Update for: Dr William Begg & Family

My 1st Cousin, 3 Times Removed

Banner Image: Maude and William Begg, 1949, Courtesy of Tony Begg

Thanks to some fantastic feedback from Tony Begg and his brother James Begg (my 4th Cousins) in regards to my post about William and Maude, I have some updates to share.

First off, a big correction, this property:

It was not the property that Maude, William, and the children moved to in 1914. Even though all that information lined up with the property names and the numbering of 124 Power Street on the Melbourne Metropolitan Works map, it was not the street address. James suggested that it was actually the lot numbers that were being shown on that original map.

This means that this is the 124 Power Street, Hawthorn that the family moved to.

We can be certain it was because James and Tony have clear memories of visiting their Pop, Dr John Daniell Begg, at the surgery at this address. I shared in the previous post that John and Mollie his wife, returned from Korumburra in 1939 to work with William in the surgery at 124 Power Street Hawthorn.

James shared that he remembered being very disappointed when he heard that after his Pop sold the surgery in the 1980s it was demolished for that shopping centre car park.

Tony had a copy of the original land title for the property that he shared with me. It shows clearly that 124 Power Street ran along Roche Street which was originally named Swan Street in 1901 as discussed in the previous post.

This Certificate of Title is a fantastic document as it not only shows when Maude and William purchased the property from Dr Percy Brett’s wife Amy but it also shows when the property was inherited by John and his sister Elizabeth (Betty) on William’s death.

I did manage to find this section of Power Street on a Department of Land and Survey Map from 1884 and it matches with the description above, that the property is part of “Crown Allotment Fifteen“.

So here is the correct section of the Melbourne Metropolitan Works map showing the property from 1901, just 13 years before Maude and William moved in.

Now you might remember that I shared a photo in the last post of Betty and her husband, Ernest Backhouse and that it was a still from an old home movie. Well, Tony shared a digital version of the film with me and it is pure gold. Wait till you see what it contains.

I’m not doing this in any particular order this time, I’m just sharing as a topic comes up. Oh yeah, and Tony very kindly has given me permission to share the stills from the film here. Thanks, Tony!

Are you ready for the first gem? This is William exiting the main entrance of 124 Power Street, Hawthorn in 1949.

Here is the corner entrance to the property.

Close-up of the sign on the gate above.

And here is the same corner in 2022.

Tony also gave me a heads-up on where William was staying when he was studying in Edinburgh for his medical degree. He appears in the 1891 Census.

Mary Menzies was his aunt, the younger sister of his father James Begg. William was living with Mary and her two daughters at Morningside Park which just happened to be, a mile down the road from where his other cousin, Donald Alexander Macvean was living.

Donald was studying at George Watson’s College in Edinburgh, preparing for his medical degree. He was living at 14 Hartington Place with his aunt Margaret Begg, who just happened to be a sister of James, Mary and Donald’s mother, Helen as well.

This map shows how close they were and I’m sure they would have been in each other’s lives at this time.

Now this is just me hypothesising here but I think this knowledge of William living with Mary, might provide a clue as to where William might have gone to live after his mother’s death. Which remember was just eight weeks after his birth.

Mary Begg was married to the Rev. Peter Sinclair Menzies, her cousin. Yes, Mary’s mother, Helen Pagan was sister to Peter’s mother Margaret Pagan.

Mary and Rev. Peter were living in Melbourne at the time of Annie’s death. (Annie being William’s mother) So William’s father, James, potentially had his sister and cousin on hand to assist him with baby William’s care.

I found this fantastic article from June 1868, mentioning that they had only just arrived from Scotland. This is just four months before Annie’s death.

Admittedly they had only been in the colony a couple of months but maybe Mary and Peter were considered a closer connection and better option for William’s care than Annie’s parents, John and Hannah Macvean.

Mary and Peter were living in the heart of Melbourne, Peter having just been appointed the coadjutor to the Rev. I Hetherington, minister of the original Scots Church in Collins Street.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/245309244?searchTerm=%22peter%20menzies%22

Whereas William’s grandparents John and Hannah were living at the Stony Rises property 80 miles to the west of the city.

James Begg’s obituary tells us exactly what he was up to the year after Annie’s death. Thanks to Tony for pointing this out too, as I missed it when writing the first post.

I wonder if William was living with Mary in Melbourne at this stage, while his father was touring Hamilton with his uncle. Mary already had her daughters Helen and Margaret by this time so maybe adding William to the household wasn’t such a big imposition.

Perhaps William moving in with Mary in Edinburgh, twenty years later was a homecoming of sorts. Of course, there is no way to prove this but it is fun hypothesising.

Just to finish this story off. Rev. Peter Sinclair Menzies who by all reports of the day, was an up-and-coming energetic new preacher, suffered greatly with consumption. It was the reason for his and Mary’s move to Australia in 1868 but unfortunately, it killed him. He was dead by 1874 at the age of 34. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60607515/5985524

I’m assuming this was the catalyst for Mary and the girl’s return to Scotland.

Now back to Korumburra, specifically John and Mollie Begg’s new house on Radovick Street.

The house was featured in the home movie and here it is.

Tony informed me that this house wasn’t in the family when they used to visit Korumburra as kids but thinks that John and Mollie probably sold it when they left in 1939.

I stitched together this photo above from two frames of the movie but since doing that Tony found a wonderful photo of the house in his collection and it is a beauty.

The house was still standing as of last year according to Google Maps.

Tony also had a couple of photos of his Nan and Pop, Mollie and John with his dad, Simon, as a baby in the grounds of the house.

Staying with Mollie and John for the moment, in my earlier post I identified this property as 64 Glenferrie Road, the property they moved to in 1939 on their return from Korumburra.

And it is 64 Glenferrie Road but just in Malvern and not in Kew. In 1939 when Mollie and John moved in with Simon and Andrew, no. 64 was at the other end of Glenferrie Road which is in Kew. No.64 has been renumbered and is now known as no. 904.

The original home that Mollie, John and the boys moved into also features in the home movie. This is John greeting Mollie outside the property and then him watching as Mollie does some gardening.

And yes, the property still stands today but it obviously has had a refresh and a few windows put in.

This is also the property that William moved to after Maude died in 1950 and where he lived out his days with John, Mollie and the children until he passed away in 1958.

Tony also informed me that this is where Mollie and John lived from the time they returned from Korumburra until around 1962 when they moved to their new home at 25 Raheen Drive Kew.

My other cousin, Anne Macvean alerted me to the fact that this new house at 25 Raheen Drive, was designed, in 1962 for Mollie and John by their son, Andrew Shannon Begg, who was an architect. https://builtheritage.com.au/dua_beggdoug.html

This beautiful house was still standing in 2019 according to the latest photo on Google Maps. I did manage to find some wonderful photos of the property when it was sold in 2015 thanks to Real Estate.com.au.

25 Raheen Drive, Kew, Victoria, 2015

Collage 2: Courtesy of Realestate.com.au

https://www.realestate.com.au/property/25-raheen-dr-kew-vic-3101/

Now, back to Korumburra. This is another property identified in the home movie.

Yep as the title gives it away, this is the surgery in Station Street. I am fairly sure this will be the former surgery of Dr Alexander Clow Fraser that John purchased in 1928.

I just happened to find this amazing photo of Station Street, undated on the State Library Victoria site showing the surgery.

From what I can best guess, this is the site below as of August 2023. That beautiful old home is gone.

Still in Korumburra, remember William and Maude started off in the No. 1 Coffee Palace in Station Street. Look what was also featured in the home movie.

I know there is nothing to conclusively say that this is the same Coffee Palace apart from the fact that it is featured in John’s film but that is enough for me, I’m calling it. Also don’t forget we also had that great description of the building as well that was featured in the first post.

If you still aren’t convinced, check out this building that I have zoomed in on the right, below.

The top profile of the buildings seems to match in my opinion in Figures 32 and 30. Then I noticed the other Rose Series photo we have of Station Street which I’m pretty sure shows the Coffee Palace still standing there. It is the flat expanse of wall sitting above the trees and you can just make out to the left the first-floor balcony.

I think this shot below, is about where the site of the Coffee Palace was on the right. I’ve used this photo from 2013 as you can see the railway shed with the peaked roof on the left above, is still standing there in 2013 below.

I’m pretty sure that we are now done with Korumburra, so moving back to Hawthorn.

This time Tony shared that the Electoral Roll listing for Maude and William from 1949 was incorrect. They weren’t living at 13 Wrixon Street, Kew but rather at 39 Wrixon Street and apparently there is vision of William stopping at this address in his car in the home movie.

I found it by matching the stills from the movie to the images on Google Maps.

You’ll notice in the photo below the building is the same and the low brick wall is still in place as shown above in Figure 37.

This is the house below in 2022. It certainly looks like it could be of the era and if this is the house, it is the one that Maude was living at with William when she passed away in April of 1950.

Next, James shared this time. He stated that in regards to the Nursery business run by Mollie and Betty, he had a vague recollection of a family story that they worked at the estate of Dame Nellie Melba, Coombe Cottage in the Yarra Valley at Coldstream.

I went looking to see if I could find any mention of the association between Melba, Mollie and Betty but couldn’t find any.

Well, this was true when I first published this post but a couple of days later Tony was able to direct me to a notice that confirmed that Mollie and Betty did work for Dame Melba. It is a small mention in The Ruytonian, the Ruyton School magazine in the “Old Girls’ News” section.

Not only just working for her but taking charge of the gardens. Below is a picture of the front gates to the estate taken in 1927. This is a view Betty and Mollie would be very familiar with.

While I didn’t have any luck discovering this link what I did find though, was an article about the Outdoor Exhibition that Mollie and Betty organised at their nursery in Kew which featured in the earlier post.

I also found a couple of mentions that Betty presented a segment on the Women’s Radio Service about gardening.

Returning to the home movie, you might recall in the previous post I shared an image of Betty and her husband Ernest Backhouse together, well that was from this home movie.

In this still above, Betty and Ernest have just come out of their front garden at 8 Oak St, Canterbury. Here is the property below taken from the home movie.

Google shows that the house and front fence are still standing.

Here are Betty and Ernest standing in the same spot, only 70 years earlier.

Tony shared this next wonderful resource with me too. Margaret (or Margot as she was known) Annie Macvean Begg’s death certificate. Margot was Maude and William’s eldest daughter who passed away in 1945. You will see that she passed away from breast cancer.

Tony said that the family were unsure as to where Margot was working. You might recall I was suggesting that perhaps she taught at Ruyton where her aunt Hilda was principal but no, they had no resources supporting this theory.

Both Tony and his brother, James shared with me that the family have several pieces of furniture still in their possession that once belonged to Maude and William.

The one below is a particularly fantastic example of one of those pieces. A desk that was gifted to William, from the local community on his and Maude’s departure from Korumburra in January of 1914.

Tony said that this sits in his study today and is still being used, 110 years and 10 months since it was presented to William.

These final images are from the last two scenes of the 09:15 minute-long, home movie. They are of Maude, William, and their family just enjoying each other’s company.

I want to say a huge thank you to Tony and James Begg for being so generous in sharing their family history with me and especially the gift of their Pop, John’s, home movie.