I, Joseph Alfred Trezise: Joe Trezise beyond the war

Joseph Alfred Trezise is remembered by his family, and his community, for making the ultimate sacrifice in 1916.

However, his life was more than those few months with the AIF.

Joe was born in Beaconsfield in 1894, the eldest son of Jane (nee Stonehouse) and Joseph Henry Trezise.

He had a 3 and a half year old sister Eva May.

When Eva was born the family was all together in Beaconsfield, with miner Joseph Snr being the informant for his daughter’s birth. Two years later a second daughter was born in Beaconsfield – Rosella Gertrude (Jane had a sister also called Rosella) – and the informant was Jane’s mother, Lydia. Lydia may have acted as informant, this time because Joseph Snr was away, working on the state’s west coast. A week before Christmas, 1893, the entire family was in Zeehan when baby Rosella died.

Seven months later, Joe was born. Like Rosella, he was born in Beaconsfield, with his grandmother acting as informant. Perhaps the entire young family was living elsewhere with Joseph Snr and Jane simply travelled ‘home’ for the births, or perhaps she was based there, with her mother and sisters, while Joseph worked elsewhere.

By the start of the new century, the family were all living in Beaconsfield. By the time he was 9, Joe had four younger brothers.

John (b 1903), Cyril Edward (b 1901), Clement Roy (b 1897) and Albert Ernest (b 1899).

The family most likely lived in the town’s main road, somewhere where the amenities of the town were all close by. In the town he had cousins from both sides of family, as well as his maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather (both these grandparents re-married while Joe was only a toddler).

During this period Beaconsfield was thriving. Underground mining had begun in 1879, and by 1881 it was the richest town in the state. During Joe’s early years in the 1890s the mine was often closed for flooding and people like Joe’s father, did begin to seek work elsewhere, but the town continued to grow and many of the large buildings that still stand in the town were built in that decade.

Joe’s father was community minded, and took part in organising social and fundraising evenings, and was a member of IOOF lodge (a Friendly society). Joseph Snr also sang and played cricket – both bowling and batting.

Young Joe may have also been a cricketer (it’s hard to tell from the match reports who the players were), and perhaps also sang and played an instrument. Joe made friends with Gladys Lockwood, a bright and creative girl who lived nearby.

Joe had blond hair, scars on his neck, leg and foot and was 1.62m tall and 50.8kg.

Coming from a family of miners perhaps Joe had thought that he too would go into mining? Or perhaps he’d seen the dangers and wanted to try something else (in 1912 a future in-law of his sister’s was killed in a mining accident). Somehow he managed to acquire land from the Crown, which he may have been farming – orchards were a growing concern in the area in that era – although he was working as a labourer in 1916.

When Joe was just twenty years old the Beaconsfield mine closed this, with the beginning of the war, must have been a defining event that shaped his generation, and made them think about what their futures would be like.