Dadswell Family

Llewellyn Dadswell, a policeman in Queensland for 19 years until his discharge in 1936, shared 'recent' ancestors with a number of other Australian branches of the Dadswell family.

His great grandparents were James and Charlotte (Ovenden) Dadswell, who were also ancestors for the Bassett family in Melbourne, the Canadian Dadswell family of Barbara Nethercott, the Western Victorian family of Thomas William Dadswell, the Red Cliffs family of Henry Dadswell and an existing Queensland Dadswell family group.

Llewellyn's great grandfather James, who lived at Mayfield, Sussex, died of an apoplectic fit at the age of 55, while James' wife Charlotte (pictured at right) survived to the age of 99. Between them they produced 10 children, including these three siblings -

• their fifth child Jane Dadswell born 1818, who married into the Bassett family, some of whom eventually made their home at Ivanhoe, Melbourne, Victoria;
   
• their ninth child Thomas William Dadswell born 1828, who married Prussian woman Helena Scheer - they both migrated to Australia in 1857, resulting in Dadswell families establishing in a number of Victorian centres, including Warrak (near Ararat), Stawell, Red Cliffs, Geelong and Portland; and
   
• their tenth child Charles Dadswell born 1834, the youngest of the 10 children - it was from Charles that Llewellyn descended, as did another closely-related group of Dadswells who today are still living in Queensland.

The last-born Charles Dadswell (1834-1917) became a coachman and family folklore has it that he drove the last postal coach from London to Brighton in the 1880s.

He married Ann Card and they had four children, including William James Dadswell, who rose through post office ranks from letter carrier to superintendent of postmen at Brighton by the time he retired in 1918.

William married Catherine (Kate) Simmonds at Brighton and they had 10 children - Edith Catherine (born 1881), Annie (1882 or 1883), Charles (1884), Kathleen 1886), William James 1890), Llewellyn (born at Brighton on 4 Nov 1892), Harold Douglas (1895), Wallace James (1897, and who has descendents living today in Queensland), Roderick Cecil (1900) and Septimust Reginald (1903).

In the 1901 census, William and Catherine are shown as living at Brighton with seven of their children - Charles (a railway engine cleaner then aged 17), Kathleen (14), William (11), Llewellyn (8), Harold (6), Wallace (3) and Roderick (8 months) - and with Alpheus Augustus Dadswell, (born 1867) one of William's brothers who was also a postman.

[Pictured at left are Catherine with the two youngest children - Roderick (left) and Septimust]

It is unclear if Llewellyn also entered the postal service but Australian Army documents suggest he was in the British Army Service Corps for five years prior to World War One. In 1911 he married Minnie Robinson at Brighton, and in 1912 they had a daughter, Dorothy A. Dadswell.

Llewellyn may well have been the 'Mr L Dadswell' who arrived in Sydney on 3 July 1913, having sailed aboard the 'Osterley' from Tilbury on the River Thames.

He travelled without his family, and in January 1915, when enlisting in the Australian Army, described himself as a fitter living at Innisfail, Queensland. At this time he stated he was not married and he listed his father (living at 253 Queens Park Road, Brighton, Sussex) as his next-of-kin. However he was discharged after several months as medically unfit for service (chronic rheumatism) and in June of 1915 he joined the Queensland Police.

A little over a year later he resigned to again enlist in the Australian Army, this time declaring he was married and that Minnie Dadswell was his next-of-kin and that he had a daughter (both living at 261 Queens Park Road). His Army service was again brief - within a few months of his second enlistment, he was discharged from the Army.

Llewellyn rejoined the Queensland Police on 1 May 1918, and saw service as a police constable at a number of centres including Innisfail, Fossilbrook, Mackay and Ogmore.

At some stage he married Margaret (Maggie) Catherine Byrne, daughter of William and Mary Ann (Byrne?). Llewellyn was discharged from the police force on superannuation in January 1936 and he and Maggie lived at 43 Milne Lane, Mackay. He was in his early 50s at the time of his death at Mackay Hospital on 28 December 1944.

Some years later, Maggie moved to Sydney and became a baby-sitter for the family of racehorse trainer Tommy Smith. Following an illness, Maggie Dadswell died in Sydney in 1961.

Llewellyn Dadswell's first wife, Minnie Dadswell, died in Brighton, Sussex, in 1973. Their daughter Dorothy died the following year, also in Brighton.

Related information

Family tree for Llewellyn Dadswell
Information about James Dadswell, great grandfather of Llewellyn Dadswell.

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