Surname: GARDNER
Given Name(s): Edmund Horatio
Occupation(s): Auctioneer/Land Agent/Accountant

Birth Details
Birth Town: Kilmarnock
Birth County,
Region, Province: East Ayrshire
Birth Country: Scotland, UK
Birth Date: 1887

Death Details
Death Town: Roma
Death State/Territory: Queensland
Death Country: Australia
Death Date: 1929

Immigration Details
Year Arrived: c1910

Surname: WIENEKE
Given Name(s): Iris Ina
Occupation(s): Secretary

Birth Details
Birth Town: Roma
Birth County,
Region, Province: Queensland
Birth Country: Australia
Birth Date: 1901

Death Details
Death Town: Brisbane
Death State/Territory: Queensland
Death Country: Australia
Death Date: 1967

Family Stories

Life in Australia:

In 1911 Eddie paid station owners at Kynuna in the north west of Queensland to be educated in pastoral matters. Part of his wardrobe was a bright red shirt, which looked quite amusing to the Australian stockmen. He was a keen horseman and enjoyed shooting trips in the outback with his friends. His letters to his brother, Henry, showed a deep love of Australia. However, when the national anthem was played, he would stand upright no matter where he was (even at home). Eddie was considered quite pompous by some. He was never seen without a silk shirt and bow tie. He only mixed with "people of quality" and maintained an aristocratic image. In 1916 he enlisted in the army and was sent to France in 1917. His enlistment papers recorded that he was 5'6" tall, weighed 138 lb, had a fair complexion, blue eyes and light brown hair. On the Western Front, Eddie was shell gassed and returned to London with bouts of bronchitis. Due to ill health, he was assigned to the Postal Corps but finally discharged in 1918 with defective vision. Resuming an earlier training as an accountant, Eddie became a partner in H.M. Campbell and Co, Stock and Station agents at Roma Queensland. Taking advantage of the Soldiers' Settlement Scheme, he selected a portion of land in the district. Writing home to his brother, Henry, Eddie said "Roma is rather an up-to-date town". He lived in a private home with bachelors, Dr Harrison and J. McNamee (a solicitor). Each kept a horse and the home had its own billiard table. Leisure hours were spent playing tennis, motoring, shooting, dancing (or jazzing, as he called it) and at the Club. "So far", he said "I have escaped the matrimonial stakes and there is not much likelihood, meantime, anyway of becoming a Benedict!"Aged 35, he married his 21 year old secretary, Iris Wieneke and eventually they had four children. Eddie later became a Mason and attended the Raphael Lodge in Roma. Eddie died suddenly in September 1929, aged 42 of pneumonia. He is buried amongst a dozen soldiers from the first World War in the Roma cemetery. His obituary states that "he was universally liked. He possessed an unfailing cheery disposition, and was always ready to assist charitable and sporting bodies, and took a particularly keen interest in the Returned Soldiers' Race Club". Eddie's death certificate notes his profession as "auctioneer" and his father's as "broker". The inventory of personal estate and effects, lists his assets as follows: an Overland Whippet motor car £120; a Willys-Knight motor car £80; household furniture and effects £112.19.0; proceeds of a life policy with The Australian Mutual Provident Society £1042.12.6; office furniture and plant £53.17.0; debts due to the estate £157.12.2; goodwill of business £50.0.0 (totalling £1617.0.8). Iris was the sole executrix and beneficiary of the will. The sworn realty was valued at £625.0.0 and personalty under £1705.0.0. Iris was an outgoing type, always the "life of the party". She reached champion status in diving and swimming when a school girl. She was very gifted in craft, sewing and knitting and was sought after for her floral arrangements. Iris became an ardent competitor in monthly horticultural society flower shows and became unbeatable in the wildflower section. She also won championships for three years in a row for her jams. Her brother, Lawrie recalled that as a boy, he hated to go to church with her. When singing, she would throw her head back and let go! She was always a bar behind when the rest of the congregation had finished. Iris married Eddie Gardner in 1923. They lived at Alfred Street, Roma, but sadly he died in 1929, leaving her with infants aged 5, 4, 2 and 9 months. Iris collected £1042.12.6 from an assurance policy, but her mother was concerned by her spend-thrift ways and brought her home to help her be more frugal. Unfortunately the world's economic conditions had started changing in 1928. "Australia in the Twentieth Century" by AGL Shaw & HD Nicholson states that primary product prices of wool, sugar and dairy produce fell. By 1931-32 wheat was less than 20c a bushel and wool and butter less than 10c a pound, sugar 2c. European financiers immersed in their own economic problems could not lend more to Australia, so development and works stopped. Some manufacturers went bankrupt and all reduced their spending. Unemployment grew and grew like a snowball. In 1932 one quarter of those normally earning wages were unemployed. About a year after Eddie's death, Iris met Tom Armstrong. Probably due to her lack of business acumen and the state of the economy, Iris had received little from the sale of Eddie's business and property investments. She married Tom and they had a child, Ronald. They bought a shop in Taringa and a new utility. Custom, due to the depression and the shop's location, was very slow and eventually they had to move and move again and again, as their income dwindled. The shifts also meant moving the children from school to school. On a move to Caboolture, they had to sell the lounge suite to pay the carrier. An old family friend, Dr Jensen, allowed the family to live without charge on his farm there. During the depression, men were allocated work according to the number of their dependents and Tom had three days' work on the roads. The house had to be shared with another friend of Dr Jensen's, Madam Cully and the doctor lived on the farm in a two room hut with dirt floors. Tom and Iris stayed there about 18 months then moved to Gympie Street, Northgate. Iris's sister, Doris paid the deposit on a house and found employment for Tom. Over the years, Doris and her younger brother, Laurie supported the family by buying food, clothing and shoes. They even paid for some of the children's innoculations and school fees. Iris gained employment selling insurance, pedalling around on push-bike. She was enormously successful and persuaded clients that without insurance when her first husband died, she would have been destitute. Tom was feared by the children. With added income, he began to drink heavily and became violent toward them. The annual school and church fancy dress balls were highlights of the year for Iris. She created sensational costumes, and the children carried off many first prizes. When World War II came, Iris was President of the Ladies' Comfort Fund at Northgate. Parcels were made for soldiers fighting overseas. She was a floral art instructor with the CWA and went to conferences in other states. She was State Secretary of the Queensland Country Women's Handicrafts Division and visited many aged persons' homes in Brisbane demonstrating crafts.

You and Your Family:

At the time of writing (1999), Keith is operating a business, Dodd & Young Human Resource Consultants. He is keenly interested in military history, and together with our son, Kane, trekked the Kokoda trail, Papua New Guinea, last August. Hayley and Kane are studying at university and I am working part-time as a school secretary and devoting most of my spare time to family history research.

Life Before Australia:

Eddie's parents were hotel keepers in Kilmarnock, Scotland. He was born at "The Rainbow", King Street, Kilmarnock, the son of Edmund Horatio and Jean Gardner (nee Fergusson). As an adolescent, he was required to help in the pub. Apparently he did not always put in an appearance. After a row with his mother, Eddie was seen walking down London Road in his pyjamas! His mother had locked him in his room and taken away his clothes but he escaped by the window. Things came to a pitch and his mother paid his fare and sent him off to Australia! Things were very bad and businesses poor in Scotland at that time. Eddie's father, Ted was born at Lutterworth, Leicestershire and moved to Kilmarnock, Ayrshire where he gained employment at the George Hotel. Ted's father, Thomas had been a farmer at Peatling Magna and later worked as a commercial traveller. Perhaps Thomas was involved in selling hoisery. By 1861, the hoisery industry for which the city of Leicestershire is still renowned today, began to grow in earnest and factories were built - marking the end of the cottage industry. Personality and sales ability seems to flow down through the genes of Thomas's son, Ted, a publican, his grandson, Eddie, an auctioneer and land agent, and his great-grandaughter, Diana, a real estate dynamo. My mother, Diana could sell 'fridges to eskimos! Eddie's mother, Jane was born at Dalswinton Village, Kirkmahoe, the daughter of Joseph Fergusson and Betty McCall. Joseph's occupations show him to have been an all round handyman. His jobs included railway surfaceman, gardener, general labourer and saw miller. Dalswinton Mill was operating at the time, and perhaps Joseph was employed there.

Descendants

Children
GARDNER, Jean Iris 1 GARDNER, Lorna 2 GARDNER, Gordon Edmund 3
GARDNER, Marnock Tolmie 4

Grandchildren
MCGLASHAN, Bruce 2 MCGLASHAN, Gail 2 MCGLASHAN, Jill 2
MCGLASHAN, Ross 2

Great Grandchildren
DODD, Hayley Sharon 2 DODD, Kane Michael 2

NB: Superscript behind each descendant name represents the lineage number of that descendant.
This family information was last updated by GAIL DODD on the 23 December, 1998.