Skip to main content

A Wedding at Holy Trinity, Port Melbourne in 1914.

On a warm summer’s day, Sarah’s skin was sweaty and sticky. She skipped through the porch into Holy Trinity. The sunlight streamed in through the windows creating rays of soft halos. Down the aisle past the timbered seats, she sailed.
The brick church is quite elegant with timbered ceiling and etched glass windows, she thought. I’m so glad it’s this one. That iron church with a brick façade was so stark. When we lived two blocks away. That freak storm about six years ago shivered me to the bone. No wonder the damage meant it had to be rebuilt.   
In the sanctuary, she stood by Walter’s side.
Everything seemed to be rushed, she thought. No time to have a traditional wedding dress. Sunday best will have to do.
Her heart beat loudly like a whirlwind. She melted when she looked into his big blue eyes. He smiled and held her hand in his.
‘I love you’, she whispered to Walter.
He nodded and squeezed her hand tightly.
Her parents, Alicia and Richard, looked on sternly. They witnessed them.
It was hard enough telling mum, she recalled. But dad! Lucky, mum did. It was the same for them. I might never have known.
The new Vicar at the Port Melbourne parish, Reverend William McKie celebrated their union.
Besides them, the church was empty.
Then the churning around in her insides started up again.
Damn morning sickness, she thought. I wonder if I will have a girl or a boy.
Holy Trinity, Port Melbourne. Today, only the facade and a
replicate of the tower remain surrounded by modern buildings.




Jennifer Empey
Photographs by Jennifer Empey

Notes
‘A Wrecked Church’, The Standard, 26 September 1908, p. 2, Accessed 9 August 2018.
‘Among the Churches’, The Standard, 7 February 1914, p. 2, Accessed 9 August 2018.
Birth Certificate of Adelaide Catherine Alicia Lindley, born 24 September 1914, Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages Victoria, 25068/1914.
Birth Index of William James, Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages Victoria, 16501/1892.
‘Church Damaged at Port Melbourne’, The Age, 26 September 1908, p. 12, Accessed 9 August 2018.
Holy Trinity Anglican Church Port Melbourne, ‘History: 1854-2014: 160th Anniversary’, Accessed 9 August 2018.
‘Inquests’, Victoria Police Gazette, 4 September 1908, p. 4; Marriage Certificate of Walter Lindley and Sarah Catherine Lovett, married 16 February 1914, Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages Victoria, 491/1914.
Marriage Index of Richard Lovett and Alicia Cairns, Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages Victoria, 3655/1892.
‘Mr. McKie’s Welcome’, The Standard, 14 February 1914, p. 2, Accessed 9 August 2018.
Service Record of Walter Lindley, 3188, p. 3, B2455, National Archives of Australia, NAA.
Service Record of William Lovett, 84, p. 3, B2455, National Archives of Australia, NAA.
State Library Victoria, SLV, ‘Diamond Jubilee: Holy Trinity Church Port Melbourne’, 1915, Accessed 9 August 2018.
State Library Victoria, SLV, ‘Holy Trinity Church, Port Melbourne’, 1909-1913, Accessed 9 August 2018.
‘Wind and Rain’, The Argus, 26 September 1908l, p. 20, Accessed 9 August 2018.

Bibliography
HolyTrinity Anglican Church Port Melbourne, ‘History: 1854-2014: 160th Anniversary’, Accessed 9 August 2018.
Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages Victoria
Service Record of Walter Lindley, 3188, B2455, National Archives of Australia, NAA.
Service Record of William Lovett, 84, B2455, National Archives of Australia, NAA.
State Library Victoria, SLV, ‘Diamond Jubilee: Holy Trinity Church Port Melbourne’, 1915, Accessed 9 August 2018.
State Library Victoria, SLV, ‘Holy Trinity Church, Port Melbourne’, 1909-1913, Accessed 9 August 2018.
The Age
The Argus
The Standard
Victoria Police Gazette
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

8 January 1969 Fires in Victoria. (Content Warning: May be Distressing)

On 8 January 1969, the temperature climbed to a century . Sixty miles per hour winds swirled in a west-northwesterly direction. Percy and Ivy, my grandparents, left Bookaar and travelled home to West Footscray. Outside of Geelong they rattled along the Geelong-Melbourne highway and neared Lara. ‘Look at the dark black smoke, Perc,’ exclaimed Ivy. ‘Something must be wrong,’ said Percy. Sweat ran down his face. ‘Cars are turning back. There must be a fire.’ He made a U-turn and headed back in the direction they had come. They pulled up on the side of the road, got down low in the car, and covered themselves with the blanket. A knock at the driver’s window startled them. Percy peeled back the blanket and wound down the window. ‘Are you alright’, said the policeman. ‘Yes, thank you. We are fine’, said Percy. Ivy peered out from under the blanket. ‘The fire has moved on. You can move out now. Be careful! Electric wires have fallen along the road. Up ahead, a pole...
Post a Comment
Read more

Vikings

The next season of the TV series Vikings is nearly here.  And, it reminds me of my family history research. S omeone traced my family tree back to the brother, Sigurd, that Ivar killed in Vikings.  I don't know if it's been verified or not!  So, I don't know if it's true or not!  I just find it interesting that someone could trace a family line back to Ragnar and his sons whether it's true or not.  So, it makes it a bit eerily to watch, especially Ragnar's sons do battle.  But then, if I wasn't interested in my family history, I would never have known and followed the breadcrumbs that someone left in tracing it back to them. Whether it was a true or false claim.  It just leaves me to wonder.  And, it makes history even more fascinating to me cause of all the ancestors that I stumble across. And, I want to learn about the kind of lives that they might have led.
Post a Comment
Read more

Panmure Cemetery Victoria

On the way to Warrnambool, I made a detour at Panmure. I was looking for the final resting place of my great-great-grandparents. I didn’t know so many Bants were buried there together. Imagine my surprise when I had driven past a dirt road named Bant St. [1] I turned off the highway in Panmure, the town where my granny, Ivy Bant, was born. [2] I headed down a street, drove over a bridge up a hill, across the railway track and parked beside the white wooden fence. I stepped onto the crushed bluestone path into Panmure Cemetery which was surrounded by trees of different sizes. It was a dull cloudy cold day. My feet sloshed in the patchy wet grass breaking the silence that prevailed. Near the entrance, I stood at a row of graves of my granny’s uncles. William and his wife had a stone slab with an engraved headstone. [3] William’s son, John, had a grave with an inscription etched in stone. [4] An orange-brown coloured headstone with a white painted wrought iron railing surrou...
Post a Comment
Read more