Clara Elizabeth Watson

Clara has become one of my "favourites".  There are lots of reasons for this, but mainly stem from the fact that she obviously loved photos and kept a beautiful Victorian Photo Album of her family.  Unfortunately she forgot to label anyone, but that's life!  She did keep a record of the birth dates of her five sisters and one brother - which also included the dates of death for a number. 

Clara was born on 13 October 1861 in Lowestoft, Suffolk.  She was the second child of Sarah Osborne and Alfred Watson (whose stories will be told another day!).  Clara grew up with her sisters in Lowestoft, mainly living in a house at 57 Raglan Street.  

Clara married George Furnsby in Lowestoft on 18 June 1884.  George was born on 15 February 1856 in Bethnal Green, London, the son of Ann Bunn and Richard Fernsby.  Both Ann and Richard had been married before – Richard was 51 years of age.  George was the only child of the couple to survive infancy.  The spelling of George’s surname varied in his early life.  All spellings of George’s name from 1881 are Furnsby, but on official records his father always spelt his name Fernsby.  George’s mother died when he was four and his father when he was 14.  His mother’s family was from Norfolk and this may have attracted him to Lowestoft.  George worked as a mariner.

Clara had her first child, Clara Elizabeth, on 9 February 1885 in Lowestoft.  George was absent.  He had arrived in Sydney, Australia three days earlier on board Rome.  He is listed on the crew as a lamp trimmer. This person is responsible for keeping the oil lamps of a ship burning brightly, especially the deck and navigation lamps.  Clara and her 23 month old daughter, Clara, followed George to Australia and arrived in Sydney on board the Port Victor on 23 January 1887.  This must have been a difficult move for Clara.  She was not moving with any other members of her family and she would have known that the likelihood of seeing her family again were relatively small.  So what does one pack when moving from England to Australia?  Clara brought her essentials – birth and marriage certificates, and her photo album.   These items were precious enough to Clara that she kept them for her whole life.  Fortunately they still survive.  Clara didn't see any of her family members again, but they did regularly correspond.

Clara and George had two more children born in Sydney; Alfred George, born in 1888 and Sarah, born in 1893.

In 1898 George Furnsby, then aged 42, was working on the wharves.  Family folklore says that he was crushed between a wharf and a boat.  He died at the family home, 25 Ewell St, Balmain, on 4 November 1898 as a result of the injuries received.

It is not known whether Clara contemplated returning to Lowestoft at this time.  Her children were then aged 13,10 and 5.  She may have felt that it would be disruptive to move them, or perhaps she had come to like her adopted country.  Another reason she may have decided to stay is that she did not have the funds to return to England.  This seems unlikely as Clara seems to have lived a comfortable life in Sydney.  NSW Probate records for George Furnsby existed but have been lost, so the value of his estate is not known.

Clara spent the next 13 years raising her children in Balmain, Sydney.

On 15 February 1905, Clara’s eldest daughter, Clara, married Robert Woolley, a butcher.  Clara became a grandmother on 10 December 1905 with the birth of Clara Margaret.  Clara and Robert had a further four children. 

Then in 1910, Alfred George married Annie Haynes daughter of Catherine Watt and Thomas William Haynes.  Alfred and Annie had three children.  They lived in the family home for the rest of their lives.

On 22 March 1911, Clara married for a second time.  The groom was widower George James Hardwick, the son of Mary Ann Dinhaur and George Wilshire Hardwick, born in 1851 in London.  Clara’s children were all very pleased with the marriage as everyone in the family liked ‘Hardie’.  George was a widower, but had no children of his own.  Certainly at the time of his death, his brother’s, wife and stepchildren acknowledged his death in the Newspaper.  Clara and George Hardwick moved to Gladesville, however, Alfred remained living in the Balmain house with his family.

Clara’s youngest child, Sarah, married William Walsh in 1912 and they had three children. 

All the children remained in Sydney.  

Clara and George Hardwick lived at Sunnyside Street, Gladesville for most of their married life.  Their home was named ‘Lowestoft’.  It was common for people to name their homes after their English birthplaces.  They were married for 16 years before Hardie died on 7 November 1927.  Clara went to live with her eldest daughter, Clara in Vaucluse.  She even met great-grandchildren.       

Clara died at 4 Peel Street, Vaucluse on 5 March 1941, aged 79.  Her grand-daughter, Lorna, said that she simply collapsed in the kitchen and died.  Clara is buried with George Hardwick in Waverley Cemetery, on the cliffs of the eastern suburbs of Sydney overlooking the ocean.  It’s not the same ocean of her youth but she couldn’t complain about the view!

Clara Furnsby nee Watson holding her daughter Clara in Lowestoft.

[Relationship to SNR = Great-great-great grandmother]