Mercie Truscott ³⁵²

  Research Notes:

Jim Truscott notes:
Mercie O'Hare was born 7 October 1908 at Billy Goat Flat in Emmaville and she died in Perth on 29 June 1997.

This story written by her son Philip John (Mick) O'Hare on 7 February 2016

Philip was born on 5 June 1936 in Brisbane and he lives with his wife Marie O'Hare in 233 Macdonnell Road, Tamborine Mountain QLD 4272 as at 27 March 2016. His email is mariemoh@bigpond.com and telephone 07-55450979.

Her parents were Sidney Austin and Julia Gertrude Truscott (nee Musgrave). Mercie was the eldest daughter of a family of five children, Alan, Mercie, Jessie, John and Cyril descending in age from Alan as the eldest. Her early childhood years were spent in the New South Wales town of Emmaville and Texas in Qld. where her father owned a chain of stores with his brothers and was also a musician of some standing in the community.

Mercie always spoke fondly of her father spoiling her; she had her own pony and was considered to be quite a skilled horse rider for her young age. At the age of approximately 13/14 she was sent to a catholic boarding school in Glen Innes, where she spent her senior school years. She spoke of her schooling at this location, being run by the Sisters of St Joseph, who were tough disciplinarians. Her father having business interests in Emmaville, NSW and Texas and Jandowae in QLD saw her returning to these locations for school holidays dependent on where the parents were based at the time. Academically, Mercie was a high achiever and excelled in piano, which obviously pleased her spoiling father who was responsible for the formation of various dance bands in the country towns where they lived. Dancing being a most popular pastime in that era. On the 3 June 1926 she joined the NSW public service to train as a teacher. During this period she achieved high accreditation in music and piano study, enabling her to teach music as an additional subject to her teaching career subjects. During her study days in Sydney she resided initially with a married cousin, Tom Truscott in Mortdale, and on completion of her training commenced teaching at various schools about Sydney and returned to her home on school holidays where she played in her father's dance band and was involved also with her father in his other passion of greyhound coursing. Having completed her studies and graduating as a teacher she commenced teaching in 1930 in the electorate of Leichhardt East. In 1932 she moved schools to Randwick East and was then posted to Armidale public school to relieve for a short period, followed by a transfer to Tweed Heads for the commencement of the 1933 school year.

During the early months of 1928 she met her future husband, Dermot James O'Hare who was a qualified motor engineer at that time. In June of 1931 Mercie made her debut at a function at David Jones in Sydney. The debutantes were presented to Archbishop Kelly of Sydney which was featured as the Annual Catholic Ball in the Catholic press on the25th June, 1931. During these years they enjoyed motor travel and outings to the Jandowae family home and introductions to the future family relations took place. Many stories were told of these Jandowae trips via what was known as the Toowoomba Toll Bar Range Road. These road trips were noted for boiling vehicle radiators and many delays caused by mechanical breakdowns due to the steepness of the Toowoomba range road in those days. Obviously Dermot O'Hare's creditability as a motor expert shone through on those occasions.

A veil of doubt was perceived as far as the eligibility of Dermot O'Hare being considered to be a suitable partner for Mercie. Dermot O'Hare was one of a family of six children and whose parents had died when Dermot was at the age of 9 when his Dad died and eleven when his mother died so that their background was one of poverty. The elder brother and sister had in fact brought the younger siblings up and the eldest brother rose to run a successful accountancy business in Brisbane known as O'Hare Martin and Co. To Mercie's credit she withstood the criticism of her father and family and announced her engagement to Dermot O'Hare in the Brisbane Courier on the 20 January 1933. Mercie continued teaching at Tweed Heads until 1935 when they were married in St Agatha's Catholic Church, Oriel Road, Clayfield, Brisbane.

Early in the marriage endeavours were made to control Dermot O'Hare's approach to the putting together the home and its contents. Coming from a poverty background funds were tight and meeting their needs was obviously quite different to those that Mercie had experienced and calls on her father for assistance came, but always with conditions attached which obviously Dermot found very difficult to bear. This situation caused much rancour, particularly during the early years of the young son's life, but to Dermot's credit he maintained his marriage and enlisted in the Australian Army in 1939 providing a continuity of funds to keep the marriage afloat. The son would live with the grandmother at Jandowae during these times. During the early years of the marriage and residence at Ashgrove, Mercie was involved in weekly tennis fixtures and was considered an above average player. Tennis was played weekly at Gramends Courts near what is now the Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Headquarters. Her years as a young singe adult had seen her become a most proficient ballroom dancer and together with her musical talents made many friends. In hindsight music was the thread which drew her into the ultimate marriage as her husband Dermot was an excellent dancer and violin player and they performed well together as a duet on many occasions.

When WWII broke out and the argued Brisbane Line was established and on advice of her enlisted husband, she moved south back to her birth place, Emmaville and resided in a property owned by her father and his brother Jim Truscott. This property was an ex office and home closed during the depression. She re-applied to the NSW Public Service and was accepted to recommence her teaching career at the Emmaville Public School whilst her young son was enrolled in the local catholic primary school. On leaving Ashgrove for return to Emmaville, the Ashgrove home was rented out to American Army Officers stationed in Brisbane at that time. During her time at this school she was highly acclaimed for her dedication and results achieved with the pupils in her charge. Teaching in this town enabled her to renew many of her childhood acquaintances. She made many trips during this time back to her old school at Glenn Innes and Inverell where she had cousins, siblings of her mother's sister Jose whose married name was Gerrahy and a daughter whose married name was Joyce Bricksie.

When it became clear that the northern part of Australia would not be the subject of Japanese invasion Mercie returned to her home in Brisbane. When Mercie returned to the home after the Americans had moved out, she was broken hearted to find the grand concert piano which her father had given her was severely damaged by the American personnel living there and considerable cost was spent on major-reconditioning of the instrument. This piano was her pride and joy. As the marriage was re-united after the war, and Dermot's discharge occurred, Dermot was employed by the Commonwealth Government in assessing war damage to buildings and compensation due to owners that had been occupied by both Australian and American Services and this required a fair amount of travel throughout the State. Whilst he was working in Townsville, Mercie went to Townsville and lived at the Empire Hotel in South Townsville whilst her son was installed in a boarding school at Marist Brothers, Ashgrove.

Approximately 1947 Mercie returned from Townsville with family to Brisbane and took up residence once again in the Ashgrove home. Mercie's mother came to stay and began assisting Mercie in the running of the house. Mercie applied to the QLD Education Department for a teaching position at the Ashgrove State School and was accepted. Mercie taught various classes in this school for the next 23 years. She retired in 1971. Whilst living at Ashgrove, Mercie enjoyed many school holidays at Ocean Beach on Bribie Island when they had purchased a small beach shack which served as the holiday venue for many of the relatives as well. The mode of transport to Bribie in those days being via the steamship SS Koopa which left from Circular Quay in Brisbane and travelled to Moreton Bay via Redcliffe and on to Bribie where old hard rubber tyred International trucks converted to open top buses travelled across the island to the Ocean Beach together with ex-army trucks carrying luggage and food supplies.

Her strict upbringing, particularly in the boarding school environment probably served to split her personality somewhat. She could be outgoing and charming to those she felt were up to her social and academic standard. She was a very accomplished piano player and teacher, however, she could be quite selfish and arrogant to those who were engaged in her employ or those she considered were subject to her particular requirements. She followed her father's attitude of being hard-nosed in business and gave no quarter where finance was concerned. Her upbringing was unfortunately such that the emphasis was always on her image and successes and she set extreme goals and expectations and never showed emotion. Near the end of her life she advised the writer that her greatest regret was getting married. She was extremely fortunate to have been a member of a family who were not badly affected by the economic depression of the late1920s and enjoyed the financial backing of a hard-nosed business father and a loving husband. An example of her expectations surfaced when she married Dermot O'Hare who at that time was a successful motor engineer. Mercie considered that this occupation was a dirty one and said he should be an accountant like his brother. Dermot in his love for this woman commenced accountancy study part-time and qualified as a chartered accountant and commenced his own successful business in the Valley, Brisbane in his middle years. In her efforts to achieve her expectations, she had her son attend five different schools during the son's primary school years in her efforts to meet her expectations of what she considered he should ultimately achieve. Mercie O'Hare had strong religious convictions and was a regular attendant at the St John's Wood, Mater Dei Catholic Church in Ashgrove and was for many years the organist for the various weekly services. She was an active member of Catholic organisations e.g. Legion of Mary and Third Order of Mary along with her husband she lived out her beliefs. After the death of her mother in 1972 she enjoyed travelling and spent holidays in New Zealand and other locations. In their senior years Mercie and her husband enjoyed travelling by car and caravan and spent holidays with their son's family in Western Australia and other locations.

Sidney Austin Truscott was born 27 January 1875 in Cornwall, UK. He married Julia Musgrave on the 6 July 1902 at Emmaville, NSW and he died on Brisbane on 1 October 1962. Mercie O'Hare lost her husband in 1978 and she remained in the Ashgrove home until 1991 when she relocated to Perth WA to be near her family. In 1994 Mercie became unable to care for herself and entered Mercyville Aged Care at Edgewater, Perth until a bad fall where she was admitted to Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital and finally to Mt Lawley Nursing Home where she died on the 29 June 1997. She was 88 years old. Her request for her funeral to be conducted at Marist Fathers, Glenlyon Drive Chapel was undertaken and she was buried beside her husband Dermot James at the Aspley Pinaroo Cemetery on 3 July 1997.