THE MARTINS
The Martin family is part of the famous Cameron clan which fought at Culloden in 1746 in the last pitched battle on British soil. The name “Cameron” is derived from “cam-shron” (the “s” being quiescent) which signifies “crooked nose”. According to R. R. Mclan’s “The Clans of the Scottish Highlands” (commissioned in 1845) the Camerons by intermarriage with the Mac Martins acquired “‘the property in Lochaber”; and another Cameron, one Aonghas married a sister of the Banquo who was slain by Macbeth. The Preston Costigans are part of this great clan through Walter Martin, whose daughter Ileen married Joseph Costigan.
William Martin and Alison Ross, probably born in the early 1800’s, had a son,George Martin, born in 1832 in Falkirk, who was the progenitor of the Martins of Preston and their descendants, and of various Scots and South Africans. As a citizen of Glasgow, master plumber and ‘a rover’, George married a “very handsome woman'”- Mary Jane Gumprecht Findlay (b. 1831 in Lanark, of Walter Findlay and Margaret Miller), a handloom weaver- and begat seven children:
Margaret (b.1860)- may have died in infancy.
William. (1861-1932) Married Mary Dunbar (1861-1951) William was an artist whose work was designing silks to make hangings- and actually designed those for the coronation of Edward vii in Westminster Abbey
Children of William:
– George 1887-1977* m. Agnes Stirling
– – (Children of George: Ruth and Mary- see below.)
– Peggy (Margaret)
– May (Mary)
– Cissy died in childhood of whooping cough
– Hugh died in childhood of whooping cough
– There may have been a sixth child.
Alice (b. 1868) May have died in infancy.
Walter (b. 23/5/1865) Emigrated to Australia. Six children. See below.
Elizabeth (b. 1867) Never married.
George (b. 1868) Remembered by Ruth Johnstone as a lovely old man who always gave her a shilling. Probably never married.
Gavin (b. 1870) Emigrated to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he married and fathered only daughters.
*George (1887-1977) married Agnes Stirling(1898-1990’s) and was the father of Ruth Johnstone and Mary Whigham. George joined the Royal Army Medical Corps two days after the Great War started and was stationed at Dublin Castle at the time of The Troubles before being shipped out to the Holy Land and Egypt where he spent nearly four years before being invalided home with a severe bout of pneumonia. We have a photograph of George taken just after his enlistment- and his daughter Ruth, referring to the photo, says all Martins were “very upright in their way of standing and Dad remained that way till he died at the age of 89.” Ruth still has the silver-topped swagger stick visible in the photograph. Back home he was in charge of special schools, Glasgow, and during W.W.II organised evacuation of school children. Disabled by a stroke at 84, he died aged 89; he was a meticulous man of high standards. Ruth faintly remembers her grandfather, William Martin who died in | 1932.
Peggy (Margaret- 1897-1994) lived in Canada as a young woman but never married. Was a very able woman who was personal secretary to Sir James McFarlane of United Biscuits and was said to have taken dictation from the Prince of Wales (.e., King Edward VIII and Duke of Windsor).
May (Mary) was headmistress of a Special School for physically handicapped children; eventually developed Alzheimer’s disease. It was a photograph of Peggy, May and Mick Martin (with an address on the back) that enabled Paul Costigan over fifty years later to trace his long-lost cousins.
*Children of George Martin (1887 to 1977):
- Ruth Martin (b. 1929) married lan Johnstone
Children of Ruth Martin:
– Martin Johnstone married Fiona Lant
Children of Martin Johnstone:
– – Katie Ruth Johnstone
– – David Finlay Johnstone
– – Ewan Scott Johnstone
– Russell Johnstone married Rhona McKinnon
Children of Russell Johnstone
– – Johanna Johnstone
– – Shauna Johnstone - Mary Martin married George Whigham
Children of Mary Martin:
– Fiona Whigham married Sandy Richardson (deceased)
Children of Fiona Whigham
– – Alastair Richardson
– – Caroline Richardson
Clearly, the only male descendants of old George Martin bearing his name are the Australian (Victorian) Martins.
In the early 1890’s George Martin sailed for Australia to visit his son, Walter, seeking him first in Queensland but eventually finding him in Preston, Victoria. After about five years, around 1895, George returned home after the birth of his namesake and Walter Martin’s second child, ‘Uncle’ George. Unfortunately he drowned shortly after the voyage when, walking along a beach at Millport, he slipped into the water from wet rocks. Because communication was difficult pre-telephone and because he used to wander somewhat and stay with one of his other children without notice, the son with whom he was staying at the time did not worry too much when he didn’t return home, and discovered news of his death from a newspaper! His great-grandaughter Ruth (Johnstone) says that the Martins were great walkers.
Walter Martin |
As a teenaged plumber, probably only 16 years, Walter Martin sailed for Australia (a three-months journey) around 1880 after working for a while in the Glasgow shipyards.
After about five years’ felling timber on the Lamington Plateau area in Queensland, the young Scot headed south, worked in various jobs, such as building haystacks in Epping and even exhuming remains at the old Melbourne cemetery site which became part of the Victoria market- he recalled some workmen kicking in coffins and seeing cadavers well preserved ‘because of the lead linings’. The remains were reinterred in the new cemetery in Carlton and other places such as Fawkner, Kew and even Cheltenham cemeteries.
The site of the “Old Melbourne Cemetery’ (as it was known) was between Franklin St., Queen St., Peel St. and in the north by Fulton St., which no longer exists. The cemetery, which was established in 1837, was exhumed between 1920 and 1922 and no doubt it was during this period that Walter worked there.
Eventually Walter gained permanent employment at James Moore & Sons, the South Melbourne timber merchants until his premature retirement (as ‘foreman plumber’) during the Great Depression; he retired then to save the job of his son, George, who also worked at Moore’s. His employer, Louis Moore, drove a Cadillac motor car which Walter used to look after, but one of his most enjoyable experiences- for he often talked of it- was riding a Harley Davidson motor cycle and sidecar around Victoria, buying timber for the mill. A practical man, he also designed a method of removing sawdust which was in use for many years at Moore’s (and also at Inglis’s in Plenty Road, Preston), but he ‘never bothered to patent it.
After their marriage on 25th June, 1889 at St. John’s Clifton Hill, Wally Martin and Ellen (Nelly) Byrne lived at various addresses such as Epping, where the eldest child, Elsie, was born, Preston St., Preston (three doors from High St.) in 1898, Gower St. (when Ileen’ was born in 1899), 48 David Street, (renting a dwelling owned by Eugene Sullivan) in 1911. This was the year when Wally joined the famous working bee which, on Saturday 23rd March, built the Church of Christ in High Street- materials were delivered by dray around 1.00 am., at 6.30 the blocks were being put in, at 7.30 the plates were laid; soon all the rafters and most of the weatherboards were in place and, with the help of acetelyne gas lamps, everything else, including installation of pews, was done before midnight! While the men were doing the hard work the women were gathering wood shavings and offcuts to build the fires for cooking meals. The first service was held the next morning, Sunday 12th March!
By 1919 the Martins were living at 22 Clifton Grove, and finally, in the 1920’s, in the family’s last home at No. 1, Irene Street. The David St. home was only two doors from the Presbyterian church and manse (Rev. G. Carson being the. minister). Did Walter attend that church while Nelly surely would have walked her tribe of Catholic Martins to the Sacred Heart church, a short distance along Clifton Grove? Other residents of Irene St. at that time were the Cordell, Woodhouse, Hollowood, Frawley, Alway and Hore families, while Miss Elvezia Fenaci, a dressmaker, occupied a shop and residence fronting Bell Street and running beside the Catholic presbytery back to the Martin’s side fence.
The Irene St. home was built on a block obtained by exchanging with Fr. O’Grady, the parish priest of Preston, a block the Martins had purchased elsewhere- thought to be in the West Preston area. The parish priest, Fr. O’Grady, wanted Catholic neighbours, and the Martins, in spite of the Presbyterianism of the father, were staunch in that religion and such good neighbours that a “bob-hole” or small gate was built into the fence dividing their home from the presbytery. Priests often used the bob-hole as a short cut to the Plenty Road tram (or, heaven forbid! The Gowerville Hotel?) and, of course, traffic went the other way too, as the Martins plied the priests with home-cooked goodies and the Costigan kids sometimes took a short cut to the tennis courts behind the presbytery. Tom Whelan, Dolly’s husband, also frequently used the little gate as he was parish secretary for many years and with Joe Costigan (parish accountant) attended many meetings in the presbytery ‘counting house’. At morning tea time in the counting house on Sundays Tom and Joe would bob through the fence to enjoy Dolly’s hot scones; only after Tom’s death and Dolly’s removal to the Costigan’s residence did Joe stay with his counting house colleagues for the housekeeper’s delights. Dolly herself, as a member of the Legion of Mary would also use it to get to night meetings. And when Tom died in bed the priest was there to give comfort almost instantaneously. :
Long before Walter became a Catholic (during the middle 1930’s) he was an apparent pillar of the church, doing various maintenance work and odd jobs, such as supervising the laying of the school’s first asphalt playground, constructing timber banner holders for groups such as the Holy Name Society and the Young Christian Workers. When ‘old’ Clancy (Francis P. Clancy of 7 Garnet St.) died in the late 1930’s, Fr. O’Grady preached a eulogy of fulsome praise for ‘Mr. Clancy and Mr. Martin’ because of the practical work they did around the parish’, although Grandfather still had well over a decade of active support to deliver before he died. When his son, Walter Raymond, was building his fine two-storied mansion in Royal Parade, Reservoir, the old man was appointed honorary supervisor of works and made sure the job was done absolutely according to plan- or better- even interrupting a holiday at Mentone to check the quality of the builder’s work.
Another old friend (although much younger than him) was ‘Mick’ Wilkinson, whom he helped with advice when setting up as small hardware shop in Murray Road which grew into a very substantial business. The Wilkinson family became great friends of the Martins and Costigans, with the children sharing the same schools and Joe Costigan looking after taxation matters.
He always seemed to have a project for his carpentry skills, often concerning the Costigan family, such as building a great timber gate across the drive at 590 Bell St. which incorporated an ingenious box with back and front doors to hold milk deliveries, a child-sized rocking chair for granddaughter Margaret (used later by great- granddaughter Christina Costigan!), blackout screens during W.W.II, a table tennis top for the dining room table, a billy-cart for the boys, a drop-sided dining table, bookcases, and numerous small tables. When he collapsed at 86 years (and died in less than a week) he had dismantled one of the Costigans’ chairs prior to rebuilding it stronger than ever. Sadly, the bits were never put together for Joe was no handyman and the boys were too involved in sport and study.
‘Grandma’ Martin (Ellen Anne Byrne- Nelly to her husband) died at the age of 68 on January 4th, 1933. She had had the dreadful worry of a son in the hell of the Great War only to lose him in a cricket accident back home. Although she apparently had a very bad thrombosis it is thought that cancer eventually took her. Adrian clearly remembers her sitting beside the stove in the Irene St. kitchen and giving him comfort when he cut his knee. Ileen remembered well the strange incident of a dog howling’all day’ at the Martin’s front gate as the old lady lay dying.
At some stage- perhaps the early 30’s- a ‘bungalow’ was built on the back of the house, and in the shed adjacent to the carpenter’s workshop the family’s Model T Ford rested for some years before it was sold. The three little Costigan boys used to play in it, and Adrian remembers seeing clouds of smoke belching from its exhaust as it backed down the drive on the day it was sold. According to his grandfather it started without any trouble although it had not been used for some years. Presumably the purchasers had replaced the spark plugs which the old man had removed to put into his grandsons’ green wood-and-metal pedal car.
Walter’s 70th birthday in 1935 was a memorable celebration, with a trestle table being borrowed from the church, dozens of relatives enjoying the hospitality, and a massive, square birthday cake topped with an inferno of the full number of candles. Another unforgettable celebration was a Moore’s annual picnic at Queenscliff or Sorrento, not long after he had retired. The Costigans were then living at Irene St., and the little boys were excised from bed early in the morning to be taken by taxi to Port Melbourne where they boarded the Weeroona, a paddle steamer which took them to the picnic site. The great paddle wheels thrashing the water and the huge pulsating con rods of the gigantic engine down below fascinated at least one of the lads, but other memories are of the wharf apparently moving away from the ship, their mother feeling seasick as soon as she embarked, and a grandfather for once distant as he enjoyed the company of his old workmates.
One of the boons of Walter Martin’s old age was the introduction of parliamentary broadcasts, for he’d been something of a socialist and he was fascinated by the debates of parliament. Nevertheless he had some respect for the young Harold Holt, although he was seen to throw his slipper at the ‘wireless’ when Robert Menzies was speaking!
Walter Martin died on 29th November, 1951, at the age of 86 years, after a lifetime of good health (apart from a hernia problem which was fixed up and the loss of the halves of two fingers in a sawmill accident) and a very short final illness, and lives in the memories of his grandchildren and in the surviving artefacts he fashioned in his beloved workshop.
(The Lannans: This family became very close to the Martins because when Walter arrived in Victoria he boarded with the Lannan family, in Northcote or Thornbury. Jimmy Lannan, who worked at the brick works near the Bell railway station, became very friendly with the young Martin. Eleven children were in this family, including Statia (the eldest), Leo, Reg, Harold, Adrian, Kevin, Nelly (Delzeppo), Emily (Reardon) and Eileen (Kenneally). Leo and Kevin Lannan manufactured cane furniture in a shop in High Street Thornbury/Northcote which Adrian Costigan remembers visiting with his grandfather and being fascinated by the flying Lannan fingers interweaving strands of cane and cord to form a chair. This would have been in the early or middle 1930’s.)
CHILDREN OF WALTER MARTIN AND ELLEN BYRNE
Elsie Jane, the eldest Martin child, entered a convent on leaving school, but left after a fairly short time, and spent most of the rest of her life as a teacher at the Sacred Heart parish school, with just a few years at St. Mary’s, Thornbury. For many years Elsie acted as sacristan for the church, and for about the last ten years of her life lived with the Costigans and helped her sister to rear her large family. She never married- as for many of her ‘sisters’ the loss of men in the Great War had considerably reduced her chances of finding a mate. There remains a beautiful photograph of Elsie dressed in nuptial finery, holding a crucifix and inscribed “Pray for me”- at the time a genuine ‘pride of Christ’.
George Gregory, Walter’s eldest son, born when the population of Preston was a mere 3568 persons, followed the same trade as his father and eventually worked with him at Moore’s. George loved his bike, riding it for pleasure around Victoria and, of course, to work- although for a while he too owned a “Tin Lizzie” (the T Model Ford tourer) but he is supposed to have been a fairly unskilful driver. He also owned a motor bike and with friends rode to the Australian Alps in the snow season.
George married Nelly Lamprell on 25th June, 1926 (exactly thirty-seven years after his parents’ wedding) and for a while the young couple lived at 215 Gower St. Preston before moving to Beaconsfield Parade, Middle Park, for another love was swimming and the beach. While at Middle Park George worked at Ruskins in West Melbourne helping to produce, among other items, belly tanks for American warplanes. After the war he worked with A.M.I. in Port Melbourne when the company was producing the Standard Vanguard motor vehicle. George worked until aged seventy-seven, and then regretted he hadn’t retired earlier!
Another of George’s lifelong pleasures was punting on the horses and even on his son’s wedding day did not forget to lay his wager- successfully, it is remembered! It was not long before his death that George finally closed his account with the bookmaker. His son and grandchildren were, of course, his pride and joy, and Harry remembers fondly excursions with his father wheeling a handcart to pick up their weekly supply of coke for the home fires.
Nell worked for many years at a cafe providing sustenance for wharf workers, sailors and visitors at Port Melbourne, and together they raised and educated their son, who obtained a Commerce degree and worked for some time in the packaging industry and, in 1999, is with Superannuation Trust of Australia. Harry now lives with wife Madge and family in East Doncaster. George Martin died on 1st July, 1979, at the age of 87 years, and Nell in January, 1989, aged 84 years.
Michael Mescall, the third child, was a trained carpenter and promising cricketer, slightly built at 5’6″ and 120 pounds, with black hair and grey eyes, who enlisted in the First A.LF. on 17th April, 1916. His sister Ileen thought he joined up because jobs were scarce, but perhaps it was the pressure of mates enlisting, the ‘presentation’ of white feathers by non-combatant women, love of Empire (not b. likely) or simply a sense of adventure.
On 18th September 1916 he embarked on the “Karoo” and landed at Plymouth on 15th November. At first he was assigned to the Pioneer Signallers Battalion but he was transferred to the 14th Field Company Engineers as a sapper on 18th July 1917 and embarked for France via Southampton on 31st October, 1917. ‘Mick’ apparently had a hard time with piles as the diet would not have been cordon bleu, being admitted to hospital at least twice, but on 30th September 1918 was wounded in action- shot in the right leg- and on 23rd. was placed in an ambulance train en route to England and the Bath Military Hospital. (Ileen also thought he had been gassed.) After discharge from Bath he was granted furlough from November 23rd to December 27th, and enjoyed Christmas with his Scottish cousins- and was photographed with Peggy and May Martin. By this time Sir John Monash had helped to win the war- and had been knighted in the field by King George V- and Mick boarded the “City of Exeter” on 15th January 1919 to return home, where he disembarked on 2nd March.
By then the family had moved from David Street to Clifton Grove, where a massive welcoming feast had been prepared- a faded photograph of the laden table has long been lost- and where the joy of his family, especially that of his mother and father- must have been incredible.
With his severance pay the young veteran purchased a set of tools for his trade, using them to build a carpenter’s bench and later an auto-tray as a wedding gift to Joe and Ileen which are still in the family’s possession and being used.
Tragically, Mick was killed playing cricket in the final of a cricket competition between Preston and Brunswick H.A.C.B.S. at Royal Park on Saturday, April 5th, 1930. At the time he was batting for Preston and after making 22 or 23 runs was hit on the head by a fast rising ball. Although he stayed beside the ground for a while in a groggy state the seriousness of his condition was not realised until, when being taken home by his father in the family T Model Ford (driven by Tom Whelan) he began to suffer seizures and was taken straight to St. Vincent’s Hospital with his father cradling his head on the floor of the car. He didn’t recover consciousness and died on the Tuesday, aged 35 years. By an astonishing coincidence, Frank Feain, the uncle of Adrian’s wife, was present at the match, having been in the losing side in the previous week’s semi-final against Brunswick. He says the bowler, Bayliss, was “very fast” and that he never played cricket again after the accident..
In the Heidelberg cemetery is a gravestone commemorating “James Francis Cashman who died on 3/9/1915 aged 58, who lies underneath,” and his son, Thomas Joseph Cashman, “Who died of wounds near Ypres on the 29th Sept. 1917 aged 23 years.” Tom Cashman was a close friend of Mick Martin, and they had enlisted together, Mick Martin was wounded the day after Tom died but had a happier outcome. There is a photograph of the two of them in uniform shortly before they went overseas. Mick Martin was a very popular member of his community who enjoyed sport, meeting his mates at Ralph’s Junction Hotel (cnr. Plenty Rd. and High St.) and whose funeral attracted one of the longest procession of mourners seen in Preston up to that time.
Elizabeth, the fourth child, was known all her life as “Doll” or “Dolly” because of her beautiful appearance as a baby. Doll married Tom Whelan in 1929 but, having no children of her own, became very close to the Costigan children, as did “Uncle” Tom. Dolly also mothered the new-born baby Michael, younger son of her brother Walter (and Winnie) for some months because of the precarious state of Winnie’s health. It must have been a heart-wrenching parting for this childless woman when she returned the babe to Wal and Winnie. It’s not known if she considered adopting a child after this- it would have been easy in those days and with Dr. Wal’s help- but she’d have made a loving and mother and probably a happier person.
When ‘Grandma’ Martin became ill- having lived through a war in which her son could have been killed at any time and then having him die unexpectedly in his prime- “Dolly”, who had been working at Foy’s in Smith St. Collingwood, was paid by the rest of the family to give up that employment and stay at home to look after their ailing mother.
Dolly and Tom continued to live in the Irene St. home with her father until after he died in 1951.When Tom passed away in 1956 during the weekend when the Australian boxer Jimmy Carruthers won the world championship from Fighting Harada and the fabulous billiards player Walter Lindrum was giving an exhibition in the Collingwood Town Hall, the Martin home was sold and Dolly made her home with the Costigans at 590 Bell Street.
Ileen Muriel (17/7/1899-20/6/1983), who was to marry Joe Costigan, was educated at Sacred Heart parish school and at Santa Maria College (then in South Yarra east of the Punt Road hill) where she obtained her Leaving Certificate- quite an achievement for a girl in those days. She then passed an entry exam to the Postmaster General’s department (the P.M.G.) and worked as a telephonist in the old Central manual exchange until her marriage. (As did Winnie Condon (Martin), Kath Costigan and many other intelligent Catholic young women) It was only when obtaining a birth certificate for the P.M.G. employment that Eileen discovered her name was “Ileen”- the entry having been made in 1899 by a clerk with shaky spelling skills. Ileen retained the idiosyncratic spelling for the rest of her life.
When Ileen married Joe in 1927 her mother-in-law, Johanna Costigan, remarked that an Irish-Scottish mixture was a good thing: a comment proved insightful by the later achievements of the progeny of that union. Johanna is believed to have had considerable respect for Walter Martin. After Joe died Ileen sold the Preston home and moved to 18 Clive Street, East Brighton. In the seventeen eventful years remaining to her, Ileen suffered several strokes but recovered from each (except the last) with only slightly diminished capabilities, saw two sons resign from the priesthood and three sons marry, and gained another eight grandchildren who brought considerable joy to her old age. The large garden gave her much pleasure as her green fingers propagated cuttings sometimes detached from plants she noticed in neighbours’ gardens. A lifelong friendship with Mrs. Kath Hawkins, who also lived in East Brighton and was the widow of Tom Hawkins, an old schoolmate of Joe’s, was strengthened, and she even visited Emily Reardon (Lannan) and one of her brothers who lived nearby. Frank and Ursula Costigan were not far away and Ursula was very supportive during Ileen’s first stroke; ironically Ursula died unexpectedly not long after this illness and Ileen outlived her by about ten years!
With increasing frailty, Ileen depended more on the telephone and many and long were the conversations she had with Winnie Martin, Norah Cashman, Marie Collins (also widowed), George and Nell Martin, the Costigan sisters (especially Mary) and other old friends. Of course her children, especially Anne, were very supportive and helped to make her last years comfortable. Following her last stroke she was unable to speak intelligibly but was obviously alert and enjoyed her visitors- Paul’s young daughters were especially entertaining as they trotted or toddled around her bed in St. Vincent’s Private Hospital- until she passed away peacefully one Sunday evening nearly three months after admission, and just a week after her staunch friend of the Camberwell years, Marie Collins, had died.
Walter Raymond, the youngest child (apart from Ellen or Isobel who died in early infancy), attended St. Patrick’s College, East Melbourne, Xavier College and then Melbourne University to graduate as a medical doctor. During his studies Wal was supported by his family, especially by Ileen who felt that his attempt to give Joe his Studebaker was a gesture of thanks. He also sold land, including a block at Essendon to Ileen, and doubtless had other odd jobs.
After a period doing locums and after his marriage to Winifred Condon (they met at a parish ball around 1926) ‘Wal’ practised for many years in Edwardes St. and Royal Parade, Reservoir, following periods at, firstly, Ocean Island, and then Goroke (from 1930 to 1933). Winnie remembers her mother-in-law, Nelly Martin, complaining at Goroke that they had no sewerage, even though in her childhood at Epping the family probably had to make do with a dunny built over a cesspit. After Goroke Wal set up practice in Edwardes St., Reservoir and after a few years moved not very far away, to his new home and surgery in Royal Parade. Much later he built a separate surgery nearby, sold the Royal Parade house and moved to a new home in Rosanna.
As a boy Wal was intensely interested in science and things mechanical. For example, he made a telephone with which he talked to a friend a couple of houses away from the family’s home, and built a model steam engine which worked well until it blew up. Later he lived for six months (as a locum) at Paralna in outback South Australia, whose mineral springs were supposed to attract tourists and health- seekers. The venture failed for the area was too remote from population centres, and decades later it was found that the springs were radioactive and the poisonous gas radon was so pervasive that no human should spend more than one day in the area! Wal would have loved reading the scientific research- or doing it himself- but around 1927 ignorance of the danger was profound.
In 1934 he drove some of his family (including Costigans) to Flemington Racecourse in his Chevrolet or Dodge two seater (with a “dicky seat” at the back exposed to wind, rain and sun- but fun to be in) to see the red monoplane “Comet” which aviators Scott and Black had flown from England to win the Centenary (of Victoria) Air Race. Next year Wal bought his first Studebaker sedan, a fairly dark olive-green “Dictator” model whose luggage compartment was accessed inconveniently by lifting the back seat! In this vehicle he sometimes took the car-less Costigans on other excursions such as to Essendon “aerodrome” to watch the aeroplanes and was as fascinated by these marvellous machines as were his nephews.
A drive along a rural road, probably in the South Morang area, was almost deadly as a cyclist suddenly appeared on the wrong side of the road from behind a horse drawn dray, and with his head knocked the handle from the left side front door. As Wal braked suddenly toddler Margaret, on her mother’s knee in the front seat, knocked her head on the dashboard and suffered slight concussion, Dr. Martin tended the injured cyclist, help was summoned through a nearby farm or a passing traveller, and the children were taken for a walk in the adjacent paddocks. Both Margaret and the cyclist survived.
Another excursion- for adults only- was to the Melbourne Cup won by The Trump. As Wal was a very good driver it was interesting to experience a friend of Ileen’s, Gert Langridge (one of the Clancy family of Garnet St.) who had purchased an identical model blue Studebaker, and was the worst driver Adrian Costigan has yet (in 1999) accompanied, with clashing gears at every change and bunny hops at every start; as a widow Gert later founded a nunnery devoted to making vestments, altar cloths and other accoutrements of formal religious practice- a far safer outlet for her energies than involvement with anything mechanical.
Naturally Wal invested in an X-Ray machine at his Reservoir surgery, and long before such marvels were generally available obtained a wire recorder (predecessor of the tape recorder and cassette) and acetate record maker (78 r.p.m. of course) which he installed in the sound system he designed and built, and a dishwasher, refrigerator etc.. In 1999 his grandson Damian Martin possesses the mechanical bits and pieces while his widow, Winnie, has the beautifully crafted timber cabinet. He also installed a lathe in his workshop where he spent much time, constructed a model railway which covered a vast amount of space on the floor of the home, built the wireless his father listened to for many years, and, in his Rosanna home, designed a hi-fi system whose placement of speakers required Winnie in the adjacent kitchen to use a small stool to reach the refrigerator!. Wal also loved cars, especially the Studebaker, but switched to Ford when that marque went out of business.
His younger son, Michael, following his father’s profession, worked for a while with him in Reservoir and then served as a doctor in Vietnam during the war, and for an extended period practised in Cobram before moving to Portland where Walter’s ninety -three years old widow Winnie also lives (in 1999)- and up to about 1995 still drove his 1960’s Ford Falcon motor car! Wal’s older child, John, an agricultural scientist, spent some years based in Darwin (where he met his wife, Anne Dowdell) while engaged on field work in northern Australia before transferring to Horsham in 1967 and finally to Mentone in the 1970’s. Wal once opined that you didn’t need too many brains to become a doctor, but that the study of agricultural science was another matter! An unanswerable question but an interesting speculation is what Dr. Martin would have achieved as a scientist or engineer, for he certainly loved these areas of activity.
Wal died unexpectedly in St. Vincent’s Hospital in 1969 (an hour or so after Winnie had visited him) following a collapse, a couple of weeks after he and Winnie had entertained his nephew Michael Costigan and Ileen at their Rosanna home (a gesture much appreciated by Ileen as Michael had just left the priesthood) and just a few days after visiting Ileen in hospital where she herself was recovering from a stroke.
Children of Walter Martin and Ellen Byrnes
– Elsie Jane
– George Gregory (m. Nell Lamprell)
– Michael Mescall
– Elizabeth (Dolly- m. Tom Whelan)
– Ileen Muriel (m. Joe Costigan)
– Walter Raymond (m. Winifred Condon)
– Daughter died as infant
Children of George Martin and Nellie Lamprell
– Harry
Children of Ileen Martin and Joseph Costigan
– Adrian Joseph Costigan
– Francis Xavier Costigan
– Michael Eugene Costigan
– Margaret Anne Costigan
– Peter Aloysius Costigan
– Elizabeth Mary Costigan
– Paul Justin Costigan
– Anne Therese Costigan
Children of Walter Raymond Martin
– daughter died as infant
– John Julian
– Michael
Children of Harry Martin and Madge Barker
– Kerry Anne b. 18/5/1971
– Brian David b. 15/12/1972
– Shelley b. 27/3/1976
– Lisa b. 10/9/80
– Rachel b. 27/5/1988
Children of John Martin and Anne Dowdell
Damien
– Julie Anne (m. Darren Manser)
– – Children of Julie: Caroline, Nicholas and Adrian Manser
– Sarah
Children of Michael Martin and Judith Paul
– Paul (m. Fiona –)
– – Children of Paul: Rebecca Joy Martin
– Kate (m. James Keenan)
– – Children of Kate: Anne Louise Keenan
– Caroline
– David
– Jennifer
– Luke
– Elizabeth