After my great great grandmother Ellen Jane Cavenagh-Mainwaring, formerly Cavenagh, née Mainwaring, inherited the family property of Whitmore in Staffordshire in 1891,
the Cavenagh-Mainwaring family sailed for England in 1892 on the SS Ballaarat to take possession of the inheritance. The family surname had been changed in 1891 to assume the name and arms of Mainwaring in addition to Cavenagh in acknowledgement of the inheritance. Of the nine surviving children, the six daughters and the youngest son, Hugh, travelled with their parents. The oldest daughter, Eva, was 24. The youngest, Gertrude, known as Kiddie, was 10.
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| SS Ballaarat |
The
Ballaarat arrived in London on 8 June 1892. Mr and Mrs Cavenagh-Mainwaring and their children were on the passenger list. The ages on the list are mostly wrong.
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| from Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Inwards Passenger Lists. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA). Series BT26. Class: BT26; Piece: 32; Item: 17 Month: 06. Retrieved through ancestry.com.au. |
Wentworth Cavenagh-Mainwaring was born in 1822. On arrival he was 69 not 43 as stated. His wife, born in 1845, was 46 not 39. Eva was 24 not 19. May (Mabel) was 23 not 15. Kathleen, my great grandmother, was 18 not 14.
On 4 October 1892 the eldest Cavenagh-Mainwaring daughter, Eva, married Herbert James Gedge, a naval officer.
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| Eva Gedge née Cavenagh (1867 - 1941) in about 1907 |
The wedding was reported in Australian newspapers, including the Adelaide
Advertiser of 7 November 1892, the
South Australian Chronicle of 12 November 1892, and 26 November 1892, the
Melbourne Punch of 17 November 1892, the Adelaide
Express and Telegraph of 19 November 1892, Melbourne's
Table Talk of 25 November 1892, and the
Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser of 10 December 1892.
Herbert James Gedge (1859-1913), the son of a clergyman, entered the navy at the age of 12. He graduated from the Royal Naval College in 1879. On 15 February 1882 Gedge was promoted to Lieutenant. In the mid 1880s Gedge was posted to the
Australia Station, the British naval command responsible for waters around the Australian colonies. The
Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser in their report of the 1892 wedding mentioned that Lieutenant Gedge had been on the Australian Station for five or six years, serving as Lieutenant of HMS
Nelson and
Dart.
I think for most of his posting Lieutenant Gedge was stationed in Sydney. I checked the passenger list of the
Ballaarat for his name. He was a passenger from Sydney together with five other Lieutenants in the Royal Navy, two naval doctors, and two other naval officers.
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| from Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Inwards Passenger Lists. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA). Series BT26. Class: BT26; Piece: 32; Item: 17 Month: 06. Retrieved through ancestry.com.au. |
I assume Herbert Gedge and Eva Cavenagh-Mainwaring met aboard the
Ballaarat on the trip to England in 1892. I have found no evidence their paths crossed earlier.
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