Uncle Charlie, Charles Kiernan Brassil, was born at Redfern in 1893, and died in Sydney on 11 July 1968.

He was a younger brother of Francis Michael Brassil (born 1890, our grandfather), and an older brother of Eileen Annie Brassil (Auntie Eileen).

Charlie never married. In 1930 he was apparently living at 129 Morehead Street, Redfern, along with his parents Patrick and Bridget (nee Kiernan) and two of his sisters, Marie and Eileen. This is according to the 1930 electoral roll. His occupation is listed as printer.

He did contribute to the fishing column of the Daily Telegraph at one stage, writing about the fishing in the Hawkesbury river.

The above are facts that I have found through the internet.

Next come the family stories, which I have found always seem to have a basis of truth in them, no matter how improbable they sound.

Charlie had apparently played a bit of Rugby League with the Rabbitohs in his youth in the lower grades.

According to dad, Uncle Charlie lost his job in the depression. The whole concept of being out of work was so alien that he had never experienced it before. He enjoyed it so much he never got a job again.

Dad reckoned that for a while Charlie became one of the blokes who sat on the low sandstone walls that still bound Hyde park. Sitting there, probably on Elizabeth Street near the entrance to St James Station, would have been a great place to watch the world go by.

Eventually Charlie moved onto a houseboat on the Hawkesbury. He would now and then visit Sydney, carrying the things that mattered to him in a hessian bag – a jar of instant coffee, a jar of sugar, and a history of South Sydney Rugby League Football Club.

Eventually the houseboat sank and Charlie moved into a cave on the Hawkesbury and lived there for a while.

He moved back to Sydney. I know that he was living with our Auntie Maria (and her husband Tony and children Antoinette and Antigone) at their house in Edgecliff – I saw him there one day when we were visiting. This was the only time that I saw Uncle Charlie (that I remember), and I remember that I was very impressed that this almost mythical relative actually existed! I suspect that this was not all that long before his death