Sarah Susannah Smith (and daughter Ivy Lonsdale) ...survival through tragedy.

Acknowledgement: Much of the information and photos in this blog are from Sydney Smith Family History 1821 to 2010 compiled by Mrs Irene Wilson, Morwell, Victoria. I was given the relevant pages by a now-deceased relative. Other material including photos were sourced from ancestry-com and Trove. 

Sarah died when she was 49; she looks much older than that in this photo.

My great-great aunt, Sarah Susannah Smith suffered tragedy on a scale unimaginably horrific. Six of her children were killed in a bush fire on 23 January, 1906. She was 34 years old. She and her daughter Ivy later separated from their husbands and Sarah bought property in her own right. 

Sarah was the sister of my great grand-father Sydney Smith. He was aged 18 when Sarah was born on 12 April 1871 in Wollert, the eleventh child of Sydney Smith and Rebecca nee Lee. She was the sister-in-law of Elizabeth Johnson, my mother’s grandmother. 

Sarah grew up at Wollert. Her mother died when she was nine years old, after which her half-sister Mary Ann (her mother’s daughter by her first husband), took care of the younger children remaining at home and Sarah's father. Her father died from being gored by a bull when Sarah was 15. 

At same stage, Sarah went to live with her older brother, Thomas, and his wife Annie at 15 Earl St, Windsor in Melbourne. Thomas was 16 years older than Sarah. She was living there when she married Francis Lonsdale on 9 April 1890, at St Matthew’s Church of England, Prahran. 

[Aside: Thomas went off to live in South Africa in the early 1890s, and died there in 1895. His wife, Annie, remarried to William Brown in 1916. Annie died on 22 Feb 1920 in the mental hospital at Royal Park, Parkville in Melbourne, of entro coloitis of the lung. Who knows what saw her in the mental hospital. She was aged 60.]

Francis Lonsdale

Sarah's husband, Francis Lonsdale, was born 3 Jan 1868. After leaving school he was variously employed as an assistant to a surveyor for a rail line, on construction of the rail line and as a timber feller for  sawmills. He was physically strong, and a member of the state championship Victorian tug-of-war team for several years. 

Francis selected some virgin land at Mt Best in southern Gippsland in 1892. He spent several years clearing it before the family - Sarah, and five children, moved there at Easter 1898. The family home built by Francis had six rooms, a large home by the standards of the day. 

The five children Sarah had borne were:

• Ivy, born 3 March 1891
• Olive, born 16 July 1892
• Frances Myrtle, born 22 August 1894
• Daisy Harriet, born 23 February 1896
• Francis Howard, born 4 September 1897

The children went to school at School Hill (Upper Toora), about 3 miles away. Later, school was conducted in a hall on top of Mt Best, only about half a mile from their home. 

In December 1900 Frances Myrtle died in the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, from appendicitis. She was buried in a “common grave”, along with other children in the Melbourne General Cemetery on 24 Dec 1900. 

Francis worked away from home a lot, building roads. I imagine that Sarah became pregnant each time Francis had a visit home. Sarah was bearing children, running the farm and looking after the children. The older children helped with the many household chores and farm work. 

After moving to the farm at Mt Best, Sarah had:

• Iris, born 12 July 1900, six months before Myrtle died.
• Gertrude Rose, born 21 August 1901
• Claude Vincent, born 12 January 1903
• Hazel Irene, born 13 June 1905

Thus Sarah had 8 children between the ages of 14 and 4 months when the calamitous bushfire struck.

Bushfire

On 23 January, 1906, a bushfire claimed the lives of six of the children: Olive, Daisy, Francis, Iris, Gertrude (Rose) and Claude.  Only Ivy and Hazel survived.

Report from The Age newspaper, 25 January 1906

 “…. The fire, narrates our correspondent, swept over the mountain and down the side before it was realized what had occurred. Morning school had been dismissed a short time previously, and those children who had not carried their lunches with them were on their way home. Eye witnesses state that the fire suddenly rushed from the mountain top in one sheet of flame, and the whole of the mount was ablaze. Amongst the children who were returning home was the family of Mr. Lonsdale, a widely known and respected resident of the district. Their mother, when the flames flew down the mountainside with such suddenness, ran in the direction whence she knew the children would be coming, and, although burnt by falling branches, and half blinded by the smoke, she was successful in finding them. Bewildered by the fire, they were endeavouring to return to the school. Mrs Lonsdale seized them and placed them on the road, which was the only spot not on fire, although the flames raged on each side. The poor children became frightened at the awful spectacle around them, and ran terrified right into the fire that lapped the roadside. The distraught yet heroic mother rushed after them. She was successful in saving the baby, which had been carried by one of the younger children, but the others were either burnt to death in the flames or suffocated by the pungent smoke which was rolling down the mountainside.

The eldest daughter, aged seventeen [note: she was fourteen], managed to save herself by cowering in the waters of the creek, but these were the only two of the children saved. The other six met with a dreadful death.

 Their names were:-

Olive, aged thirteen, Daisy Harriet, ten, Francis Howard, eight, Iris, five, Gertrude Rose, four, Claude Vincent, three.

All the bodies were recovered. The little girl [note: should read ‘boy’] Francis Howard lingered in agony and died in the night.

She [note: he] was recently kicked by a horse, and had just returned from the Children’s Hospital, Melbourne. A pathetic incident of the terrible affair was that the little 3 year old Vincent was clapping his hands and saying “What a pretty fire!”

Great courage and resource was shown by Mr. Vale, the State school teacher, who placed 28 under wet blankets, and saved most of the children.”

List of victims:

The Lonsdale Children (6)

Two Other Children (Unidentified)

Mr R Swan

Mr Ross

Mr H Crisp

Mr J Williams

More accounts of the Bushfire 23 January 1906

How the Lonsdale children died

The Leader Feb 3, 1906

The story of how the Lonsdale children met their death describes a very pitiful episode. Three of the children were attending school at Mount Best, but, when the alarm of the fire sounded Mrs. Lonsdale, with the natural solicitude of a mother, thought her children would be safe in their own home, and sent a message to the teacher desiring their return.

The children reached home safely, but the relentless fire soon attacked the dwelling, and the mother and her family of eight had to beat a hasty retreat to the roadway, which runs at the foot of the hill on hich the Lonsdale domicile is situated.

The mother, having brought her children to what she deemed a place of safety, took the eldest girl with her to an adjacent creek to obtain a supply of water. The girl took off her boots at the creek, and these formed the receptacles in which she conveyed the water.  

In the meantime, however, the flames came sweping across the roadway, threatening the children on all sides. They first started to run one way, only to find a menacing wall of fire barring their progress. Then they started in the other direction, only to be finally blocked.

The distracted children, seeing no escape, ran hither and thither like terrified rabbits.

The second eldest girl had the baby in her arms, and she succumbed first to the intense heat, falling with the baby under her. The little child was subsequently found alive and well, having been protected by her sister’s body from the fire. The other children, too, fell victims to the intense heat, and were found afterwards as they fell, two in one place, and two in another.

The boy, a lad of about eight years, was still alive when found, but he did not live long after the terrible ordeal.

The father was coming rapidly to their aid, and was only a few hundred yards away when death overtook his little ones in such terrible and tragic fashion. He came upon the scene half blinded, though fighting his way through the flames, very soon after the children fell.

Nestling between the feet of the children was a pet dog, which had survived the terrible heat.

The hillside was subject to the onslaught of flames, and the children were in the least likely position to escape. If the mother and father had been with them at the time they might have retained their presence of mind, but as it was they simply rushed into the destruction that was awaiting them. The creek, as it happened in the case of the eldest girl, would have formed a safe retreat.

Funeral of the Lonsdales a pathetic scene

The funeral of the Lonsdale children was very impressive, six bodies being interred in one grave, while the father stood by, blind, bandaged and weeping bitterly.

School children in peril.

Story told by Mr H.B. Vale

The story of the saving of the scholars of the Mount Best State School, who were encircled by the bushfires of Tuesday last, but escaped unharmed owing to the courageous care taken of them by the headmaster, is thus modestly told by the master, Mr. H.B. Vale:-

“The early morning was very hot. At 8.30 o’clock the thermometer stood at 86 deg in the schoolroom, and two fires were showing in the distance to the west. During the morning these came closer and were seen to be burning in standing scrub and getting into Mr Twite’s paddock, but did not run in the direction of the school.

However, I took the precaution to have buckets and tins filled with water and scattered about.

The school was dismissed for the mid-day recess, and two children who had not brought their lunch went home and arrived there safely. Thinking there might be danger, I sent for my two elder sons, who were away on the east side, to come home in case I needed assistance, and I allowed three children named Mirah who wished to go home on promising to come back if they saw any danger.

“At about 12.30, Olive Lonsdale came with an imperative message from her mother that the three children were to go home with her. They started off, all four arrived safely. The fire then began to creep further east, and about 1.30pm I sent home those children who lived easterly of the school. They all arrived at their homes safely. At about 2 pm the fire surrounded the place, and for a short time we managed to fight the fire. It then became a case of looking after the children. Mr Sandles and his son, who had been blocked on their way home by the fire, had just previously got to the school, but could get no further.

“Shortly after 2pm the school building started to ignite, and the children who had remained were all taken to the side of a log a short distance away, where they were covered with blankets. Two buckets half full of water were procured from the now burning school and one blanket was soaked, while the other was kept to damp our lips with.

In all there were 28 of us packed as closely as possible, the younger ones lying flat under the blankets, the elder ones with their heads and arms out ready to beat out the burning flames that continually fell on the blankets, while Mr Sandles and I sat in front holding the wet blanket before them as a break. The log against which we were sheltering was burning on either side of us.

“Five times we shifted camp, dragging and lifting young children quickly over burning logs, sometimes nearer the fire, sometimes further, and even back again.

“After three or four hours of this, all being still alive, we made for an outer building of the school which had marvellously escaped from destruction. The heat was beginning to tell on the children when Mr Lonsdale reached us and told us to make for Mr. Gunn’s house. We reached the house safely, and remained there till the next day, when the leading residents of Toora arrived with food supplies on their backs, and a relief party conveyed us to Toora. Here we received the greatest kindness and attention to all our wants from the townspeople.”

 Foster – Toora Mirror – Feb 7th 1906

Mr Tom Beale is one who deserves a V.C, for he proved himself to be one of the bravest of the brave. Columns could be filled with untold acts of bravery in the recent terrible Bush fire, but space will not permit.

 [Ivy Lonsdale, the fourteen year old who survived the fire later married Tom Beale]

About the fire

John Pocklington said that every now and then the air would explode, and take all the oxygen out of the air, and they would all have to lay on the ground for awhile.

Statement of Sarah Lonsdale to Coroner's Inquest, 24 January 1906

I am a Married Woman residing at Mount Best.

At noon yesterday I saw the Bush fire raging. I and my daughter carried water to the house and the house was in Danger. Fire was all around us. The house was burning down and I sent all the children on to the road for safety. I then came on to the road to see if the children was safe. I met them running back towards the house as all the bush was in flames. I said wait on the road until I see the other three and I went a little further along and I found Iris aged 5 1/2 years dying. The fire was too fierce for me to get through. I then got a blanket and covered the children up and then went to the creek for water and brought them up some water and found Olive was dead. I took Francis and Ivy down to the water and got Ivy to mind Francis while I took the baby to Mr Pocklington's and I came back and carried Francis to Pocklingtons.

When my husband joined me at about 2 chains from my house on the road I said to my husband five of the children are dead I then came on to Pocklingtons with Francis and he was unconscious all the time. He died at about 2.30am this morning 24th January 1906. It was at Mrs Pocklington's house that he died. I told my husband at daylight this morning that Francis was dead. I had no hope of his recovery from the first. I am quite certain three of the children Iris, Daisy and Olive were dead, the other two Gertrude and Claude I could not reach as the flames were too fierce. The distance from where the children were to the creek was about 3 chains, I was unable to reach it through the fire and smoke. I identify the bodies of my six children now shown to me. 

Taken and sworn before me, this 24th day of January 1906 at Toora, W.E. Warner JP

Sarah Lonsdale

Statement of Francis Lonsdale to Coroner's Inquest, 24 January 1906:

"I am a Grazier residing at Mount Best. 

I identified the bodies of my children Olive, Daisy Harriet, Francis Howard, Iris, Gertrude Rose, and Claude Vincent. I in the company with Thomas Beale and William Landers was working at Mr. Gunn's house beating off the Bush Fires. In company with Beale and Landers I went to my own place and found my house burnt. I met my wife and Francis on the road. My wife told me five of he children were dead and Ivy was alive aged 15 years. I told Tom Beale to take Ivy down to Pocklington's about a mile away and Mrs Lonsdale accompanied them with my boy Francis. I then went along the road in company with William Landers and found my five children lying on the road dead. I then came back overtook my wife and brought my son to Mr Pocklington's. I then went back with Mr Thomas Beale from Pocklingtons and placed 5 bags over the children and came back and met Const. Hall. I am quite certain the children were dead and suffocated in the heat and smoke from the Bush Fires. 

I in company with Const Hall and Gerald Scammell, George and William Binding, Thomas Beale, carried the dead bodies to Mr Scammell's and they were conveyed to Toora and I stayed at the Pocklingtons being knocked up with the heat, at Daybreak my wife Sarah came to my room and said Francis was dead. I was not surprised to hear he was dead as he was unconscious the night previous. Thomas Beale and others carried the body to Toora. Francis just recovered from an accident from a kick from a horse received about 3 months ago, where he was treated about 3 months ago for fracture to the skull at the Children's Hospital.

Taken and sworn before me, the 24th day of January 1906 at Toora.

W.E.Warner JP. 

Francis Lonsdale

Statement of Thomas Beale to Coroner's Inquest, 24 January 1906:

I am a Grazier residing at Mount Best.

I remember the 23rd inst at about 8pm I went to the Police Station and informed Const Hall that 4 or five of the Lonsdale children were burnt or suffocated in the Bush fire at Mount Best. I in company with the Constable and others went to Mt Best and found five of Mr. Lonsdale's children lying on the road. Two of them were partially charred. We conveyed them to Toora at 1am 24th inst. I have viewed and identify the bodies of Mr. Frank Lonsdale's children. In my opinion they were suffocated in smoke from the Bush fires. I was working at Mr Gunn's house Mt Best with MR Lonsdale and came to Mr. Lonsdale's house and saw the boy Frank aged 7 years partially burnt and unconscious. In my opinion he would not recover. About 20 yards further on the girl Olive was lying on her face with a blanket around her and dead. In company of Const. Hall and others we found five bodies on the road and conveyed them to Toora. 

Taken and sworn before me, this 24th day of January 1906 at Toora, W.E. Warner JP

Thomas James Beale

Statement of George Binding to Coroner's Inquest, 24 January 1906:

I am a Grazier residing at Toora.

I remember 23rd January 1906 Bush fires were raging around Mt Best. Thomas Beale at 7.30pm told me that 4 or 5 of Lonsdales children were suffocated or burnt on the road. I went in company with Const Hall and others and found five of the children on the road, they were all dead. We conveyed them to Toora. I viewed the bodies and identified them as the five children of Francis Lonsdale of Mount Best. In my opinion the children were suffocated.

Taken and sworn before me, this 24th day of January 1906 at Toora, W.E. Warner JP

George Binding

Statement of Constable John Hall to Coroner's Inquest, 24 January 1906:

VICTORIA POLICE (74B)

John Hall MC 4289 

"I am a Mounted Constable residing at Toora. I remember the 23rd and 24th inst. Thomas Beale and George Binding came to the Police Station at 8pm and reported that 5 of Mr Lonsdales children were burnt in the Bush Fire at Mt Best and were lying on the road. I immediately went and travelled through the fires with 5 others and found the five children lying on the road. Some of them were charred and burning. We carried them to Mr Pocklington's and thence to Mr Scammell's and then had them conveyed to Toora by trap. In my opinion they were suffocated in the Bush Fire and all of them were dead. The following morning another child of Mr Lonsdales was brought into Toora having died through the night from burning and suffocation. "

John Hall MC 4289

After the fire 

(Most of the following information is provided by Coleen Bower (nee Beale), Sarah’s great-granddaughter, Ivy’s granddaughter)

Francis’s brother, John Lonsdale, lived at Mulwala in NSW “was anxious to do all he could for the bereft parents”, and reached Toora by 30 January. Some weeks later, Sarah, Francis, Ivy and Hazel took the train to Mulwala where they spent some time away from Gippsland. 

Eventually they returned. The school had been destroyed. 

The house built after the fire

Daughter Ivy resumed social activities by celebrating Empire Day on 24 May, 1907 and that evening at the Sunday School prize giving concert she sang several songs. Tom Beale sang “Like The Ivy”. 17 days earlier, Sarah had her next baby:

Vera, Alfred and Hazel

• Vera May Sadie, born 7 May 1907, followed by
• Alfred George, born 8 June 1908

Ivy married Thomas Beale on 26 May, 1909. It was recorded in The Toora and Port Welshpool Ensign on 27 May: 

“A quiet wedding was celebrated at the Foster Church of England on Wednesday … the happy couple being r T.J. Beale…and Miss Ivy Lonsdale….The bride was given away by Mr R.W. Stanley and was attired in traveling costume.” Tom was 32, Ivy 18.

So, Francis wasn’t at his daughter’s wedding, but he must have turned up at some time, because Sarah kept having children: 

• Dora Lee, born 29 August 1910 in Toora
• Edwin James, born 6 November 1911 in Carlton, Melbourne
• Millicent Heath, born 25 May 1915 in Carlton. 

Francis was a Supervisor at the Country Roads Board, and working away much of the time, just as my grandfather was years later, when my mother was young. 

Ivy and Tom lived in a one room timber house. Tom cleared the land and tried to eke out a living from the sale of milk and animals. They had seven children, born between September 1909 (she was pregnant when they married), and October 1919. Tom often looked for work away from home to supplement the family income (this was very common). Ivy wrote to the Education department and lobbied, successfully, for a school to be established close to her home. The nearest was 5 miles away, over dreadful roads.

In September 1917, Ivy and her children moved to Tin Mine, where her mother Sarah had, on 18 August, purchased a property, “Craiglea”. It was a 4 room house made from sawn timber, where lived Sarah and her 6 children, as well as eldest daughter Ivy and her six, Sarah’s grand children. On the property there was an out room, separator room, a calf and fowl house, a pig sty and cow shed.

Sarah and Ivy had separated from their husbands. I do not know the circumstances of the separations. Both Sarah and Ivy had lived independently of their husbands for long periods whilst their husbands took work away from home.  In 1917, Tom was working in Wagga Wagga, NSW. 

Sarah and Ivy's deaths

In latter part of 1919, Ivy was diagnosed with breast cancer. She made a number of visits to Melbourne where she tried Chinese herbal treatments. She and Tom attended a wedding together in January 1920. She died in the Austin hospital on 20 October 1920, aged 29. She was buried in Melbourne General Cemetery. Her husband Tom did not attend her funeral. Three of her sons, Thomas Charles - Charlie, born 21 September 1909; Henry James - Harry, born 17 October 1910, and Ivan Leslie - Les, born 20 May 1913, lived in a tent for several years at Tin Mine. They were aged 11, 10 and 7 when their mother died. Sadie Laura, born 6 Nov 1911 went to live with a Mrs Marriott at Tin Creek. Francis George, born 23 July 1914, and John Albert - Jack, born 23 July 1915, were raised by their maternal grandfather Francis Lonsdale. Doris Lydia, born 11 October 1919 was fostered by Alice and William Gilmour of Rennie, NSW. 

Sarah Smith, Ivy’s mother, was also diagnosed with cancer. She died 13 days after her daughter Ivy, at Toora. Cause of death was breast cancer, carcinoma of the liver and exhaustion. Sarah was buried on 4 November 1920 at Toora Cemetery, next to her six children who died in the 1906 bushfire. She was 49 years old. 

Sarah's husband, Francis Lonsdale, died at Toora Bush Nursing Hospital on 2 June 1946.
Ivy's husband, Tom Beale, died in the Royal Melbourne Hospital on 14 October 1948, following an operation. 

22 January 2006

On the morning of Sunday, 22 January 2006, a plaque was unveiled at a large rock beside the road at the top of Mt Best to commemorate all those who lost their lives in the tragic bushfires of 1906. This ceremony was attended by more than 100 people. It was organised by Faye Vandyk, niece of the six Lonsdale children who perished in the bushfire on 23 January 1906. 

* Selection referred to "free selection before survey" of crown land in some Australian colonies under land legislation introduced in the 1860s. These acts were intended to encourage closer settlement, based on intensive agriculture, such as wheat-growing, rather than extensive agriculture, such as wool production. The Victorian Parliament passed Land Acts in 1860, 1862 and 1869, which offered settlers land within defined agricultural areas. Settlers paid for half of an allotment on selection at a uniform price of £1 per acre and paid rent on the other half for usually 7 years. By the end of the period, to obtain title to the land, settlers would have had to pay the balance of the purchase price and make certain improvements. (Wikipedia)