Name: Charles Barber Wells

Date of Birth: 7th February 1929

Birth Location: Capel, Western Australia, Australia

Also Known As: Jim

Date of Death: 24th April 2003

Age: 74 years

Death Location: Capel, Western Australia, Australia

Date of Burial: 30th April 2003

Denomination: Congregation and Presbyterian

Row/Grave: Row 6. Grave # 61

Grave Transcription:

IN OUR HEARTS FOREVER

CHARLES.B.(JIM) WELLS

DEARLY LOVED HUSBAND OF LAUREL

LOVING FATHER OF VIVIENNE,

BEVERLEY, JOE, RIC & SUSAN

DEVOTED POP TO 8 GRANDCHILDREN

PASSED AWAY 24.4.2003

AGED 74

OUR INSPIRATION

OUR PROVIDER

Father: Charles Knowles Barber born c1863 in Cheshire, England. Died 29 February 1932 at Capel, Western Australia.

Mother: Kitty Lillian Wells born 10 July 1907 at Tin Pot Cottages, Botolphs, Steyning, Sussex, England. Died 18 September 1995 at Freeman Nursing Home, Rossmoyne, Western Australia.

Grandparents (father): Josiah Knowles Barber born c1830 at Matlock, Derbyshire, England. Died 2 July 1890 at Stalybridge, Cheshire, England and Martha Bennett born 1823 at Glossop, Derbyshire, England. Died 11 March 1897 at Stalybridge, Cheshire, England.

Grandparents (mother): Harry Wells born 30 September 1885 at Shipley, Sussex, England. Died 6 February 1954 at Vasse, Western Australia and Mary Ann Temperence Allen born 2 May 1882 at Steyning, Sussex, England. Died 23 September 1935 at Busselton, Western Australia.

Step Siblings:

Robin Rodney Vollrath. Born 15 March 1935. Died 31 March 2017. Married Yula Elizabeth Ashlin in 1958

Melva Joy Vollrath. Born 10 September 1938. Married Norman Dickson Ashlin in 1964

Lindsay John Vollrath. Born 2 June 1942. Married Elizabeth May Doubikin in 1965

Spouse: Alice Lavelle Clarke. Born 20 January 1922. Died 4 July 2016. Married 17 November 1949.

Spouse: Laurel Greenaway. Born 13 January 1929. Died 29 November 2020 at Bunbury, Western Australia. Married 10 March 1953.

Children:

Vivienne Wells

Beverley Wells

James Kimberley Wells. Born 25 February 1954 at Bunbury, Western Australia. Died 4 October 1977 at Boundary Road, Boyanup, Western Australia.

Eric Lesley Wells. Born 22 November 1955 at Bunbury, Western Australia. Died 13 February 1990 at Kuri Camp, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea.

Susan Wells

Occupation: Farmer

Their Story 

Charles Barber Wells (Jim) born 07 February 1929, died 24 April 2003 aged seventy-four years. Jim was only three years old when his father died. Jim was raised by his mother, Kitty Wells, and her husband Herbert Vollrath, along with their children, Robin, Melva, and John.

Jim married Alice Lovella Clark in late 1949. They divorced in March 1952.

On 05 January 1950, Jim was helping some neighbours in Elgin with chaff cutting.  He was pushing hay stalks into the rollers taking the hay to the cutters to chop it into chaff, when suddenly his arm became caught between the rollers and went into the cutters. There had been a safety bar in place but because it was often bumped and cut the power, it had been removed.  Jim’s arm was cut halfway to his elbow before the others there heard him shouting. He suffered severe shock and was hospitalised for over a month.

While in hospital Jim met Laurel Greenaway, who was working there as a nursing aide.  Jim and Laurel married on 10 March 1953. Jim was aged twenty-four, and Laurel (born 13 January 1929) was also twenty-four years of age.

Jim’s obituary in the Boyanup Post in April 2004, describes him as developing a dairy, milking for butterfat and running calves and pigs. Later he established a Murray Grey beef stud “Glenhope”. In 1972 he built a new dairy and purchased a dairy quota, operating the dairy with his sons, Joe and Rick. The farm operated under a company called C.B and L Wells and Sons.

Jim and Laurel also purchased a holiday cottage at Gracetown, and many family holidays were held there. They sold this cottage in 1972 in order to buy a property at Treeton in Margaret River. This operated as a separate company under Jim and Laurel’s names, called Barwell Pty Ltd. An obituary on Jim’s life in the Boyanup Post also describes how Jim realised they needed to diversify to make Hope Farm viable, and he started a portable timber milling business with his son Eric. They initially worked this on the Margaret River property and at Scott River. Later the mill was set up on Hope Farm, where they continued the business of providing sawn timber for housing and furniture. He was also involved in breeding South African Meat Merino sheep.

Electoral Rolls of 1958, 1963, 1972, 1977, 1980 also show Jim and Laurel at Hope Farm, moving to a 2,300-acre property they purchased in Boyup Brook in 1992. They sold Barwell in 1992 to fund the purchase of this farm at Boyup Brook where they grew grain to supplement the dairy at Elgin. Their daughter, Sue, and her husband, Tom, had leased Hope Farm from them and were maintaining the dairy herd with the assistance of Sue’s cousin Craig. Laurel and Jim sold their dairy quota around 1996, prior to the national deregulation of the dairy industry in 2000.  After this Jim and Laurel sold steers raised on the farm, ran sheep and converted the property at Boyup Brook to a Blue gum tree farm.

Jim had a lifetime interest in racehorses, having an appreciation of bloodstock, and enjoying race meetings.  He was a member of the Bunbury Race Club. He was also involved in clay target and skeet shooting and helped establish the Capel Gun Club. During his ten years participation in this sport Jim won several state and commonwealth titles.

In later years Jim and Laurel enjoyed travelling in the northwest and also undertook an eighteen-month journey around Australia. After Jim’s death, Laurel remained on the Boyup Brook property until 2007, when she sold this farm to fund the purchase of a retirement home in the Bunbury Retirement Village. She remained there until her death on 29 November 2020 in Bunbury, aged 91 years. After her death, the estate, including Hope Farm, was sold and distributed amongst the surviving children and grandchildren.

Story written by Jim’s daughter in law Annette Carter for the Capel District Cemeteries Project website.

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© Capel District Cemeteries Project 08/09/2025