Back in 2008 I was in correspondence with a lady called Val Skinner. I don’t have an email for her so perhaps she will see this story. She very kindly shared with me her family story of the Northey and Mullins families on the WA Goldfields. She also sent me two wonderful photographs, see below.
Taken Boulder City – Trafalgar Volunteer Fire Brigade 1907 – Far left Henry NORTHEY – Grt Grandfather to Val Skinner. I think that is the racecourse in the background.
Val’s mother was still alive at the time of our correspondence at the great age of 94yrs. Her father was William EDDY, a miner from Broken Hill and an underground storeman. He met her mother Sarah May (known as May) Northey in Kalgoorlie in 1906. Sarah’s father, Henry Northey, worked in a bakery in Boulder from about 1903-1912. She tells me there is a photograph in existence somewhere of Henry and his sons standing outside the bakery, but she has not been able to find a copy of it so far. Henry first came to WA in August 1895 according to a letter written to his wife Clara who had stayed behind in Broken Hill with the children. He was writing from Adelaide SA and mentioned he was about to leave by ship for WA with the hope of getting work in Coolgardie.
Henry and Clara Northey – Photo Find a Grave
The children of Henry (1857-1917) and Clara nee Harvey (1858-1932) Northey:
Annie Eva Northey born 1878
Ethel Northey born 1879
Sarah May Northey (Val’s Grandmother) born 1880
Harry Howard Northey born 1881 died in Signaller died of Pneumonia WW1 in France 1919.
Hedley Josiah Albert Northey born 1884 – his oldest son died on the Kokoda Trail in WW2
James Lionel Hosier Northey born 1888
Reginald William Eustace ‘Reg’ Northey born 1890 – 10th Light Horse – Killed at Gallipoli 1915
Sydney Earl Northey born 1893 – worked in the Kalgoorlie Tramways.
Stella Beatrice Northey born 1895
The Northey Girls – Ancestry.com
Victor Herbert Mullins, on Val’s father’s side of the family, is listed on the electoral roll as living at 707 George St, Kalgoorlie (probably a lot number). His occupation was ‘Blacksmiths Striker’. The photograph below shows him working at the Kalgoorlie foundry and was taken just before his marriage to Alice Mary Catherine Hutchings on the 22nd Jul 1915, Kalgoorlie.
Victor Herbert MULLINS taken about 1915 – Second from the left holding sledgehammer. He was a ‘Blacksmiths Striker’.
Victor enrolled in WW1 in Kalgoorlie and sadly he was killed at Boulogne, France in November 1917. Victor and Alice had only one child, Alice Victoire Mullins born in Perth in 1916. Tragically, Victor’s wife Alice was also to die the following year aged only 22yrs, leaving baby Alice to be brought up by her Grandparents.
Father and Son –
Australia’s Fighting Sons of the Empire –
Published in 1922 –
Corporal James Joseph MULLINS (913) son of James Thomas and Raphael Mullins, was born in Surrey Hills NSW in 1868. He smiled for France on the 29th Jan 1917 and saw action there and in Belgium.
Private Victor Herbert MULLINS (2186) 28th Battalion 7th Brigade, son of Corporal James Joseph and Catherine Mullins and was born in Sydney NSW and educated in Perth WA. he married on the 22 Jul 1915 to A M C Hutchings who died on the 27 Nov 1918. They had one child. Victor enlisted in Boulder WA in 1915 and went to Blackboy Hill Camp attached to the 4th Reg, 28th battalion. He sailed for Egypt on 5 Oct 1915, and he remained there for about four months before travelling to France, where he made the supreme sacrifice on the 5 Nov 1917 as a result of a heavy gas attack.
J J Mullins V H Mullins
There are a great number of ‘Mullins’ and ‘Northey’ in the Goldfields and many of them will be related to these particular family members.
Moya Sharp
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