John Mitchell Cadden

1862–1954

Glen Innes tinsmith, digger beside Paddy Hannan, mounted constable in the Kimberley and for a quarter of a century a Perth hansom-cab man — who at fifty-four took six years off his age to join the AIF’s tunnellers.

Born: 4 October 1862, Edward Street, Brisbane, Queensland
Died: 9 October 1954, Mount Lawley, Western Australia
Married: Annie Pearce, widow of Frederick William Dalton Jacobs (m. Glen Innes, 1885)
Trade: Tinsmith, miner, mounted constable, hansom-cab proprietor, orchardist
Lived: 92 years

John Mitchell Cadden was born on 4 October 1862 in Edward Street, Brisbane, the fifth child of William Thomas Cadden and Christina Mitchell, at a time when his father was keeping a tobacconist’s shop there.¹ As a boy he went ‘to various gold rushes with his parents’; by his early twenties he was at Glen Innes, in business as a tinsmith and galvanised-iron worker with Otto Juergens until the partnership was dissolved in January 1886.²³

On 21 October 1885, at his father’s house in Glen Innes, he married Annie Jacobs — a widow, as the register records, which explains the long-puzzling newspaper notice that called her the daughter of Henry Pearce. Annie had been born at Newcastle, New South Wales, the daughter of Henry Pearce, a navvy and later a carpenter, and his wife Catherine. While still under twenty-one, and with her mother’s consent, she had married Frederick William Dalton Jacobs, a Tasmanian-born digger, at Wellington in January 1881; he was dead within five years. When John and Annie placed a notice for their golden wedding in 1935, she appeared simply as the ‘eldest daughter of the late Henry and Catherine Pearce, of Newcastle’ — the first marriage quietly left out.⁴⁵⁶⁷

John held a share of the family’s 1892 Dalmorton gold lease, and later reckoned he had spent fifteen years as a miner.⁸¹³ At about twenty-nine the finds of the Yilgarn drew him to Western Australia, and in 1893, with his mate George See, he camped alongside Paddy Hannan at what became Kalgoorlie: ‘We picked up quite a bit of surface gold… but I was unable to find any reef gold.’ By October 1893 he was a mounted constable of the Western Australian Police at Wyndham. Annie followed by boat in 1894 ‘with a young family’, and John took her the long road to Hall’s Creek in a buggy lent by the pastoralist Michael Durack; the dray with their furniture bogged and sat under a tarpaulin for three or four months. He also served on the Denham River. A son, Vivian Hall, was born at Hall’s Creek on 22 September 1895 and died there three months later; his grave is marked by a slate stone signed ‘JMC’.⁹¹¹¹²

John resigned from the police at the end of 1896, spent eight months — ‘though he’s been a lifelong teetotaller’ — as a hotelkeeper in New South Wales, and then came back to Perth and bought a hansom cab. For some twenty-five years he drove cabs from a home in Victoria Park, where Annie owned the property; he ran two, one of them the first rubber-tyred vehicle in Perth. ‘I didn’t know I was alive until I drove a hansom cab,’ he recalled. In the week of the Duke and Duchess of York’s visit in 1901 he took £50, and it was ‘not uncommon to be handed 10 sovereigns’ by a well-known citizen after a day’s shopping — though John Forrest was looked upon as ‘a sixpenny fare.’ When motor taxis came he turned orchardist at Cannington.⁹¹⁰¹¹¹⁴¹⁵

In November 1916 he applied to enlist at Perth and was turned down, the doctor noting varicose veins and a weak, slow heart.¹⁶ Two months later he tried again. On 17 January 1917 he gave his occupation as orchardist, ‘15 yrs miner’, and his age as forty-eight years and three months — keeping his true October birthday but moving the year on from 1862 to 1868, when he was really fifty-four — and answered ‘No’ when asked whether he had ever been rejected. This time he was passed fit and taken into the Miners Corps as No. 7446. He trained at Blackboy Hill and then at Seymour, Victoria, with the Tunnelling Companies, and was soon an acting lance-corporal. His officers’ weekly remarks survive: ‘Shows ability, keen’; then ‘Conceited — one stripe has turned his head. Otherwise pretty fair’; then ‘Conscientious worker’, ‘Keen & good’, and at last ‘A hard worker. Bad health.’ The sciatica he had suffered for fifteen years returned, a medical board found him permanently unfit, and he was discharged at Seymour on 12 July 1917 after 177 days, of ‘good’ character, without leaving Australia. His brother Frank enlisted in Sydney that same year in much the same way — ten years younger on paper.¹³¹⁷

John and Annie had seven children, and their stories are told on pages of their own below. Two sons were in the AIF while their father was: William served four years with the medical corps and sanitary sections, and Jack, a lieutenant of the Anzac Provost Corps, died of influenza in a London hospital on 31 October 1918 — remembered in the family, not quite accurately, as lost ‘in France’. In 1922 two daughters married within six weeks of each other: Pearl, a Perth Hospital nurse, to Bert Oates, who took her to Johannesburg and a motor-trade fortune, and Edna to George Horace James, who took her to Melbourne. Chrissie and May both married in 1927 and stayed close to home.¹⁸²⁰²¹²²²³

Annie died at the Mount Hospital, Perth, on 17 June 1936, aged seventy-two, eight months after the couple’s golden wedding, and was buried in the Methodist section of Karrakatta by the Rev. Ernest Bryant of Kalgoorlie — the husband of John’s niece Elizabeth ‘Faith’ Poole, eldest daughter of his sister Frances Helen.¹⁸²⁴ That spring his niece Faith Bryant stayed with him for two months, and a Kalgoorlie paper reported that he meant to go to South Africa to live with Pearl; instead his youngest daughter May and her husband moved in with him, and he stayed on at 29 King George Street, Victoria Park, still growing roses at eighty-eight. Pearl came home to see him in 1947.¹⁰²³²⁶ He died at a Mount Lawley rest home on 9 October 1954, five days after his ninety-second birthday — his ninety-third, his family believed — and was cremated at Karrakatta. His death certificate calls him a retired builder; the Daily News called him ‘A Last Link With Cab Era.’ Among the notices was one from ‘the Knox families of New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia’ for ‘dear old Uncle John’.¹¹¹⁹²⁵

The Next Generation

John & Annie’s Children

Seven children, born between Glen Innes in 1887 and Victoria Park in 1904 — one in the Kimberley, where he lived only three months. Two sons went to the First World War and one did not come home; one daughter married into a South African motor fortune and lost her own son in a Spitfire over Italy; another went to Melbourne; and two stayed within a few streets of their father in Victoria Park. Between them they gave John Mitchell Cadden the ‘ten grandchildren’ of his death notice.

Staff Sergeant and Garrison Captain

William Thomas Cadden 1887–1968

The eldest son, a government clerk who served four years with the AIF’s hospitals and sanitary sections, nearly died of pneumonia in a London hospital run by women doctors, put on a captain’s three pips in the next war — and ended a twenty-five-year marriage in a divorce court the Perth papers could not resist.

Read their story

The Provost Lieutenant

John James ‘Jack’ Cadden 1889–1918

Bunbury’s clerk of courts became a mounted military policeman and then traffic control officer of the 1st Australian Division — and, after three years abroad without a wound, died of influenza on leave in London eleven days before the Armistice. His family remembered him as lost ‘in France’.

Read their story

Nurse Cadden of Burra-Burra

Pearl Beatrice Cadden 1891–1989

A Victoria Park dressmaker who trained as a nurse, kept her soldier-brother’s will, married the Western Australian boy who became managing director of one of South Africa’s great motor firms — and, in her nineties, bought back her Johannesburg mansion from her husband’s estate rather than leave it.

Read their story

Our Dear Son

Vivian Hall Cadden 1895–1895

Born on the Kimberley goldfield where his father was the mounted constable, named for the town, and buried there at three months under a slate stone his father seems to have cut himself.

Read their story

To Melbourne

Edna Vera Cadden 1896–1990

The daughter who went east — married to the returned soldier who had written to the army for her family when her brother Jack died, and settled for sixty years in the bayside suburbs of Melbourne.

Read their story

The Milliner of Walcott Street

Christina Annie ‘Chrissie’ Cadden 1899–1984

A Victoria Park milliner, married by her cousin’s husband at Perth’s Congregational church to an Adelaide-born commercial traveller — and then fifty years in one house on Walcott Street.

Read their story

The Daughter Who Stayed

Elsie May ‘May’ Cadden 1904–1993

The youngest of the seven, who with her upholsterer husband moved in with her widowed father, kept open house for her sister home from Johannesburg, and made the long voyage to South Africa herself.

Read their story

The Record

Sources & References

1
Birth, 1862

Queensland BDM birth registration 1862/B/1410: John Mitchell Cadden, born 4 October 1862, Edward Street, Brisbane; father William Cadden, tobacconist, 36, born Lincolnshire; mother Christina, formerly Mitchell, 29, born Glasgow; married 12 February 1852, Sydney; living issue Mary, Frances, William, Frank.
2
Boyhood on the goldfields

Sunday Times (Perth), 9 July 1950, p. 7: ‘Born in Queensland, John Cadden went to various gold rushes with his parents as a lad before the West attracted him.’
3
Tinsmith, Glen Innes, 1886

Glen Innes Examiner and General Advertiser, 19 January 1886, p. 3: partnership of Otto Juergens and John Mitchell Cadden, tinsmiths and galvanized iron workers, trading as ‘Juergens and Cadden’, dissolved by mutual consent, 18 January 1886.
4
Marriage, 1885

Register and newspaper notice:
- NSW marriage registration 4930/1885, Glen Innes: 21 October 1885, at the residence of William Thomas Cadden; John Mitchell Cadden, bachelor, and Annie Jacobs, widow, both of Glen Innes; Church of England rites; witnesses Christina Cadden and Frank Cadden.
- Glen Innes Examiner and General Advertiser, 3 November 1885: ‘By the Rev. J. Campbell, John Mitchell Cadden, youngest son of William Thomas Cadden, to Annie Jacobs, second daughter of Henry Pearce, Melbourne.’
5
Annie’s first marriage, 1881

NSW marriage registration 6055/1881 (Wellington district, entry 114): 3 January 1881, St John’s Church, Wellington; Frederick William Dalton Jacobs, bachelor, born Tasmania, of Wellington, and Annie Pearce, spinster, born Newcastle; Annie being under twenty-one, the consent of her mother, Catherine Pearce, was given; Catherine Pearce a witness (her mark).
6
Annie’s parentage

WA death registration, 1936 (Perth): Annie Cadden, born Newcastle, New South Wales; father Henry Pearce, carpenter (deceased). A NSW birth registration of 1861 (Kiama) for Johanna Pearce, born 3 November 1861 at Newcastle to Henry Pearce, navvy, born Parramatta, and Catherine, born Co. Limerick, Ireland, may be hers, but the identification is doubtful: Annie gave her age as 23 at her son William’s birth in July 1887 and was 72 at her death in June 1936, both pointing to a birth about 1863–64 rather than 1861; Johanna may be an elder sister.
7
Golden wedding, 1935

Golden-wedding notice, Perth press, October 1935: ‘CADDEN—PEARCE.—On October 21, 1885, at Glen Innes… by the Rev. Joseph Campbell, John M., youngest son of the late W. J. [sic] and C. Cadden, of Glen Innes, to Annie, eldest daughter of the late Henry and Catherine Pearce, of Newcastle, N.S.W. Present address, 29 King George-street, Victoria Park.’
8
The 1892 Dalmorton lease

NSW Department of Mines, Register of Gold-Mining Leases: Gold Lease 18, Dalmorton, delivered 22 February 1892, John M. Cadden named first among the four lessees.
9
Hannan’s, the police and the cabs — in his own words

Sunday Times (Perth), 9 July 1950, p. 7, ‘He Was In Gold Rush Right Behind Hannan’: interview with John Mitchell Cadden, aged 88 — to the West at 29; camped alongside Paddy Hannan at Hannan’s in 1893 with his mate George See; mounted constable at Wyndham from October 1893; Michael Durack’s buggy to Hall’s Creek; resigned end of 1896; eight months a hotelkeeper in NSW; hansom-cab driver 25 years; drove the Duke of York; then orchardist at Cannington.
10
The 1950 interview, continued

Sunday Times (Perth), 9 July 1950, p. 7: ‘Eighty-eight-year-old John Mitchell Cadden, of King George-street, Victoria Park… tends his garden, prides himself on being an expert grower of roses.’ The quotations on the royal visit, the sovereigns and John Forrest as ‘a sixpenny fare’ are from the same article.
11
‘A Last Link With Cab Era’, 1954

Daily News (Perth), 12 October 1954, p. 9: former North-West policeman; served at Denham River and the Hall’s Creek–Wyndham area; retired from the force 1896; one of his two hansom cabs was the first rubber-tyred vehicle in Perth; retired to Victoria Park when motor taxis arrived.
12
Annie in the North West

Wyndham, Hall’s Creek and a Kimberley birth:
- Report of Annie Cadden’s funeral, Perth press, June 1936: ‘came to this State over 40 years ago, and in 1894, with a young family, accompanied her husband to the North West. For some years she lived at Wyndham and Hall’s Creek.’
- WA birth registration 2403/1895, Kimberley district: Vivian Hall Cadden, father John Mitchell Cadden, mother Annie Pearce.
- WA death registration 995/1896, Kimberley district: Vivian Hall Cadden, aged 3 months, father John M. Cadden, mother Annie Pearce. Headstone, Old Halls Creek Cemetery: ‘In loving memory to our dear son Vivian Hall Cadden, born 22 Sept. died 29 Dec. 95’, signed ‘JMC’ (see Vivian’s page).
13
AIF service file

National Archives of Australia: B2455, CADDEN J M, No. 7446 — attestation, Perth, 17 January 1917 (born Brisbane; age 48 years 3 months; orchardist, 15 years miner; wife Annie, 29 Oswald Street, Victoria Park; previously rejected: ‘No’); 5 ft 6 in, 146 lb, fresh complexion, blue eyes, brown hair, Wesleyan; Blackboy Hill, 22 January 1917; Miners Reinforcements, Seymour, 23 February 1917; Tunnelling Companies, acting lance-corporal, 2 April 1917; training cards with weekly officers’ remarks, February–July 1917.
14
Victoria Park rate book, 1906

Rate Book of the Victoria Park Municipality, 1906, Canning Ward, WA: No. 179, occupier Cadden John M., owner Cadden Annie.
15
Electoral roll — cab proprietor

‘Roll of Electors who vote at Victoria Park,’ p. 2: John Mitchell Cadden, Oswald Street, cab proprietor; Annie Cadden, Oswald Street, housewife.
16
Rejected for AIF service, 1916

Application to Enlist in the Australian Imperial Force, Perth, 1 November 1916: John Mitchell Cadden, 29 Oswald Street, Victoria Park, miner, age 48 years 1 month, married; rejected unfit — varicose veins, cardiac weakness, bradycardia.
17
Medical board and discharge, 1917

NAA: B2455, CADDEN J M — Detailed Medical History of an Invalid, Seymour, 13 June 1917: L/Cpl 7446, A Coy Tunnellers; sciatica (+ age), attacks for 14 or 15 years; medical board, Seymour, 18 June 1917: permanently unfit for military service; discharged 12 July 1917, medically unfit (not due to misconduct), ‘Good’ character, 177 days’ service, discharge certificate V.B. 1448.
18
Death of Annie Cadden, 1936

Death certificate and funeral report:
- WA death registration, 1936 (Perth): Annie Cadden, married woman, 72, died 17 June 1936, Mount Hospital, St George’s Terrace, Perth; carcinoma of bladder; buried 19 June 1936, Methodist cemetery, Karrakatta; minister E. Bryant, Congregational; 28 years in NSW, 44 in WA; married at Glen Innes to John Mitchell Cadden; living issue William Thomas 48, Pearl Beatrice 43, Edna Vera 40, Christina Annie 36, Elsie May 32; deceased 2 males.
- Report of the funeral, Perth press, June 1936: service by the Rev. Ernest Bryant, of Kalgoorlie; chief mourners J. M. Cadden (husband), W. T. Cadden (son), Mesdames James, Lamb and Meatchem (daughters).
19
Death of John Mitchell Cadden, 1954

WA death registration 2513/1954 (Perth): John Mitchell Cadden, retired builder, of 29 King George Street, Victoria Park, died 9 October 1954 at Annesley Rest Home, 49 Lawley Crescent, Mt Lawley, aged ‘93’; born Brisbane; father William Thomas Cadden, upholsterer; mother Christine Mitchell; married Glen Innes, 21 October 1885, to Anne Pearce; children William T. 66, John J. (deceased), Pearl B. 60, Vivian H. (deceased), Edna V. 56, Christina A. 52, May 49; cremated Karrakatta, 13 October 1954.
20
Jack — ‘A.I.F., France’

The West Australian, 18 June 1936, p. 1, death notice of Annie Cadden: ‘loving mother of William (Main Roads Department), Jack (deceased, A.I.F., France), Pearl (Mrs. Bert Oates, Johannesburg, South Africa), Edna (Mrs. G. H. James, Melbourne, Victoria), Chriss (Mrs. C. R. B. Lamb, Mt. Lawley), May (Mrs. H. Meatchem, Victoria Park).’
21
Probate of John James Cadden, 1919

Daily News (Perth), 23 January 1919, p. 3; Kalgoorlie Miner, 24 January 1919, p. 6; Western Mail, 31 January 1919, p. 40: probate — John James Cadden, late of Bunbury, to John Mitchell Cadden, £456 18s.
22
Pearl’s engagement, 1921

Daily News (Perth), 15 December 1921, p. 7: engagement of Miss Pearl Cadden, daughter of Mr and Mrs John Mitchell Cadden, of Perth, to Mr Hedley G. Oates, of South Africa; wedding arranged for February, after which the couple would return to South Africa.
23
Atkinson and Oates, 1947

The West Australian, 7 June 1947, p. 5, ‘W.A. “Clan” Wealth in Africa’: Herbert Oates, brother of Leonard Oates of Victoria Park, went to South Africa in 1917 as accountant to Atkinson and Oates; photograph captioned ‘Mrs. H. G. Oates, of Johannesburg, with her daughter Mary, her 86-year-old father, Mr. J. M. Cadden (right), of Victoria Park.’
24
The Bryants

Death notice, October 1954: ‘CADDEN (J. M.): Loving life long memories of our dear uncle. Chrissie (Faith) and Ernest Bryant, Busselton.’ ‘Chrissie (Faith)’ is Elizabeth Christina Mary ‘Faith’ Poole (1875–1958), eldest daughter of William Frederick Poole and John’s sister Frances Helen Cadden, who married the Rev. Ernest Bryant at East Fremantle in 1904 (see ‘William & Frances Poole’).
25
Death and funeral notices, 1954

The West Australian, 12 and 13 October 1954: family notice (‘loving father of William, Jack (deceased), Pearl… Edna… Chris… and May… grandfather of ten grandchildren and great-grandfather of five; aged 93 years’); ‘In fond remembrance of dear old Uncle John… From the Knox families of New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia’; funeral, Crematorium Chapel, Karrakatta, 10 a.m., Wednesday 13 October 1954 (Donald J. Chipper & Son). Daily News (Perth), 12 October 1954, p. 9: ‘died five days after his 93rd birthday’.
26
Widowhood, 1936–37

Western Argus (Kalgoorlie), 6 October 1936, p. 14: Mrs E. Bryant has spent two months with her uncle, Mr J. Cadden of Victoria Park, ‘who on the loss of his wife, and after 40 years’ residence in the Park, is journeying to South Africa to join his daughter, Mrs. Bert Oates, of Johannesburg’. Commonwealth roll, Victoria Park, 1937, p. 84: Meatchem, Elsie May, and Herrick (upholsterer), 29 King George street.