Joseph O'TOOLE

Joseph O'Toole was my great-grandfather. He arrived with his wife Honora and two young children (Jean and Ed) in Port Adelaide on the SS Trevelyan on 26 September 1876. Joseph O'Toole and his wife Honora (also sometimes spelled (Honorah or Hannah) were from Clifden, Galway, Ireland. They settled in St Peters, Adelaide. Joseph died in 1916, Honora in 1922. Joseph and Honora had several other children born in Australia. One of these was my grandfather, also called Joseph O'Toole, who was born in 1877. Joseph and Honora's children were: - Jean O'Toole. Also arrived on the SS Trevelyan in 1876, age 5. Married George Marousen of Oodnadatta. In the time before the First World War, George (an Afghan man) had the contract to convey the Royal Mail from the railhead at Oodnadatta to Alice Springs -- see below. George was at other times a drover, a station manager and leaseholder of the Moorilyana station in the Musgrave Ranges of northern South Australia. Jean Marousen died in the 1950s, at her daughter's home in Pearcedale, Victoria. Jean and George had one child, Veronica (Vera) Marousen. Vera was a nurse and was prominent in the union movement in Victoria. - Edward (Ed or Ted) O'Toole. Also arrived on the SS Trevelyan in 1876, age 1. Edward lived in Oodnadatta. He worked with his brother in law, George Marousen, who had the mail contract to deliver the Royal Mail from the end of the rail line in Oodnadatta to Alice Springs. During World War One, Edward joined the AIF, 50th Battalion, on 2 July 1916 at the age of 42, the day after the maximum enlistment age was raised from 35 to 45. He was killed in action in France, near the village of Noreuil on 28 March 1917. He is buried at the Vaulx Hill war cemetery. His name appears in the list of fallen soldiers in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. In 2000, I planted some wattle on Edward's grave at Vaulx Hill and wrote a note in the visitor's book at the cemetery. Here is a link to the record of his burial at the website of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/614625/EDWARD%20O'TOOLE/ - Joseph O'Toole. Born in Adelaide 1877. Racehorse trainer, moved to Perth and later (1916) to Melbourne. For a time in the 1920s, Joseph lived in India and worked as personal racehorse trainer to the Nizam of Hyderabad. Married Eleanor Donnelly. Known in the family as "JoJo". Died 1955, Melbourne, Victoria. Joseph and Eleanor had three children. Nancye O'Toole married champion boxer Eddie Miller in 1942 -- lived for many years in Mornington, Victoria -- 5 children. Thais O'Toole married US marine Hayden Hill during World War Two and lived for a time in the USA -- no children. Edward (Teddy, Ted or Terry) O'Toole, also a boxer, married Lorraine (Lorna) -- 2 children. - Thomas O'Toole of Hackney, Adelaide. Died around 1926. - Nancy (Nance) O'Toole, died 1950s? Moved to Perth, WA. Later Guildford WA. Married Alf Enright, a footballer, life member of Norwood FC, one time president of the WAFL. Alf was the publisher of the Daily News, Perth, around the time of the First World War. Alf was also at one time a councillor and the Mayor of Guildford, WA. In the 1920s, Alf and Nancy became the owners and publicans of the Woodbridge Hotel, Guildford. Alf and Nancy were close friends and of Mary O'Toole and her husband George Walder. Nance and Alf had one child, Grace who married Charles Gates. - Mary O'Toole. Moved to Subiaco, Perth, WA. Married George Walder, footballer. Mary O'Toole died 2 August1954. Mary and George had one child Ettie (Etty) Fair, who was living in Sydney at the time of Mary's death in 1954. - Lawrence (Larry) O'Toole. Larry died in Alice Springs NT on 27 December 1961. Larry served in the 9th Light Horse during First World War in Palestine. Returned to Oodnadatta. Possibly in Sydney for a time. Before the war, Larry was a boundary rider. After the war, he worked variously as a mail contractor conveying the Royal Mail from Oodnadatta to Alice Springs. His wagon is on display outside the entrance to the Oodnadatta Museum. Later a well digger and opal miner. Credited with discovering the Mintabie opal fields in the early 1920s while digging wells. Father of Monty O'Toole (Oodnadatta), Mary Hammond (Mackay, Qld) and Georgina Dingaman (Adelaide?). Descendants of Monty still live in Coober Pedy, Whyalla and elsewhere in SA. Larry's second marriage was to Linda Brown. Their daughter, Mona Hunter, lived at various times at Oodnadatta, Lake Everard, Anna Creek station and Alice Springs.