William John Lipscombe

  Noted events in his life were:

• source. http://www.easystreetretreat.com.au/australianroyalty where it is noted:
Before he married, William carried on a butchery business near Normanhurst railway station, in partnership with William Pollard \endash they consequently became known as "the two Wills". Will Pollard was married to William's sister, Lydia Emily Lipscomb ("Auntie Em"), and hence was also his brother-in-law.
Jessie and William settled at Normanhurst. They lived initially in a little cottage on a farm near Thornleigh (in the vicinity of Stuart Avenue) for about eight months, while a substantial brick residence was built for them on the western side of West Pennant Hills Road where the Church of the Latter Day Saints is now (1971) located. This they called 'Nevilleton' after William's mother, whose family-name was Neville.
They moved in, taking with them Jessie's mother, Elizabeth Hannah Curtis (née Sanday), and Jessie's two sisters, Aunt Liz and Aunt Vi, who lived there until their respective marriages in 1900 and 1904.
Shortly after William's marriage he opened up another shop in Coonanbarra Road, Wahroonga (near where Railway Avenue commences). Here he ran a delivery cart employing several staff, cutting and delivering meat at the homes of various residents. Apparently the boys helped their father in the shop as well as by making some of the deliveries and by cutting up some of the meat. The custom in those days was that butchers, bakers, milkmen etc. delivered goods rather than attending full-time to a shop.
William operated from his Wahroonga shop until about 1912 when he retired and leased the business. He then lived off the proceeds, and some rental income he earned from a small cottage he owned in Pennant Hills Road, Normanhurst and several properties at Burwood. It was the job of his son, young Harry, to travel early to Burwood on the first Monday of each month to collect these rents, bank them, and then attend school.
Except from biography of William Lipscomb written by his son Adrian Lipscomb:
'William was a big man who retained a heavy beard until late in life, when he sported simply a short moustache. I recall my father, Alf, telling me about an incident that happened one Sunday (it must have been around 1910). William had shaved off his beard, and retired to his bedroom to take an afternoon nap. Whilst he was lying spread-eagled on the bed snoozing away, the entire family trooped into the bedroom and surrounded the bed to gaze at this beardless man who seemed so strange to them. He was apparently awesome \endash but nevertheless a loving family man.
William enjoyed the bush and organised his family's life around outdoor activities. The Normanhurst home comprised about five acres, and the family maintained at least four horses, a couple of cows, a pig, calves, and fowls. There was also an extensive orchard of peaches, apricots, apples, oranges, and plums. Beside the house there was a tennis court. A large property (about 35 acres) in nearby Hinemoa Avenue was also owned by William, and it was here that he demonstrated his skill as an axeman. The Normanhurst house had a woodstove in the kitchen and a large open fireplace in the communal living-cum-dining room. Both woodstove and fireplace consumed large quantities of firewood.
William's love of the bush also resulted in his acquiring a block of land adjoining Crossland Flat near Berowra Creek. Every year the family would harness two sulkies, load them with camping gear, and spend Christmas under canvas there. Alf, and his brothers Alan, Colin, Harry and several other Hornsby boys also occupied this campsite for about three weeks in the early years of the war, and made an attempt at self-sufficiency by catching prawns and fish. Later William erected a small cottage there, known affectionately as "the Bach", and this was the location of many of the family's holiday activities until his death in 1931.
The Lipscomb family was staunchly Methodist, and William was, for many years, one of the trustees of the nearby old Hornsby Methodist Church. He was also some-time president of the Parents & Citizens' Association and an active Mason.
William's wife, Jessie Fuller Curtis, was born in the Hornsby district, but moved away when she was about twelve years old. She did not return until her marriage, when she noted, "the railway to Newcastle was completed and the North Shore (Milsons Point) line was in progress. Hornsby the junction had gone ahead and was quite a little township, while poor old original Hornsby was still a rustic place with orchards and green paddocks. There was no railway station between Thornleigh and Hornsby. I had been married a few years when Normanhurst station became an accomplished, if primitive, fact. For some time afterwards we had to wave a flag by day and show a lamp by night to stop a train."
It was into this environment that Alfred William George Lipscomb was born on 9th June 1900 at Wahroonga. His timing was impeccable, for exactly one month later the Commonwealth of Australia was also born when, on 9th July 1900, Queen Victoria assented to the Australian Commonwealth Constitution Act, an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The excitement of both the births of Australia and of my father so close together was obviously too much for the old Queen, for she died a mere six months later on 22nd January 1901! It could be said, therefore, with some perspicacity, that Alf's birth heralded both the end of the Victorian age and the birth of a nation.'

William married Jessie Fuller Curtis, daughter of Henry Edward Curtis and Elizabeth Hannah Sanday, on 8 Mar 1892 in Burwood, Sydney, NSW Australia. (Jessie Fuller Curtis was born on 10 Oct 1867 in Mudgee, NSW Australia, died on 10 Feb 1955 in Eastwood, Sydney, NSW Australia and was buried in St Thomas C of E, Enfield, Sydney, NSW Australia.)