Ivy Mary REYNOLDS
Name: Ivy Mary REYNOLDS
Date of Birth: November 3, 1914
Birth Location: Durrington Cottages, Durrington, Worthing, Sussex, England.
Maiden Name: WELLS
Also Known As: Aunty Ivy, Grandma, Grandma Ivy and of course Mum
Age at Burial: 101yrs & 4mths
Date of Death: February 3, 2016
Death Location: Rossmoyne Retirement Village, Rossmoyne, Western Australia
Date of Burial: February 12, 2016
Denomination: Seventh Day Adventist
Row/Grave: Row 3 / Grave 21
Grave Transcription:
CHARLES LAWRENCE REYNOLDS
22.8.1913 – 24.2.1980
IVY MARY REYNOLDS
3.11.1914 – 3.2.2016
LOVED PARENTS OF
LYNTON, THELMA, LAWREEN,
GLENN AND ELAINE.
Father: Harry Wells born: 30 September 1885 Shipley, Sussex, England. Died: 6 February 1954 Busselton.
Married: 30 March 1907 Coombes Church, England.
Mother: Mary Ann Temperance Allen born: 2 May 1882 Steyning, Sussex, England. Died: 23 September 1935 Buried Busselton Cemetery.
Grandfather (Father): Frederick Wells born: 6 September 1850 Shipley, Sussex, England. Died: 6 October 1917 England.
Married: 24 December 1870 Sussex, England
Grandmother (Father): Harriet (Henrietta) Balchin Adams born: 6 September 1853 Sussex, England. Died: 17 March 1916 Coombes, Sussex, England.
Grandfather (Mother): Alonzo Walter Allen born: c.1857 Sussex, England. Died: 16 December 1950 Sussex, England.
Married: 4 February 1877 Sussex, England
Grandmother (Mother): Jane Sayers born: 7 November 1858 Sussex, England. Died: 1897 England.
Siblings:
Kitty Lillian Wells born: 10 July 1907, Tin-Pot Cottages, Sussex, England. Died: 15 September 1995 Buried Capel Cemetery. Married: 28 February 1933 Herbert Karl Vollrath.
Harry Wells born: 16 October 1908, Tin-Pot Cottages, Sussex, England. Died: 9 April 1979 Buried Margaret River. Married: 24 April 1931 Busselton Mary Greenlees Lamont.
Frederick Wells born: 23 May 1910, Tin Pot Cottages, Sussex, England. Died: 11 June 1973 Buried Karrakatta Cemetery. Married: 19 November 1938 Balingup Antonia Eileen Cluning.
Joseph Wells born: 16 May 1912, Durrington Cottage, Steyning, Sussex, England. Died: 16 December 1982. Buried Capel Cemetery.
Dorothy Wells born: 23 May 1923, Fittleworth, Sussex, England. Died: 8 December 2017 Busselton. Married: 24 December 1942 John Roy Simpson.
Spouse: Charles Lawrence Reynolds born: August 22, 1913, South Bunbury. Died: February 24, 1980. Buried Capel Cemetery.
Married: November 5, 1935, Seventh Day Adventist Church, Capel.
Children:
Lynton Charles Reynolds born: March 1937, Bunbury. Married: April 26, 1961, Barbara Vaughan
Thelma Georgina Reynolds born: July 26, 1939, Bunbury. Died: July 7, 2023. Married: 1959 Jack Butt Payne.
Lawreen Mary Reynolds born: August 1944, Bunbury. Married: 1. Carl Everett. 2. 1975 Garry John McIver
Glennard Lawrence “Sno” Reynolds born: March 1954, Bunbury. Married: Wendy Lynne Hockey.
Elaine Joy Reynolds born: February 1960. Married: David Brian Johannson.
Occupation: Worked at home duties for the House, Wittfoht, & Roberts families. Much of her time was spent outside helping Dad with the farm. She did not learn to drive until she was over 40 and was NOT a good driver. She drove often to sell eggs, fruit and veggies from the farm as they had a hawker’s licence. Many people in the Capel, Bunbury and Busselton districts will remember Ivy from those times.
Military Service: Ivy was not in military service, but the Reynolds Family did have 2 Italian prisoners of war on the farm for a number of years, until the end of WW2. Mum faithfully wrote letters to these men when they returned to Italy at the end of the war. Their names were Sella and Sidella. Both men wanted to immigrate to Australia, but Dad could not sponsor them. They were good workers. Mum and Dad appreciated them very much and were very sad to see them go. Sella and Sidella were sitting in the back of a ute and continued to wave to the family until they disappeared around the corner.
Their Story
The Wells Story: The Wells brothers and their families lived in duplex’s. Ivy and Joseph were both born in Durrington Cottages, Durrington, Worthing, Sussex, England. Kitty, Harry Junior & Fredrick were born at Tin Pot Cottages in Steyning, England. Dorothy was born at Fittleworth, which was the last place the Wells families moved to, prior to Harry Wells and his family immigrating to Australia on the “Largs Bay” (from Tilbury Docks) on the 24th April 1924. They landed in Fremantle. The Wells family immigrated to Australia under the Group Settlement Scheme.
They were assigned to Jindong and later Lilydale. (A plaque at Ambergate Reserve (Busselton) car park, lists the family as living in the district). Kitty being the eldest child , stopped off in Capel, on their way to Busselton on the train, and worked for the Upson family. It was heart-wrenching for the family to leave Kitty in Capel. Over the years Kitty managed to find work for her brothers and sister (Ivy) in and around Capel.
Harry, Ivy’s Dad gave farming a “red hot go”, and they all loved the communities that they were part of, but the farming conditions were totally different to those of England. Each family were given some basic tools and a horse. After being in Australia for only 11 years, Mary Ann, Ivy’s mother, sadly passed away. (It is understood it may have been a burst ulcer.) Mary Ann was never a very well person. Ivy’s mother passed away the same year that Ivy married Lawrence. Ivy’s father passed away in 1954, while living in a caravan at Vasse. (I remember many times as a child calling to see him, and when able, Dad would frequently call in to give him freshly caught fish on our way home from fishing at Canal rocks, or some other place nearby.)
When 14 years old, Kitty got Ivy a job in Capel with blind Freddie House & his brother. Ivy did home duties for the Wittfoht family, and Mrs Queenie Roberts, wife of Mr. Wilfred Roberts, General Store owner in Capel. Ivy remained close friends with Tessie Wittfoht (Sharp) and Mrs Roberts. Ivy remembered Ainslie and Gordon Roberts, Queenie & Wildred’s children.
All of Ivy’s siblings went on to remain here in Western Australia. Though Joseph (Joe) was “missing” for a number of years, he returned to Capel on October 14 1959.
Kitty married Herbert Vollrath (from Germany). Their children – Jim Wells (his father – Charles Barber of Elgin) Robin, Melva and John Vollrath.
Harry (Junior) married Mary Greenless Lamont, born in Renfrew, Scotland. Mary was known as Nancy. Their children – Nancy, Harry (Bubbles), Mollie, Lesley (known as Les), Ivy (known as Petal), Mary, Kitty, Margaret and Jeanette.
Fredrick (known as Fred) was married to Linda. Only one son is known, named Lynton.
Joseph (Joe) married Beatrice Ryder. There are no known children.
Dorothy married June 2, 1918, John Roy Simpson, known as Roy, Hunmanby, East Yorkshire, England. Their children – Merle, Margaret, Christine, Annette and Leonie.
The Reynolds Family
Ivy met Lawrence Reynolds at church and thus started a courtship that lasted for seven years, until Ivy and Lawrence were married on November 5, 1935, just two days following Ivy’s 21 st birthday. Just prior to their marriage they were both baptised by Pastor Scragg Senior, in 1935. Thus began a wonderful union with each other and God.
Ivy and Lawrence were married in the Capel Seventh-day Adventist Church. Ivy and Lawrence’s wedding breakfast was conducted at Glen Eden, Lawrence’s family farm. Lawrence’s parents finished their home in time for their wedding breakfast. The farmhouse commenced being built in 1913, the year Lawrence was born. It shows times were hard!!! Ivy always says it was a very pretty wedding, and that’s very believable from the photos that we have. The first night they honeymooned at Cape Naturaliste. Mum said driving down there was beautiful with fireworks all along the way from the farm to Cape Naturaliste. One disappointing thing was that someone played a practical joke on them by putting rice in the radiator of the vehicle they were going to use!!! Probably not that funny on reflection.
Following their marriage, Lawrence & Ivy re-built a “group” house on the farm. Ivy loved this little home. It was built about 150-200 metres from the original homestead. Sadly, when Lawrence’s father needed to be isolated, due to TB, the family moved into the original homestead with Grandma, (Annie Georgina Reynolds). Papa, (Charles Leslie Thomas Reynolds)our grandfather passed away on January 12, 1945. Ivy & Lawrence never got back to living in their cute little home. Ivy grieved her long life for it. Their home was sold to Lou Scott who rebuilt it on The Donnelly in about 1948. The moving of their home was the first building contract for Dixon & Curnuck from Busselton. The sale of the house was necessary to keep the farm afloat. Times were hard.
Lawrence and Ivy inherited the farm (Glen Eden) and consequently farmed for many years. In fact, Dad lived on the farm all his life from 1913 until he was tragically killed on Roe Road East, now Reynolds Road on February 24, 1980.
They grew veggies, fruit, chickens for eggs and poultry for eating (by order only), milked cows, fed calves, and hawked their produce all over the district. The orchard and grape vines were planted a number of times, over the years. Farming was hard, long, intensive work. They had a really good work ethic, one to be emulated.
Much can be said about Ivy, our Mum. She had a positive nature, we rarely saw her being negative about anything. She loved shopping at sales and nearly all Manchester and fabrics were purchased at sale time. We kids use to love coming home from school to see what had been purchased. It was called value for money!! She was generous and kind, frugal but not mean.
Mum was also a really, really good cook. Grandma and Mum were known for cooking fruit cakes, and many wedding cakes by request. There were no fancy stoves. The stove in the kitchen was quite a small steel stove from a ship. To cook wedding cakes, you a needed constant heat. The answer was to collect dried banksia nuts, that burned evenly in temperature and burnt away to fine ash. Lon made oven trays etc. to fit the oven. The top of the stove had a big black caste iron kettle for hot water. It was a wood fuelled stove. Hence, we kids, always had to carry in wood and collect sticks to start the fire in the morning. Dad and Lynton mainly chopped the wood.
Mum knew plenty about “making do”. I guess many people were in the same boat. Mum and Grandma would unpick clothes, coats, shirts, anything that had good fabric. I remember having a red coat made from a coat that had been unpicked and Mum sewed it on the underside. It was really beautiful in fit and shape, fabric and colour. Nothing was wasted. Buttons from old clothes were removed and put in a large button jar. Dad and Mum bought the sewing machine as a gift to each other prior to being married. It sure paid off!! She taught we three girls to sew, cook, iron and work. And work!! Mum knew how to work. I never heard her complain about anything much.
Ivy spent many days hawking the farm produce around the district. She was known by everyone. This was quite traumatising for her, as she was not a good driver, and never felt very competent in that area. But she did that with a smile as well. She had a brilliant mind, and all the while selling veggies, eggs etc., she could add the price up in her head really quickly. Very good mental arithmetic.
Ivy had a horror of fire. The farm was burnt somewhere in the early 1940’s. At that time, the sheds were burned. It was an awful time. Thelma remembers sitting on a bench outside, filling buckets of water, until she complained to Ivy that she was feeling very hot from the fire. It burned right up to the corner of the house, right near Thelma. In 1991, Ivy was getting dressed to go to her friend Kitty Sinclair’s funeral. She noticed the atmosphere was getting dark. She glanced outside and saw a fire coming straight for the house. She quickly put on her rubber boots and ran down to the river and turned the pump on. There were visitors staying in Lynton and Barbara’s house nearby and she yelled for them to get the hoses going. When she returned from the river the fire had burnt the verandah on her home. That really shook her up.
Washing day was usually on a Sunday. It was quite a marathon. Clothes were washed by hand with a copper to boil clothes in. Whites were white and often starched. The clothes line was outside the fence. It was wire stretched between two poles and propped up in the middle with a stick. The iron was a heavy iron placed on the stove to get hot. Dad made an ironing board that clipped on to the end of the large Laminex table in the kitchen. If the weather was inclement, it wasn’t unusual to have clothes draped all around the kitchen, with the wood stove going flat out to try and dry the clothes. No such things as clothes dryers. In fact, there was no electricity on the farm until 1959. It was a day of rejoicing when we got a twin tub washing machine that had a spin dryer, and an electric fridge. Before that food was kept in a “safe”. It was a real step forward in making things a little easier. The electricity came nearby to the farm because of the mineral sand mines. The mineral sand mines were a real boost to Capel. The sand mines changed the face of Capel forever.
Even in widowhood, Ivy seemed to always to have a knack of being cheerful. I remember once ringing her from Adelaide (where I lived at the time) and feeling very despondent about Dad’s passing, and really wanted to know Mum was ok. When she answered the phone, there was her usual cheerful voice. She didn’t know at the time, but, that cheered my heart no end. I did tell her in subsequent years.
Once when Ivy was about 78 – 80 years she climbed up into the high water tank at the rear of her home to clean it out. Pat Sharp was her carer at the time and would check on her every now and then. Once Pat discovered Ivy up in the high tank. Pat told Ivy that she was to tell us, her children what she had been caught doing. We were horrified. She also climbed Ayres Rock when she was 75 years. She was quite the celebrity on that occasion.
Ivy had a few beautiful trips by herself. She went on a Fly-n-Build to the Solomon Islands as the cook with a team of repair and maintenance persons. She loved it very much. Everyone else was complaining about the heat, but Ivy loved it and she relished it with all her heart. She loathed being cold. That was one of her main memories of England as a child, was the cold, being poor and never feeling warm. Australia fixed that!!
Thelma and Jack took her to England in 1993, and she visited Fittleworth where she last lived in the UK. From the school in Fittleworth, she knew how to find her way into the next valley, where she lived as a child. Ivy, Thelma & Jack knocked on the door and the current owner of the house welcomed them in with open arms. Since that time, a number of the family have visited this home.
Ivy travelled to the General Conference Session of Seventh-day Adventists in 1985, a world-wide meeting held every 5 years, usually in America. Ivy piggy-backed a holiday onto the trip, and experienced many things she had only every heard about.
Ivy really loved family and everything to do with it. She also valued her neighbours on each side of the farm. The Hornibrooks (Nell & Jack in earlier days – now Nick & Val) on the eastern side of the farm and The Jamieson’s (Phil & Tom and now their grandchildren) on the western side of the farm.
We were extraordinarily privileged to have our Mum until February 3, 2016. She was widowed from 1980. A long time to be by herself. She never complained about that either. Just got on with life. Her faith had much to do with her strength of character and her attitude to everything. God was the focus of Ivy’s life.
When Ivy was 92 years, she suffered a small heart attack and was hospitalised for several days. When she returned home to the farm at Capel, she decided it was time to leave the farm. Ivy had her name down for Sherwin Lodge in Rossmoyne Waters Retirement Village, Rossmoyne. It was a convenient time for her to move. She had no regrets about moving and told everyone how well she was cared for at Rossmoyne. Ivy absolutely loved the place. She loved the staff and valued being cared for so well. Mum lived at Sherwin Lodge for 9 years. She slowly faded and passed away from old age at 101 years.
Ivy and Lawrence’s children.
All five children were educated at Capel Primary School. Lynton didn’t go to High School. Thelma and Lawreen went to Bunbury Senior High School. Sno went to Newton Moore High School and Elaine also went to Newton Moore in Bunbury. All five children were born in Bunbury, over a period of twenty-three years from 1937-1960.
Lynton, the eldest child, married Barbara Vaughan on April 26, 1961. They had no children of their own but cared for Margaret Jackman from a baby. Margaret was an indigenous baby from Wiluna where Lynton and Barbara were working on the Wiluna Mission Station. Margaret had four children. Kelly, Leon, Anita and Aaron. In 1988 due to circumstances beyond Lynton and Barbara’s control, Kelly, Leon and Anita came to live with them as foster children. They are beautiful children and now have their own beautiful children. Sadly, Leon passed away in tragic circumstances. Margaret their mother passed away in McKay, Queensland, as a result of a heart attack. Margaret’s ashes are in the Capel Cemetery.
Lynton and Barbara, inherited Glen Eden at the time of our father’s demise in 1980, and quite a few other blocks of land. They built a nice home not too far from the original homestead in about 1982.
In 2017-18 it was apparent that Barbara was not well enough to remain on the farm. Lynton & Barbara sold the farm to Yolande Wall their niece (Lawreen’s daughter). At the time Yolande was returning to Australia after living in the UK for over 20 years. Lynton and Barbara moved to a villa in the Rossmoyne Waters Retirement Village in Rossmoyne. (The same village that Ivy had moved to, in the high care section called Sherwin Lodge.) Sadly, Barbara lost her battle with Motor Neurons Disease in September 2019. Lynton lives in the same home they moved to at Rossmoyne Waters Retirement Village.
Thelma was Ivy’s child number two. Thelma was a quiet gentle child, with beautiful long wavy hair that had a reddish tinge. Thelma, worked in the Salvation Army Sunset Lodge in North Fremantle. There she met and married Jack Butt Payne, a neighbour to the Salvation Army Home where she worked. They made their home in the original Payne home at 38 John St., North Fremantle. After many years they sold the North Fremantle home and moved to Attadale.
Sadly, Jack passed away in 2008 and very sadly, Thelma passed away suddenly on July 7th 2023, while holidaying at Exmouth Gulf with her family.
Thelma and Jack had three daughters. Christine, Jennifer (Jenni) and Loretta. There are four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Ivy’s next child is Lawreen. Lawreen was born on Lawrence’s 31 st birthday (one interesting fact is that Ivy & Lawrence were in the hospital at the same time as mentioned earlier). Yolande & Daryl are Lawreen’s children. Their father (Carl Everett) was killed in an accident in NSW in 1973. Lawreen married Garry McIver in 1975. Lawreen has lived in New Guinea, New Zealand, South Australia twice, Sydney and has retired to Perth. Rossmoyne Waters precisely. Lawreen & Garry have five grandchildren.
Ivy’s fourth child is Glennard (Sno) Lawrence. Sno has been involved with screens and blinds most of his working life. Sno married Wendy Hockey of Tumut NSW. They have two children, Tanya and Shane. They also have 2 grandchildren. Sno is an avid fisherman and has owned a boat for many years. They have lived in NSW and WA where they are now. Sno went to Newton Moore in Bunbury and Carmel Adventist College in Carmel.
Elaine is Ivy’s fifth child, who was born when Ivy was 46 years. Ivy always said Elaine kept her young. How lovely. Elaine went to Newton Moore as well. Elaine is married to David Johansson. They have two children Melissa and Jamie. They have 6 grandchildren. Elaine has lived in Busselton, Eaton and now retired in Donnybrook. Elaine has been involved working with screens, blinds & canvas etc. In later years prior to Elaine and Dave’s retirement they owned a successful caravan maintenance business. Elaine is a keen gardener.
Written by Lawreen (nee Reynolds) Everett-McIver (Daughter of Ivy & Lawrence Reynolds)
8th December 2024.
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© Capel District Cemeteries Project 27/12/2024
