Some twenty-four years ago I was contacted by Edward Hellewell regarding his grandfather, John Edward Bedford who came to the WA Goldfield as a young man in 1895 to seek his fortune.
John Edward BEDFORD take in Barnsley Yorkshire aged 20 years before he came to Western Australia.
His grandfather died some years before Edward was born so he never knew him but has always wanted to know more about him as he was involved in Mining and Minerals Surveying in Wales and was a senior lecturer in this subject at Cardiff University. So his interest was both personal and professional. His he is also interested in the artifacts that John brought back from his two trips to Australia. It seems he had been quite successful and this enabled him to travel back and forwards and he was intending to make a third trip to Australia until his wife put a stop to that as she saisd a mining town was no place to bring up a family,so he never returned.
John Edward BEDFORD take in Western Australia c 1896
John Edward BEDFORD was born in Scissett, Kitchenroyd near Huddersfield in Yorkshire England on 23 February 1875 to William Arthur BEDFORD and Sarah LILES (LYLES). Sadly John’s mother, Sarah, died when he was only five years old. He was their only child. Four years after his mothers death his father remarried and he had two step siblings. John was brought up mainly by his maternal grandparents and so may have used their surname of Liles while he was in Australia and at other time in his life.
His occupation before coming to Australia was that of a Wool Cloth Finisher. He arrived in Albany Western Australia on the ship ‘The Australia’ in 1895 before making his way to Coolgardie. He was only 20 years old.
Artifacts John brought back to England with him:
An Echidna Quill jewelry box
Jewelry items and gold samples – Brooch with nuggets, tie pins and a signet ring with ‘Coolgardie’ engraved on it.
John married in Scissett in Yorkshire on the 21st July 1900 to Ann SENIOR, a Yorkshire girl, and they had two daughters, Hilda born 1901 (Edwards mother), and Marion born 1908. He did use his correct surname of Bedford when he married. He may have spent all of his gains he made in Australia as by 1911 he was working as a manual labourer in the Welsh mines as a coal hewer. He worked in mining in Yorkshire for the rest of his life dying at the age of 59 years, his estate was valued at £6.
Edwards wife, Ann BEDFORD nee SENIOR outside her home in Yorkshire not long after her marriage.
Edward and his wife travelled from Wales to visit Kalgoorlie in 1999, but the advent of cyclone Vance stopped their train and they were forced to return to Perth. I don’t know if they ever made another attempt to get to Coolgardie later on, but
perhaps they did!
Moya Sharp
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