Name (FAMILY NAME, Other Names)	WRIGHT, Sydney Fawcett (Nickname=Wanga)
Date of Birth	c.1878
Place of Birth	Colac, Victoria
Date of Death	7 April 1927 - as a result of an industrial accident
Place of Death	Metropolitan Abattoirs, Cavan. From The News 7 April 1927: ‘While dressing a sheep he slipped and fell backward, striking his head on the concrete floor with great force. He died a few minutes later.’
Place of Burial	West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide
Arrived in South Australia (date/ship etc.)
Addresses/Dates in Prospect Council Area	34 California St Nailsworth; 1912 - 1940 Mrs Wright subsequently lived with her daughter-in-law Doreen 66 First Avenue, Sefton Park
Addresses/Dates outside Prospect Council Area	Mr Wright - Kensington SA;   Wanganui, New Zealand;  Mrs. Wright - Amyton. S.A. Mr and Mrs Wright  Queen St., Kensington SA ~ 1911 - 1912;
Names of houses (if any)
Parents - names; DOBs etc (if known)	Amelia Frances Gum (Millie) was the 1st of 9 children born to William Gum, born 20/7 1854 at Nairne, S.A. and Annie (nee Gray) born 18/4/1864 at Sheaoak Log, S.A.
Spouse(s) - including maiden name; DOBs etc. (if known)	GUM, Amelia Frances - born Amyton, South Australia. Known as Millie. Died 17 June 1959 at 51 Derlanger Avenue Nailsworth of a stroke
Date(s) of Marriage(s)	4 October 1911
Place(s) of Marriage(s)	Amyton, South Australia
Children - names and dates of birth/death if known	Arnold, born 31/7/1912 - married Doreen Frances Goodhart;  Died30/6/1969 Grace Amelia, born 17/5/1914 - married Douglas Doorman Evans;   Died 26/2/1986 Vera Annie, born 29/6/1916 -married  Robert Clare (Clarrie) Winfield- later lived at 51                   Derlanger Avenue, Nailsworth Frederick Henry (Fred), born 30/10/1918 - married Myrtle Jean (Joan) White;   Died 19/6/1980 Eveleen Avis, born 23/6/1921 - married Vivian Harcourt Saunders Harold Sydney, born 5/5/1922 - married Mary Margaret Crowe;   Died 26/12/1994
Education
Occupation(s) - Mr Wright	Butcher at Wilmington and Hammond; Abattoir worker at Cavan
Occupation - Mrs Wright	Cleaner at Nailsworth school and private homes. Also helped in son Arnold’s grocery store at Sefton Park
Interests/Activities	Mrs. Wright used to knit for her grandchildren, including their socks for school
Religion/Churches	Methodist; lay preacher in the Prospect Methodist Circuit
Notes (points of interest etc.)	Millie’s sister Jessie Easther bought the house in 1949. From Marie Wellington (including excerpts from ‘The Gum Tree Branches’): ‘In the early 1920's many of the present day suburbs were largely empty paddocks and the family owned eight cows which the children would drive around the paddocks north of the Irish Harp Road ( now called Regency Road).’   ‘The 3 boys served in the Armed forces during WW11, Arnold in the RAAF, Fred in the Navy and my Dad, Harold in the AIF. ( Dad had trouble enlisting at first because he had polio as a child, but was eventually accepted interstate, in Albury I think). The other thing which my brother reminded me of on the weekend, in relation to the house was that our Dad, Harold, was born on the kitchen table at California Street and also had his tonsils removed there on the table!!’   ‘The Gum book also contains a section on my Great Auntie Jess (Jessie Lenore Gum) who was Millie's sister , and who later with her husband, Edmund Holt Easther bought the California Street house in 1949, where she remained for the rest of her life, until she died on 2nd November 1976. From memory, I think  that her son Max ( Clarrie Maxwell  Easther may have lived there for a time after that).’   ‘Another memory of the house which I have is that on the 1st Sunday in December every year Aunty Jess hosted a family Christmas party at her house and I have great memories of the fun times at those parties when we, as kids, got to meet all our great Aunts and Uncles,  Aunties, Uncles, Cousins, second cousins etc.’
A note on the land	The land was bought by Sydney Wright in 1914 and he probably built the house. It was mortgaged to the State Bank in 1914 but is not a typical State Bank 'Californian Bungalow'. The land was previously unoccupied (apart from the Kaurna people). Its original owner, Richard Bruce, bought the land in 1851 when Nailsworth village was subdivided but he died in 1854 without building on it. The family appear to have been unaware of his purchase.  No one claimed the land and no rates were paid between 1872 and its forced sale by Prospect Council in 1909 for recovery of unpaid rates, following an application to the Supreme Court. The land changed hands a few times before being purchased by the Wright family.  (David Kilner, Prospect Local History Group)
Local Government experience (if any)
Sources of information	Marie Wellington- [email protected] Dennis Gum, ‘The Gum Tree Branches: A History of William and Elisa Gum and their Descendants in Australia 1849-1988’.
Principal Researcher(s)	Marie Wellington

 

Four of the Wright family children