George Frederick Burgess
Warrant Officer & Gunner, 1st Class
Listed in the Victorian Defence Forces List, Naval Branch, 1 January 1890.
Death notice - The Argus, 15 July 1899
photo courtesy of Peter Doughty (Great Grandson of G.F. Burgess)
George’s father, Thomas Burgess, was born in 1818 in North London and was a carpenter. His mother was Martha Everard, born in 1819. George was born on 26 November 1857 in Cockfosters, North London.
George Frederick Burgess was born on 26 November 1857 at Cockfosters (Enfield), Bedfordshire, England. He married Harriet Jarvis Coventon on 16 February 1877 at Williamstown, Victoria and died on 14 July 1899 at Ormond, Victoria. He is interred in Brighton Cemetery, Victoria. He was father to three children – two daughters and a son (Gordon George Burgess, my maternal grandfather).
George’s working history comprises mainly—
1873-80: Royal Navy (from age 15)
1881-1883: Mercantile Marine (U.K.)
1883: Australian Merchant Navy
1886-97: Victorian Naval Forces
George joined the Royal Navy in 1873 (aged 16) and served for seven years. From 1881 to 1883 he served in the British Merchant Navy and then for a short time in 1883 on Australian merchant ships working between our southern and eastern ports.
Harriet Coventon emigrated to Australia 1886. On 16 February 1887, in Williamstown, she married George Frederick Burgess. She was 28 and he 29.
George and Harriet had three children – Violet Nellie Elizabeth (1888), Winifred Lottie (1889) and Gordon George (1893) – my maternal grandfather. George and his family lived in a cottage at 23 Laverton Street, Williamstown (since demolished re-surveyed and renumbered).
George was a Gunner, Second Class in the Victorian Navy for eleven years from 1886-97. He died of tuberculosis in Grange Road Ormond in 14 July 1899, aged 41 years, leaving Harriet to raise their children, the youngest of whom was 6 years old. She lived to the age of 80.
My sources of information are principally official certificates of birth, marriage and death as well as family records and the attached photo. I have recently finished reading Deeds not Words by Wilson P. Evans but was disappointed to find no mention of GFB. It does contain a reference to Oliver Burford, also a Warrant Officer in the Victorian Naval Forces and whose name appears on property documents (titles, mortgages, etc.) as having some interest in the property in which GFB lived at 23 Laverton Street, Williamstown. I think this land is now at 12 Laverton Street according Titles Office records after re-numbering, etc.
Other sources of information include photocopies of records from the Australian Archives in Outer Crescent, Middle Brighton. In particular—
1. Victorian Naval Forces Enrolment Book (1884-1911), M.P. 301, Series 14 (1 volume);
2. Salaries, Wages and Allowances – Naval Forces, M.P. 265, Series 4 (1 volume);
3. Certificate of Service in the Royal Navy;
4. Particulars of GFB from the Royal Navy register;
5. Certificates of Discharge from various vessels operated by the British Mercantile Marine;
6. Certificate of Discharge from S. S. Coonanbara (coasting trader) in Sydney on 29 October 1883;
7. Education and qualification records from HMVS Nelson.
8. Warrant for appointment by the Governor-in-Council as Second Class Gunner, 23 March 1888;
9. Certificate of ‘diligent attention and sober service to the satisfaction of’ A. Broderick Thomas, Naval Commandant from 23 March 1888 to 8 February 1889;
10. Certificate of service confirming that he ‘has conducted himself with sobriety’ . . . to the satisfaction of William F. S. Mann, Naval Commandant from 9 February 1889 to 24 January 1892;
11. Certificate of service confirming that he ‘has conducted himself with sobriety’ . . . to the ‘entire satisfaction’ of Richard W. White, Naval Commandant from 25 January 1892 to 24 November 1894;
12. Certificate of service confirming that he ‘has conducted himself with sobriety and to my entire satisfaction’ said Richard W. White, Naval Commandant from 25 November 1894 to 31 March 1895;
13. Retrenchment notice from the Defence Department dated 18 April 1895 and describing the circumstances and GFB’s ‘excellent character’; and
14. Certificate of service in the W.A. Surveying Str (sic) Victoria for 8 months and 21 days as Boatswain – during which period ‘he conducted himself with strict sobriety, obedience and in a highly satisfactory manner generally. Mr Burgefs is a man of ability and integrity’. L. Dawson, Commander, Royal Navy, Perth, 3 May 1897.
Details provided by Peter Doherty | 