was born in Stawell on 12 August 1886 (Vic BMD 22275/1886): a twin of Elizabeth ann DAVIES. She married Ernest Claxton on 05 June 1909 in Stawell (Vic BMD 3066/1909). Right: Elsie Gwen Blackman (Dolly) Source: Vivien Bugden |
 |
The Australian Electoral Roll 1903-1977, available on Ancestry, records their homes and occupations in the 1913/1914 Rolls as:
In 1916 they were living in Skene Street, Stawell and in 1919 and 1922 in Cemetery Road, Stawell. In the 1924 and 1927 Roll, Elsie and Ernest had moved to Sheriff Street, before moving to Napier Street in 1931, though Albert Arthur, a pastry cook, lived with them and had the right to vote, he had moved by 1936.
The Electoral Roll records their homes and occupations in 1937 as:
Their son was also living in Stawell:
In the 1942 Roll there was a change of address:
In 1949 their children were living at:
In 1954 the couple and one son remained in Sheriff Street.
| Ernest Claxton Blackman, died in Stawell on 09 May 1955 (Vic BMD 19445/1955)
and his wife Elsie Gwen, on 05 March 1963, also in Stawell, (Vic BMD 4901/1963).
Right: Ernest Blackman's home at 32 Shirreff Street |
 |
 |
| Above: Ernest Blackman's grave with his wife Elsie and
son Robert Source: Vivian Bugden's Ancestry Shields/Bugden Public Members Tree (Accessed: 25 July 2023) |
Other Blackmans in Stawell
Children born in Stawell:
Albert Arthur BLACKMAN (Al) - Ernest and Elsie's first child
Al was born in 1909 (Vic BMD 30990/1909) and died on 07 May 1972 (Vic BMD 9685/1972) . In 1941 he married Margaret Elsie BURNS in Stawell (Vic BMD 14462/1941) who was born in Deniliquin NSW in 1913 (NSW BMD 3784/1913) and died in Parkville aged 57 (Vic BMD 15559/1970).
The Australian Electoral Roll 1903-1977, available on Ancestry, records their homes and occupations. From 1931 to 1937 Arthur was living at home:
In the 1942 Roll he was married but the couple were recorded as living at separate addresses in the same road:
The 1949 Roll is illegible but in 1954 there was a new home:
In 1958 the couple had moved within Thornbury:
In 1963-68 a change of address and employment and were joined by a son:
Stella Irene BLACKMAN - Ernest and Elsie's second child
Stella Irene was born 16 November 1910 (Vic BMD 30828/1910). In 1936 she married Charles Ferdinand KRUZE (Vic BMD 7943/1936). Stella Irene died on 09 May 1992 (Vic BMD 12992/1992).in Stawell aged 81. There is no obvious record in Vic BMD of Charles KRUSE's birth or death.
The Australian Electoral Roll 1903-1977, available on Ancestry, records their homes and occupations in 1936-54:
| Right: The Kruse's home at 7 Service Street, Sunshine |  |
In 1963-77 there was a change of address by 4km and occupation, but still within Melbourne:
Ernest Claxton (Gus) BLACKMAN jnr - Ernest and Elsie's third child
| Ernest Claxton BLACKMAN was born on 13 June 1912, (Vic BMD 24485/1912)
and died on 21 June 1998. There is no obvious record of his death. On 22 December
1938 he married Maud Evelyn BELL (Dolly) (Vic BMD 16189/1938). Dolly was born
in 1917 in Stawell (Vic BMD24623 /1917) on 09 July 1997.
Right: Ernest and Doll Blackman's headstone in Stawell Cemetery Source: Ancestry Vivien Bugden |
 |
The Australian Electoral Roll 1903-1977, available on Ancestry, records their home and occupation, within the Stawell textile industry, between 1949-68 as:
In 1972 they had moved house:
By the 1977 Roll Ernest Claxton jnr. had moved house again:
In the same year they are recorded living through to 1980 at:
| with his sister Ruby living in Wakeham Street.
Right: Gus Blackman home at 87 Cooper Street, Stawell |
 |
In 1980 their son and his wife were living at:
Leslie BLACKMAN (Jake) - Ernest and Elsie's fourth child
Leslie BLACKMAN was born on 18 August 1914 (Vic BMD 26519/1914).
Leslie (jake) Blackman 4th child of Elsie and Ernest
b.18aug1914
d.08feb2000
br.15mar2000 Springvale Botanical Cemetery public plot
|
m1......1938 Victoria .... m2......1952? Widow of William Jack Niquet 1913-1950 (m.1938)
| |
Joan rennie Elizabeth stella
Inglis Niquet née Young of Kooyong, Hawthorn
b.......1919 b......1912 Stawell
d. d.25jan2011
In 1938 Leslie (Jake) married Joan Rennie INGLIS (Vic BMD 16902/1938), who was born in Ararat in 1919 to Robert Cook INGLIS and Jessie Rennie née CUMMING. At an unknown date and for an unknown reason the marriage ended with a Joan Rennie BLACKMAN marrying Augustine PRENDERGAST in 1959 (Vic BMD 10264/1959). Leslie married Elizabeth Stella NIQUET née YOUNG born in Stawell in 1912 (Vic BMD 7317/1912) to Peter Francis YOUNG and Margaret Isabel née LESLIE
Jake BLACKMAN, enlisted on 01 October 1940 in the 2nd AIF artillery at Royal Park, Melbourne as a single labourer and Methodist with service number VX51150, however his medical was not until 12 March 1941. His next if kin was Joan Rennie of 72 Carlysle Street in East St. Kilda, though on 14 October 1944, this was later changed to 56 Wilgan Street, East St Kilda.
He embarked from Sydney on 26 June 1941 disembarking in the Middle East on 27 July 1941 attached to the third battery designated 62nd Battery of the 2/12 Field Regiment as an acting Grade III gun layer. The battery arrived in Palestine in December 1940 and stayed until March 1941, based at Qastina. The regiment subsequently undertook three major battles in the North African campaign, seeing action during the Siege of Tobruk (1941) and then the First (01-27 July 1941) and second Battles of El Alamein (23 October-11 November 1942). These were punctuated by a period of garrison duty in Lebanon between January and June 1942, where the regiment formed part of the occupation force established there after the defeat of Vichy French forces during the Syria-Lebanon Campaign. The unit acquired twenty-four 25-pounders and 36 tractors. The 2/12 returned to Australia on 28 February 1943.
On 21 May 1942 Leslie was confined to barracks for four days for failing to appear on parade. On 02 July 1944 Leslie was again AWL for 14 days for which he was fined £5 (equivalent to A$380 in 2022 CPI) and forfeited 26 days pay. He was again absent from parade on 20 November 1944 for which he received seven days confined to barracks.
| On 10 September 1944, Leslie was confined to the 2/1 Australian Casualty Clearing
Station (CCS) Milne Bay, PNG, with malaria for nine days and on 28 September 1944 to
the 2/1 CCS with a fracture to his right wrist, which necessitated evacuation to 2/6
Australian General Hospital at Rocky Creek, Qld, before being discharged from the 9
Australian Rec Camp on 11 September 1944.
Right: 2/6 Australian General Hospital at Rocky Creek in 1944 |
 |
In January 1943, the regiment returned to Australia aboard the transport Ile de France as part of the final of the transference of Australian ground troops from the Middle East to the Pacific.
| After leave, in April 1943, the 2/12th re-formed at Kairi, on the Atherton
Tablelands of Queensland. On 06 March 1943 Leslie disembarked in Cairns where, on 31
July 1943 he was AWL for six days for which he was fined five days pay and £5. On 09
September 1943 he embarked on USS Henry T Allen bound for Milne Bay in Papua
New Guinea where the 2/12 served until 07 March 1944. The 2/12 subsequently took part
in landings around Lae and then Finschhafen in September 1944.
Right: USS Henry T Allen |
 |
Once Finschhafen was secured, the regiment's guns support the attack on Sattelberg from the coastal plain. They saw action during the Huon Peninsula campaign before returning to Australia in early 1944. After a year-long interlude training around Ravenshoe, Queensland, the regiment undertook its final campaign of the war in 1945, providing fire support during the Battle of North Borneo. On 18 May 1945 Leslie embarked at Townsville on the Frederick Lykes and disembarked at Morotai as a Grade II gun layer. From there the unit embarked for service in British North Borneo between 26 April 1945 and 17 December 1945. Despite his brushes with authority, on the 24 August 1945, Leslie was promoted to Bombardier . During the landing on Labuan two troops of the 2/12th came ashore alongside the assaulting infantry in LVTs (Landing Vessels Tanks), something the Australian Army had not done before. 1
He was AWL again for four days on 03 January 1946 and lost two days pay. Later in the month, on 22 January 1946, Leslie was demobbed, having served 1778 days of which 1096 days were overseas. There is no record of Leslie medal entitlement but it would be the 1939/45 Star, Africa Star, Pacific Star, Defence Medal and the War Medal. At the end of the war, the regiment was disbanded with its last war diary entry being made on 1 March 1946. 2
During the war, whilst Leslie was away, the Australian Electoral Roll 1903-1977, available on Ancestry, records Leslie's wife in 1942 as living at:
Between 1949-54 Leslie was living at home:
His wife, doesn't appear in any other Electoral Rolls and there is no obvious record of her death.
Jake died on 08 February 2000 and was buried on 15 March 2000 in Springvale Botanical Cemetery in a public plot (Grave Memorial ID: 231261987).
Victor Charles BLACKMAN (Mick) - Ernest and Elsie's fifth child
Victor Charles BLACKMAN was born on 23 February 1916, (Vic BMD 7540/1916). In 1940 he married Lila Evelyn COCK, (Vic BMD 1503/1940), who was born in Ararat on 03 May 1916, (Vic BMD 8479/1916) to James Alfred COCK and Rosalie née SANDY.
The Australian Electoral Roll 1903-1977, available on Ancestry, records his home and occupation in the 1937 Roll as:
In the 1942/1949 Rolls, Victor Charles was married and lived in Dimboola, a railway town on the Wimmera River, 100km north-west of Stawell:
In the 1954 Roll they had moved into Melbourne:
In the 1963 Roll they had been joined by a son:
In the 1967/1968 Rolls the couple had moved again, perhaps still related to his railway employment and had been joined by another son:
In the 1977 Roll the couple had retired and moved again to the banks of the Murray River:
which once overlooked the railway sidings and now redeveloped for light industry.
Lila Evelyn BLACKMAN died on 26 November 1986 in Swan Hill, (Vic BMD 1503/1940) on the Murray River on the Victoria/NSW border, 155km north-west of Echuca. She was buried in Swan Hill Cemetery, Lawn A,S,18. Victor Charles died on 15 September 1994 and was buried in the same plot.
Walter Pearce BLACKMAN (Cookie) - Ernest and Elsie's sixth child
Walter Pearce BLACKMAN was born on 27 February 1918 (Vic BMD 6925/1918). He married Daphne ELLIOT in early 1944 (Vic BMD 7280/1944). There is no obvious record of Daphne's birth.
Walter enlisted in Melbourne as VX13742: a Methodist and labourer; a single man registered at 32 Shirreff Street, Stawell. His Attestation signature appears to be shaky. At some date his next of kin was changed to his wife Daphne living at Hawarrar(?).
| On 15 September 1940 he embarked overseas on HMAT S2 but failed
to re-embark at Fremantle and was posted AWL for one day for which he received 28
days detention and one days pay amounting to 145 shillings (equivalent to A$640 in
2022 CPI) . He proceeded overseas on 7 October 1940 on HMAT New Zealand bound
for Palestine to be taken on the strength of 2/8Bn, a family battalion from World War
One. On 25 March 1941 he embarked for Greece. On 22 July 1944 he was found guilty of
being drunk in camp and was fined £1.(equivalent to A$88 in 2022 CPI).
Walter had several incidents of hospitalisation. On 03 January 1942 he was evacuated to 2/2 Field Ambulance, at Hill 69 Syria (?) with tonsillitis and was later transferred back to 2/8Bn. On 02 April 1942, Walter embarked for Middle East on the Aronda, but on 22 May 1942 was evacuated to 9/General Hospital with Paronychia an infection of the skin around the nail. Even in hospital he was fined £1 for failing to appear on parade. He rejoined 2/8Bn on 23 July 1942. His record contains no further offences. but further hospital visits on 12 June 1945 to 104 Casualty Clearing Station (CCS) at Wewak, with a traumatic ulcer on his shin, rejoining his unit on 01 August 1945. 3 Left: Walter Pearce Blackman from his 1940 Attestation papers |
 |
It is likely that Walter was involved in the fighting around Vevi (April 1941) in northern Greece, Chania region of Crete and around Perivolia and Mournies in late May/June 1941. At the Battle of 42nd Street, on 27 May 1941 the under strength 2/8Bn, 2/7Bn and Maoris established a defensive line along the Hania to Tsikalaria road (Tsikalarion) south-east of Chania, forming a rearguard for the withdrawing troops. As a German battalion advanced the German troops were seen emerging through the olive groves, the Anzacs let loose.
| They charged the 400 Germans and in just 12
minutes it is estimated they killed or incapacitated 300 of of the enemy for
a loss of just 12 of their own – many in hand-to-hand combat. The Germans broke and
ran. The sheer ferocity of the rearguard action drove the enemy back as much as a
mile as the blood lust among the Anzacs was let loose.
Right: Forty Second Street map showing the location of the 'street' and Walter's 2/8Bn |  |
| There were reports that the commanders lost control of their men for
a time as they put the enemy in fear of their lives.
The Anzac defenders' bayonet charge inflicted heavy casualties on the German attackers, forcing them to withdraw so briefly halted the German advance before the 2/8Bn were evacuated. Right: Forty Second Street sign Source: AWM P03731.001 |
 |
After a period of garrison duty south of Darwin, the 2/8Bn was deployed to the Aitape-Wewak region of Papua New Guinea from 12 November 1944 where they secured the area around the Driniuor River, Danmap and Luain areas. In late March 1945 they moved to But and then joined the advance to Wewak, which fell on 10 May 1945. On 10 June 1945, the battalion began preliminary actions to secure the Japanese strong hold on Mount Shiburangu. The approaches were secured over the course of a week with artillery and flamethrowers being used to help overcome the Japanese bunkers, and on 27 June 1945 the battalion assaulted the summit. This was the battalion's final major action of the war. The battalion's final combat operations of the war came in late July during patrol operations around Hambrauri, to the south-east of Wewau, after which they were relieved and moved back to Wewak. 4
Walter embarked from Wewak on 03 September 1945 bound for Brisbane. He was discharged from Puckapunyal, in central Victoria, on 30 October 1945 after 1976 days of service of which 846 were overseas with an entitlement to the 1939/45 Star, Africa Star, Pacific Star, Defence Medal and the War Medal. 5
The Australian Electoral Roll 1903-1977, available on Ancestry, records their homes and occupations in the 1949 Roll with Walter living at home separated from his wife:
In the 1954 Roll, Walter was married and employed in Stawell's textile industry:
In the 1968-80 Roll, though alive, Walter is not recorded with Daphne, though a daughter is:
Between 1977 and 1980 their son is recorded in Melbourne as:
With the appreciation of the research by Lee Dahl (Accessed: 25 June 2023)
Robert James BLACKMAN - Ernest and Elsie's seventh child
Robert James was born in April 1919 (Vic BMD 7159/1919) and died on 10 July 1920 (Vic BMD 12324/1920) in Stawell.
Lorna Victoria BLACKMAN - Ernest and Elsie's seventh child
| Lorna Victoria was born on 24 May 1922 (Vic BMD 17196/1922) and died on 28
August 2001. In October 1950 she married George McCANN (Vic BMD 20632/1950)
who was born on 13 September 1922. There is no obvious record of their deaths in
Vic BMD.
Right: The McCann headstone in Pleasant Creek/Stawell Cemetery Photo: Mike Kennedy |
 |
The Australian Electoral Roll 1903-1977, records their homes and occupations in the 1954 Roll as:
Between 1963-68 they had moved house to:
In 1977-80 they were living just up the street at:
| Right: The McCann's home at 6 George Mitchell Square, Stawell |  |
Hazel Elsie BLACKMAN - Ernest and Elsie's eighth child
| Hazel Elsie was born on 06 April 1924, (there is no obvious Vic BMD Record)
and died on 15 October 1991 (Vic BMD 26686/1991) in Stawell aged 67, which
confirms her Blackman heritage. In 1950 she married Edward George HUTCHINGS
(Vic BMD 12004/1950) who was born in Stawell in 1917 (Vic BMD 7507/1917)
and died in Stawell in 1980 aged 66 (Vic BMD 23437/1980).aged 63 years.
Right: Hazel and Edward HUTCHING's headstone in Stawell Cemetery Source: Ancestry Vivien Bugden |
 |
The Australian Electoral Roll 1903-1977, available on Ancestry, records their homes and occupations in the 1963-80 Rolls as:
In 1972 their son was registered at the same address:
| Right: Hutchings home at 19 Griffith Street, Stawell |  |
End notes:
 |
 |
 |
|
| This page was created by Richard Crompton and maintained by Chris Glass |
Version A7 Updated 24 September 2023 |
||