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CATCHPOLE FAMILY
HENRY “HARRY” CATCHPOLE Henry “Harry”
Catchpole was born in September 1864 at Bardwell, Woodbridge District, Suffolk,
England. His parents were James Catchpole and Hepezebeth Ruddock. He was the
brother to Thomas, Margaret, George, Adelaide & James While Henry worked at Lion’s Mill, Mount Helena, he met Emma Eyles, daughter of Henry and Ellen Eyles, who was born in Perth in 1864. They married and had eight children: |
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Henry James
Born: 1892 Lions Mill, Mount
Helena
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HENRY (HARRY) JAMES CATCHPOLE Harry
Catchpole was born at Lion’s Mill, Mount Helena, in January 1892. In 1912 he
moved to the Canning Mills area to begin falling for Dave Anderson, a
contractor who used horses and whims to haul logs through the bush to the mill.
Anderson’s teamster was Johnny Brown. Syd Smailes was another contractor in the
area who also used a team of horses. Later Harry became a
fireman on the locos operating out of Barton’s Mill. Work involved stoking the
boilers with wood which was plentiful and a cheap source of power. Arthur
Thomas Jones was the engine-driver. In 1913 Harry
obtained his Loco Certificate and was able to drive any of the four Locos that
the mill had. They were the Morgan, the J.A. Smith, the Coates and the Noyes. |
HARRY CATCHPOLE #2 |
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ARTHUR JONES & HARRY CATCHPOLE IN LOCO AT BARTON'S MILL #3 |
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HARRY & SARAH CATCHPOLE #4 |
HARRY & SARAH CATCHPOLE #5 |
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Henry (Harry) James Catchpole first marriage was to Sarah Anne Jane Yates in 1913 at Fremantle. She was from Lions Mill and his sister Laura Hephzibah Catchpole married her brother Edward Yates. Sarah was the daughter of Edward Yates and Anne Smirk and was born in 1890. Sadly she died 7 years later, on 3rd March 1920 age 29 at Pickering Brook. Shortly after
he got his Certificate to drive the locos, he went off to war. He enlisted on
13th September 1916 as a Private with Regimental Number 2801 in the
44th Battalion, 6th Reinforcement. They embarked from
Fremantle on board the HMAT A34 “Persic" on 29th December 1916. He got gassed
in the trenches along with so many of his contemporaries. The gas partly
destroyed an optic nerve, which caused him to go blind in later life. He
returned to Australia on 23rd May 1917.
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SARAH ANN CATCHPOLE'S GRAVE #6 |
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2nd
Marriage Children:
Mavis Joy born 19th
April 1923 |
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HARRY CATCHPOLE WITH BABY MAVIS #7 |
On Saturday 23rd July 1927 at a Fancy
Dress Ball held in the school building at Barton’s Mill, Mavis won a prize in
the “Little Tots” section dressed as a “Bride”.
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MAVIS CATCHPOLE IN FANCY DRESS #8 |
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BRASSO CAN #9 |
The Weedon children at Barton’s Mill were great friend of Harry but they
called him “Mr. Catchy”. He was very proud of his locos and spent a lot of time
polishing all the brass work in the cabs. There was a four foot pile of empty
Brasso cans outside the engine shed. Every valve had a handle to clean, all the
gauges had brass collars, the rungs on the stool, even the big handle on the
fire box. Even the fireman’s seat was brass. Sometimes he would allow the
children to climb into the cab, give them a rag, a can of Brasso and assign
them to a job A typical day’s work for Harry was as follows: at 6 a. m. take some empty trucks out to the 25 mile (40 km) log landing, where there were steam winches for loading. He would load up with logs on to six sets of trucks, a set being two trucks joined together and capable of taking long logs. Each set could carry 12 to 15 tons (12.1 to 15.2 tonnes) with perhaps three or four logs on each set. A full load might weigh 100 tons (101 tonnes). On the way back to the mills, the train would travel at up to 35 mph (56 kph). There were other landings along the line, including one on the lower reaches of Mount Dale. |
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The Mount Dale log landing was opened around 1937, and was approached via one “zig” in the line, and the grade was such that it was all the locos could do to push a rake of empties up to it. Catchpole would be back at the mill by 11 am, to pick up a load of sawn timber to take to Pickering Brook, eight miles distant. He had to be there by 11.45 am to catch the Government train from Karragullen, which left Pickering Brook at noon for Midland. After crib he would take some empty government trucks back to the mill, then go back to the bush for another load of logs. |
MAVIS CATCHPOLE, ? , GORDON CATCHPOLE, MARIE WEEDON |
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CHURCH & SUNDAY SCHOOL GROUP OUTSIDE PUBLIC HALL AT BARTON'S MILL 1933c #11
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BARTON'S MILL SCHOOL 1936 #12 Back L - R; MAVIS CATCHPOLE, ? , RUBY MILLER, ILA WOOD, ? CHESTER, ALWYN NEWTON, ROSE SALA TENNA, ? , |
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Derailments were rare. On one occasion only, Catchpole ran his loco
off the line when a guard gave him the green light before he had changed the
points and the loco ended up a few inches off the rails but with the wheels
still on the sleepers. With some help, he got it back on line within three
hours, using kangaroo jacks and bottle jacks. The kangaroo jack could lift
only, but the bottle jack was capable of lifting and traversing a few inches,
and it was the latter that shifted the heavy loco sideways far enough to lower
the wheels back on to the line. |
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HARRY CATCHPOLE IN MOTORBIKE & SIDECAR #13 |
HARRY CATCHPOLE WITH "T" MODEL FORD #14
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LOGGING TRAIN BEING HAULED BY LOCOMOTIVE "COATES" #15 |
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It was about
1937 with Millar’s Karri & Jarrah Company (1902) Ltd, bought tractors to
Mount Dale to pull logs to the landing, and after that, by the 1940’s all horse
teams and whims were scrapped. The tractors were American. Harry took the first
two tractors out to Mount Dale on the train. With him was mill manager Alf
Cook, who wanted to ensure that they were safely unloaded. Levi Wallis,
Catchpole’s guard, was sitting on one of the trucks as the train came into the
siding, something overhanging the side of one of the trucks hit the skid on the
siding, and Wallis was knocked off on to the line, the wheels running over his
thumb and heel. Catchpole wanted to unhook the trucks and take his mate back to
the mill on the loco, as this would be a faster trip, but Cook didn’t want to
leave the trucks behind with the tractors on them. Catchpole insisted, but
because he was going “against the boss’s wishes” he refused to book his time in
for the trip. Wallis was in hospital for nearly a year, and never worked for
the company again. |
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AMERICAN TRACTORS AT WORK AT BARTON'S MILL #16 |
AMERICAN TRACTORS AT WORK AT BARTON'S MILL #17 |
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3rd
Marriage
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PICKERING BROOK SCHOOL 1939 #18
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Harry left the
company in 1939 and worked as the engineer at the Katanning Flour Mills. After
that he worked for Gerald Letch the saw miller, installing all the plant at the
new Toodyay mill. Then helped move the Toodyay mill to Muchea. |
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KATANNING FLOUR MILLS #19 |
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He left Letch
in 1946 to manage the Smailes and Curtis timber mill near Carinyah. As late as
1946 the fellers cutting for Smailes and Curtis were using axes and crosscut
saws – 80 years after Benjamin Mason had started with the same tools. The chain
saw had been invented, but at this stage it had not been adapted to cut the
hard jarrah, and even when the industry did start using it, it gave trouble
initially. By this time Catchpole was nearly blind and he became boss at the
Douglas Jones Electric Mill at Guildford for six or seven years, retiring in
the mid 1950’s.
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DOUGLAS JONES TIMBER YARD AT GUILDFORD #20 |
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Harry &
Doris moved to house in East Street, Mount Lawley on his retirement. When Doris
died in 1973, the neighbour cared for and looked after Harry who was now
completely blind. She was a widow with a daughter. Not long after getting
married and becoming pregnant her husband went off to war and was killed. Alice
(surname not known) and Harry, who was now 90 years old, became quite close and
decided to get married. It was his fourth marriage. She had never had a “real”
wedding. So a “real” wedding was arranged with a reception at the Charles Hotel
followed by a honeymoon in Singapore. Harry
Catchpole died on 18th March 1982 age 98.
Every endeavour has been made to accurately record the details however if you would like to provide additional images and/or newer information we are pleased to update the details on this site. Please use CONTACT at the top of this page to email us. We appreciate your involvement in recording the history of our area.
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References: Article: Gordon Freegard Images: Internet 1, 9, 16, 17, 19, 20
Copyright : Gordon Freegard 2008-2022
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