Alice M Bird (nee Mears)

Story

Alice was the elder daughter of Emeline, second wife of Alonzo Mears, Jeweller & clockmaker of Camden Town, London. Orphaned before she was six, Alice and her sister Ella were raised by their half sisters, first Lizzie, then Maud with her husband John F. Bird, an hotelier. Well provided for by Alonzo’s will, Alice and Ella received a good education. Alice became a talented pianist and her household and Business College skills equipped her well. Following Maud’s death in 1907, she married John Bird. Four children were born by 1913 – John W, Eric, Mollie and Enid. The hotels were sold in 1912 and John tried other business ventures without much success. Acting as if fearless, and teaching the children to knit for the troops they came through WW1.

Peter was born in 1921 and in 1923 John, hoping to improve opportunities for the children, decided to emigrate. Backed by money from her father’s estate, Alice accepted her husband’s decision. She packed up their life in London and in July 1923 they left to become dairy farmers in Australia.

Gracious, considerate and loving, Alice was at the centre of family life. She supported the children as they left their schools and friends. Their weeks of shipboard life, with many games and new “friends”, were followed by a brief seaside stay and then a plunge into rural isolation at Bass. They endured poor planning and mistakes, flies in their eyes and swarming on food, summer heat, winter mud, chilblains, and for John and the “big boys”, heavy work and blisters. And, of course, all the impact of being torn from family and friends back home.

Eldest granddaughter, Marilla, was inspired by the way Alice tended to the needs of those ill or injured. She slept propped up in bed with baby Peter, and his croup, in her arms for three months. Eighteen years later she nursed him through a severe bout of pheumonia. When Marilla’s sickness as a small child worried John Jnr and Doreen, Alice rushed to their aid.

On the farm Alice did all she could to support her husband and the children, but became ill herself. For a while, Mollie, then only 12, had to become the main housekeeper, with Enid, 10, assisting. Alice improved when they were able to buy Bass Park and live in the homestead with its tennis court. On the young people’s tennis afternoons, the older visitors were entertained graciously by Alice. Just after she send her “Live in hope…” letter to a friend in England they were on the move. John returned to his first profession, buying the “Rookery Nook” Guest House/Hotel at Wye River. With his good service standards and stories from English pub life he was again the genial host. Now Alice came into her own, managing the regular bookings and daily menus, keeping the account books, tending to injuries and playing the piano for guests.

During WW2, managing the Bar and Guest House was difficult for John F Bird, Alice and Mollie. Enid in a troubled marriage, had moved away. In September 1940 Eric joined the RAAF. When the Japanese invaded Malaya in December 1941, he was flying in obsolete biplanes, then “missing in action” after Singapore fell, until miraculously reappearing, just skin and bones in Perth on March 2nd. Peter had enlisted in the RAAF in late 1941. He failed to become a flier and changed to the AIF but while training became sick with pneumonia and died August 3, 1942. In eary 1943 John F had a heart attack and needed care until his death in January 1945.

In October 1945 Eric returned to Rookery Nock. Molly married and moved away. Alice and Eric continued with employed staff. Over the next year their budget showed they would need to break the law by trading after 6pm and bribing the local police. They did not want that life so sold out in 1947. They returned to dairying, buying a farm near John W and Doreen who now had 4 children aged 1,3,11 and 13,

Alice and Eric, together with Alice’s piano, took up temporary residence with the little Birds. Some nights they sang together, sweeping away fear, worry, wars and poverty and leaving enduring memories of a joyful family.

Suddenly she was gone, dead from a stroke at 62, leaving her whole family bewildered in grief.

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