The Argus (Melbourne)
July 3, 1945PHILLIPS.-On June 29, at her home, Salisbury, Rhodesia, Ethel, loved wife of Major W. J. Phillips, and eldest daughter of the late Ross Cox, of Brighton.
The Argus
July 13, 1937A large circle of friends mourn the death yesterday in a private hospital in Melbourne of Miss Thyrza Cox who was the youngest daughter of the late Mr Ross Cox, a well-known educationist and inspectorof Victorian schools. Miss Cox led an unassuming life in which literary, social and domestic interests predomi- nated. For some years she contributed articles to Melbourne newspapers and she took an especial interest in the study of 18th century literature. Miss Cox was a member of the Lyceum Club.
She leaves two brothers, Mr Erle Cox of "The Australasian" and Mr Ross Cox, and two sisters, Mrs R H Wilkins of Melbourne, and Mrs J W Phillips, of Rhodesia. Another brother, Mr Harold Cox, was killed in the Great War.
Erle Cox (1873-1950), writer and journalist, was born on 15 August 1873 at Emerald Hill, Melbourne, son of Ross Cox, teacher, part-time writer and later inspector of schools, from Dublin, and his wife Mary, n�e Haskell, of Melbourne. After education at Castlemaine Grammar School and a year at Melbourne Church of England Grammar School, Cox took up wine-growing at Rutherglen. Ten years later he went to Tasmania, where he was based in Launceston as a traveller for a tobacco firm. On 24 December 1901 he married Mary Ellen Kilborn, daughter of a Wahgunyah vigneron; the couple later settled in Melbourne where Cox worked as a 'mercantile agent'.
Cox's first published stories appeared in the Lone Hand in 1908 and 1909. In 1918 he won a Bulletin competition for a four-line epitaph on a fallen soldier. Regular contributions to 'The Passing Show' column in the Melbourne Argus led in 1921 to a post on the editorial staff. As 'The Chiel' and under his own name he wrote special articles, features on religion and the Churches, book reviews and from 1929, film critiques. He became well known as a champion of British movies; his pungent style, humour and unquestionable honesty won him a large following of readers and the grudging respect of the film industry. In 1946 with others he was given five days notice to leave the ailing Argus. He promptly joined the Age, taking his 'Chiel' nom de plume, and many of his readers with him.
Cox's main claim to fame is his novel Out of the Silence, a classic work of science fiction. Set in rural Australia, it tells the story of a young vigneron who discovers, buried beneath his land, a huge sphere containing the culture and technology of a past civilization. Cox began to write the book about 1916 but had shaped the idea for it earlier 'pacing up and down the St Kilda sands'. At first he was unable to find a publisher but in 1919 the Argus printed the story in weekly instalments between 19 April and 25 October. It created extraordinary interest: 'No more successful serial story has been published in Australia' claimed the Australasian in 1925, heralding its appearance in Melbourne in book form. That year it was also published in London and, in 1928, in New York. American reviewers placed it alongside the works of Jules Verne and Rider Haggard. A new edition appeared in 1932; in 1934 the Argus published a picture-strip version and 3DB broadcast the story as a 25-part serial. Two more editions were published: one in 1947 with a prologue added, and in 1974 a French translation entitled La sphére d'or.
In 1938 at the behest of the Argus, Cox wrote another book, designed to awaken Australians to the threat of an invasion from the north: Fools' Harvest, serialized in the Argus in November 1938 and published next year, pictured Australia plunged into a grim struggle against occupation forces. The Missing Angel, a humorous piece, was published in 1947.
Tall, well-built, with silver hair and distinguished features, Cox was an avid reader with especial interest in the history of the French court. In August 1950 he retired because of ill health and on 20 November died at his home in Elsternwick; he was cremated after a Presbyterian service. He was survived by his wife, two daughters and a son, Erle Harold, who for many years represented the Melbourne Herald in Canberra.
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cox-erle-5799 by Sally O'Neill
Gold was discovered in California in 1848 and in Victoria in 1851. Over the next fifty years, prospectors travelled between Australia and America to find their fortunes. Francis Williams Deane was born around 1820 in Raynham, Massachusetts, USA. He made several trips between the USA and Australia as a pilot or Captain. Deane arrived in Sydney in November 1848 as master of the Bark Milwood of New Bedford, before joining the 'forty-niners' on the Yuma diggings in Arizona. Deane is said to have left America a pier.. .jump ahead of the San Francisco Vigilantes' when moving permanently to Victoria a few years later. Deane was naturalised in Williamstown, Victoria in 1854. On his naturalization certificate he was described as 'a master mariner who arrived from the US on board the MARY & ELLEN and who intends to purchase land and establish himself in the said colony'. In 1868 Deane married Thirza Haskell, 'daughter of George Haskell, pioneer post-master at Melbourne'. According to a local historian, 'Captain Deane called his home 'Yosemite' it was his habit to ride round the streets of Williamstown on a small skewbald pony, complete with Mexican saddle and savagely rowelled spurs. A heaving line [lasso] was coiled on the pommel like a lariat, and jammed on the head of the pilot would be his shiny stovepipe hat'.
Australian National Maritime Museum
http://anmm.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/project-wrap-up/
Newsletter of the Haskell Family Society
Volume 10, No. 2, June 2001Frederick Haskell, Soldier, Pioneer, & Settler at Kimberley Diamond Mines, South Africa
By Norman H. Haskell, PE, BSc, Natal, RSAIn 1855 Frederick, age 16, enlisted in the 99th Regiment of Foot at Bristol as Private No. 476, he was sent to join the unit at Dublin, Ireland, and the regiment sailed for Kowloon and Hong Kong, China, all in 1855. Later Frederick was assigned to a detachment sent to Canton. The heaviest fighting occurred during the China War of 1860, and he would have been awarded the Campaign Medal in 1865 the regiment re-united in Hong Kong and returned to England.
On 14 March 1863, Frederick's brother William joined the Royal Artillery at Salisbury. He was transferred to the 99th Regiment in 1864, to join Frederick in 1865 at Cork, Ireland. Their unit sailed for South Africa in 1865 and disembarked at Cape Town. There they suffered severely from fever, so half the regiment, including William, was sent to St. Helena. The remainder, including Frederick, was sent to Pietermaritzburg, Natal.
Emigrant farmers established Pietennaritzburg in 1838 to become the seat of government in Natal, and by 1850 it had grown into a neat town with buildings of brick and stone.
On 14 September 1866 Frederick married Miss Margaret Sutherland at Pietermaritzburg. On 5 January 1867 he was discharged from the regiment on the grounds of having completed twelve years' service.
On 1 March 1867 a son, Alexander Haskell, was born to Frederick and Margaret in Pietennaritzburg, and on 18 February 1869 a daughter, Christina Haskell, was born in Natal. On 26 April 1872 a second daughter, Jessie Ann Haskell, was also born to Frederick and Margaret in Natal.
During 1870 Frederick moved from Natal to the Diamond Mines at Kimberley, Northern Cape without his family. He formed a partnership with Mr. Dick Lauder to work on a claim at the Colesberg Kopje Mine, where he established himself as one of its earliest pioneers.
At this early stage, mining was carried out from the original surface of the undulating land by digging ells to remove the diamond-bearing soil. The first few stones discovered in July 1871 gave birth to the richest mine in the world.
Conditions were primitive and dangerous and by 1873, with miners operating from 1600 separate claims, mining went deep into the Blue Ground (Kimberlite). Roads sank and the Colesberg Kopje was gradually demolished to give way to an open mine (The Big Hole), with winches and cables operating from the crater rim.
In 1870 living conditions at the mine in the area known as New Rush were positively shocking, with miners living in tents, roughly built shelters of wood and iron, or simply huddled beneath tarpaulins. Sanitary services were virtually non-existent and health and hygiene were of secondary importance. Dust storms were frequent, with little or no protection from the elements. In 1873 the community at de Beers New Rush was named Kimberley in honour of the British Colonial Secretary Lord Kimberley, and the town developed rapidly. In 1877 the first prefabricated wooden house was imported from England. It consisted of two rooms, a kitchen-sitting room and a bedroom, considered luxurious by those still living in tents and shacks.
In 1878, according to Turner's directory, Frederick Haskell owned Haskell's Reading Room and Billiard Saloon. He advertised in the Diamond Fields Advertiser on 30 March 1878. This wood and iron building was located in DuToitspan Road in the centre of Kimberley business district, where it became a popular meeting place for the town's inhabitants.
In 1880 "Haskell's Reading Room and Billiard Saloon" became "Campbell's Billiard, Reading and Refreshment Rooms", presumably leased from Frederick. In November 1881 Attorney Knights warned against purchasing movable property from "Haskell's Billiard Saloon," and Campbell was not mentioned.
On 18 July 1883 Frederick Haskell died at "the house of O'Reilly" in Winburg, Orange Free State, South Africa, aged 44. He left no will and apparently no property. In his death notice his children were listed as Christina Margaret and Jessie Annie, both minors. His son, Alexander, is not mentioned and may have died. His widow Margaret signed the death notice and five years later made a declaration before a JP that he left her with two small daughters and no property. The document is in Afrikaans.
Margaret apparently remarried, as her name appears later in Cape Town records as Campbell. Since a 'Campbell' took over the Kimberley Saloon, there may have been a connection.
Frederick and Margaret's daughter, Jessie Annie, married David Webster Swan (d. 26 July 1941). Jessie died 17 October 1958 at Krugersdorp, aged 85 years 7 months. Their four children were Gladys Kate, James Graham, Joyce Margaret, and David Roy Swan.
Newsletter of the Haskell Family Society
Volume 10, No. 2, June 2001Frederick Haskell, Soldier, Pioneer, & Settler at Kimberley Diamond Mines, South Africa
By Norman H. Haskell, PE, BSc, Natal, RSAOn 14 March 1863, Frederick's brother William joined the Royal Artillery at Salisbury. He was transferred to the 99th Regiment in 1864, to join Frederick in 1865 at Cork, Ireland. Their unit sailed for South Africa in 1865 and disembarked at Cape Town. There they suffered severely from fever, so half the regiment, including William, was sent to St. Helena. The remainder, including Frederick, was sent to Pietermaritzburg, Natal.
By early 1869, the 99th Regiment had reunited in Cape Town, where the Duke of Edinburgh inspected it. In July the unit, including William, sailed on the Orontes for the United Kingdom, missing for the time being both the Crimean and the Zulu wars.
After returning to Aldershot, England, William served in Ireland (1877) and Bermuda. Then from Chatham, England he sailed again to South Africa in the S/S Asiatic to participate in the Zulu War with the rank of Corporal. He was awarded the South African Medal with clasp in 1879, sailed for Bermuda in 1880, India in 1883, and was discharged at Gosport, England on 20 May 1884.