Francis Michael Brassil
Frank was born on 30th December 1890.
There’s a couple of interesting things about this birth certificate. It says that his father Patrick is 31 – hence born in 1859 – and his mother Bridget is 29 – hence born in 1861.
Now Bridget was in fact born in 1855 – there is no doubt about this. Patrick, of course, is a total mystery. The first definite clue that I have found as to his existence is the fact of his marriage to Bridget on 26th May 1886. Anything before that date is conjectural. Patrick died on 2nd July 1938 and his age is given as 84, which would mean he was born around 1853 or 1854. The only possible source for that information is his wife, Bridget who was still living. She was also the informant on Franks birth registration. Why the two discrepancies?
Be that as it may, it is pretty much beyond doubt that Frank(as he was always known) – our paternal grandfather – was born on 30/12/1890
Patrick and Bridget seem to have had 10 children:
Maria Julia Brassil B:09 Jan 1887 Redfern D:7 Jun 1972 Paddington (aged 85)
Thomas Kiernan Brassil B:20 Mar 1888 Redfern D:13 January 1922 Sydney (aged 33)
Lillian Grace (Grace) Brassil B:14 Jun 1889 Redfern D:05 Aug 1971 Sydney (aged 82)
Francis Michael Brassil B:30 Dec 1890 Redfern D:2 Jan 1937 Coonamble (aged 46)
Constance Kiernan Brassil B:1892 Redfern D:1892 Redfern (aged 0
Ellen Brassil B:1892 Redfern D:1892 Redfern (aged 0)
Charles Kiernan Brassil B:1893 Redfern D:11 July 1968 Edgecliff (aged 75)
Eileen Annie Brassil B:22 Jun 1894 Redfern D:25 Feb 1977 Lane Cove (aged 82)
Neil J Brassil B:1896 Redfern D:1898 Redfern (aged 2)
George Brassil B:1897 Redfern D:1898 Redfern (aged 1)
Further information will follow on the other children listed above (eventually).
The Kiernan family, including Bridget, moved into 127/129 Morehead Street Redfern between 1871 and 1875. (source Sands Street Indexes). I suspect that Patrick Brassil moved there when he married Bridget in 1886. Patrick and Bridget lived there the rest of their lives – until 1938 and 1940 respectively. That’s a long time at the same address.
129 Morehead St was the Kiernan/Brassil family headquarters for all those years, and various members of the Kiernan extended family seem to have come and gone from there up until the end of the 99 year lease in about 1944/45 (Dad said that the family saw the end of a 99 year lease at Morehead Street. The housing there seems to have been demolished and the Redfern public housing flats were built)
So Frank was a young lad about Redfern in the 1890s and 1900s. Redfern was respectable part of the world in those days, and his parents would have been very well known in the community. Patrick was quite the red-ragger and took a very active role in working class politics.
Frank attended Patrician Brothers Redfern, and finished his schooling at Holy Cross College Ryde from where he matriculated in 1909 with passes in English History, English, French, Latin. Arithmetic, Algebra, and Geometry. He had previously attended Patrician Brothers Redfern where he won a scholarship in 1906. He seems to have passed matriculation exams twice – which was not all that unusual. The exams were run by Sydney Uni and I believe that a candidate could attempt them when they (or their school) saw fit, even if they did not intend to immediately go to Uni.
Frank sat for both the Commonwealth and NSW public service examinations after leaving school. He seems to have done very well in both. On 15th May 1911 Frank joined the Lands Department, a branch of the NSW Public Service. In 1912 he passed mechanical drawing at Tech College. This would no doubt have been a course undertaken by him to assist him in the Lands Dept. In the normal course of events he would have also done internal exams in the Lands Dept to allow his progression within then Department.
But the normal course of events fell apart in 1914. So Frank, who was working at the Lands Office at Tamworth, enlisted on 27th October 1914. He and a number of other men from the Tamworth area caught the train down to Sydney on 26th October.
He is recorded as being 5’6” in height with blue eyes and fair hair. Given that at the start of the War you had to be at least 5’6 to pass the medical, he only just made it (As the War wore on they became less fussy).
Below is his service history
https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3113993
I note that he was 5’7” when he left the army, so the years weren’t entirely wasted.
He caught influenza and dysentery while at Gallipoli, and never really recovered. He seems to have suffered from chronic dysentery for the rest of his life.
He came back to Australia and was discharged from the army on 29th December 1917.
On that day he re-commenced his employment with the lands Department in the Sydney Office. It would seem likely that, upon enlisting, he was granted leave from the NSW public service and his position was retained pending his return – and so many did not return.
I believe that he resumed his life from where he left off….and restarted his career within the Lands Department
In 1919 he was transferred to the Land Board Office, Orange.
On 19th February 1924 he was transferred to Dunedoo as Crown Land Agent and Clerk of Petty Sessions (CLA & CPS). This looks like his first appointment as CPS & CLA. He would have had to pass at least one Public Service Exam to be qualified for that appointment, and there would have been others as well. In 1925, while working at Dunedoo, he passed his Regulation 122 Exams in Land Laws and Administration which qualified for promotion to higher grades within the Lands Dept. (These type of examinations within the NSW Public Service still existed up until the mid 1980s – his grandson, Michael, passed the same type of exams (Regulation 127 exams) in about 1981 in the Attorney Generals Dept., prior to his initial appointment as a CPS.)
In 26th October 1926 he was promoted to Hillston as CPS & CLA.
On 3rd August 1927, while he was living at Hillston, he married Margaret Swan, and they made their home at Hillston until he went to Nowra as CPS and CLA in April 1928. They spent about 15 months there and their eldest child, Rose Montague Brassil, was born there on 9th November 1928. (While in Nowra they lived in a house called Tirnanogue. When we moved into Collins Street in 1972, Dad mentioned that calling the house Tir Na Nog wouldn’t be a bad idea. I wonder if he knew about Tirnanogue Nowra? – I don’t think he did)
In November 1929, he was again promoted to Wyalong as CPS and CLA. He, his wife Margaret and their daughter Rose moved to Wyalong. They eventually made their home in Gilbert Street, Wyalong in a house called “Duvana” that had once belonged to a Dr Shaw.
Whilst at Wyalong Margaret and Frank had 4 more children – Margaret 30th June 1930, Patrick 11th November 1931, Thomas 26th August 1933, and Maria 17th June 1935.
Margaret died at Wyalong on the 28th August 1935, apparently of septicemia. This of course, was before the days of antibiotics. What would most probably have been a simple treatment some 5 years later was, in 1935, practically a sentence of death.
Frank left Wyalong for Hillston not long after Margaret’s death. He then transferred to Coonamble, and the “West Wyalong Advocate” describes events surrounding their family at that time as well as one could:
Mr. F. M. (Frank) Brassil former Crown Lands Agent and Clerk of Petty Sessions for a number of years at Wyalong and who was recently transferred to Coonamble, met a tragic death at Coonamble on Sunday. According to a telegram received by the “Advocate” to-day (Monday)Mr. Brassil was found in the backyard of the Club House Hotel, Coonamble, where he was a lodger. He had evidently fallen from the balcony and broke his neck and died half an hour later.
The late Mr. Brassil. who was one of the best known officers of the Lands Department, was stationed at Wyalong for a number of years, and following the untimely death of his wife about eighteen months ago he was transferred at his own request to Hillston.
After residing at Hillston for a short time Mr. Brassil transferred to Coonamble-one of the most important land districts in the State-and had signified his intention of remaining at Coonamble until the time arrived for him to retire. When Mr. Brassil lost his wife he was left with five Small children, the youngest being a babe in arms, and only recently had he placed the two elder girls in the Coonamble Convent, where they were students. Essentially a home lover, the late Mr, Brassil was held In the very highest esteem by those who knew him, and his sudden and tragic death came as a great shock to his many Wyalong and West Wyalong friends. He was a returned soldier, and it is understood that he was on active service for four years. The West Wyalong Advocate (NSW : 1928 – 1954) Tue 5 Jan 1937 Page 1
I had always believed that Frank went onto relieving staff after Margarets death, but from the above it seems that Frank in fact wanted to settle in Coonamble. It appears that Coonamble was a very busy Lands Office, and this would have made it a financially worthwhile move. In those days a country CPS/CLA was generally the agent for a number of government and semi-government entities, and this agency work could substantially increase the occupants income.
Frank was aged 45 when he moved to Coonamble. He would have been looking at retirement by age 60 at latest, and it seems that he would have been retired medically unfit before then if he had so wanted. But this was not to be. He was subject to chronic dysentery attacks, and it appears that he has suffered some sort of attack and fallen from the back stairs or balcony and broken his neck.
According to Dad it was very important that Frank’s death was shown to be the result of his war service as this affected the right of his children to an ex-servicemans pension. A number of people prepared statutory declarations as to the effect of the dysentery on him, and to his being a person of sober habits -falling down the stairs at a hotel is fraught with suspicion. One of the people who prepared a declaration was Patrick (Paddy) Cruise, who was married to Maria, Frank’s sister. I remember visiting Auntie Maria and Uncle Paddy at their house in Cascade St Paddington on more than one occasion.
There is a Frank Brassil Gallery on this website. It includes images of documents and memorabilia that I have scanned or photographed. Some of the items I have in my possession, and for the others I am indebted to Anne Brassil and Pat Feeney.
I have also downloaded images of documents that are in Trove in the National Archives Authority (NAA).
Other information came to me through conversations with Auntie Eileen, and Dad and Mum.