Cecil John Rowe

  Noted events in his life were:

• connection. The links between John Clementson & Robert and Les are as follows:

John Charles Clementson
His father was John Alfred Clementson (1908)
His father was John Joseph Clementson (1877)
His father was William Clementson (1841)
His father was William Clementson (c1808)
His father was John Clementson (1767)
His father was William Clementson (1742) who married Sarah Vipond (1739)
Her father was John Vipond (c1685) who married Hannah Dickinson (1700) who also married Obadiah Emerson (c1700)
They had Joseph Emerson (1732)
He had Frances Emerson (1775) who married Thomas Vipond (1768)
They had John Vipond (1797)
He had James Vipond (1830)
He had Margaret Vipond (1856) who married John Rowe (c1855)
They had Cecil Rowe (1884)
He had Ralph Rowe (1917)
He had Richard Rowe (1952) who married Yvonne Abbott (1949)
Her father was Albert Abbott (1919) who married Joyce Bryan (1920)
Her father was Eric Bryan (1899) who married Lyla Beanland (1901)
Her father was Joseph Beanland (1870) who married Elizabeth Goldsworthy (1871)
Her father was Thomas Goldsworthy (c1845) who married Eliza Polkinghorne (c1644)
Her father was William Polkinghorne (c1806)
His father was George Polkinghorne (c1785) who married Eleanor Deeble (1788)
Her father was James Deeble (1757) & he also had Solomon Deeble (1786) who married Catherine Jory (1795)
Her father was Edward Jory (1763) who married Jane Landeryou (1763)
Her father was Peter Landeryou (1738)
His father was John Landeryou (1706) & he also had Blanch Landeryou (1741)
She had Robert Landeryou (1768)
He had John Landeryou (1803)
He had Sarah Ann Landeryou (1826) who married Thomas Bray (1821)
They had Arthur Augustus Bray (1869)
He had Albert Alan Bray (1896)
He had Robert Alfred Bray (1920)
He had Robert Arthur Bray (1947) who married me - Robyn Bray (nee Davies) (1950)

Link to Les:
Thomas Goldsworthy (c1845) who married Eliza Polkinghorne (c1644)
also had Thomas Goldsworthy (1873) who married Ann Manns (1878)
Her father was Isaac Manns (1847) & he also had Mary Manns (1868) who married Edward Wealands (1864)
He had Ralph Wealands (1895)
He had Eric Wealands (1918)
He had Kelly Wealands (1942) who married Jenny Peterson (c1950)
Her father was Leslie Peterson (c1920)
His father was Levin Peterson (c1890) who married Alice Lillian Hall (1893)
Her father was William Hall (c1870) who married Matilda Darnley (nee Pye) who also married Joseph Keighran (1879)
They had Leslie William Keighran (1904)
He had Mary Keighran (1927) who married Mervyn Collins (1924)
They had Les Collins (1950) who married me Robyn Bray (nee Davies) (1950)

• note. ⁸⁸⁵ Bill Mackey notes:
Cecil Rowe was a mining engineer but I have little detail about him and no photographs.

I think he worked in Papua New Guinea in the 1920s mining gold before moving to Malaya where he worked on tin mines (near Ipoh, I think).

When the Japanese invaded Malaya he and my grandmother drove to Singapore where she boarded a ship called (I think) the Morella which sailed to Australia.

He decided to stay with his employees and was interned in Changi (1942-45). I know nothing of his time there other than a family story that because of his experience living in Malaya he knew of the risk of foot infection from not wearing shoes, so he spent a lot of his time in Changi making rubber sandals out of discarded tyres for other inmates.

He returned to Australia after Singapore was liberated and he and Florence lived with my parents (about 1946-47) in the flat above the old Sydney Observatory at the southern end of the Harbour Bridge - which then housed the Weather Bureau office.

I'm told he returned weighing about 8 stone (about 50 Kilos) and I can just remember him sitting up on the roof eating slices of butter to try and put some weight on. I understood from my mother that he spoke very little about his time in Changi, so we have virtually no information and no photos.

We moved to Adelaide in July 1947 and then Perth in 1949 and Cecil and Florence went back to Malaya (in about 1948 I think) where he was again involved in tin mines. They stayed there until the early-middle 1950s, when he retired and they returned to Australia and lived in Newcastle where he died in 1959 aged 75.

During this second spell in Malaya they faced the "Emergency", which was a communist uprising linked to the push for Malaya (then an English colony) to become independent. They lived in a house that was sandbagged to the roof and drove an armoured car and were constantly taking precautions against armed "CTs" the then short-form name for "Chinese Terrorists" - who I guess we'd call freedom fighters these days.

Cecil married Florence Louisa Rutherford, daughter of Thomas Rutherford and Florence Young, in 1906 in Victoria Australia. (Florence Louisa Rutherford was born in 1888 in Allendale, Victoria Australia and died in 1969 in Perth, Western Australia ⁸⁸⁵.)