MARY LOUISE (MOLLIE) SKINNER

19 SEPTEMBER 1876 - 25 MAY 1955

By David Mizen

The Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, in relation to the suburb of Cook, in Canberra , Australia’s Capital, states:

“(21) Skinner Street .. .. From Atkinson Street south-east of Clisby Close generally southwesterly, south-easterly and north easterly to Oakes Street.

...

(19) Skinner Street – Cook - Mary Louisa Skinner (1877-1955) Authoress, famous for her short stories; collaborated with D H Lawrence in writing ‘The Boy in the Bush’. (Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, (No.83) 2 October 1969 , Pg. 5790).

The Commonwealth of Australia knows more about this important author that the City in which she spent significant time and in which her family owned property.

Kalamunda History Inventory Listing

The City of Kalamunda’s History Inventory contains a listing for Place 163 Wilson Home. In that listing it is stated: “This home was originally a two roomed cottage with a verandah built in 1903 by the Skinner family and occupied by them until 1919” (City of Kalamunda (2019), Municipal Heritage Inventory 2015,NP).

The listing in its present form is devoid of any meaningful information. Skinner was a relatively common name in Western Australia in the early 1900’s. The listing goes on to set out the subsequent purported owners of the property. Returning to the Skinner family. The most significant members that are easily identifiable are:

1. Colonel JT Skinner, died 1902 leaving a widow two sons and five daughters (Colonel Skinner, Western Mail 15 November 1902, Pg. 12).

2. John Skinner, late Corporal “A” Company,16th Battalion who owned a property called “Lemnos” in ‘Walliston’ which he purchased in early 1917 (District News, The Swan Express, 29 March 1918, Pg.3).

3. Mary Louise Skinner (referred to in the Gazette above);

4. Robert Skinner killed in action (The Roll of Honour, The West Australian, 14 June, 1917, Pg.7);

With respect to John Skinner’s property Smiths Weekly provides a rational for the name ‘Lemnos’ which states: “WAY back in 1915, Lemnos Island, ... was an Allied naval and military base, and the harbor afforded splendid protection for all. Rubbing shoulders with each other were ships of all sizes, from the mighty battleship, “Queen Elizabeth”, right down to small tug-boats, and even Nile River ferry steamers.

WE did not see much of the Island prior to the Gallipoli landing, but when the 1st Australian Division was relieved and returned to Lemnos for a rest period, we had the opportunity to become acquainted with the island and its inhabitants. Those Diggers who were privileged to be there, will remember it for the quaint wind mills with their huge revolving sails. These mills used by the peasants to grind their corn, were built on the hills dotting the countryside, in order to catch the maximum volume of wind” (Lemnos, Smiths Weekly, 18 April, 1942, Pg.12)

It is a notorious fact that the 16th Battalion Royal Western Australian Regiment was part of the New Zealand and Australian Division that landed at ANZAC Cove on the 25th April 1915. The division formed the second wave after the initial assault. John Skinner, is at the least, significant as a Gallipoli survivor. But this is not the end of the story, or, the end of the problems with the listing. There are other individuals in the authors list above. There are also other Skinner families.

The author has identified at least one other line of Skinner’s, that line may or may not be related, but the author can not tie any of them to Kalamunda. Colonel JT Skinner, referred to above, is a very significant person in Western Australian history, however due to his date of death the author can not place him in Kalamunda in the time frame of the listing. On that basis, the house in question is not his, unless the listing is wrong. Turning to John Skinner, the house could be his, but the time frame for the listing is wrong. The print media record indicates he purchased his property about 1917 after his return from Gallipoli. There are other possibilities, but the print media record clearly identifies John Skinner as owning property in ‘Walliston’ in March 1918. In addition, there are other relationships at play in this scenario. The Geraldton Express on the death of Mrs Parry states:

“On Saturday morning Mrs. Parry relict of the Rt. Rev, Bishop Parry, second Bishop of Perth, passed away in one of the private hospitals of the city. ... The deceased lady was the eldest daughter of the late Mr. George Leak QC, ... The deceased lady leaves surviving her two sons, one of whom is the Rev. Lionel Parry, lately ordained for the Anglican ministry, and the other is a member of the firm of Messrs Cavanagh and Parry, architects. She also leaves one daughter, Mrs. Sanderson, of Kalamunda. ...The chief mourners were Messrs G. H. Parry, L.W. Parry (sons), Mrs. A. Sanderson (daughter), Mr. A. E. Parry (stepson), Mrs. Skinner, Mrs. Cecil Clifton, and Mrs. H. T. Kelsall (sisters), Mrs. George Leake (sister-in-law), Mr. A. Sanderson (son-in-law), ...” (The Late Mrs Parry, Geraldton Express, 3 November 1909, Pg.3).

The next piece of the puzzle was published in 1919, the publication was probably a ‘puff piece’. However, on the 11 May 1919, the Sun announced:

“The Letters of a. V.A.D,” written by a clever West Australian lady, Miss Marie Skinner, have scored such a success that there is a run on them at the booksellers. Miss Skinner’s publishers have made her liberal offers for another book. She is matron at the Warren Hospital, Jardanup, and is a daughter of the late Colonel Skinner. Her mother, who lives at Kalamunda, is a daughter of the late Mr. George Leake and sister of the late Lady Parker (Chats with the Cats, Sun, 11 May 1919, Pg.6).

The state of play now is there are two possible owners of the property the subject of the History Inventory listing, John Skinner or Mrs Skinner. In the alternative there are two properties. However, the date Mrs Skinner is stated to be living in Kalamunda is after the date of purchase of the property stated to belong to John Skinner. This raises the possibility the properties are near to each other, or, possibly next door to each other. However neither property appears to have been purchased in the time frame indicated in the listing. The next piece of the family jigsaw puzzle is published in 1923.

On the 7 March 1923 the Daily News published the obituary of the Late Mrs J.R.E. Skinner which states:

“The funeral of the late Mrs. Jessie Rose Ellen Skinner, an old colonist, took place on Monday afternoon in the presence of a large gathering of relatives and friends. Deceased was born in Perth, and except for an extended holiday to the Old Country, had resided all her life in this State. She was the daughter of the late George Walpole Leake, one of the early pioneers of the colony, she married the late Col. James Tierney Skinner, C.B., D.S.O. The chief mourners were Mrs N. E. Single Misses M. L. and M. S. Skinner (daughters), J. R. Skinner (son.), J. H. M. Law, E. Fletcher (sons-in-law), Mrs. Tom Lodge, Mrs R. C. Clifton, Mrs Keith Adam, Mrs Kelsall (sisters), Messrs. R. C. Clifton, K. Adam, T. Lodge, Dr. Kelsall (brothers in law). Among those present were Messrs. N. Keenan, A. Sanderson,...” (Obituary, Daily News, 7 March 1923, Pg.3).

There is a further final piece of the jigsaw puzzle published 20 February 1925. It states:

“On Wednesday, 11th inst., Mrs. A. Sanderson, of Kalamunda, entertained a number of friends of Miss M. Skinner at an afternoon tea party at the Karrakatta Club. Mrs. Sanderson and Miss Skinner are cousins, their respective mothers being two Miss Leakes and two of the prettiest of our Perth belles long ago. Miss Skinner book, “The Boy in the Bush,” has been subjected to much criticism. Vases of wildflowers and roses formed the pretty floral decorations at the tea party” (Social Sparks, Freelance, 20 February 1925, Pg.13).

This final piece takes this paper back to the beginning and the point of the entry in the Commonwealth Gazette. The pieces of the family tree are now all laid out. It is now time to turn to the ‘back story’. The first part is contained in Camp Chronicle which reports:

“On Saturday, March 16, a busy bee inaugurated by the Walliston Progress Association met at ‘Lemnos,’ the residence of John Skinner, late Corporal ‘A’ Company, 16th Battalion, who has been living in the district for the past 12 months, and spent the whole day working in his orchard. Mr. Skinner was severely wounded at the landing at Gallipoli. After being treated for many months in Egypt, he returned to Australia in January,1916, suffering severely from blood poisoning from the effect of shrapnel wounds in the head. He came up to the Kalamunda district in 1917, hoping to receive benefit from the fine air of the hills, and has improved in health so much that he was able to take up a small orchard. He is still far from strong, and has for the past three months been an inmate of the Base Hospital, Fremantle. It was gratifying and encouraging to him to return and find that his neighbors had rallied round and done so much to help him” (Who’s Who in Khaki, Camp Chronicle, 28 March 1918, Pg 4).

From the above John was at the Base Hospital approximately early January to late March 1918. In November 1918 the Daily News wrote:

“The ‘Morning Post,’ London,of September 27, says:— ‘The Letters of & V.A.D.,’ by R. E. Leake,is full of charming still pictures of hospital life. The author has a keen eye for stray humors, and I rejoice over the saying of a valiant color-sergeant on his way to the operating theatre: ‘Whatever you says, man alive, I stays by my word. It goes against my repulsion to be cut up by him, and I am all of a tremble at the thought of it and non -pulsed as well!’ The author of the book is Miss Mollie Skinner, who has used a family name as nom de plume; she is on the nursing staff of the Base Hospital, having returned a few weeks ago from service abroad (Mainly about People, Daily News, 28 November 1918, Pg 3).

John and Mollie’s time a Base Hospital does not appear to overlap. However:

“Sister Mollie Skinner, recently returned from nursing service, is staying with her brother, Mr. J. Skinner, at Kalamunda. She is recovering from a severe injury to her knee” (Mainly About People, Daily News, 9 September 1918, Pg.5).

It is not clear how long she was incapacitated, the physical incapacity would have given her time to write. In December 1919 she is advertising her own private nursing care facility in ‘Kalamunda’ (Wanted Known, Kalgoorlie Miner, 26 December 1919, Pg. 2). By November 1920 Mollie had relocated to Leithdale, Darlington (Mainly About People, Daily News, 5 November 1920, Pg.3). Meanwhile John’s position was not improving.

Following his stint at Base Hospital it appears he returned home for a short while before his health deteriorated and he needed further assistance, he spent time at St Andrews Lesmurdie, there are a number of reports of J Skinners cricket outings with the St Andrews Cricket Team in the latter part of 1920. Again in 1921 and early 1922. In February 1922 a ‘smoker’ was held for Mr Jack Skinner hosted by the local RSL to mark his moving to Darlington. John followed Mollie to Darlington. It was also reported that Mr Payne had taken over his selection near the soldiers convalescent farm (Soldiers and Sailors, Sunday Times, 26 February 1922, Pg.5). The fact Mr Payne is reported to have taken over John Skinner’s property does not ‘square’ with the present History Inventory Listing. Now to the crux of the matter, Darroch states:

“BEFORE moving to Perth for a year in 1994, I know that Lawrence and Frieda had stayed at Mollie Skinner’s guesthouse, Leithdale, at Darlington outside of Perth, and that Lawrence had subsequently rewritten Mollie’s novel, The Boy in the Bush. I also knew that Mollie Skinner’s returned WWI injured veteran brother, Jack, on whom she based the hero of The Boy in the Bush, moved to Darlington from his returned soldier settlement farm at Kalamunda in the Hills, when Mollie took up residence at Leithdale” (Darroch, 2017).

Of the academic commentators, Sandra Darroch is the most accessible, the brief commentary that is accessible deals with Rose Cottage. The most significant commentary is by Emeritus Professor Paul Eggert and is contained in the Cambridge Edition of The Boy in The Bush published by Cambridge University Press. There is a significant amount of discussion in the academic journals on Mollie Skinner and Lawrence. Its a significant debate in the English Literature cannon. As Darroch points out ‘Jack’ Skinner is the subject of the of The Boy in the Bush.

Jack Skinner, properly known as John Skinner, is connected to Kalamunda through St Andrews and his own property Lemnos. Based on Myles’s comments regarding Rose Cottage it appears likely that John’s mother also owned a property in Kalamunda, but John’s mothers home, Rose Cottage, was moved to Darlington in 1923 (Myles (2017). Mollie spent significant time in Kalamunda either at Johns looking after the property for him, and also, likely looking after him, but she also ran her own private facility in ‘Kalamunda’ prior to moving Darlington. Given that Rose Cottage was moved to Darlington this leaves Jack’s property as the likely subject of the listing, with all of the possibilities, and, all of the consequences that flow from that. Given the apparent time line, it appears that the genesis for The Boy in the Bush is Mollie’s time spent in Kalamunda, the original name for the book prior to DH Lawrence’s rewrite was the House of Ellis, there is an Ellis ‘house’ in the Kalamunda Museum. It should also be noted that the book was made into a TV series filmed in 1984. English literature as a genre is not this authors suit. The Boy in the Bush needs someone with an interest and knowledge of Kalamunda’s history and qualifications in Literature to analyse and put together an argument regarding how and where Kalamunda fits into the book. The digital extracts of the book that are available to the author are reminiscent of the newspaper articles advocating for Ben Mason to have a proper railway, limitless jarrah everywhere. This brings this paper back to the problems with the City’s History Inventory.

It is clear that the listing regarding the Skinners has many manifest flaws, this also appears to be true of many of the listings in the Inventory. At best, the listing in question fails to identify which of the Skinner family owned the property the subject of the listing, further, if the property is Jack Skinners, it fails to identify the correct time frame for his ownership. At worst, the reference to the Skinners is completely irrelevant. Proper identification of ownership means in this case, the difference between a site of international significance as a result of it’s association with the author Mollie Skinner, and a site of no significance at all. There are fundamental problems with the way the listing was created and maintained. The City appears to rely on well meaning amateurs for its information, that information has been received, and a listing was created. In this case, with no apparent verification against the relevant Certificate, or, Certificates of Title. Further, the City does not appear to internally review it’s Inventory listings regularly, or at all. The problem in this case, and with regard to other items in the Inventory, is things change, often very quickly. This has consequences. The photograph in the City’s present listing bears no resemblance to real estate sale photo’s of the same address (on the house, ND). If the site the subject of the current listing was associated with Jack and Mollie Skinner, the fabric of that building has been lost, the structure that was of Jack’s and Mollie’s era appears to have gone. That loss, is essentially as a result of a deficient History Inventory listing, a bureaucracy that seems not to take history seriously, and, has no process to validate, or invalidate information received prior to creating a listing. The question that arises is - Have the properties in the City of Kalamunda with associations to an internationally significant author and members of a hugely important Western Australian family been lost for ever? There is at least one other significant property in the City of Kalamunda that is directly associated with Mollie Skinner, further research and location of evidence is needed to resolve that property’s listing. In addition, it is pointed out that there is at least one other related property in the Inventory listing who’s ownership is not properly attributed that is at risk of loss, if it has not been lost already. A question that arises from this paper is how many of the other properties in the Inventory have the same or similar problems. In this authors view all the History Inventory listings need a proper root and branch examination, review and update.

The other thing that the author observes is that no one has whole heartedly ‘claimed’ Mollie, there does not even seem to be a complete list of her short stories – there is no visible recognition of her work in the way Catherine Suzanna Pritchard is recognised, except in academia, but that recognition is not accessible to most in the City of Kalamunda. She is recognised in Canberra but not in her home state of WA. Darlington has made a half hearted attempt but there is no real recognition of her in a material sense. The City of Kalamunda has an opportunity to stake a claim and to build something – a literary award for scholarship on her life (there are arts grants for research), literary workshops, a project or projects built around Mollie, Jack, St Andrews and the bush. A biography of Mollie or Jack. Short film (or long) projects based on, or around, Jack, or Mollie, or both. Given the current governments stated interest in rebuilding the WA film industry there are a huge number of possibilities.

Post Script

Lest WE Forget

The Boy in the Bush “DEATH NOTICE.

SKINNER.— John Russell, late of 16th Battalion, A.I.F, on July 14, 1925, at Southern Cross, son of the late Colonel James Tierney Skinner , C.B, D.S.O, and the late Mrs. Jessie Rose Ellen Skinner, after nine years of suffering” (Deaths, West Australian, 15 July, 1925, Pg 1).

Buried in Southern Cross Cemetery Anglican section plot A113 (Shire of Yilgarn, (ND)). (Unmarked.)

Reference List

Chats with the Cats, Sun, 11 May 1919, Pg 6

City of Kalamunda (2019), Place 163 Wilson Home, Municipal Heritage Inventory 2015, City of Kalamunda. Colonel Skinner, Western Mail 15 November 1902, Pg. 12

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette Thursday 2 October 1969 (No.83), Pg. 5790

Darroch, S., 2017 URL https://www.dhlawrencesocietyaustralia.com.au/rananim_sept_2017_p3.html

Accessed 13/1/2023

District News, The Swan Express, 29 March 1918 Pg.3.

Lemnos, Smiths Weekly, 18 April, 1942, Pg.12.

Mainly about People, Daily News, 28 November 1918, Pg. 3.

Mainly About People, Daily News, 9 September 1918, Pg.5

Mainly About People, Daily News, 5 November 1920, Pg.3.

Myles, L., (2017) URL http://www.dhlawrenceinaustralia.com.au/rananim/Rananim_Vol_24_No_2_Sep_2017.pdf Accessed 17/01/2023.

On the house, (ND), URL https://www.onthehouse.com.au/property/wa/lesmurdie-6076/23-rootesrdlesmurdie-wa-6076-8691541

Accessed 17/01/2023.

Obituary, Daily News, 7 March 1923, Pg.3.

Shire of Yilgarn, (ND), URL https://www.yilgarn.wa.gov.au/community/facilities/southern-crosscemetery.aspx Accessed 16/1/2023.

Social Sparks, Freelance, 20 February 1925, Pg.13

Soldiers and Sailors, Sunday Times, 26 February 1922, Pg.5

The Late Mrs Parry, Geraldton Express, 3 November 1909, Pg.3.

The Roll of Honour, The West Australian, 14 June, 1917, Pg.7

Wanted Known, Kalgoorlie Miner, 26 December 1919, Pg. 2

Who’s Who in Khaki, Camp Chronicle, 28 March 1918, Pg.4