LESLIE ERRINGTON  was the second eldest child of MARY CORNEY and ROBERT HENRY MORRIS.  Mary and Robert were quite old for the time when Leslie came along (29 and 34 years respectively).  Seven Siblings followed.  Lesley was nicknamed Mick and he was particularly close to  his older sister  EDNA CLARISSA SABINA known as Bina.      When Leslie was 14 he ran way from home, apparently because he didn't want a life on the land.  However, his father Robert Morris was  reputed to be an angry and violent man.  On 10/1/1922 Leslie married Marjory Obrien.   He was listed as an artilleryman and living in Victoria Barracks at Paddington at that time.  He was a Warrant Officer with the Australian Instructional Corps for six years before going onto work for the Railways. When he married Marjory, she was under 21 years and he failed to  request her parent's consent.    In 1923 he   received a scolding from    Leslie and Marjory had two daughters; Carmen Commander Basil Morris,      as Marjory's  father had fronted at the Barracks demanding   information about his daughter's new husband.    No action was taken.     However, it must have been an ongoing issue as in 1926 there is a letter from Reverend Ryan  asserting that the marriage of Leslie and Marjorywas valid according to the laws of the Catholic Church.  In 1926  the couple had a daughter Carmen and then in 1939 they had daughter Robin. By 1942 when he enlisted in World War 2, Leslie had just completed a Diploma in Architecture at Sydney Technical College and begun working as an architect with the NSW Railways.    On his service application his hobbies are listed as surfing, riding, football,   cricket  and golf.     Leslie  served until 1945  as an airman in the RAAF , including active service in Papua New Guinea.  He received many   medals and awards;  Pacific Star,   Defence Medal, War Medal,   Australia Service Medal and  the Returned from Active Service Badge.

​Leslie went on to have a renowned career as an architect, notably designing the Cahill Expressway.  Leslie lived with his family in a beautiful house in Mona Vale.  His great niece   Jenny Chester  remembered it  being, '. I remember the house was on a slope in a very bushy, rainforest type valley, had lots of plants and was very shady.'  Marjory died in  February 1990. In July 1990 Leslie married Marjory's niece Patricia Nash remarried.  Apparently he left everything to his new wife  in his will.   Leslie died in 1995.  He is buried in Mona Vale  Cemetery.  

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When I was growing up we had no extended family in our lives; no grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins.  My maternal grandmother, Violet, had died when my mother was born and, according to Mum, she came from a large family of girls all named after flowers. The details were scant however and Mum was always elusive when I asked for concrete facts. ‘How many sisters are there?   What are their names Mum?’ I’d plead.  She said they’d all died long ago and she couldn’t remember much about them. In my childish mind they were ethereal, pale outlines of floating flower heads with ghostly bodies draped in diaphanous fabric.
              
By the time I was a teenager, the Flower Aunties bloomed strongly in my imagination, six cottage garden flowers; Poppy, Daisy, Rose, Daphne, Lily and Iris.  I could see them in my mind’s eye; prim darkhaired women, immaculately dressed in pastel silk tea dresses with matching purses, on a day out in town.  Their heads bobbing in unison agreeing to a purchase, leaning together to whisper over a handsome gentleman, giggling in delight.  The years passed and I created my own family. I forgot about my grandmother’s sisters until I came across a quote, ‘You can’t know where you are going until you know where you have been?’1 It came as an epiphany and I knew that I needed to find the Flower Aunties!    

My grandmother Violet was born on June 5th, 1909 in Rivertree to Robert Morris, a grazier, and mother Mary (nee Corney).2  Rivertree is a settlement near the headwaters of the Clarence River, about 37 miles from Tenterfield where Robert and Mary were both born. 4 Robert was already 32 and Mary 27 when they married, 5 and although relatively old for the time, they went on to have ten children together.6 At the time Violet was born, Tenterfield was a thriving town with a train station, state government offices, medical and professional services and many retail and commercial enterprises. 7 It had many substantial buildings and it was in the Town Hall in 1889, Henry Parkes gave an impassioned speech about federation that led to Australia becoming a nation in 1901. 8

The family moved to at Lennox Street, Bellevue Hill at some stage. Two more girls were born here; Lillian Eunice Joan (1916-2001) and Mary Evelyn (1912-1995).   RH Morris is listed at the address in the Sands Directory up to 1921. 10 In 1916 when Robert enlisted in service the address given was Lennox St Bellevue Hill and Mary Evelyn Corney is listed as his spouse on his service record.   Violet’s first appearance in the records is in the Sydney census in 1933, living with her parents at Claytona, Gardenia Ave, Lane cove and working as a sales woman.11 Interestingly her future husband, Stanley Fish, is also listed as living at Claytona in 1933 and his occupation recorded as a fitter.  It is very likely that Stanley and Violet met while he was boarding at Claytona.    Mum’s cousin Lyle told me that Violet’s father Robert was a gambler and lost the Claytona property due to gambling debts. 
Violet worked at David Jones as an embroiderer and teacher of the skills.  Embroidery was very popular at the time and, as part of an extensive haberdashery department, David Jones staff embroidered church textiles, clothing and bed linen. There were also embroidery kits for sale and classes on the latest embroidery craze. 12 In the 1930s David Jones was a main attraction for shoppers and a metropolis of wonder. Along with its four floors of retail, it had a restaurant, called the Great Restaurant, an art gallery and a ballroom for events.13 It must have been an esteemed job for Violet.  Her niece, Audrey,  also worked at David Jones.

On the 5th May 1934 Violet married Stanley Fish, an electrician, at St Andrew’s Church in Parramatta. 14 My mother, Nellie, was born in a private hospital, Inchneuk  in Parramatta on May 31st, 1935. 15 Private hospitals like Inchneuk had been springing up in Sydney since the late 1800s and were presented as a safer option for women than home births.  Inchneuk means ‘Little Nook’ in Scottish Gaelic conjuring up images of safety and cosiness. Unfortunately, at the time, instrument sterilisation and handwashing were not understood to be imperative to ward off infection and Violet died of Peurperal Sepsis (Childbed fever) two days after Nellie was born. 16

Mum told me that she was raised by Violet’s younger sister Mary until she was three years old when her father remarried and she returned to live with them. According to mum her father stopped her from having any relationship with her mother’s family although in my parents wedding photos Violet’s eldest sister, Edna, is clearly present, throwing confetti at the departing couple. Indeed in my research I discovered that many of Violet’s siblings were alive and well right through my childhood and some even into my early twenties. Three of them lived only a 20 minute drive from our home in Epping, Sydney.   I wonder what it would have been like to have the presence of these Great Aunts, Uncles and Mum’s cousins in our lives, my siblings and I.  Many of the Morris family member’s lives had not been easy and they tough and gritty people. Knowing of their struggles and their strength and resilience may well have helped me in my darkest times.

By the time I discovered Violet’s siblings my mother had passed away so I could not find out anymore information about their absence from our lives or the myth of the Flower Aunties.  What I did find out was that, in fact, there was not a flower to be picked among them.  Six were boys; Leslie, (1901), Robert, (1902), Lyle,(1903,) Oliver,(1906) Clarence (1908) and Aubrey (1911).   Violet’s sisters were Edna (1899), Mary (1912) and Lillian (1916).17 My grandmother Violet was the only one of the ten with the name of a flower.


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1. Maya Angelou, ‘America's Renaissance Woman’ Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. 22 January 1997
2. Birth Registered in NSW. Births, Deaths and Marriages NSW, Violet Miriam Morris, 5 June 1909, Obtained 12 April 1983
3. Ancestry.com, Australia, Birth Index 1788-1922, Robert H Morris, 1866 (database on-line)
4. Ancestry.com, Australia, Birth Index 1788-1922, Mary E Corney, 1871 (database on-line)
5. Ancestry.com, Australia, Marriage Index 1788-1950, Robert H Morris and Mary E Corney, 1898 (database on-line)
6. Ancestry.com, Ingram and Morris Family Tree, (database on-line)
7. National Library of Australia, ‘Tenterfield’, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Saturday 30 August 1879, page 23 (database on-line)
8. AW Martin, ‘Parkes, Sir Henry, 1815-1896’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University
9. Ancestry.com, World War 1 Service Records 1914-1920, Robert H Morris 1916
10. City of Sydney, Archives and History Resources, Sands Postal Directory, 1916-1921 Robert H Morris, 17 Lennox St, Bellevue Heights  (database on-line)
11. Ancestry.com, Australia, Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980, Violet M Morris, Claytona, Gardenia st, Lane Cove 1933
12. National Library of Australia, ‘David Jones and Co’, The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW 1871-1912), Wed 15 Aug 1906, page 425 (database on-line)
13. National Library of Australia, ‘The New Store for David Jones’, The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW 1871-1912), Sat 26 Nov 1927, p11 (database on-line)
14. Ancestry.com, Australian Marriage Index, 1788-1950, Stanley Fish and Violet M Morris, 1934
15. Birth Registered in NSW, Births, Deaths and Marriages NSW, Nellie Fish 31 May 1935, Obtained 3 August 1980
16. Death Registered in NSW, Births, Deaths and Marriages NSW, Violet Miriam Morris 2 June 1935, obtained 12 Apr 1983
17. Ancestry.com, Ingram and Morris Family Tree, (database on-line)