Henry Simmonds Heard
Henry Simmonds Heard was only 53 years old when he died on the 17th of April, 1942. His three sons were away at war and his wife Eveline living in the family home in Denmark Hill Rd in Camberwell.
His death would have a profound impact
on his oldest son, Edward William who afterwards would hold the belief that he
would die young like his father. Once he
passed 53 he then set a new life goal and aimed for the age of his Grandfather,
William who died at 103.
Henry was born in Pleasant Road
Hawthorn, on August 24, 1889, the fifth child of William and Mary Heard joining
Valentine, Richard, Mercy and Frank. Henry
was named using his fathers middle name and the maiden name of his grandmother
Mary who remained in Kent, England.
Four years later, Henry would be
followed by Annie in 1893, Joseph in 1895 and Agnes in 1896. In December 1896, aged 7, Henry experienced
his first tragedy when older brother Richard drowned while swimming with
friends in the Yarra River at Hawthorn.
In 1900, Henry’s youngest sister
Caroline was born.
At the beginning of the 20th
century, tuberculosis (TB) was the second main cause of death of Australian
males. With warm weather being part of
the treatment plan, many people, including health professionals, came across to
the country with hopes of curing their own illness, inadvertently bringing the
infection with them. It wasn’t until
1925 that a Federal Royal Commission would recommend a plan for a campaign
against the spread of the disease but with the Great Depression impacting
Australia in the 1930’s, any plans to fight the illness would be delayed.
At some point young Henry contracted
the illness and recovered enough to have a normal life. His death certificate states that he had
suffered from chronic pulmonary tuberculosis for years. Some medical journals refer to the chronic
form as having first presented in the patient as a child with the tuberculosis
calcifying or the patient having an interval with no active illness.
By 1912, Henry was working as a
carpenter and living with his brother Frank and parents in Violet Grove
Hawthorn. It is around this time that
Henry met Eveline May Tangee. Eveline’s
family were living in Sale so we do not know how they met. On November 16, 1912, the couple were married
in the home of A.C.Rankine, a Minister for the Church of Christ.
The Church of Christ was a Restoration
Movement group who had come to Australia from both England and the US. It was considered an autonomous Christian congregation
and evangelistic in its preaching’s.
On June
14, 1913, the couple welcomed their
first son, Edward William in Surrey Hills and on September 21 in 1914, they
welcomed their 2nd son, Ronald Henry, born in Hawthorn.
During this time the family were
registered as living in Canterbury Road Surrey Hills along with Henry’s
parents, William and Mary and Henry’s brother Frank and Sister in law Daisy. During this time, Henry’s parents were also
registered as living in Brighton so the Surrey Hills address may have been a
business address with Henry, William and Frank all listed as carpenters.
In 1915, Henry and Eveline were again
living at Violet Grove and welcomed their third child, daughter Edna May on
March 17, 1916 and later that year they moved to 8 Kelvin Grove* in Auburn,
close to the Auburn Station and to the timber yard operated by Eveline’s father
and brother in Burwood Rd. The growing
family would welcome their youngest child, son, Reginald Carlyle on November
25, 1918 and live in the Auburn Rd cottage until 1927.
News reports in 1930 list Henry, along
with his brother in law Walter as being members of the Hawthorn branch of the
Irish National Foresters. The Foresters,
like the Oddfellows, would meet up regularly and raise money for those less
fortunate.
From 1928 until 1937, the family lived
at 35 Clive Rd Auburn and in 1942 moved to 32 Denmark Hill Road, a house
that would remain with the family until the end of the century. In his life, Henry had remained living in a 5
kilometre radius.
It was also around this time that
Henry’s TB returned, spreading to his bloodstream and causing complications
including tuberculosis epididymitis.
Henry would be treated at the Austin
Hospital. It is most likely that he was
in the Kronheimer Wing which cared for males suffering from TB.
On April 17, 1942, aged 53, Henry lost
his battle and passed away in the hospital built for incurable illnesses, a
year before a cure for the disease was discovered and seven years before
patients were to benefit from the cure.
*Kelvin Grove became known as Station
Street in the 1930’s
Henry Simmonds Heard
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