Shep's Place Family Tree

At the age of 18 in 1879 Osmond joined the National Bank and was sent as a junior clerk to the Port Augusta branch, and there met Annie Mowbray as she was known, but she married as Harris, so had not been legally adopted by the Dr. Mowbray and his wife who had brought Annie out from England. Dr. Mowbray could not be traced in the directories. Osmond's sister said that her sister-in-law Annie was the illegitimate child of the daughter of an English earl, disposed of by sending her to the Colony. The only earl with the surname of Harris was Malmesbury, created in 1800. If this was so none of the children knew of it, or the name of Annie Melina's parents. On the marriage certificate she was by then resident at Norwood.

Osmond had been transferred to Victoria by the bank early in 1883 and there was a bank ruling that none of the staff would marry until they reached the age of 22. Osmond was 21, and almost a year from the required age. Annie was 24, so they married at the Registry Office. Adelaide, and made no announcement before departing for Victoria. Nothing further was heard of Dr. Mowbray so he probably returned to England with a sigh of relief to be rid of his charge.

There is no photograph of the couple when young in the portfolio he made of his Wilson research, now owned by E.M.S., just a very faded snapshot with a stout lady in a hat trimmed with cabbage roses and wearing a feather boa with her tailored suit, dating it to pre 1914 - 18 of the W.W.1 years. The figure of Osmond is also obscure. Annie was never seen without a hat by either relatives or family. She appeared at the breakfast table wearing one and it remained in place until bedtime. Only Osmond could have revealed if she wore it to bed. He never did. He was exceptionally clever with figures and according to his nephew Harold Wilson could add up correctly, and rapidly, three columns at the same time in the days of laborious book keeping, and he was proficient in several foreign languages, so invaluable to the bank.

In 1888, aged 27. he was appointed secretary to the then chief manager, a position he held under managers for 37 years. The record he made of his children's births show where they resided. In 1884 at Lewisham Road, Windsor, Victoria. At the National Bank, North Melbourne where they lived on bank premises as was customary, from 1889 to 1892.

It was during the 1890s that Osmond purchased 5 1/2 acres at Sandringham, facing the sea and there built a sizeable weather board house which he named "Fernholme" and ‎(ahead of his times)‎ left the remainder in its natural state with many eucalypts and tea trees. In the early years of the new century Annie's Uncle and Aunt ‎(her mother's brother and his wife)‎ from England came to visit her while staying at Melbourne. The uncle had come into the earldom. Annie's grandfather having died. The new earl had hired a coach and four and was driven into the then wilds of Sandringham and considerably startled the local inhabitants with such grandeur. Osmond, in high glee wrote to his sister Marion Lakeman at the Grange, S.A. of this event, but none of his children ever mentioned it, most of them would have been at school anyway.

When the Sandringham Streets were named, Osmond's house became "Fernholme", No. 1 Fernhill Road. He retired aged 64 in November 1925. On November 4th the bank had a farewell gathering in his honour and a large number of senior officers met in the Board Room and the Deputy Chief Manager, Mr. James Wilson ‎(no relation)‎ presided. In his speech be congratulated Osmond on his long and devoted term of service and enlarged upon that rather unique service which the guest of honour had given the bank. It must have been Osmond's proudest moment. James Wilson no doubt was referring to those six languages Osmond had learned to aid his secretarial duties part of which was as the foreign correspondent. The chairman made a presentation of notes, a token given by the officers throughout the bank who had come in contact with Osmond over the years. A full and somewhat fulsome report of the occasion ‎(a copy is held by E.M.S)‎ was printed in the "Australian Insurance and Banking Record" dated 21 Nov 1925. Being a rambling account and mentioning various other bank officers it is not included here.

After his retirement Osmond subdivided his land and built two more houses, this time of sand bricks that he made himself. The unmarried daughter Elsie, still at home and housekeeper for her parents, continued for her father when Annie died in 1935. She died in 1940, preceding him as he lived another five years. He had the Wilson artistic ability and sketched a romanticized version of "Westbrook Farm", the timber Manning house of the 1840s with its two attic rooms and four French windows at the front, and eight creeper covered columns supporting the long verandah. There are three tall stone chimneys and the roof is shingled. Osmond wrote underneath "Westbrook, Mt.Barker, about 3 miles out on the road to Macclesfield, east side." He also stated that his mother died at "Westbrook Farm not Old Westbrook which I sketched." This would have been confusing had it not been known that the "Farm" where Ellen died was not the second timber house, but the third "Westbrook" of stone that was nearer the town. The family never did live in the original No.1 "Old Westbrook". It was always leased out, as was shown in the Allen and Ellen section.
Osmond had made several attempts at tracing his forebears from 1903 onward and collected the results into an album now held by E.M.S. There are a great many errors and he did not persist with the ancestry of his grandfather Christopher Wilson, unfortunately, so that we remain stuck at 1775, the date of Christopher's birth. Nor was the aristocratic Harris family of Annie mentioned at all, probably due to her illegitimacy.

The 1945 Will of Osmond left "Fernholme" jointly to his daughter May Gould of Red Cliffs and his younger son Stanley. The two sand brick houses he willed to his daughter Ruby Martin. These faced Abbot Street and she occupied one of them. "Fernholme" was demolished in the 1960s and a Masonic Lodge group purchased the land and built a number of units for the housing of widows of lodge members. These also faced Abbot Street. "Fernholme" had been on the far side of the original land.