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William Thomas Dodds (1840-1926)
My great-grandfather was born in Bermondsey London on 13 December 1840. He was a third generation bootmaker whose parents were William Dodds and Eleanor Louisa Thornley. He married Mary Ann Rachel Sharp on 5 May 1861 at St Olave's London and their first child, also Mary Ann Rachel, was born at 34 West Street Bermondsey on 27 March 1862, followed by Harriet Louisa (c.1863). Emma was born at the Rockhampton Queensland Immigration Depot on 14 July 1867, presumably just after the family's arrival in Australia, their other children being William Charles (1870), by which time the family had come to Sydney, Ellen Eliza (1874), Annie Elizabeth (1875), my grandfather Henry James born 11 June 1877 and Grace (c.1879). My father Wal remembers visits by his grandfather: I recall a couple of visits by Grandfather, a short stern-faced old gent with a King George V beard. I regarded him with a certain amount of awe as he sat in the seagrass chair unsmilingly whilst everyone paid homage to him. Mary Ann died in 1905 and in 1910 he remarried, to Emma Jane Walbutton, and died at Spring Hill near Millthorpe NSW in 1926.
My great-grandfather was born in Bermondsey London on 13 December 1840. He was a third generation bootmaker whose parents were William Dodds and Eleanor Louisa Thornley. He married Mary Ann Rachel Sharp on 5 May 1861 at St Olave's London and their first child, also Mary Ann Rachel, was born at 34 West Street Bermondsey on 27 March 1862, followed by Harriet Louisa (c.1863). Emma was born at the Rockhampton Queensland Immigration Depot on 14 July 1867, presumably just after the family's arrival in Australia, their other children being William Charles (1870), by which time the family had come to Sydney, Ellen Eliza (1874), Annie Elizabeth (1875), my grandfather Henry James born 11 June 1877 and Grace (c.1879). My father Wal remembers visits by his grandfather: I recall a couple of visits by Grandfather, a short stern-faced old gent with a King George V beard. I regarded him with a certain amount of awe as he sat in the seagrass chair unsmilingly whilst everyone paid homage to him. Mary Ann died in 1905 and in 1910 he remarried, to Emma Jane Walbutton, and died at Spring Hill near Millthorpe NSW in 1926.
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I have told the story of the Dodds family in Boots & All - 5 Generations of Bookmakers from London's East End