Thomas CLARK and Ann WALCH

Born in Enborne, Berkshire in 1821, Thomas was a farm labourer. His parents were James CLARK and Sarah MUNDAY.
He married Ann WALCH, the daughter of Walter WALCH, a bailiff, at Enborne in 1841. They were both unable to sign their names. They had ten children and their youngest son, who emigrated to Tasmania, was my great grandfather.
Thomas died at Enborne in 1895. His wife died in 1899 at Crockham Heath near Enborne.
Ann WALCH was born in Enfield, Middlesex in 1821.

Elizabeth Mary WIGMORE

Born in Reading in Berkshire in 1856. Her father Richard WIGMORE was a wheelwright/coach painter. Her mother Elizabeth BULLOCK died when she was young as her father remarried in 1873. It seems likely that Elizabeth was in service near Enborne when she met her husband Alexander CLARK. They married in Reading in 1877 and had four children born in Enborne, before emigrating to Tasmania where another six were born.

Her husband died in 1918 and Elizabeth lived until 1945. Her house at Glendevie housed the local Post Office, boarded the local teacher and church services were also held there.

Alexander CLARK

Born in the village of Enborne in Berkshire in 1854. He was the fourth son and one of ten children of Thomas CLARK and Ann WALCH.
He was a farm labourer and probably met his wife Elizabeth Mary WIGMORE when she was working in service nearby.

They married in 1877 in Reading and went to Tasmania in 1884 as assisted immigrants on SS Nurjahan. He was assigned to HB Evans' sawmill at Surges Bay near Geeveston and acquired land for a farm while working for the road trust. Four children were born in Enborne, then another six in Tasmania.
He represented Surges Bay in the first Esperance Municipal Council elected in 1907.
He died in 1918 and is buried at Surges Bay.

Helen CLARK

Born in 1890 at Snake Plains [now Glendevie], Nellie was the ninth child and youngest daughter of Alexander Clark and Elizabeth Wigmore.

She married George Patterson, from down the road, in 1915, three years before her father died. Her mother may have hoped that she would care for her, but Nellie moved to Hobart and raised four children, before dying prematurely in 1936. She was buried at Cornelian Bay.

William George PATTERSON

Born 1890 at Snake Plains, Tasmania, he was the eldest of eleven children of Walter PATTERSON and Louisa DENHOLM.

He went to work at the Stanmore sawmill with his father when he was 12 and later travelled to New Zealand and New South Wales with friends before returning to marry their sister Helen CLARK in 1915. He joined the police force then worked his way up in the State Public Service, becoming Director of the State Social Services Department before retiring in 1955.
They had 3 sons and a daughter.

Nellie died in 1036 and he remarried in 1946 to Flo Contencin.
George died in 1973 and is buried with Nellie at Cornelian Bay.

Leslie Alexander PATTERSON

Born Hobart 1918. Third son of William George PATTERSON and Helen CLARK.
Princes Street primary school and Hobart High School.
Enlisted 1939-1945 - Tobruk, El Alamein, New Guinea.

Married Fanny Ann CAWTHORN in 1945 - five children.
Commonwealth Bank until 1979 - Hobart, Devonport, Hobart, Maryborough Vic, Hobart, Mildura Vic, Sydney NSW, Ipswich Qld, Townsville Qld.
Retired to Mullumbimby New South Wales where he died in 1997.