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.
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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.
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| Lionel & Bessie's home, Toowoomba |
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| Barnes & Co Allora ca 1918 *1 |
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
*1 Photo
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