David

David Shepherd North (1883-1967)
Phyllis Flockton Clarke (1891-1989)

Jump down to the list of their children

David Shepherd North was the oldest of John George North & Mary Bell Shepherd‘s six children. He was born on 26 Dec 1882 in Canterbury, Sydney, and educated at Sydney Grammar School.

He was awarded a school prize for Arithmetic Div 1 in Dec 1896, aged 13; the award is signed by the famous headmaster, A B Weigall.

He studied science at the University of Sydney and was subsequently employed by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company as a plant pathologist between 1900 and 1942.

David first married Pina Mary Shuttleworth (known as Pina, her parents were James Johnson Shuttleworth & Philippina Elizabeth Martin) at Ryde, Sydney on 11 Mar 1908 (see the The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, Wed 15 Apr 1908). His company sent him to Fiji, the couple departing on 28 Oct 1908 (Evening News, Sydney). They had one son:

01. Lindesay Shepherd (b. 06 Mar 1909 in Ba, Fiji, d. 1981)

Sadly Pina passed away in Sydney on 08 Feb 1911, aged 29. She is buried with her sister, Hilda Juliet Shuttleworth, who passed away aged 24 (The Sydney Morning Herald, Sat 11 Feb 1911)

David was sent to the Hawaiian Islands between 1911 and 1912 to report on sugar cane farming there. He enlisted in WWI on 09 March 1916 and worked in England and France as a bacteriologist in the 1st Australian General Hospital, Army & Medical Corps, Reinforcements. He was a Staff-Sergeant, A.A.M.C., A.I.F., England and France. He joined Weymouth Hospital and was then put in charge of laboratory at Harefield. Transferring to No. 1 Australian General Hospital, Rouen, 8th December, he remained there on similar work until the Armistice. On 8th January, 1919, he went to Sutton Veny Hospital, serving until demobilisation on 08 Jul 1919. His service record can be read online here.

David then married Phyllis Flockton Clarke, at Chatswood on 14 Mar 1923. Phyllis was the younger of the two children of Arthur Walter Clarke & Phoebe Isabel Flockton. She was born in Charters Towers Queensland on 18 Jan 1891. Presumably David met Phyllis through her brother Hal who worked as a sugar chemist also with CSR; David & Hal had worked together in Fiji. Phyllis’s father had committed suicide when she was just two years old and Phyllis was brought up by the extended family in Sydney. She was a gifted pianist and artist.

Phyllis spent many years working at the museum in Sydney; from their archives:

… At age 19 Phyllis Flockton Clarke applied for and won a position at the Australian Museum, Sydney, where she worked as an artist and illustrator. She was also well known for her illustrations of mushrooms. She was commissioned by Sir John Burton Cleland to provide paintings of mushrooms and fungi while he worked in Sydney as the Principal Government Microbiologist in the Central Bureau of Health. These drawings were used in papers he published between 1914 and 1923, and in his book ‘Toadstools and Mushrooms and Other Larger Fungi of South Australia’. She was also commissioned to provide paintings of mushrooms for Royal Worcester porcelain…

There are in fact 4 mushroom species named in her honour (Lactarius clarkeae Cleland, Lactarius subclarkeae Grgurinovic, Mycena clarkeana Grgurinovic and Volvariella clarkeae Grgurinovic). She worked also with the conchological staff of the museum.

Brendan Atkins, who is currently researching the Australian Museum ichthyologist Allan Riverstone McCulloch, brought to our attention the following newspaper article written and illustrated by Phyllis that appeared in The Sydney Mail on 31 Aug 1921:

FOUR MONTHS IN BEAUTIFUL FIJI
By PHYLLIS CLARKE
These sketches of life in Fiji, mostly in and around Rarawai Sugar Mill, are the result of four delightful months spent there last year in the midst of the tropical heat and colour.

OF the Fijians I saw little, as but few work in the houses or fields, the majority living in villages dotted about all over the islands. But Indians of every shade are there. The clean white-clad house-boys arrive in the grey dawn to begin their labours before the heat of the day. They are noiseless workers, moving barefooted about the house and verandahs. On the whole they have an easy time, as their work is over for the morning when ‘khana’ (lunch) is finished at about 11.30 a.m. They then go home to. their own huts and families till about 3 in the afternoon, when they return to get tea and dinner. House-boys wear white dhotis, wide strips of calico about five yards long, wound round the waist and draped so as to look like loose breeches, small white coats, or ‘bundis,’ with short sleeves, sometimes white turbans, and generally silver bangles.

The coolies working in the fields and mill are much less clean and smart, though infinitely more picturesque, in their shabby garments, all of which are rather motley, such as an old blue coat, a red turban, sometimes very dirty white trousers, or even striped pyjama trousers. But distance veils all these incongruities, and one notices only the lithe brown figures, half hidden among high cane stalks, or ploughing with oxen or mules, as patches of colour on the rich brown earth, which are an inspiration to an artist.

The children, too, are an unfailing source of delight – shy, dark-eyed, and graceful. Their dress is sometimes elaborate, the swirls with many frills on their diminutive skirts, and ornate silver ornaments made by the Indian jewellers. Often the very young do not bother about clothes at all, a silver chain and medallion worn round the neck or waist being their sole attire.

THE Indian bazaars, held every Saturday outside their ‘lines’ (Indian quarters) and near the mill, afford opportunities of seeing many types and dresses. There is the Mahommedan butcher, a tall bearded Indian in a long white garment, which reaches nearly to his bare feet, and who seems to have only goat’s meat in his basket. Near by are numerous women with piles of rice, dahl, and other grains, who have walked for miles, with their wares on their heads, along the dazzling white roads, the surface of which is of coral sand. There, too, are the jeweller, the basket wala, the potter, and many others. The buzz of their voices in a language one does not understand, the shimmering heat, the peculiar smell of ghee, fruit, and natives, all combine to make the effect of great interest to the traveller. A few Fijians also come to these bazaars with bananas, taro, and yams, slung on long poles over their shoulders or carried in native baskets. They are not nearly so keen to sell their wares as are the Indians, but lie about on the grass and bask in the sun smoking cigarettes, which they have made themselves.

THE Fijians are finely built, though heavy, and give one the impression of being rather lazy and irresponsible, fishing and gardening only when necessary for their comfort; but they are most hospitable to visitors, bringing out their mats for them to sit on and offering them cocoanuts and bananas. Their villages are beautifully clean and tidy, and their houses well built – very different from those of the Indians who have endeavoured to copy them. They are very fond of music and have an instinct for harmony, and one may hear some really beautiful part-singing by the children at the mission station. Our own familiar nursery rhymes sound strange sung in broken English by these little natives. Sometimes during the still, tropical nights one catches the strains of native boat-songs, which the men sing as they row leisurely up the river.

Another gift they have is for rhythmic dancing. Their old ‘meke mekes,’ or war dances, are still kept up in part by the missionaries. I chanced to see a Fijian dressed for one of these ceremonies. He wore a skirt made from strips of “poi,” stained crimson and purple, and reaching nearly to his ankles; a wide band of coloured wools around the waist, wreaths of hibiscus leaves across the shoulders, and a club completed this quaint attire.

A TRIP to the hills is full of novelty from the moment of starting. You may go the first twenty-five miles of your journey in a cane train. This is by courtesy of the C.S.R. Company. There are no passenger trains, but motor-cars are used, too. A box on the floor of an empty truck is one’s seat, and from this, unpampered by walls and roof, all the beauties of the country one is passing through are seen to advantage – Fijian villages, mangrove swamps, with their distorted white trees reflected in the water and looking like weird illustrations of fairy tales. Finally, reaching the foot of the hills, one leaves the primitive conveyance and, mounting a horse, ride the last few miles, an ascent of about two thousand feet, to Nadirivatu. The road zigzags up the mountain, at each bend showing some fresh glimpse of beautiful scenery, till the rest-houses are reached, from the first of which can be seen the reef on a clear day, away beyond the valleys one has ridden through. There are two other rest-houses here, one of which is for the Governor and his staff from Suva. But the only permanently occupied buildings are the police magistrate’s house and a Fijian prison, the prisoners from which do most of the road making.

It was here I first heard the sound of the “Ialy,’ a big log hollowed out and beaten with sticks like a drum. This was used in the old warlike times by the natives as a call to arms; now it is sounded every hour by the prisoners of Nadirivatu, and is musical when heard in the stillness of the night.

The climate is cold and bracing, and the hills are draped with mist in the early mornings. From Nadirivatu one meets the road which is the overland route to Suva. On each side are tropical flowers, ferns, and berries, all rejoicing in the damp. A walking tour along this route would be ideal, and would only take about a week; but as one would spend the nights at Fijian villages a cicerone who knew the customs and language would be essential. I have in my mind’s eye a pioneer lady who was most kindly my pilot to several places, including Nadirivatu. She had lived all her life in Fiji, and spoke the language fluently, with the dialects of the different districts. She told numerous anecdotes of the early days which would make delightful reading in themselves. But I shall not attempt to recount any of them just now.

OUR return from the hills was even pleasanter than our journey up, as we started as soon as it was light, after a hasty breakfast. As we zigzagged down, the sun just touched the tops of the hills, and by the time we had reached the flat country it had became very hot, so that we were quite glad of the pleasant rest and welcome awaiting us by the hospitable white people at Tavua. The coolie boy, who walked down with our luggage on his head, knew all the short cuts, and reached the village before us.

A festival which interests everyone is the “taga.” In India this is a Mahommedan religious ceremony, but in Fiji it has been turned into a coolie national carnival. Here the Indians from the various estates vie with one another to build the largest and best paper temples, which they then carry in for miles to the lines near the mill, and gather in crowds. They weep loudly and burn torches round the tagas, and dance and sing in monotonous unmusical voices. There are also many stalls for the sale of their sweets, jewellery, etc., and they have wrestlers, primitive theatricals, and Indians painted to represent tigers and other animals. The whole festival lasts two or three days and nights; then the ‘tagas’ are carried down to the river and thrown in, whence in time their remnants are carried out to sea.

Brendan Atkins also pointed us to two earlier newspaper articles that mentioned Phyllis. The first mentions several trips Phyllis made to the pacific Islands; from The Sydney Times, 11 Jul 1920:

South Sea Islanders who are as Life-Like as Life
Fishes and Snakes That Are Not Real, But Would Deceive Anybody— The Taxidermist Superseded

The staff of the Australian Museum in Sydney has been busy for some time preparing a series of models of South Sea Islanders, which will attract universal attention. The photographs herewith, specially taken by the Sunday Times, are the first illustrations of the work in hand.

The Museum staff numbers over 40, comprising zoologists, taxidermists, articulators, chemists, moulders, modellers, carpenters, blacksmiths, and printers, and all very proud of the fact that they are Australians. All have been trained in this country, and they turn out work which is not excelled by bigger institutions in other parts of the world. Dead creatures of every kind that walk, fly, crawl, wriggle, or swim, come to them from all parts of the globe, and are stuffed, modelled, or pickled to make a visitor’s holiday, and little or nothing is known by the public of their resourcefulness and skill.

The Copper-Colored Family.

Passing a door through which comes sounds of sawing and hammering, the visitor finds the retreat of the moulders and taxidermists. Entering the doorway into an adjoining room he is suddenly startled into amazement, for the view is blocked by the bare back of a large, copper-colored man, dressed, as the fashion editress says, “simply, but effectively,” in a loin cloth. He is sitting, motionless, with his head bent forward. ‘What’s he doing here?’ asks the visitor. ‘Come in and I’ll show you,’ says the guide. Another shock comes when it is discovered that the large, bare figure is not a man, but a plaster cast of one of four Hawaiian natives which have been recently constructed in the Museum. So naturally are the figures placed, and so real is the Polynesian color of their skins, that they look like humans who have been petrified by some angry heathen god, and condemned to sit motionless, though alive, until his anger might be appeased. Every line and wrinkle of the original skin folds naturally in the plaster, and there are queer marks on the old woman’s hands. It is said she had leprosy. Anatomically they are perfect figures, with straight-backed skulls, intelligent faces, and mobile looking mouths which can almost be expected to broaden into a smile. There is an uncanny suspicion of life about the set of the features, a suspicion which is strengthened if they are examined intently and at close quarters.

Beautiful Groups.

The four figures are two separate groups, but they will be placed in the Museum in one case, and, when completed, will be the finest exhibit in the building, excelling, in point of detail and naturalness, even the lion set and the new Antarctic set, of which more anon. In one group are two women, one young, one old. The elder female is making tapa cloth out of bark by beating it, while the younger woman holds a calabash of water for damping purposes. In the other groups the men are employed in pounding taro roots upon a board. The substance is cooked and eaten after being mashed into pulp. Everything in the groups excepting the cloths, has been moulded. Even the taro leaves (not shown in the illustration) will be cast in celluloid – which is an innovation – and will be colored green by Miss Phyllis Clarke, who put the so-human color on the white plaster of the figures. Miss Clarke made several trips to the Islands for the purpose of getting the skin tints exactly right, and is absent again on a similar mission. …

The second article Brendan mentioned was a review an women’s art exhibition published in The Sydney Morning Herald on Sat 29 Apr 1922; Phyllis was one of the many contributors:

WOMEN ARTISTS.
ANNUAL EXHIBITION.
A FINE DISPLAY.

From the big, robust canvases, which, incidentally, would appear to have been hitherto preserved by tradition as the exclusive right of male artists, to the delicate, essentially feminine pieces of craft work, the annual exhibition of the Society of Women Painters at the Education Department’s gallery might well claim preeminence over those that have gone before. It conveys, at all events, very striking evidence of material improvement which has been manifested in women’s art in all its aspects during recent years.

The exhibition takes on an interstate character by virtue of the representation in the collection of work by both Queensland and Victorian artists. No fewer than 231 pictures have been catalogued – oils and watercolours being very evenly balanced, with a fair sprinkling of black and white work. A noteworthy feature of the exhibition generally is the tendency to almost excessive opulence of colour with the attendant neglect in a number of instances of shadowed sobriety. It holds, however, a stimulating amount of brightness and originality, and the range of subjects is wider than before.
…
Miss May Gibbs’s delightfully delicate compositions occupy a prominent place in the exhibition, which is enhanced by the presence of one of her excellent ‘gum nut” illustrations. Miss Phyllis Clarke has drawn upon the Pacific Islands for the majority of her pictures and the results are distinctly pleasing. One picture, “A Swamp, Fiji,” is particularly well treated. …

As a pianist, The Sydney Morning Herald reported on 04 Apr 1913 as follows:

THE CLARKE-HARRIS RECITAL

MISS Phyllis Clarke and Miss Dorothy Harris, advanced pianists from the studio of Miss Margaret Edson, contrived to hold the interest of a large audience at King’s Hall last night. In this endeavour they were assisted by the brilliant violin playing of the assisting artist, Miss Dagmar Thomson, and by the fact that the programme was not unduly extended. Miss Clarke, in a Grieg concerto (first movement) and a Chopin “Scherzo,” was encored each time she appeared, although the long and beautiful Scherzo was at the very end of the evening. This pianist has decision, a firm touch, and power sufficient for platform work, backed by a good technique…

In January 1922 a field trip was undertaken by Museum employees to Lord Howe Island. As is stated on the Museum’s website, the purpose was

to collect material for gallery exhibits with Phyllis, a member of the group, as an artist. Author and leader of the group, Allan McCulloch wrote “we must not only have a taxidermist with us to mount the birds in life-like attitudes, but an artist also who can see and paint the background, and so reproduce the atmosphere in which they live”.

What an adventure this was for Phyllis. We know that she was no stranger to travel as she was born in Queensland and at age 19 was holidaying in Fiji when she heard about a position at the Australian Museum. Returning to Australia she obtained the position where she worked as an artist and illustrator for many years, though she was never made a permanent employee.

In his article Allan McCulloch entertains the reader with the precarious exploits taken by members of the field trip group in pursuit of their scientific endeavours. They scaled sheer cliffs with crumbly footholds and “scorned” the use of ropes. Phyllis was expected to “see and make paintings of the view from the nesting site selected for reconstruction”. Luckily for Phyllis the site selected was “about fifty feet above sea-level, which was fairly accessible to all of the party”.

:

diorama (Anthony Farr © Australian Museum)

Phyllis at work (Anthony Musgrave © Australian Museum)

The website concludes:

Mystery solved.

Our first photo was taken by Australian Museum Entomologist, Anthony Musgrave a prolific photographer. The Australian Museum Archives holds a collection of 904 glass plate negatives taken by Musgrave. This photo is one of a set of 3 images taken of the painting of the diorama background – all three include the female painter though her face cannot be seen in any of the photos. The original paper envelopes that hold these glass plates are annotated in handwriting “Miss P F Clarke painting background of Boatswain Bird Group Tuesday 23rd May 1922”. So it seems the woman in the photo is Phyllis Clarke.

David and Phyllis lived in Fiji from 1924 before moving to Broadwater, northern NSW, a major sugar cane growing area. They immersed themselves into the local community, with David making many trips to discuss various problems with cane growers in the district.

Phyllis was also noted pianist, though she stopped performing once she had children. This report is from The Sydney Morning Herald on 04 Apr 1913:

THE CLARKE-HARRIS RECITAL

MISS Phyllis Clarke and Miss Dorothy Harris, advanced pianists from the studio of Miss Margaret Edson, contrived to hold the interest of a large audience at King’s Hall last night. In this endeavour they were assisted by the brilliant violin playing of the assisting artist, Miss Dagmar Thomson, and by the fact that the programme was not unduly extended. Miss Clarke, in a Grieg concerto (first movement) and a Chopin “Scherzo,” was encored each time she appeared, although the long and beautiful Scherzo was at the very end of the evening. This pianist has decision, a firm touch, and power sufficient for platform work, backed by a good technique…

David & Phyllis’s family:

David Shepherd North & Phyllis Flockton Clarke had three daughters while living in Broadwater:

02. Helen Mary Bell (b. 1924, d. 1987)

03. Vida Phyllis (b. 23 Jun 1926, d. 13 Sep 2000 in Sydney)

04. Margaret Cynthia (b. 23 Jun 1926, d. Feb 1981)

Local newspapers in the Clarence region carried David’s talks to cane farmers, often in full. Here are 4 examples.

• Talk on Fiji disease reported in the Daily Examiner on Mon 12 Jul 1920:

MR. NORTH AT HARWOOD.

Mr. D. S. North, plant pathologist, addressed a meeting, of farmers at Gregor Bros. farm, Martin’s Point on Thursday morning. Besides the manager of Harwood mill (Mr. J.R. Smith) and Chief Cane Inspector (H. B. Radford), there were about forty farmers present. Mr. James Carey presided, and introduced Mr. North to the growers. Mr. North then gave an interesting and instructive lecture on the Fiji disease in sugar cane, detailing every symptom, of the disease and explaining the best means of eradication. Specimens of cane with the disease in every stage were exhibited, and the lecturer strongly urged the careful selection of healthy cane for seed purposes. He explained that by careful seed selection, culling out the bad stools in the young plant cane, and by letting only healthy crops ratoon, this disease could be successfully checked. He also explained how the system had worked wonders in Fiji, where at one time the disease was raging. In carrying out the same system here, he had no doubt that good results would follow. Many questions were put to the speaker and answered satisfactorily and he was accorded a hearty vote of thinks on the motion of Mr. D. K. Beckman, seconded by Mr. John Gregor.

• Talk on soil fertility in Fiji reported in the Tweed Daily on Tue 04 Sep 1923:

FIJI SUGAR LANDS.

Mr. D. S. North, plant pathologist to the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, discoursed on the maintenance of fertility of sugar cane lands in Fiji. Over 60,000 acres, he said, are devoted to sugar cane cultivation for supplying the Colonial Sugar Refining Company ‘s four mills in Fiji. Of this, area, some 35,000 acres are held and cultivated by the company. The yield from most of the good lands has been fully maintained for the past 20 to 42 years without artificial fertilisers. Of the poorer lands, fertility has not only been similarly maintained, but also greatly increased in many cases by the use, in addition, of complete mixed fertilisers, coral sand, filter press residues, and stable manure. Two prime factors contribute to the maintenance of fertility of all classes of land, viz., the saving and ploughing into the soil of all trash residues from the crops; and the growing and ploughing under of crops of green manure.

• In 1928 David addressed growers in the Clarence region on gumming in sugar cane and this was quoted by the Northern Star on Tue 19 Jun 1928. That same year he delivered a talk at the Agricultural Bureau conference, on gumming but on other problems facing cane growers at the time, and this was reported by Tweed Daily on 07 Dec 1928. These two talks are lengthy and can be read here.

The David North Plant Research Centre, Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations, Indooroopilly, Queensland is named in recognition of his contributions to the sugar industry. From Long Pocket (page 55):

In 1961 the CSR Co purchased three-and-a-half acres of Subdivision 7 of Subdivision 2 of Portion 28, probably from Dave Carr, and built a plant research centre at 50 Meiers Road at a cost of $300 000. The phytotron and laboratory were named the ‘David North Plant Research Centre’ after Mr David Shepherd North who began pioneering researching on sugar cane for CSR in 1904.

According to an Australasian Mycologist research paper David was awarded an OBE, however to date the record of this award has not been found.

David was sketched during WWII by famed artist Nora Heysen, daughter of Australian-German artist Hans Heysen, on 14 Dec 1944, while examining sterility tests in the Blood & Serum Preparation Unit, Sydney Hospital.

Here are links to examples of Phyllis’s artistic work. The items mentioned were donated by the family to the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

These links open in a new window.

1. Her autographs book dated 1909 to 1911 with contributions from various artists, including her grandmother Isabel Mary Flockton

2. Her diaries, listing commissioned art 1916-1922

Her output was large, but this selection demonstrate her ability and versatility:

David retired from CSR in 1941, his retirement being announced in The Richmond River Herald and Northern Districts Advertiser on Fri 16 May 1941:

Mr. D. S. North, plant pathologist to the C.S.R. Coy at Broadwater, has retired, and gone to Sydney with his family to reside.

He continued in retirement to assist the Australian Red Cross Blood Bank as a bacteriologist. He passed away at St Leonards in 1966. Phyllis survived another 23 years, passing away in Sydney on 13 Dec 1989.

Generation 2

01. Lindesay Shepherd North married Betty Clare Richardson in Shore Chapel, North Sydney, in 1935. Betty was born on 11 April 1910 in Sydney, New South Wales, to Sophia Bertha Jane Cooper & Alfred Louis Richardson. She passed away in June 1999 aged 89.

Christine does not recall ever meeting Lindesay, despite him being her mother’s half brother. From the few newspaper articles we found it appears the couple enjoyed sport, especially skiing; and they had at least one daughter, Susan, born about 1943:

From The Sun, Sun 12 Dec 1948:

Summer holiday at Kosciusko

RIDING over the ranges at Mt. Kosciusko in midsummer will be a new experience for snow sports enthusiasts, Mr. and Mrs. L. S. North, of Gordon, who have previously only skied over them.

Members of the Kosciusko Alpine Club, they will set out by car on December 23 – with their small daughter, Susan, Mrs. North’s sister, Miss Nora Richardson, who is deputy-headmistress of School, and city business – Mosman Girls’ Public woman, Miss Gwen Muir.

Chief items in the travellers’ wardrobe will be informal clothes, riding breeches and boots and “woollies,” in case it’s a white Christmas at Mt. Kosciusko.

The party will stay at The Chalet, and between riding the ranges, they will fish in the Snowy River for perch.

From The Sun, Sun 13 Mar 1949:

SKIERS WILL FLOCK TO SNOWFIELDS THIS YEAR

DESPITE rising costs of snow sports equipment, increasing numbers of skiers flock to Mt. Kosciusko each year.

Cost of accommodation, even dormitory-fashion – the chalet style – is expensive. It ranges from 33/- a day, six to a room, to £2/5/- a day, to share a double room.

Only about 3000 members of the NSW ski clubs will be able to book this season, because the State Government reserves some booking for private ballot. There are about 5000 ski club members in NSW.

One lucky member who will make the trip this year is Mrs. L. S. North, of Gordon, whose husband is captain of the Alpine Club. She and her husband will stay at the Alpine Hut, privately-run establishment 22 miles from the Chalet. Six-year-old daughter Susan will stay with friends…

On 31 Oct 1941 he enlisted for the Royal Australian Air Force (record 72073; this record lists Lindesay’s birth date as 03 Jun 1909).

In the 1949 electoral rolls David Shepherd North and his family (apart from Helen) lived at 42 Chelmsford Ave Lindfield, Sydney. Lindesay (described as a clerk) and Betty lived at 66 Nelson St Gordon, about 4km away. Lindesay was still at that address in 1980, the year before he passed away.

02. Helen Mary Bell North spent her life as a missionary in India. She returned to Australia in the 1970s and lived firstly in Lindfield, Sydney then in Mapleton, Queensland, with her mother Phyllis.

03. Vida Phyllis North married Warwick Stanley Johnson in Lindfield, Sydney, in September 1953. They had four children.

04. Margaret Cynthia North, known as Cynthia, married Robert Henry Wheeler, the middle of three children of Henry Howard Wheeler & Mary Lisle Johnson. They had three children.

This photo shows 4 Flockton generations: (Isabel) Phoebe (in black), her daughter Phyllis, great-granddaughter Cynthia and Cynthia’s oldest child, taken in 1953: