Dadswell Family History
Family of Robert and Ulrica (Dadswell) Dunbar
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Dadswell ancestors of the Dunbar family
Dunbar family members
Further information
Dadswell ancestors of the Dunbar family
Robert Doudeswell 1560 > Robert Doudeswell 1606 > Edward Dodswell 1659 > Alexander Dodswell 1686 > Thomas Dadswell 1732 > James Dadswell 1786 > Thomas William Dadswell 1828 > Ulrica Mary Ann Dadswell 1868 > Dunbar family
Dunbar and related families
Ulrica Mary Ann Dadswell (1868-1955) married on 22 August 1889 Robert Francis Dunbar (1864-1950), son of John Peter and Julia (O'Gorman) Dunbar.
Ulrica had one child, Ethel May Dadswell (born and died 1886, father unknown) before her marriage. Robert and Ulrica initally lived in Horsham, Victoria, but in 1898, the couple and their family sailed from Victoria to Western Australia to live in Subiaco. The children in Robert and Ulrica's family were -
1. Charles Thomas Dunbar, born at Ararat, Victoria, on 2 November 1889. He moved with his family to Perth in 1898 and in 1915, at the age of 25 and when he was working as a labourer, enlisted in the Australian Army as an infantryman. After training at Keswick, South Australia, he sailed for Europe aboard the troopship Ballarat. After further training in Egypt, Charles moved to the front in France in March 1916. He died in fighting near Villers-Bretonneux in France on 4 August 1916.
2. Thomas William Dunbar, born at Horsham on 27 November 1891. He enlisted in the Australian Army in October 1916, describing himself as a 'horse driver,' and within a month sailed for Europe. He served in France and returned to Perth in June 1919, following the end of the war. He and Emma Hammond (pictured) married and had one son, Leonard. Tom ran a newsagency in Hay Street (Perth) but suffered poor health following the war and died on 7 November 1923, the same year as their son was born. Emma continued the business after his death. She died on 13 August 1980, aged 83.
3. Robert Ernest Dunbar, born at Horsham on 3 June 1894 died as a baby.
4. Helena Florence Dunbar, (pictured about 1952) born at Horsham on 28 December 1895, married on 12 September 1919 George Brown who was born at Burnley, Lancashire, England, on 3 April 1888, the son of James and Sarah Anne (Wilcock) Brown. George had been a textile worker but sailed to Western Australia in 1916 and found work on several wheat farms. Later in life he became an attendant at Karrakatta Crematorium. Helena and George lived at 1 Forrest Street, Subiaco. They had one daughter, Joan Marion Brown, born at Subiaco on 23 July 1923. George died in Perth on 21 May 1969, aged 81, and Helena died there on 4 April 1984, aged 90.
[Joan Marion Brown, only child of George and Helena Florence (Dunbar) Brown, was born at the family home at Subiaco on 23 July 1923. She attended school at Subiaco and on 8 February 1944 married a sailor, Alan Frederick Dunning, born at Claremont, Western Australia on 10 September 1923, the son of Frederick Thomas and Ivy Gwendolyn Dunning.
He had seen active service during the Japanese attack on Darwin in 1942. He retired from the Royal Australian Navy after World War Two and worked for the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR). The couple lived at Subiaco with Joan's parents and had two daughters - Marion Joan Dunning on 9 December 1944 and Lois Margaret Dunning on 10 September 1948.
The family moved to Merredin in 1953 where Alan Dunning was a WAGR guard. Joan died of cancer there on 6 December 1966.]
5. Eileen Mary Dunbar, born at Horsham on 6 December 1898, married Peter Nissen. They had three sons and a daughter - Clement (deceased), Raymond (died in a shooting accident), Mervyn and Doreen (married and had children, deceased). Eileen, aged 71, died on 16 October 1970 following a stroke.
6. Norman Robert James Dunbar, (pictured in about 1952) born 29 January 1901, married Maisie Evelyn Duncan in 1925. They had two sons, Leslie Norman Dunbar and Keith Duncan Dunbar. Norman died on 2 February 1992 when aged 91, Maisie died earlier the same year, on 12 January 1992, aged 87.
7. Jack Dadswell Dunbar, born on 17 August 1902, died on 4 May 1904 before reaching his second birthday.
8. Ronald Clement Dunbar, (pictured about 4 years old) born on 9 July 1907, married Mary Christina Resiness in Perth in 1929. Mary Christina was the daughter of Mary Louisa Resiness from Beagle Bay north of Broome, and is remembered as an excellent student, talented musician, cook and seamstress. They had two daughters, Mary Josephine (born 1930) and Betty Sonia (1931). For a good part of his life, Ronald worked with horses, sometimes delivering them from saleyards to farms. He died on 16 June 1975 when aged 67. Mary Christina lived to the age of 90, and died at Wagin on 3 February 1999.
Further information
Information on Robert Francis & Ulrica (Dadswell) Dunbar (parents of the above Dunbar family members)