James Bawn

1858–1938

An omnibus driver whose first wife’s death, not divorce, ended a twenty-five-year marriage — and whose second wife brought her own dramatic history with her.

Born: 1858 · registered Sydney
Died: 3 September 1938 · Randwick · buried Waverley Cemetery
Married: Catherine Lucy (O’Hearn?), m. 1880; m.2 Charlotte Sophia Calf (formerly Wilson), 1914

James was the youngest of George and Ellen’s eight children, born in 1858 (reg. 347/1858).¹ On 23 January 1880, at St Michael’s Church, Sydney, he married Kate — recorded formally as Catherine — whose maiden surname is not fully settled: the marriage register reads something close to “O’Hearn,” but “Ahearn,” “Aheran,” “Ahearne” and plain “Hearn” are all equally plausible readings of the same difficult cursive. The register directly names James’s own parents as George Bawn and Ellen McIntosh — independent confirmation of his parentage, separate from the birth index.²

James and Catherine had six children over the following eight years, all registered father James, mother Catherine, across Sydney, Waterloo and Redfern:

The Six Children of James and Catherine

Alma May

1881

Reg. 515/1881, Sydney.

Frederick J. H.

1882

Reg. 3717/1882, Sydney.

Elizabeth E.

1884

Reg. 2657/1884, Sydney.

Myria A.

1886

Reg. 11708/1886, Waterloo.

Ivy P. & James W. “Wilton”

1888

Twins, reg. 11297/1888 and 11298/1888, Redfern. James Wilton did not survive infancy: his funeral notice (Daily Telegraph, 10 May 1888) records the family living at 32 Elizabeth Street, Waterloo, and moving “to Waverley Cemetery” — the same cemetery James himself would be buried in, fifty years later.

Catherine died on 1 April 1905 (NSW BDM reg. 2788/1905, Redfern), her own parents given as John and Catherine — matching “John O’Hearn, labourer” and “Kate Ryan” from the 1880 marriage record. A Find a Grave memorial names her in full as Catherine Lucy Bawn, born 1861, and gives her burial as Waverley Cemetery, plot W-18-RC-OR-2780 — the same family plot as James himself and their infant son James Wilton. James was not divorced or deserted by his first wife: he was widowed at about forty-seven, and did not remarry for nine years.³

On 5 September 1914, at Redfern, James married Charlotte S. Wilson. She was, in fact, born Charlotte Sophia Calf, at Devil’s Hole Creek on 31 August 1860, daughter of John Calf, a London-born storekeeper, and Elizabeth Calf née Wilson, of Gloucestershire.⁴ She had already been married once, to Robert Wilson, a Casino timber-getter, on 4 July 1880; that marriage was dissolved around 1887–88, the newspaper report of the case recording that she had left Wilson for a carpenter named John Barker, “and had had a child by Barker,” with a decree nisi granted against him as co-respondent.⁵ She kept the surname Wilson afterward, which is why James’s own 1914 marriage register calls his bride “Charlotte S. Wilson,” not Calf.

A 1913 Randwick electoral roll may explain how the two met: it lists James Bawn as a driver resident at the Coast Hospital, and, further down the same page, a Calf family — Edward John, Florence and Ivy — also connected to the Coast Hospital, a year before James married a Calf woman himself.⁶

James died at Randwick on 3 September 1938; his death notice names him “beloved stepfather of J. H. Wilson” — confirming Charlotte’s son from her first marriage, whom James had raised as his own. His funeral, two days later, moved from a private chapel on Crown Street to the Church of England Cemetery, Waverley — reuniting him, in death, with Catherine and their infant son James Wilton in the same family plot. He had earlier served, together with a Baldock nephew by marriage, as an executor of his brother-in-law George Halliday’s estate (see Ellen Caroline’s page).⁷

Charlotte outlived him by not quite two years, dying in late August 1940. Her funeral notices name her son and his family, of Kirribilli; her brother, F. C. Calf, of Bronte; and grandchildren of Randwick. She was buried separately from James, at the Church of England Cemetery, Randwick.⁸

The Record

Sources & References

1
Birth, 1858

NSW BDM birth index: James Bawn, reg. 347/1858, father George, mother Ellen.
2
Marriage, 1880

NSW civil marriage register, St Michael’s Church, Sydney, entry no. 539, 23 January 1880: James Bawn, omnibus driver, 23, Elizabeth St, father Geo. Bawn (waterman), mother Ellen McIntosh; to Kate [O’Hearn], 22, Goulburn St, father John O’Hearn (labourer), mother Kate Ryan.
3
Catherine’s death, 1905

NSW BDM death index: Catherine [L.] Bawn, reg. 2788/1905, Redfern, father John, mother Catherine. Find a Grave memorial 218694676: Catherine Lucy Bawn, b.1861, d. 1 April 1905 (possibly the interment rather than death date), Waverley Cemetery, plot W-18-RC-OR-2780.
4
Charlotte’s birth, 1860

Certified NSW birth registration extract: Charlotte Sophia Calf, born 31 August 1860, Devil’s Hole Creek, father John Calf (storekeeper, born London), mother Elizabeth Calf née Wilson (born Gloucestershire, married 1851), registration no. 9475/4, registered 24 September 1860.
5
Charlotte’s first marriage and divorce

“Divorce Court, Sydney,” Wilson v. Wilson (Barker co-respondent), before Mr Justice Windeyer: Robert Wilson, timber-getter, of Casino, married Charlotte [Calf] on 4 July 1880; by 1886 she had left him for John Barker, carpenter, and had a child by him; decree nisi granted, with costs against Barker.
6
Electoral roll, 1913

NSW electoral roll, Randwick, Long Bay polling place, 1913: “54 Bawn, James, M, Coast Hospital, driver”; “123 Calf, Edward John, M, Coast Hospital, driver”; “124 Calf, Florence, F, Little Bay”; “125 Calf, Ivy, F, Coast Hospital, waitress.”
7
Death, 1938

NSW BDM death notice, Sydney Morning Herald, 5 September 1938: “BAWN.—September 3, 1938, at Randwick, James Bawn, beloved stepfather of J. H. Wilson.” Funeral notices, same date, Sydney Morning Herald, Labor Daily: from a private chapel, 604–606 Crown Street, to the Church of England Cemetery, Waverley.
8
Charlotte’s death, 1940

Funeral notices, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 August 1940: naming “Mr. and Mrs. J. H. WILSON and FAMILY, of Kirribilli” (son), “Mr. F. C. CALF and FAMILY, of Bronte” (brother), and “Mr. and Mrs. H. HUNTER, Ethel and Jim” (grandchildren/great-grandchildren, Randwick). Burial, Church of England Cemetery, Randwick.