The Kidd Family A Family History
The Poole Family · William & Frances Poole

Daisy J Poole

1888–1976

The longest-lived of the eleven — married in 1913 into one of Coolongolook’s biggest teamster families, and traceable almost year by year ever after on the district’s electoral rolls.

Married
Andrew George Batchelor

Daisy J. Poole was born in 1888, her birth registered in the Glen Innes district (reg. 21914) to William Poole and Frances Poole — matching this family exactly. She married Andrew George Batchelor (reg. 15866), a Coolongolook man four years her senior — born in 1872 in the Port Stephens registration district, the son of James and Elizabeth Batchelor — not at Stroud, which was merely the district under which the marriage happened to be registered, but at Coolongolook itself, on Wednesday 1 October 1913, by the Methodist minister Rev. John Perry. The local paper covered it under "Orange Blossoms": the bride, given away by her own brother Fred Poole (see his own chapter), wore white silk with a wreath and veil; her bridesmaid was Pearl Worth, of Bullahdelah — the same Pearl Worth still at her side decades later in the picnic photograph below — and Andrew’s brother Thomas Batchelor stood as groomsman. After the register was signed, Mr James Worth (Bullahdelah) and Mr Steve Worth (Coolongolook) arranged a joke presentation — a bullock yoke, complete with bows and keys, "a source of amusement at the wedding breakfast" — amid a long list of genuine gifts that included a Mr and Mrs D. Batchelor, a Mr and Mrs C. Latimore, and a Miss May Huckett: three names that would recur, transformed by marriage and time, in Andrew’s own death notice thirty-three years later.12

Andrew was no newcomer to Coolongolook when he married. Land records already place him there from at least 1907, when he successfully applied, after a Lands Office auction, for allotment 13, section 23 in the village — the same notice recording his brother Thomas taking allotments 11 and 12 next door, with a Worth and a Wallis among their immediate neighbours. By 1915 he was civic-minded enough to be named, alongside his brother William and a Robert Platts — a name that recurs at both this wedding and the picnic photograph below — as one of six trustees the Governor appointed for Coolongolook’s new Public Hall reserve.3 An "Estate of J[ames] Batchelor, Deceased" — very likely his own father — was auctioned at Coolongolook in October 1919; the buyer, for £510 after "spirited competition," was Andrew himself, by then approaching fifty.4

The Batchelors were already a large, well-established Coolongolook clan before Daisy married in: the 1913 State Electoral Roll for the Gooloongolok polling place, in the district of Durham, lists no fewer than eight of them there — Alice Amelia, Andrew George (teamster), Charlotte Elizabeth, Daniel James (teamster), Elizabeth, Ellen Matilda, James (storekeeper) and William Thomas (labourer) — a household cluster that would sit almost unchanged on the rolls for the next thirty years.5 A Sydney trade directory of about the same period lists "Batchelor A., store, Coolongolook" and "Batchelor Andrew G., teamster, Coolongolook" side by side, confirming Andrew’s own trade independently.6 Daisy herself appears among them from at least 1934, always keeping house, at Andrew’s side; by 1939 his own listed occupation had quietly changed from "teamster" to "farmer," matching almost exactly what his death notice would later recall — that "until his retirement a few years ago he was engaged as a teamster, and was well known in timber circles."7 Even in his late sixties he answered a further call: NSW records show an Andrew George Batchelor enlisting in the Army’s Citizen Military Forces at Taree sometime between 1939 and 1948, service number N161695, next of kin Daisy Batchelor — presumably home-defence duty, given his age by then. That same enlistment record gives his birth as 27 January 1882 at Coolongolook, flatly contradicting both his own 1872 birth registration and his death notice’s "74 years" — a discrepancy left unresolved here rather than silently picked.8

Their son, Frederick Thomas Batchelor, was still fishing for a living at Coolongolook when he first appears on the roll in 1939 — the same year, as it turns out, that he married Stella Ravell, at Gloucester. When Andrew died in 1946, it was Frederick, together with Daisy, who was named executor of his will (below). The couple eventually settled at Tuncurry, where Frederick died on 16 December 1996, aged 81, and Stella on 5 March 2001, aged 84; they are remembered together at Tuncurry General Cemetery.9

Andrew and Daisy’s only daughter, Violet, married Harold Burton Worth — inevitably "Bert" — at St Luke’s Church, Coolongolook, in September 1937: almost certainly the marriage behind the "Mrs Bert Worth, of Wang Wauk" named in her father’s 1946 death notice. The local paper’s account survives in full: a tailored gown of white duchesse satin, a veil and orange-blossom coronet lent by the bride’s aunt, "Mrs S. Worth" — Daisy’s own sister Grace Poole, who had married into a different Coolongolook Worth family thirty-five years before (see her own chapter) — a bridesmaid in the groom’s sister Enid Worth, a small cousin, Thelma Platts, as cushion-bearer, and Violet’s own brother, Fred Batchelor, as best man; the honeymoon was spent at Old Bar. Harold, son of the late Mrs Worth of Willina and Mr J. T. Worth of Tuncurry, was already an established Wang Wauk farmer by 1931, years before the wedding, and remained one at least through 1943.10 Whether his family and Samuel Worth’s — the Coolongolook Worths Grace had married into — were themselves related has not been established; Grace’s presence at the wedding reflects her own place in Violet’s family, not necessarily any blood tie between the two Worth lines. Harold died on 9 July 1977, aged 67; Violet on 3 October 1997, aged 83 — the two are remembered together at the Taree Anglican Columbarium. Their daughter, Fay, born 5 August 1940, married Colin Stanley Daw and eventually settled far off at Elsmore, near Inverell, where she died on 18 October 2005.10

A photograph inscribed "Picnic Day — early this century" survives in the family collection, showing Daisy Batchelor (née Poole) seated among eight others against a paling fence: Bill Wilton, Dave Bell, Pearl Worth, Sis Batchelor, Lottie Platts, Jake Munro and Jack Latimore.11 It is a candid glimpse of the same tight Coolongolook social world the electoral rolls and wedding columns only sketch in outline — Worths, Platts and Latimores turning up again and again around this one family.

Andrew George Batchelor died on Good Friday night, 19 April 1946, at the Mayo Hospital, Taree, after a long illness — seventy-four years old, and, as his death notice put it, honest in all his dealings and a man who had spent "the whole of his life" at Coolongolook, where he was born. He was survived by Daisy, by their son Frederick and their daughter Mrs Bert Worth, and by three brothers: Thomas, of Tuncurry; James, by then a Coolongolook storekeeper turned Port Macquarie resident; and Daniel James, of Coolongolook. One surviving copy of the notice renders this last name as "D. S. Batchelor," which briefly suggested confusion with an unrelated "Alexander Stuart Batchelor" on the same electoral rolls — but a second, more cleanly printed copy of the same obituary reads "D J Batchelor" outright, and William Thomas’s own 1932 obituary (below) independently names a brother "Daniel James Batchelor," settling the question.12 Two more siblings had already died: his sister Frances Elizabeth, by marriage Mrs Huckett, some time before 1932; and his sister Rosaline, Mrs Latimore, who died at Tuncurry in July 1944 — married to the Coolongolook settler Christopher Latimore (who predeceased her), mother of five, and unmistakably the same "Mrs Latimore" behind the recurring Latimore name in this family’s wedding gifts and photographs.13 A sixth sibling, William Thomas Batchelor, a pioneering gold prospector, carpenter, and the first Noble Grand of the Coolongolook Oddfellows’ lodge, had died in 1932, aged 83, without children of his own; his funeral — the church filled to overflowing, fifty or sixty fellow Oddfellows marching ahead of the hearse, some 300 people at the graveside — gives some sense of the standing this Coolongolook family held in its own district.13 Andrew’s own funeral, more modestly, took place at the Coolongolook cemetery on Easter Sunday, Rev. F. T. M. Palmer conducting the service and W. T. Howard — the same undertaker who had buried Rosaline two years before — carrying out the arrangements.

Probate of Andrew’s will was granted on 1 July 1946, his executors named jointly as "Daisy Batchelor and Frederick Thomas Batchelor" — widow and son acting together. The estate, valued at £943 and soon amended to £895, was handled by the Taree proctors Butterworth & Cowan through their Sydney agents F. C. Petrie & Son — not "J. C. Pearce & Sons," as an earlier, harder-to-read deceased-estate index card seemed to suggest.14 A year later, on the first anniversary of his death, his family placed a small tribute in the paper: "Not just to-day, but every day, in silence we remember."14

Daisy left Coolongolook within weeks of Andrew’s death. On 17 May 1946 — not yet a month after the funeral — the Port Macquarie Municipal Council’s recorded land transfers included the "Estate of J. E. Flynn" passing to "Mrs. Daisy Batchelor": two lots at the corner of Hill and Lord streets, the same "56 Hill Street" an undated Port Macquarie electoral roll later confirms as her own address, home duties, quite apart from any other Batchelor household in the town.15 Andrew’s surviving brother James was living close by, at 129 Lord Street on the very same street — very likely part of the reason she chose Port Macquarie at all. By 1971, when her youngest brother Thomas Charles Poole died in Sydney, his own death notice named her, still living, as "Daisy (Mrs Batchelor, Port Macquarie)."16 She died on 9 October 1976, aged eighty-seven, and was brought home to Coolongolook General Cemetery, where she was buried under a headstone reading simply "At Rest" — beside the husband she had outlived by three decades.17

The late Mr Batchelor was honest in all his dealings, and had the respect of all sections of the community.
"Mr. A. G. Batchelor," obituary, 1946

The Record

Sources & References

  1. 1

    Birth and marriage

    NSW BDM birth index: Poole, Daisy, reg. 21914/1888, district Glen Innes, father William Poole, mother Frances Poole. NSW BDM marriage index: Poole, Daisy, m. Batchelor, Andrew G, reg. 15866/1913, district Stroud. NSW BDM birth index: Batchelor, Andrew G, reg. 16433/1872, district Port Stephens, father James Batchelor, mother Elizabeth Batchelor.

  2. 2

    The wedding, 1913

    Manning River Times and Advocate, 11 October 1913, "Orange Blossoms," "Batchelor—Poole": "At Coolongolook, on Wednesday, 1st Oct., Mr. Andrew George Batchelor and Miss Daisy Poole were united in marriage by the Methodist minister (Rev. John Perry)… She was accompanied by her brother (Mr. Fred Poole). Her bridesmaid (Miss Pearl Worth, of Bullahdelah)… Mr. Thomas Batchelor acted as groomsman… a special presentation… on behalf of Mr. James Worth (Bullahdelah) and Mr. Steve Worth (Coolongolook). This proved to be a well-made bullock yoke with bows and keys complete… Amongst [the gifts]… broom, Mr. D. Batchelor… China cups and saucers, Mrs. D. Batchelor… silver spoons, Mr. C. Latimore; dessert forks, Mrs Latimore… toilet table bottle, Miss May Huckett…"

  3. 3

    Land and civic standing, 1907–1915

    Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Observer, 6 July 1907, "Taree Lands Office," "After Auction Applications": "Andrew G. Batchelor, allot. 13, sec. 23, village Coolongclook"; also Jas. Worth (allot. 5, sec. 13), Thos. Batchelor (allots. 11–12, sec. 23), Elizabeth Wallis (allots. 7–8, sec. 8). NSW Government Gazette, 17 March 1915 (No. 48), p. 1687: appointment of trustees for Reserve No. 50,266 at "Gooloongolok," parish of Curreeki, for a Public Hall — "Messrs. William Batchelor, John Kennedy, George Bennett, Andrew Batchelor, Robert Platts, and Alfred James Fenning."

  4. 4

    His father’s estate, 1919

    Northern Champion, 22 October 1919, "Estate of J[ames?] Batchelor, Deceased": "This property was sold last Saturday at Coolongoiook by Mr. Donald Cameron, for £510, after spirited competition. The purchaser was Mr. Andrew George Batchelor, of Coolongoiook." The deceased’s given initial is unclear in the surviving scan; identification with Andrew’s own father, James Batchelor, is probable but not certain.

  5. 5

    1913 electoral roll

    State Electoral Roll, District of Durham, "Roll of Electors who vote at Gooloongolok Polling-Place," 1913, entries 1–8: Batchelor, Alice Amelia (domestic duties), Andrew George (teamster), Charlotte Elizabeth (domestic duties), Daniel James (teamster), Elizabeth (domestic duties), Ellen Matilda (domestic duties), James (storekeeper), William Thomas (labourer), all of Coolongolook.

  6. 6

    Trade directory

    Undated Sydney trade/business directory ("Anthony Horderns’," alphabetical section "Bas–Bat," pp. 964–965, family collection): "Batchelor A., store, Coolongolook"; "Batchelor Andrew G., teamster, Coolongolook."

  7. 7

    Electoral rolls, 1934–1946

    Commonwealth Electoral Roll, Division of Cowper, State Electoral District of Gloucester, Subdivision of Forster, 1934, 1935, 1939, 1943 and 1946: Batchelor entries for Alexander Stuart (farmer — relationship to Andrew not established), Alice Amelia, Andrew George, Daisy, Daniel James, Ellen (Matilda), James Cunninghame, Kathleen Margaret, Mary Ann, Thomas and Thomas William, all Coolongolook or Tuncurry; Frederick Thomas (fisherman) first appears in 1939, his wife Stella by 1943; Kenneth Clyde (engineer, Tuncurry) also by 1943. Andrew George’s own occupation is given as "teamster" in 1934–35 and "farmer" from 1939 on.

  8. 8

    CMF service and birth-date discrepancy

    NAA series B884 (Army, Citizen Military Forces): Batchelor, Andrew George, service no. N161695, enlistment 1939–1948, enlistment place Taree, next of kin Daisy Batchelor; birth recorded as 27 January 1882, Coolongolook — inconsistent with both his 1872 NSW birth registration (reg. 16433, district Port Stephens) and his 1946 death notice’s "74 years," which together point to 1872.

  9. 9

    Frederick Thomas Batchelor and Stella Ravell

    NSW BDM marriage index: Batchelor, Frederick Thomas, m. Ravell, Stella, reg. 21946/1939, district Gloucester. FindAGrave/burial records: Frederick Thomas Batchelor, d. 1996, and Stella Batchelor (née Ravell), d. 2001, both Tuncurry General Cemetery. Memorial plaques: "In Loving Memory Of Frederick Thomas Batchelor, 16.12.1996, 81 Years, At Peace"; "In Loving Memory Of Stella Batchelor, 5.3.2001, 84 Years, In God’s Care."

  10. 10

    Violet Batchelor and Harold Burton Worth

    Unidentified regional newspaper, "Coolongolook" column, 1937 (family collection): "The wedding of Miss Violet Batchelor, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Batchelor, of Coolongolook, and Mr. Harold Worth, son of the late Mrs. Worth, of Willina, and Mr. J. T. Worth, of Tuncurry, took place on the 18th ult., at St. Luke’s Church, Coolongolook… A tailored gown of white duchesse… veil and coronet of orange blossoms (lent by the bride’s aunt, Mrs. S. Worth)… Miss Enid Worth, sister of the bridegroom, was bridesmaid… Little Thelma Platts, cousin of the bride, was cushion bearer… Mr. Fred Batchelor, brother of the bride, was best man… The honeymoon was spent at Old Bar." NSW BDM marriage index: Batchelor, Violet, m. Worth, Harold Berton, reg. 14354/1937, district Gloucester. Electoral rolls: Worth, Harold Berton/Burton, Wang Wauk, farmer, 1931 and 1943 (Commonwealth Division of Robertson/Cowper, State District of Gloucester); Worth, Violet, Wang Wauk, home duties, 1943. Memorial plaques, Taree Anglican Columbarium: "In Loving Memory Of Violet Worth, Died 3.10.1997, Aged 83 Years"; "In Loving Memory Of Harold Burton Worth, Husband Of Violet, Died 9.7.1977, Aged 67 Years." Daughter: FindAGrave/BDM, Fay Daw (née Worth), b. 5 August 1940, d. 18 October 2005, Elsmore General Cemetery, spouse Colin Stanley Daw.

  11. 11

    The picnic photograph

    Captioned photograph, "Picnic Day — early this century" (family collection): "Left to Right: Bill Wilton, Daisy Batchelor (nee Poole), Dave Bell, Pearl Worth, Sis Batchelor, Lottie Platts, Jake Munro, Jack Latimore."

  12. 12

    Death notices, 1946

    Three independent copies of the same obituary survive. Northern Champion (Taree), 1 May 1946, "Obituary," "Mr. A. G. Batchelor" (the clearest scan): "…He is survived by his widow (nee Miss Daisy Poole), together with a son, Mr. F. T. Batchelor, of Coolongolook, and a daughter, Mrs. Bert Worth of Wang Wank. Three brothers also survive him, namely Messrs D J Batchelor (Coolongolook), Thomas (Tuncurry) and James (Port Macquarie). He was predeceased by one brother, Mr W T Batchelor, and two sisters, Mrs Latimore and Mrs Huckett, all of Coolongolook…" A family-held clipping of the same text (unidentified masthead) instead renders the surviving brother as "D.S. Batchelor" — an OCR/typesetting variant, not a different person (compare reference 13). Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Observer, 3 May 1946, a shorter version, confirms the funeral was Church of England, conducted by Rev. F. T. M. Palmer. NSW BDM death index confirms Andrew G. Batchelor, reg. 1946.

  13. 13

    William Thomas Batchelor and Rosaline Latimore — Andrew’s siblings

    Manning River Times and Advocate, 30 April 1932, "Mr. William Thomas Batchelor": died at Coolongolook aged 83; m. Helen Matilda Craven, no issue; pioneer gold prospector and carpenter, first Noble Grand of the Coolongolook Lodge, G.U.O.O.F.; funeral filled the church, "between 50 and 60 Oddfellows" marched to the graveside before "quite 300 people." Survived by brothers "Mr. Daniel James Batchelor, Wootton; Mr. Andrew George Batchelor, Coolongolook; Mr. Thomas Batchelor, Tuncurry; and Mr. James Batchelor, storekeeper at Coolongolook," and sister "Mrs. R. Latimore, of Sydney"; predeceased by sister "Mrs. Frances Elizabeth Huckett." Dungog Chronicle, 28 July 1944, "Obituary," "Mrs. Rosaline Latimore": died at Tuncurry, born Coolongolook 74 years earlier (i.e. c.1870), daughter of James and (Mrs) Batchelor; m. Christopher Latimore of Coolongolook (predeceased her); moved to Tuncurry a few years before her death; survived by sons John Edward, James Charles and Christopher Daniel Latimore (all Coolongolook) and daughters Mrs E. A. Ralston (Tuncurry) and Mrs Tom Lulham (Sydney); brothers James Batchelor (Port Macquarie), Daniel and Andrew Batchelor (Coolongolook); funeral arrangements again by Mr W. T. Howard.

  14. 14

    Probate and in memoriam

    NSW Government Gazette, 19 July 1946 (No. 78), p. 1639: "RE will of ANDREW GEORGE BATCHELOR, late of Coolongolook… retired farmer, deceased. Probate granted by Supreme Court of New South Wales on 1st July, 1946… Daisy Batchelor and Frederick Thomas Batchelor, the executrix and executor…" Proctors: Butterworth & Cowan, Temple Chambers, Victoria-street, Taree; agents F. C. Petrie & Son, solicitors, 375 George-street, Sydney. (An earlier-cited deceased-estate index card, harder to read, appeared to give the firm as "J. C. Pearce & Sons" — the Gazette’s typeset text is preferred here.) Manning River Times and Advocate, 19 April 1947, "In Memoriam": "BATCHELOR — A tribute of love to the memory of Andrew George Batchelor, who passed away 19th April, 1946. Not just to-day, but every day, In silence we remember. Inserted by his family."

  15. 15

    Move to Port Macquarie, 1946

    Port Macquarie News and Hastings River Advocate, 17 May 1946, "Municipal Council," "Land Transfers": "Estate of J. E. Flynn to Mrs. Daisy Batchelor, lots 1 and 2, section 46, Hill and Lord streets." Undated NSW electoral rolls, Subdivision of Port Macquarie (Division of Lyne, State District of Oxley/Gloucester): "Batchelor, Daisy, 56 Hill street, home duties, F"; "Batchelor, James, 129 Lord street, no occupation, M" (almost certainly Andrew’s surviving brother).

  16. 16

    Identification via her brother’s death notice

    Sydney Morning Herald, 7 June 1971, death notice for Thomas Charles Poole: "…fond brother of Frederick (deceased) and Daisy (Mrs Batchelor, Port Macquarie). Aged 73 years." (See also reference 17 in the main chapter references.)

  17. 17

    Death and burial, 1976

    Headstone, Coolongolook General Cemetery: "In Memory Of Daisy Batchelor, Died Oct. 9, 1976, Aged 87 Years. At Rest." NSW BDM death index / FindAGrave: Batchelor, Daisy, née Poole, born Glen Innes, died 9 October 1976, buried Coolongolook General Cemetery; spouse Andrew George Batchelor. (Her recorded age at death implies a birth year of 1888–89, consistent with, though not identical to, the 1888 birth registration cited in reference 1.)