Edward Tooth

Story

Edward Tooth was born on the 1st March, 1879 in Limpsfield, England. He was a stonemason as were all the known generations before him who began their working lives as journeymen bricklayers. He married Millicent Clara Peat in 1900 at St Martin\’s Church in Birmingham and raised a family of one male and three females, all were born in the United Kingdom and died in Australia. Elsie Adeline (1901 Birmingham -1940 Blackwood), Dora Gertrude (1903 Lincoln -1961 Sydney), Edward Horatio (1904 Alverstoke-1989 Modbury), Millicent Rose (1910 Abertysswg-1990 Morphettville).

Edward served as a Serjeant in the South Wales Borderers 8th Battalion during the war of 1914-1918 and was Mentioned in Despatches ‘for gallant and distinguished services in the Field\’. He was discharged in 1919 and by 1923 Millicent\’s mother, who was blind, and in the care of Edward and Millicent had died and there were no more ties to keep them in the United Kingdom.

On the 6th September 1923, Edward his wife Millicent and three daughters boarded the ‘SS Beltana\’ at Tilbury, London enroute to Australia. They arrived at Port Adelaide on the 2nd November, 1923 intending to make their way to Sydney, but settled instead at South Plympton where Edward built a house and named it ‘Limpsfield\’ after his birth place. Their son, Edward Horatio, was a sailor in the Royal Navy and was able to transfer to the Royal Australian Navy without interruption to his service.

As a skilled tradesman Edward was never without work and was able to secure employment on the jobs he was interested in, these included Bonython Hall, Centennial Hall and Gates in Adelaide, the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, and the carving of St Mary\’s Baptismal Font in Sydney. He made and donated a plain sandstone Baptismal Font to a Plympton Church for the Baptism of his first grandson. Edward worked with Frank Walsh and was instrumental in coaxing him into politics and the ultimate position of Premier of South Australia. After his death the family received a letter from the Operative Masons\’ Society of Australia offering condolences on the the death Edward who ‘was highly esteeemed by those he worked with both in S.A. and the Eastern States\’. Their only son followed in his father\’s footsteps and after 12 years of Naval service worked as a bricklayer for the rest of his working life. In 1935 Edward Jnr\’s child hood sweetheart Thora Mary Harding arrived at Port Adelaide aboard the ‘Largs Bay\’, they married two months later and produced two children, Margaret and Gillian. In 1937 the whole family relocated to Blackwood in South Australia where they had purchased 5 blocks of land in Wanarka Avenue and built the first house for Edward and Millicent, oddly enough all of these homes were built of asbestos sheeting not brick. Wanarka Avenue was renamed Limpsfield after Edward won a council gardening competition and requested the name change in lieu of the monetary prize.

Life has been rather easy going for the 68 Australian descendants of Edward and Millicent who never regretted their decision to migrate to this country. Edward died in 1939 and Millicent in 1948, they are buried in Mitcham Cemetery, South Australia

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