Dammerel Family
George Dammerel was born on April 5, 1837 at Plymouth. His ancestors were Huguenots who fled from France to England to escape the massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve. They settled on the outskirts of Plymouth and a portion that triple city is called after their old home, Stoke Damerell.
George Dammerel said Plymouth people are born web-footed. When they can walk they make for the water, so he made for the sea. He could recall seeing the firststeamship to travel up the Thames - no wind, no sails, still it moved on. He was amazed.
After a short period at sea George arrived in Australia about 1857. He went bush where he worked for James Tyson (afterwards one of our first millionaires), whose advice to George was "Never take a sixpence out of your pocket if you can leave it there".
He met and married Sarah Prior and they made their home at Wandsworth, near Guyra, where he acquired a sheep and wheat farming property and where the first of his children were born.
In 1884 he applied for and was granted some Crown Land near Moonee,immediately north of Fiddeman's Creek. We do not know what took him there - perhaps the webbed feet were itching. How proudly he would have shown his wife from the inland, the glorious view which opened as they saw Mt Coramba, the sandhills, the islands and the blue sea!
Mr Dammerel had suffered a sad loss in his family when his son George Jnr., died on the 5th April, 1888. Mr Dammerell believed his son died from eating green cucumbers and from then on he would not allow them in the home again, by all accounts he probably died of appendicitis.
Tragedy, again came to Mr Dammerel on the 10th November, 1894 when his wife died in childbirth at their home, aged 43 years. A Doctor Watson from Grafton was in attendance, but his efforts were fruitless to save either her or the baby, the latter being born dead, Mrs. Dammerel was buried beside George Jnr.
After Mrs Dammerel's death, George Dammerel carried on with the operating of the Signal Station and to rear his family. The eldest daughter, Hannah, was then about 22 years of age and upon her fell most of the responsibility of the housekeeping and bringing up the younger children. On the 1st March, 1900, Hannah was married to Leonard Robert Rudder at the Dammerel Homestead and the responsibility was then passed to Matilda for a short time as she then married on the 25th April, 1905 to Charles Fox Julius. By this time of course, the other children were growing up and some had already grown up.
Still there was always duty, and so George raised his family until finally he went to live with one of his daughters, Mrs Fisher, whose husband was a lighthouse keeper, where he was lovingly cared for, still beside his beloved sea, until his call came at the age of 96 years.
George Dammerel's remains were cremated and the ashes were scattered on the sea, between North and South Solitary Islands, directly opposite the old Signal Station, half a mile off land, by his old friend Captain Hunter, Master of the S.S. Wollongba
Matilda's husband, Charles Fox Julius had a small farm plot, at Central Bucca. Tragically, Charles died on the 28th November, 1909, aged 31, in Grafton Hospital after 52 days of suffering from internal injuries received in a farming accident, leaving his wife with two small children, William Warner know as "Warner" aged two, and Doreen Hope, ten months.
Later when the widowed Matilda married Albert Johnson, they had two more children, Albert and Athol.
After Matilda's marriage to Charles Julius, another of Mr Dammerel's daughter, Sarah Eliza Maud (known as Maud), was doing most of the signal work which she had become most efficient at. Whilst using Morse Lamp, she began to discover her love for one of the Lightkeepers out at lighthouse. Love Story.