The Kidd Family A Family History
The Poole Family · William & Frances Poole

“Faith”

Elizabeth Christina Mary Poole

1875–1958

The eldest of the eleven — a trained nurse who, as a girl, held a gold-mining lease in her own name at Dalmorton, and who spent her married life as a Congregational minister’s wife across three states.

Born
19 May 1875 · Dalmorton, Little River, NSW (very likely)
Died
22 September 1958 · Sussex district, WA — cremated Karrakatta, Nedlands
Married
Rev. Ernest Bryant
Lived
83 years

Elizabeth Christina Mary Poole was born on 19 May 1875, very likely the daughter whose birth at "Dalmorton, Little River" was announced in the Clarence and Richmond Examiner that day — the earliest trace of any of William and Frances Poole’s children in the documentary record.6 Family and official records alike consistently give her name in full, but she went through most of her adult life by a nickname built from her own initials: E. C. M. Poole became simply "Faith" — the name her husband, her friends and the Western Australian press all used for her for more than fifty years.1

She was still a child, ten or eleven years old, when her name first appears on official paper in its own right — and in a way that echoes her father’s own story. The NSW Government Gazette of 3 May 1887 records a gold-mining lease of four acres at Dalmorton, County Gresham, approved to "E. C. M. Poole and ors.," applied for on 3 July 1886.2 A second, near-identical lease — again four acres at Dalmorton, again in the name "Elizabeth C. M. Poole" alone — appears in the department’s 1890–91 labour-conditions return.3 William Frederick Poole was Dalmorton’s own Warden’s Clerk and Mining Registrar through these same years, a post whose whole point was that its holder could not hold a private mining interest; the Royal Commission that ended his career in 1893 found he had done exactly that, through a bank account in his own name.4 Two gold leases taken out in his young daughter’s name, years before that inquiry, suggest the practice — leases quietly held through family members — went back further, and wider, than the one mine the Commission ever proved.

Elizabeth trained as a nurse. By the time she married, in the wedding notices that later marked her twenty-fifth and fiftieth anniversaries, she is described simply as "Nurse E. C. M. (Faith) Poole."1 Her husband was Ernest Bryant, son of the Reverend Samuel Bryant, an English-born Congregational minister who by the end of his own long career had held pulpits in Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia and, briefly, back in England — Ernest’s own elder brother, Thomas Otho Bryant, was a Congregational minister too, based in Perth.5 Elizabeth and Ernest were married on 23 December 1904 at "Whim," View Terrace, East Fremantle, by the Rev. Angus King — the same minister who, half a century later, was still remembered by name in their golden-wedding notice.1

Married life took the Bryants wherever Ernest’s own ministry did. By 1912–1914 they were established at View Terrace, East Fremantle, Ernest working as a customs officer while his father, "clergyman," shared the same address.6 Some time in the following years the family shifted right across the country: Western Australian electoral rolls give way to Victorian ones, and from 1914 to at least 1924 Ernest, Elizabeth and Samuel Bryant were all living together at "Hestra," Shoobra Road, Elsternwick, in Melbourne — Ernest now working as a clerk.7 By 1925 the family had returned to Western Australia and Ernest had taken up the ministry himself: that September he conducted a wedding at the Congregational Church, Busselton, and by 1929 the couple’s address was simply "The Manse, Busselton."8 From about 1930 the posting moved again, to the Congregational Church at Kalgoorlie — recorded in his own father’s death notice that July, in the 1931 electoral roll, and still true in 1936 and 1937, when the Rev. Ernest Bryant of Kalgoorlie officiated at a wedding there and at the funeral, in Perth, of a member of Elizabeth’s own mother’s family, Mrs Annie Cadden.9

By the 1950s Ernest and Elizabeth had settled for good at Busselton, on Kent Street, where Ernest continued to preach and marry and bury as "the Rev. Ernest Bryant" well into his seventies.10 Elizabeth was seriously ill in early 1951 — the Bryants’ thanks to the doctor, matron and staff of Busselton Hospital, and to the many friends who sent flowers and books, ran in the local paper that May.11 That same year, in September, they lost someone the notices call simply "Gran" — Elizabeth Brinkley Clarke — remembered every anniversary for the next several years in the words "Faith and Ernest Bryant"; her exact relationship to the family is not yet known, and remains an open question.12 On 23 December 1954 the Bryants marked their golden wedding at Busselton, the notice running in both the local paper and the West Australian in Perth: "They express their reverent thanks to the Great Father for continuous blessings — We praise Thee, O Lord."13 Elizabeth Christina Mary Bryant died on 22 September 1958, aged eighty-three, her death registered in the Sussex district around Busselton, and her remains cremated at Karrakatta, in Perth — the nearest crematorium to the town she had called home for so long. Ernest outlived her by five years, dying in the same district in 1963.14

They express their reverent thanks to the Great Father for continuous blessings — We praise Thee, O Lord.
Golden wedding notice, the Rev. and Mrs Ernest Bryant, 23 December 1954

The Record

Sources & References

  1. 1

    Marriage, and the name "Faith"

    West Australian, 23 December 1929, "Silver Wedding": "BRYANT—POOLE.—On December 23, 1904, at Whim, View-terrace, East Fremantle, by the Rev. Angus King, Ernest Bryant to Nurse E. C. M. (Faith) Poole. Present address: The Manse, Busselton." The same wording, "Rev. and Mrs. Ernest Bryant," recurs in their golden-wedding notices thirty years later (see reference 13).

  2. 2

    Gold-mining lease, 1886–87

    NSW Government Gazette, 3 May 1887, "Notice to Applicants for Gold-Mining Leases," Clarence and Richmond Mining District: "Dalmorton 113 | E. C. M. Poole and ors. | GL 56 | County Gresham, parish Dalmorton | 4 0 0 | 15 | 3 July, 1886."

  3. 3

    Gold-mining lease, 1890–91

    NSW Department of Mines, return of leases and labour conditions, Clarence and Richmond district (Dalmorton section): application 210, lease no. 193, "Elizabeth C. M. Poole," 4 0 0 acres, GL 73, County of Gresham, parish of Dalmorton.

  4. 4

    Her father’s office and its scandal

    See references 8–13 on the parent entry above: William Frederick Poole, Warden’s Clerk and Mining Registrar at Dalmorton, dismissed in 1893 after a Royal Commission found he held an undisclosed interest in the Mount Marvel gold mine, and convicted of perjury for denying it.

  5. 5

    Samuel Bryant and Thomas Otho Bryant

    West Australian, 28 July 1930, death and funeral notices: "Rev. Samuel Bryant, Congregational minister in Victoria, of Kyneton, Brighton-road, Victoria-parade, Ascot Vale and Hampton; in Sydney, of Point Piper-road; in Western Australia, of Johnston Memorial Church; and in England, of Maldon, Essex; aged 88 … dearly respected father of Rev. T. Otho Bryant, of the Congregational Union, Perth, and of Ernest Bryant, Congregational Church, Kalgoorlie." Funeral left the residence of his son, Rev. Thos. Otho Bryant, 25 Hamilton Street, Subiaco. The same notice ran, worded identically, in the Kalgoorlie Miner and the Western Argus, 29 July and 5 August 1930.

  6. 6

    East Fremantle, 1912–1914

    Western Australian electoral rolls, Division/Subdivision of East Fremantle, 1912–1914: "Bryant, Ernest, View terrace, East Fremantle, Customs officer M"; "Bryant, Elizabeth Christina Mary, View terrace, East Fremantle, married F"; "Bryant, Samuel, View terrace/View street, East Fremantle, clergyman M," all three at the same address across the 1912, 1913 and 1914 rolls.

  7. 7

    Elsternwick, Victoria, 1914–1924

    Victorian electoral rolls, Division of Henty, Subdivision of Elsternwick, 1914, 1919 and 1924 (the last headed "Commonwealth—Balaclava, State—St Kilda"): "Bryant, Elizabeth Christina Mary, Shoobra rd., Elsternwick, home duties F"; "Bryant, Ernest, Shoobra rd., Elsternwick, clerk M"; "Bryant, Samuel, Hestra, Shoobra rd., Elsternwick, clergyman M" — all three together at the address named "Hestra" across all three rolls.

  8. 8

    Busselton, 1925–1929

    South-Western News (Busselton), 18 September 1925, "Weddings — Kent–Frame": "At the Congregational Church, Busselton, on September 8 … was solemnised by the Rev. Ernest Bryant." West Australian, 23 December 1929, Silver Wedding notice (reference 1): present address "The Manse, Busselton."

  9. 9

    Kalgoorlie, c.1930–1937

    Death notice of Rev. Samuel Bryant, 28 July 1930 (reference 5): "Ernest Bryant, Congregational Church, Kalgoorlie." Western Australian electoral roll, Division of Kalgoorlie, 1931: "Bryant, Elizabeth Christina Mary, 18 McDonald street, home duties F"; "Bryant, Ernest, 18 McDonald street, minister of religion M." West Australian, 27 June 1936, funeral report, "The Late Mrs Annie Cadden": "conducted by the Rev. Ernest Bryant, of Kalgoorlie, who also officiated at the graveside" — Mrs Cadden’s chief mourners include a J. M. Cadden and W. T. Cadden, very likely connections of Elizabeth’s own mother, Frances Helen Cadden. South-Western News, 17 December 1937, "Wedding — Hogg–Wright," Congregational Church, Boulder Road, Kalgoorlie: "The Rev. E. Bryant, also one-time of Busselton, performed the ceremony … Mrs. Ernest Bryant, who acted as hostess, received the guests."

  10. 10

    Busselton, from the 1930s–40s

    Western Australian electoral roll, Division of Forrest, Subdivision of Sussex (undated in this collection, pre-1958): "Bryant, Elizabeth Christina Mary, Kent street, Busselton, home duties F"; "Bryant, Ernest, Kent street, Busselton, — M."

  11. 11

    Elizabeth’s illness, 1951

    South-Western News, 3 May 1951, "Thanks": "REV. AND MRS. ERNEST BRYANT say 'thank you' to Dr. Yates, and the Matron and staff of the Busselton Hospital for their care and attention during Mrs. Bryant's recent illness. Also the many friends for their visits, flowers, books, etc., during that time."

  12. 12

    "Gran" Elizabeth Brinkley Clarke — an open question

    In Memoriam notices, South-Western News (11 September 1952, 10 September 1953) and West Australian (10 September 1952): "CLARKE (Elizabeth Brinkley).—In loving memory of 'Gran,' died 10th September, 1951. Faith and Ernest Bryant." Her relationship to Elizabeth or to the Bryant family has not yet been established — she may be a Bryant, Poole or Cadden connection, or simply a close family friend given the honorary title.

  13. 13

    Golden wedding, 1954

    South-Western News and West Australian, both 23 December 1954: "GOLDEN WEDDING. — The Rev. and Mrs. Ernest Bryant, of Busselton, have pleasure in announcing the 50th Anniversary of their Wedding Day, 23rd December, 1904, solemnised by Rev. Angus King, at East Fremantle. They express their reverent thanks to the Great Father for continuous blessings — We praise Thee, O Lord. At Home Thursday, 23rd December, afternoon and evening, and at garden party, arranged by Mrs. Sands, on Friday, 24th December, at 3 p.m."

  14. 14

    Deaths, 1958 and 1963

    Karrakatta Cemetery and Crematorium burial index: Elizabeth Christina Mary Bryant, born 1875, died 22 September 1958, aged 83. WA BDM index and family record: death registered Sussex district, WA, 1958 (Elizabeth) and 1963 (Ernest, aged 86, residence Busselton).