Among the photos I recently got from a distant relative, was one of a little curly haired boy in a fantastic outfit.
That boy was Percy Harold Cotterill, one of my Grandpa’s paternal uncles.
Percy was born in Beaconsfield in February 1903, to Emma nee Annear and Henry Cotterill. He had an older sister and three older brothers, but he was 5 ½ years younger than his nearest elder sibling. When he was 2 ½, the youngest of the family was born, another daughter, Pearl Winifred. Four months later, 10 year old Joseph (Joe) was drowned on Boxing Day while swimming from a friend’s boat in the Tamar, and at age 5 Percy was again the youngest in the family, when his sister Pearl died.
As a child he lived in Sidmouth, a farming community on the river’s edge, near Beaconsfield. In mid 1913 he came first in the “Exercise Book” portion of an exhibition organised by the Methodist Church at Alicia Hall.
When war arrived, Percy was 12, and unlike his brothers, too young to volunteer. His only sister, Kate, had married in 1913, so he would have been the only child at home for much of the war.
In 1922, when he was 19, his eldest brother, George had a son, and George and his wife named that baby Harold, which was Percy’s middle name.
Sometime in the 1920s he went to South Australia, where, in November 1927, he became engaged to local, Josephine Jean Whitcombe (from Mile End, about 2km west of Adelaide city centre). The engagement was in multiple Adelaide papers that month. It was a rushed wedding, though, as the South Australian BDM lists their marriage as also occurring during 1927.
In October 1928 their first daughter, Zelma Dawn, was born in Hindmarsh, in Adelaide, followed by Josephine Ann (or Emma) Patricia (also known as Pat) in 1931 and Shirley Mary Teresa (Teresa Mary) in 1933 (names in their birth notices are different from those they were known by later in life).
Sometime prior to 1931 the family moved to the small town of Scotts Creek, in the Adelaide Hills, south of the city. Percy worked there as a Chairmaker (not the first one my family has had in its story… is Percy descended from Jane Duff? No.) Josephine looked after the home and continued to travel to the suburbs of Adelaide near her parents to give birth.
The girls attended school in Scotts Creek, where one week in 1938, Patty Cotterill was the top girl in the grade two class.
In March 1940 everything changed for the family when Percy enlisted for the war and was sent overseas.
The family stayed in Scotts Creek a little longer without him – in June 1940, “Little Tess Cotterill” extinguished the candles on the cake at a community event.
In 1941 and 1943 Percy was still on the electoral role for Scotts Creek, but Josephine had moved to 9 Way St Kilburn in Adelaide. This isn’t the same house as her parents, so I assume it was just her and the girls, living off Percy’s war wage.
From 1942 onwards the girls begin to appear in the newspaper as students of Catholic schools in the city, with Teresa and Patricia winning prizes and passing exams for academic work and music.
Percy returned to Australia in early 1945. His war records aren’t yet fully digitised, but he made it to the rank of Sergeant.
After the war Percy returned to Beaconsfield. He may have been briefly in Adelaide, where his daughters were now aged between 12 and 17, as when his father died in February 1945, Percy was recorded as being in Adelaide, but, in 1947 he was in Beaconsfield when he was admitted to the Launceston General Hospital after having been hit by a ute, and he remained on the electoral role on the West Tamar for the rest of his life and a fixture in the lives of his extended family there.
Josephine Snr may have come with him to Tasmania, either full time or part time, but it’s unlikely, as the girls seemed to still be Adelaide-based. In 1946, 15 year old Josie wore an outfit that caught the eye of a reporter, while in 1948, 15 year old Teresa was photographed for the paper as a debutante. (The paper printed the pictures twice, with the names swapped the second time. Teresa Cotterill and Patricia Poling would have been at school together, and both studied music, so quite possibly were friends. Looking at other photos of Patricia, I can’t tell which way is the correct way around, but I’m leaning towards it being correct in the second version – in November).
Through the 1950s, Percy’s West Tamar address for the electoral role remained in Main Rd Beaconsfield, but in reality he seems to have been living in Beauty Point at least during the 1950s. In September 1950 Tessie Cotterill and Edith Quinn of Adelaide were guests of Mr P Cotterill in Beauty Point, and later in 1951 Patricia (“Mrs Harris” by then) moved to Beauty Point to live with her father. As the girls became engaged and married, the newspaper notices seem to alternate between saying the girls’ parents were in Beauty Point or Adelaide. Zelma and Patricia married South Australians, and Teresa married a man from Beaconsfield. All three weddings were in a Catholic Church in Adelaide.
Percy was a cabinet maker (in June 1949 he had made a table for the hallway of the Beauty Point Hospital). Mum remembers him living on the main road in Beauty Point, in a house between the apple sheds and the wharf (as this road is a continuation of Beaconsfield Main Road – and also known as Flinders Rd, which is where he owned house when he died – it’s likely the same house the whole time he was in the area, just with different street names), and I remember my aunt talking about the beauty and craftmanship of a cabinet in her house and either saying that it reminded her of something made by Percy, or that it was made by him.
However, at the age of 67, in 1970, Percy was living in inner Adelaide when he died, and he was buried in South Australia. His name is memorialised on the Scotts Creek Honour Roll.
There are a number of discrepancies and mysteries in his life as recorded on-line. Percy vs Percival? He was buried as Percival, but at a time in life when he would have answered for himself, he was Percy. His engagement notice gives his middle name as James, however also stuffs up the spelling of Cotterill (Teresa’s birth notice gets it wrong too). Similarly, there’s potentially a mystery over his birth date, too, but I think that might be digitisation error in his war records, because he’s obviously older than Pearl in the photo I have, so I’m confident that he’s not born in 1906. As for Josephine Jean Whitcombe, I can’t find record of her being born anywhere in the country! Her parents’ lived in Mile End, but their initials aren’t mentioned anywhere so I can’t sort of trace her back to them.
The First Ball I Took Your Mother To 