Person:Alfred Borrill (25)

Alfred was born on 16th November 1883 at 4 Pedro St, Lower Clapton, Middlesex, UK. The 2nd of eight children to William Sherwood Borrill (1858-1944) and Agnes Mary Simpson.(1861-1944)

On the 1891 English census Alfred is listed as a scholar, living at home with his parents. Ten years later in the English Census of 1901, Alfred had started working as a plasterer, like his father and was living in his parents home at 55 Harriet St Paddington, London UK.

In December of 1901 Alfred’s older brother, William, married Maud Ethel Moody and a year later in December 1902 Alfred married her older sister, Annie Lilah Moody (1880-1906), daughter of George Moody (1831-1895) and Ann Ware (1844-1929)

Alfred and Annie had three children who were all born in Paddington, England.

On the 8th of July 1906, Annie died at the Samaritan Free Hospital for Women, Marylebone Road, London. Her death certificate does not say, however within the family there is an understanding that Annie died in childbirth.

When Alfred went to visit Annie in hospital he was met by his brother with the news about Annie's death and it is thought also a baby son. At this news Alfred threw the bunch of flowers down that he was carrying and left the hospital. After Annie’s death a friend made Alfred a banjo which he learnt to play.

Alfred left his daughters in England and emigrated to Australia in 1910 where he worked on the Murrumbidgee irrigation scheme. There was a family presumption that they stayed with family however they have been located on the UK 1911 census as residents at Williamson Orphan Home in Bath (Macaulay Buildings, Widcombe Hill) aged 8 and 5 years respectively.

During the first world war, Alfred enlisted as a Sergeant in the army on the 23rd August 1915 with the 3rd Pioneer Battalion, B Company. On his enlistment Alfred’s address is given as Walker Hospital, Parramatta River, New South Wales and his next of kin is his daughter, Miss 'Lelah' Borrill, 10 Macauley Street, Widcombe, Bath, England. Also listed is his occupation as a plasterer and religion as Church of England.

His unit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A62 Wandilla on 6 June 1916 and he served in Belgium and France before returning to Australia on the 25th August 1917, with the lesser rank of Corporal by his own request. During the war Alfred was in England on a couple of occasions. The photo of Alfred with his father and some of his brothers was likely taken during that time.

After the war Lilah and Alice, his daughters came to live in Australia for a time. It is thought that it was through his daughters that Alfred met Elsie May Henderson (1897-1971), daughter of Erasmus Henderson (1859-1934) and Agnes Sophia Williams (1864-1929), when she arrived in Sydney in 1920. Alfred and Elsie married in 1921 at Waverley, New South Wales, Australia and lived at Bondi. Alfred and Elsie had four children.

In 1923 Alfred and Elsie took a baby Gwen to visit family in England for a year or more. Providing Elsie's mother's newsagency as their postal address while in England. After returning to Australia they settled in Willoughby, New South Wales at 19 Third Avenue, where they raised their family.

Alfred took three significant falls in his life, one from a ladder and another from a roof and the biggest from a church steeple. He came through them all rather well, however the story about the church steeple is that on falling, work mates saw him bounce twice meaning that he hit the ground three times, yet he insisted that he was ok, and they helped him into his car where he then drove himself to hospital.

Alfred smoked tobacco, of the roll your own kind so that meant he always carried a tobacco tin and rollie papers. Bob Lehrer remembers going to hospital with his wife Kay, visiting Pop Borrill in hospital within his final weeks and with Kay on one side of the bed and Bob on the other, during that visit Alfred was telling Kay that he was going to give up smoking because it would probably end up killing him one day and then he would roll over to the other side of the bed and ask his grandson to roll him another one. Alfred died 2 years after Elsie on May 20th 1973 Lady Davidson Home, Turramurra, late of Willoughby, NSW, Australia.

Sources:

Daughter: Bunty Sainsbury

Grandson: Graeme Borrill

Grandson: Robert Lehrer

Grandson: Christopher Burton

Birth Certificate: BXB744858 District: Hackney County Middlesex

United Kingdom Census 1901

Pam Burton: Information from United Kingdom Census 1911

England, Wales: Marriages registered Oct, Nov, Dec 1902 [BOR – BOW] Hendon V.3a P.425

Nicholas Phillips: Copy of details from Annie Moody Death Certificate

The AIF Project: http://www.aif.adfa.edu.au:8080/showPerson?pid=27320

Australian National Archives: http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/explore/defence/service-records/army-wwi.aspx

The Welcome Wall: www.anmm.gov.au/ww

Shipping Records: Sydney to London, Arrive 14 April 1923

NSW Births, Deaths & Marriages; Marriage Index 12289/1921

NSW Births, Deaths & Marriages; Death Index 59170/1971 Elsie

NSW Births, Deaths & Marriages; Death Index 50480/1973 Alfred

1. ↑ .

   NSW BDM 50480/1973

2. ↑ Lady Davidson Home, Turramurra, late of Willoughby, NSW, Australia
3. ↑ Living with parents 1901