Jessie Beatrice Reid

War widow, single mother

When her husband, Lt John Cecil Drury Reid, was killed near Messines on the Western Front on 10 June 1917, Jessie Beatrice Reid was left a widow with three young children. On 29 August 1917, she was granted £3-10-0 per fortnight widow’s pension, their son, Stanley Francis, nearly 4, received 20 shillings per fortnight; daughter Joan Innes, aged 2, 15 shillings per fortnight and Margaret Lyle, not yet one year old, 10 shillings per fortnight. Jessie, aged 43, devoted the next twenty years of her life to their upbringing and education.

Jessie Beatrice Reid was born in 1875 at Warracknabeal in the Western District of Victoria to James Robertson Philip and his wife Margaret (nee Cameron). In the 1900s she lived with her parents and siblings at Branxholme, in the Southern Grampians, south-west of Hamilton, where she listed home duties as her occupation. In 1912, she married John Cecil Drury Reid, who had been born on 14 May 1876 to Reverend Dr John Bently Reid and Sibyl Ross (nee Drury), at Eaglehawk, Victoria. John Reid (sometimes known as Drury Reid), was educated at Scotch College, graduated from Melbourne University in civil engineering and was also a licensed land surveyor. After their marriage Jessie and her husband were registered in electoral rolls living at 24 Douglas Street in the Melbourne suburb of Toorak. Employed as a staff engineer by the Commonwealth Government in 1912, Reid was transferred to the Department of Home Affairs in the Federal Capital Territory to work on the infrastructure of the new Capital. For the next three years he worked on surveying and engineering works in the Tuggeranong, Weston Creek, Ginninderra and Majura districts and in the Cotter valley and the Brindabella Mountains. When the District Surveyor, Percy Sheaffe, was absent, he stepped up to fill that role.

After World War I began, Reid was listed in press reports for contributions to the Canberra Patriotic Fund made by ‘Mr Surveyor Reid’s team of employees’. He lived in temporary accommodation at Acton and presumably saw his wife only occasionally as she would have found it extremely difficult to find accommodation for herself and her babies in Canberra. She moved from Melbourne back to her former home, ‘Stonehouse’, Branxholme, and later she lived briefly at ‘Wallenda’, Willaura, near Ararat, where some members of the Philip family lived and farmed.

When her husband enlisted in the AIF on 22 February 1916, Jessie was the mother of two young children, Stanley Francis, born on 31 July 1913, and Joan Innes, born on 17 January 1915. A third child, Margaret Lyall, was born on 17 August 1916. Reid, who had two years’ experience in the pre-war Militia, was initially allotted to Engineer Reinforcements but was transferred in late March to an Officer Training School in Sydney and was appointed 2nd Lieutenant, 5th Tunnelling Company, in April 1916. He sailed for England on 25 May 1916 before the birth of his third child and was taken on strength with the 4th Pioneer Battalion in France in October 1916 and promoted to Lieutenant. On 10 June 1917, he was shot in the head during the attack on Messines and died in a dressing station the same day. During the previous few days he had carried out dangerous reconnaissance missions under heavy fire to establish lines of communication and he was on a similar mission the day he was shot. He was awarded the Military Cross for ‘conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty’. He is buried in the Wulverghem-Lindenhoek Road Military Cemetery and commemorated at St John’s Church, Canberra, the ACT Memorial and the Branxholme and District Honour Roll.

After her husband died Jessie Reid, aged 43, was left with three young children, Stanley nearly 4, Joan, 2, and Margaret aged 10 months. On 29 July 1917 she was allotted £3/10/- per fortnight widow’s pension and fortnightly payments of 20/- for Stanley, 15/- for Joan and 10/- for Margaret. Like so many war widows she was left, after a short marriage, with memories and mementoes only of her husband. For the next twenty years her life was centred on her children whom she raised at her old home, ‘Stonehouse’, in Branxholme, a small town in the Southern Grampians in the Victorian Western District, 25 km south-west of Hamilton.

Once the children began school at the Branxholme state school, Jessie received assistance from Repatriation in paying for their school books and writing materials. This required submitting bills from the local newsagent and being reimbursed, a subject on which she received many letters with detailed instructions. The Repatriation Department informed her several times that as each child turned 13, he or she would be entitled to a weekly allowance of 10/- per week if living at home, 20/- per week if obliged to live away from home, but she would no longer be reimbursed for book expenses. This is an early example of the interest the Department took in the education of the children under the Education and Training Scheme.

On 9 October 1923, when Stanley was 10, the Deputy Commissioner suggested he apply for a scholarship at Geelong Grammar for children of deceased soldiers. As this was open to children aged 14, it appeared optimistic that Stanley could compete and when Jessie consulted the Branxholme headmaster, he confirmed that Stanley was not advanced enough in standard of education or range of subjects. The Department, nevertheless, pressed the merits of the scholarship. On 21 January 1926, Jessie informed the Department that Stanley had won a scholarship as a boarder to Hamilton College which was worth £80 per year for three years. This was the subject of further lengthy correspondence as the Department established that it would continue to pay for necessary books until Stanley turned 13 on 31 July 1926 when payment for books would cease but he would be eligible for £1 per week living allowance.

Letter from Jessie Reid about her son's education. NAA: B73, R17861

Once Stanley was settled at Hamilton College, Jessie Reid left Branxholme with her two daughters to live in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn, where she enrolled them at Tintern Church of England Girls Grammar. By the time the youngest Margaret turned 18, Jessie was almost 60. She died in 1958, in Hawthorn, aged 82.

DR PATRICIA CLARKE OAM FAHA

Archival resources

  • NAA B2455, First AIF Personnel Dossiers 1914-1920, Reid, John Cecil Drury, Lieutenant, barcode 8028138.
  • NAA B73, REID, John Cecil Drury, Lieutenant (assistance to children of, under education and training scheme), 1921-1929, R177861, barcode 2133660.

Published sources

  • Queanbeyan Age, 16 October 1914.
  • Victoria Births Deaths and Marriages: John Cecil Drury Reid, 1876/8924 birth; Jessie Beatrice Philip, 1875/23370 birth; Stanley Francis Reid 1913/20149; Joan Innes Reid, 1915/7328; Margaret Lyall Reid 1916/25637.
  • Victorian Electoral rolls 1909, 1912 etc.

Online sources