Lenore Julia Henderson (1925-2016)

This biography is also available on WikiTree.

Lenore was born on 1 February 1925¹ in Daly, South Australia to William Henderson and Clarissa Kidd, the first of three children.

On 8 February 1943, she enlisted in the Australian Army, Citizen Military Forces² and was allocated the service number SF113003³. She operated searchlights and made a number of life-long friends. She met Bill Harvey and they married on 10 September 1945⁴, and she was discharged shortly after on 8 November.

Bill and Lenore moved to Western Australia. In 1949 they had three children, all boys and were living a few houses from Bill’s parents in Mount Hawthorne⁵.

By 1954, they are living in Karri Hill Road, Northcliffe⁶, a small south-west township. This is one of several Western Australian locations for post-WWII soldier settlement scheme tobacco farming. Bill and Lenore spoke of running a tobacco farm for a short time, but the scheme was not successful. This is likely the place and time of this family story because Bill has listed his occupation as a farmer. (References needed for WWII soldier settlement scheme and government-sponsored tobacco farms). They now had five children, three boys followed by two girls. In 1958 they were living in the nearby town of Manjimup, Bill had returned to being a radio mechanic, and they had another girl.

By 1963 they were homeowners in High Wycombe⁷, a new subdivision in the foothills of Perth. High Wycombe was a considerable distance away from the Perth CBD and surrounded by bushlands, more of a village than a suburb. They now had eight children, three boys followed by five girls, the eldest boy was now sixteen years old. He would leave shortly after to join the Australian Airforce.

Lenore and the family were able to settle there for many years appearing on the electoral rolls in 1968⁸ 1972⁹, and 1977¹⁰). Bill worked away more often than locally, both within and outside of Australia, in 1963 he appears both in High Wycombe and in Carnarvon and not at all in 1968. This left Lenore to care for their many children alone.

By the late 1970s Bill’s health had deteriorated due to a neck injury he sustained at work some years before when he fell down the hold of a ship. They moved to Mount Magnet where they lived in a caravan and Bill pursued his hobby, prospecting in the tailings of old gold mines¹¹. In 1988 he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of stomach cancer and died on 4 November of the same year and is buried in Karrakatta Cemetery¹².

Lenore lived independently for most of the next twenty-eight years, staying with her children from time to time. She died on 26 September 2016 aged 91¹³. She is not buried with Bill perhaps because the grant for his plot had expired, she was cremated instead. She was survived by seven of her eight children, fourteen grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren.

References:

1. South Australia Births 1842-1928 Transcription, Registration 148A/416, 1925, Lenore Julia Henderson (retrieved 27 November 2017[↩]
2. Australian World War II Nominal Rolls, Lenore Julia Henderson, accessed 2 October 2010) [↩]
3. National Archives of Australia; Canberra, Australia; Citizen Military Forces Personnel Dossiers, 1939-1947; Series: B884, Lenore Julia Henderson (https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=61172&h=1702652&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Dub187&_phstart=successSource: retrieved 24 November, 017) [↩]
4. Adams, GF, Family History Workbook, unpublished, p83[↩]
5. Australian Electoral Rolls (1949), Division of Moore, Subdivision of Balcatta, p39, (http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/: accessed 13 March 2016) [↩]
6. Australian Electoral Rolls, (1954), Division of Forrest, Subdivision of Nelson, p41, (http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/: accessed 28 April 2016) [↩]
7. Australian Electoral Rolls, (1963), Division of Moore, Subdivision of Pearce, p102, (http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/: accessed 28 April 2016) [↩]
8. Australian Electoral Rolls, (1968), Division of Moore, Subdivision of Kalamunda, p56, (http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/: accessed 28 April 2016[↩]
9. Australian Electoral Rolls, (1972), Division of Moore, Subdivision of Kalamunda, p25, (http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/: accessed 28 April 2016[↩]
10. Australian Electoral Rolls, (1977), Division of Moore, Subdivision of Kalamunda, p32, (http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/: accessed 28 April 2016[↩]
11. Personal recollection, Georgina Adams 2 January 2018[↩]
12. Summary of Information, Metropolitan Cemeteries Board of Western Australia, Application Number KB00174105, Willliam Charles Harvey,(http://www2.mcb.wa.gov.au/NameSearch/details.php?id=KB00174105/: retrieved 2 January 2018) [↩]
13. Summary of Information, Metropolitan Cemeteries Board of Western Australia, Application Number KC00203249, Lenore Julia Harvey, (accessed 24 November 2016) [↩]