The Kidd Family A Family History
The Baldock Family · Alfred & Frances Baldock

The Electrical Fitter

Janet Christina Baldock

1905–1994

One of the 1905 twins — an electrical fitter, a striking trade for a young woman of the period, who married four days after her sister and eventually settled on the Central Coast.

Born
21 August 1905 · Newtown, baptised St Stephen’s
Died
6 March 1994
Married
Albert Edward Doherty (1903–1985), a motor driver — married 11 June 1927, St Stephen’s Church, Newtown
Lived
88 years

Janet Christina, one of the two 1905 twins, was baptised at St Stephen’s, Newtown, on 11 October that year, the register giving her birth as 21 August and her father’s occupation, as it did for several of his other children, simply as “painter.”1 Her twin, Frances Jessie, was baptised immediately after her: the very next entry in the same register, No. 223 to Janet’s 222, on the same day and by the same minister.

She married later than most of her sisters, and brought an unusual trade of her own to the wedding. The 1927 marriage register describes the twenty-one-year-old bride not as a domestic or a dressmaker but an “electrical fitter” — a striking occupation for a young woman of the period. On 11 June 1927, at St Stephen’s Church, Newtown — the same church where her own parents had married thirty-seven years before, and where two of her sisters would also marry — Janet, still living at 110 Gowrie Street with her parents, married Albert Edward Doherty, a twenty-three-year-old motor driver of 28 Malcolm Street, Erskineville, son of Robert William Doherty, a brick burner, and Ethel (Gentle). Her sister Queenie stood witness, alongside a second Doherty who signed only as “R. Doherty” — very likely the groom’s father or a brother.2 Albert himself had been baptised only sixteen years before, on 15 March 1911, together with three younger siblings — Alma Gladys, Ivy Rose and Henry Ernest Frederick — baptised in the same batch; the family register gives their home as 13 Lackey Street, St Peters, Robert William’s trade there as labourer rather than the marriage register’s brick burner, and Albert’s own birth as 16 April 1903 — five months out of step with the 4 October 1903 his own memorial plaque would later give.6

The marriage carried the couple south-west of Newtown, and eventually to the coast. By 1943 they were at 50 Milperra Road, Revesby, Albert’s occupation given on that year’s electoral roll as “horse driver” rather than motor driver — one of the small, unexplained shifts wartime rolls sometimes preserve.3 They later moved further still, and by the roll made up to 16 September 1977 were living at 42 Bellevue Street, in the Long Jetty/Entrance district of the Central Coast, Albert once again a “driver” and Janet at home.4 It was there, or nearby, that both eventually died — Albert on 22 June 1985, aged eighty-one, and Janet almost nine years later, on 6 March 1994, aged eighty-eight. They lie together at Palmdale Lawn Cemetery, each remembered on a small plaque of their own: his “always remembered, loved by all,” hers “loved and remembered always.”5

Three Baldock children, in a torn studio photograph kept among Janet’s own papers — family memory labels it "Queenie and Twin Sister Jessie," though which child is which, and whether Janet herself is the third, is not yet confirmed
Janet Christina Doherty’s memorial plaque, Palmdale Lawn Cemetery — she lies beside Albert, who had died nine years before

The Record

Sources & References

  1. 1

    Baptism of Janet Christina Baldock, 1905

    Church of England baptism register, parish of St Stephen’s, Newtown, register No. 222: Janet Christina, born 21 August 1905, baptised 11 October 1905, parents William Stanley and Jessie Baldock, of Newtown; father’s occupation painter; by whom baptised, Geo. Middleton.

  2. 2

    Marriage of Janet Christina Baldock and Albert Edward Doherty, 1927

    NSW Register of Marriages, District of Newtown, entry No. 3497: Albert Edward Doherty, motor driver, of 28 Malcolm Street, Erskineville, bachelor, aged 23, born St Peter, N.S.W., son of Robert William Doherty (brick burner) and Ethel (Gentle); married Janet Christina Baldock, electrical fitter, of 110 Gowrie Street, Newtown, spinster, aged 21, born Newtown, daughter of Stanley William Baldock (painter) and Jessie (Brooks); married 11 June 1927 at St Stephen’s Church, Newtown, according to the rites of the Church of England, by a minister whose signature reads, as best can be made out, “Rev. J. Sidwell, B.A.” (the surname is not perfectly legible, and may instead read “Ridwell”). Witnesses: Queenie Baldock, the bride’s sister, and a second signature reading, as best can be made out, “R. Doherty.”

  3. 3

    Electoral roll, Revesby, 1943

    Commonwealth Electoral Roll, Division of Bankstown, Subdivision of Bankstown, 1943, entries 2271–2272: Doherty, Albert Edward (horse driver) and Doherty, Janet Christina (home duties), both 50 Milperra Road, Revesby.

  4. 4

    Electoral roll, the Entrance/Long Jetty, 1977

    Commonwealth Electoral Roll, Subdivision of the Entrance, roll made up to 16 September 1977, entries 1760–1761: Doherty, Albert Edward (driver) and Doherty, Janet Christina (home duties), both 42 Bellevue Street, Long Jetty/The Entrance, New South Wales.

  5. 5

    Deaths and memorials, Palmdale Lawn Cemetery

    Cemetery memorial plaques (family photographs), Palmdale Lawn Cemetery, Central Coast Council: Albert Edward Doherty, 4.10.03–22.6.85, “always remembered, loved by all”; Janet Christina Doherty, 21-8-1905–6-3-1994, “loved and remembered always.”

  6. 6

    Baptism of Albert Edward Doherty and siblings, 1911

    Church of England baptism register, entries Nos. 272–275: Albert Edward, born 16 April 1903; Alma Gladys, born 1 February 1907; Ivy Rose, born 6 October 1908; and Henry Ernest Frederick, born February 1911 — all four children of Robert William and Ethel Annie Doherty, of 13 Lackey Street, St Peters, father’s occupation labourer, baptised together on 15 March 1911 by (Rev.) Walter V. Thomas. Albert’s birth date here, 16 April 1903, differs from the 4 October 1903 given on his own memorial plaque (ref. 5 above); this has not been resolved.