Friday 16 February 2018

Lionel Edgar Laws family story Part 3 1923-1934


Continuation of the Lionel Edgar Laws family story as told by Frank Goodall Laws to his children Helen, David & Alan

Your Mum, Marjorie Stay spent four years at the Ipswich Grammar School.  She returned home at the end of the school year.  She passed her Senior and was keen to go to University but her parents said they could not afford it and she was forced to finish school.  She obtained a job in the office of the Allora Butter Factory as Assistant to the Manager and after a while just about ran the office. She kept this job until she left to get married.  She and I became friendly a year or two after she came home from Grammar.  She was a very good tennis player and had a good singing voice.  She was keen on her  Presbyterian church and belonged to the Choir and Guild and was organist for some time.

Victor, Frank, Fred, Colin and Jack all played football at Allora.  Victor gave it up after a few years because of a knee injury.  I played for three years and also injured my knee, spelled for a year and played for another year and gave it up permanently.  Fred continued to play. He shifted to Warwick Daily News and started his plumbing trade later.  He played in Warwick and was first picked to play for Queensland in 1925. The following year shifted to Toowoomba. He continued his trade and played representative football until 1935. He represented Queensland every year from 1925 to 1935 and played in three or four Test Series and toured England twice in 1929 and 1933.  Colin played with Allora for a  few years after I finished.   He also Played for Toowoomba with Newtown Club. He represented Queensland in five consecutive years.  He just missed a tour of England.  Jack played local football also.
Laws Bros in Allora and Warwick Rugby League teams

When my sisters were both away it meant that my mother had less help in the house.  At this time my father undertook to do a lot of work around the house before and after his work.  We boys also helped.  However, during 1924 my sister Lil gave up nursing temporarily to come home to help.  Up to 1925 my father told me that he was able to get by on his salary but was unable to save for his future and that my brother Lionel approached him to resign his position on the Shire Council and go in partnership with him and they would contract for Main Roads jobs.  They agreed.  Main Roads work by contract at this time was increasing.  The first job they obtained was a contract to build a road at Killarney which would take 12 months to build.  This was a big venture. Dad decided to shift his place of abode from Allora to Killarney which he did in May 1925.  Mum, Dad, Aunty Lil and Aunty Thelma set up house in Killarney.  Colin and I had a job at Barnes and Co Allora and Jack was employed at the Allora Post Office.  We three took board at the Commercial Hotel It was a severe jolt for us living away from home and I’m sure it affected my mother also. However we settled in and were fortunate that Mrs Dodd, the wife of the Hotel Proprietor, was very kind to us and kept a motherly eye on us especially if we showed signs of being sick.
Note the motor vehicles in use now.

The contract at Killarney was a success.  My mother took ill with Dengue fever about March 1926 and was dangerously ill for some time.  She recovered.  The Killarney contract finished in June. My father, Uncle Lionel and Uncle Vic who was working for them all decided to shift to Toowoomba and set up house.  My father rented a house in Russell St and nine months and later purchased a home in James Street.  Uncle Lionel purchased his home when he first went to Toowoomba in Mary Street where he still lives but he has improved it considerably. 
Lionel & Bessie's home, Toowoomba
Uncle Vic also bought a home. At this time I resigned my job at Allora and secured a job at Barry and Roberts in Toowoomba and I shifted down about the same time as my parents and again I was living at home. Fred also came home to live.

My reason for shifting to Toowoomba was to live at home and I thought I had more opportunities in a larger city.  I reckoned that I had left Allora for good but this was not to be.  Since I left Barnes & Co other changes had taken place. 
Barnes & Co Allora ca 1918  *1
A new manager took over and the head of groceries and hardware had left to go into business on his own in Roma.  The new manager heard that I was spending Christmas 1926 vacation in Allora and he asked me to call and see him.  This I did and he offered me the job to take charge of groceries and hardware depts.  I did not want to return to Allora to live as I had hoped to have a home in Toowoomba.  However I considered the promotion was worth the sacrifice. Something I have not regretted.  I returned to hotel life for three months then Mum and I decided to get married 2nd April 1927 and settle down. We were 
lucky to rent a house almost new in Geck St and this is where we lived for the next six years.

About this time Uncle Jack resigned from the Post Office and worked for Uncle Lionel and my Dad and he (Jack) lived at home in Toowoomba.

For three years after I returned to Allora things were reasonably good. In 1929 things overseas deteriorated and the Great World Depression came.  The full impact was felt here in 1930 and 1931 and into 1932. You have probably read of this and need no reminding of it.

(Note added by Helen.  While working at Barnes and Co Dad had the top of one of his fingers cut off by a bacon slicer.  He got 16/8d compensation and two weeks wages calculated by averaging weekly wage for two years)   

I was lucky that I had full time employment during this period.  I had received two small increases in my wages .  I had to go back to the wages I started on when I went back to Allora.  We had a few pounds saved up and we owed no money so we got along alright.  Aunty Jess resigned from St Martins and was appointed a Sister at Warwick General Hospital.

Later she did private nursing in Warwick.

Later she went home to care for Mum.  Then Aunty Lil was appointed theatre Sister at St Dennis Hospital in Toowoomba and acted as Matron several times during her 5 or 6 years there.  My mother’s health was indifferent most of the nine years she spent in Toowoomba but were enjoyed by her.  She had most of her family near her.  Although my Father had to go away from home during the week to work.

The depression years brought reduced work in the contracting field. I believe they always had some work to carry on with.

Uncle Fred toured England with the Kangaroos Rugby League side in 1929/30 and again in 1933/34 ( Read a letter he wrote to E J Portley Warwick at http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article177641624)

Uncle Colin Laws was married to Katherine O’Neill in October 1930.  They lived at Allora (Aunty Kit).

About this time Uncle Lionel bought his farm at East Greenmount over 600 acres.

At Christmas it looked like inflation would run rampant. However we came out of the depression badly scarred.  Many people who lost their jobs during this time never regained the pre depression status they had. Some were too old to start.  This was a man made depression.

By 1933 things were returning somewhat towards normal.  Early in June 1933 I learned that there was a vacancy at Warwick for a representative of the Shell Company of Australia Ltd.  I applied for this job and secured it.  I gave Barnes & Co two weeks notice and started with Shell in Brisbane on 19 June 1933 (for one week) and then a week later I started at Warwick.  In the meantime I purchased a new Plymouth Car, a tourer. (it being the cheaper type) for 351 pounds. It took all my savings plus a loan of 40 pounds from Mum which I soon repaid.  This job improved my income very considerably.  Uncle Colin Laws helped me pack our furniture and effects and we shifted to Warwick in 1st July and from this time we took up residence there our first place of residence was on the corner of Albion and King Sts (next to Carlsons) in a house belonging to the Warwick Electric Light Co.

As representative I actually represented the Company in my territory known then as Warwick Territory which extended beyond Killarney part way to Stanthorpe beyond Allora in the north including Clifton. Shell had a depot in Warwick which was run by a Depot Superintendent a clerk and a driver.  I wasn’t responsible for the running of the Depot but was responsible for the company sales in my area.  I soon learnt my new job as far as company policies and procedures were concerned but I was still learning things about my actual job 9 years or so later when I was transferred.

We had a number of dry lean years in parts of my territory.  As a big portion of our sales were made to primary producers this did not make my job any easier. 

I was 29 years and eight months old and Mum  a few months older when we moved to Warwick Helen was 3 years 8 months, David was 3 months.  Fortunately for the first seven years at Warwick I was able to be home every night with odd exceptions.  I was able to trade in my car every two years and buy a new model.  Shell Co supplied all petrol for business and private running.  Each Christmas brought an increase in salary.  I received two weeks holidays a year when I first went to Warwick and after 3 or 4 years this was increased to 3 weeks per year.  We were able to take holidays at the seaside every Christmas.  The first of these was in December 1934.



*1 Photo 

John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland

    http://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/SLQ:SLQ_PCI_EBSCO:slq_digitool454471









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