HENRY ARTHUR PRINGLE'S ALBUM OF ILLAWARRA PHOTOGRAPHS
1880s-1890s
Joseph Davis
A rare family photograph album containing images of the Illawarra dating from the 1880s to the 1890s was sold at auction in Sydney on 26 June 2011. It had been in the possession of Margaret Cairns Terry of England, granddaughter of coal mine manager Henry Arthur Pringle who had compiled the album. Sadly, news of its sale only emerged days before the auction, giving local institutions little chance to make arrangements to secure it. A story was published in the Illawarra Mercury on June 25, 2011 – just one day before the auction at John William's Auction Rooms in Ralph Street Alexandria in Sydney.
Prior to the publication of the Mercury article by Michelle Hoctor - entitled “Snap up a piece of history” - all that was known in Illawarra about the man who turned out to be the album's original owner was his surname (Pringle) and that he was somehow involved in one of the local mines. As it turns out, however, this Henry Arthur Pringle was a rather significant fellow.
Indeed, Pringle almost passes for local nineteenth century vice-regal aristocracy – the son of a Cambridge M.A. no less and also related, by marriage, to both the Illawarra Osbornes and the Maccabes. The fact that he could afford a high quality camera in the 1890s is also itself clear evidence of a considerably elevated local status!
In 1892 our HENRY A PRINGLE married MAUD Alice MACCABE (born 1871 in Wollongong) who was the daughter of FRANCIS (FRANK) PETER MACCABE and JANE MACCABE. Importantly, Maude Alice MACCABE was the sister of the hero of the Mount Kembla Mining Disaster (Major Henry Osborne MACCABE - born 1856) to whom a monument was erected smack in the middle of Crown Street, Wollongong.
So who was the original owner of the album of photographs?
Well, Henry Arthur Pringle was born in 1864 at a settlement called “Hope”. It is located in what is today Canada. It became part of the Colony of British Columbia when the new British possession was created on August 2, 1858.
The child, who would later become Mine Manager at Corrimal, was the son of the Reverend Alexander St David Pringle and grandson of David Alexander Pringle. The Illawarra Pringle’s father was something of a pioneer.
It was late in the year 1859 that Reverend Alexander St. David Francis Pringle first arrived in Hope - today about a 90-minute drive from Vancouver. On December 1 of that year, he founded the first library on the British Columbia mainland. Within two years, he founded Christ Church (Anglican). Remarkably, Christ Church is today the oldest church on the B.C. mainland still holding services on its original site.
Married to a woman called “Mary Louisa” (surname unknown) the Reverend had seven children. The first daughter was born about 1857 in “Upwell, Norfolk, England” and the second in Middlesex. A son, Charles David Pringle, was born in 1862 in British Columbia and our Henry Arthur Pringle was also born there in 1864.
When the Reverend Pringle arrived in British Columbia the Cariboo Gold Rush was in full swing and thousands of single men gathered in mining camps. The Vicar decided there was a need for access to reading material and set about raising funds for a building to accommodate and provide “respectable and readable newspapers of various nations and politics, together with all the standard reviews and periodicals”. On December 1, 1859, the Fort Hope Reading Room and Library was opened. The faith that moves mountains presumably always carries an ice-pick!
And so it was that the Rev. Pringle became involved in raising funds for his church and, apparently, rolled up his sleeves from time to time to help with its construction. His son would grow to become a mining engineer and so the father may have been a practical type as well.
A letter by the Reverend Pringle at the time stated: “ My dearest Father...The accounts of gold are almost incredible. The amounts taken out are such as to give confidence to everybody and everything. Hope, meanwhile is nearly deserted, and next spring may be quite so, but thanks to the kindness of my friends at home and the friends of our Church here, I have something now to give my residence a point and character in Christ Church. We shall benefit ere long in this change for the better. It is however very cheering to see our nice little Church universally admired, standing ready for consecration on Nov. 1 complete. Yes, I have now hopes of having it painted outside this year. Half the church lot is cleared, grubbed and fenced. The church is seated, I have now got the materials to oil and varnish the whole of the interior and best of all there will be no debt on the church or myself.
The Reverend Alexander St David Francis PRINGLE had been born in India in 1828 and christened on the 17th March. He gained an M.A. from Caius College, Cambridge and was Vicar of St. James, Norwich (1865 – 1872), Curator of Upwell, Norfolk (1855 - 1858, Chaplain Paddington West (1858 – 1859, Chaplain to the British Province of Columbia, Hope, British Columbia (1859 - 1865).
The Reverend Pringle was listed as resident at Bishop Bridge
Road, Thorpe, Norfolk, England in 1871 and then became Vicar of Blakeney,
Newham, Gloucester. While his son was Mine Manger at Corrimal, the father lived
at the Vicarage, Blakeney, Gloucestershire, England, in 1891, and had moved to Church
Square Cottage, Awre, Gloucestershire, England in April 1901.
The Sojourn in British Columbia must have been tough as the Reverend Pringle came over from England in 1859 alone. He wrote to his father and his wife (Mary Louisa Pringle) about the journey from England and his situation in Hope, BC. Mary Louisa later joined her husband in B.C. Pringle and together they travelled around and about Hope and conducted services from a tent in neighbouring communities such as Yale - at a location where the Church of St John still stands today.
But back in Australia at this time the estates of Francis Peter MacCabe and Michael Cawley made up most of what is today called “Russell Vale”. The MacCabe Estate was on the western side of what is today the Princes Highway under the escarpment and the Cawley Estate was on the eastern side nearer to the sea.
Francis MacCabe was born to Dr James and Margaret (nee Russell) MacCabe in Dublin in 1817. At the age of 16 Francis joined the Ordnance Survey of Ireland and trained as a surveyor. In 1841 he was granted an appointment with the Surveyors of England to go to New South Wales.
Francis embarked on the ship "Florentia" on the 6th June 1841, arriving on the 26th October. He worked in a variety of locations in Australia before settling in the Illawarra.
MacCabe was one of the great 'surveyor-explorers' of Australia – so named because they were actually surveying almost totally unexplored territory. MacCabe had made a significant contribution by linking a survey of the Murray to other colonial border surveys. MacCabe's work is also noted for the number of Aboriginal place names he put on his map - encouraged in this by Mitchell, the NSW Surveyor-General.
During 1855 the couple built and moved into "Russell Vale" house. Francis' mother’s maiden name was Russell and it is possible that the name of the house and later the estate was named after her. Francis and Jane had 14 children during the course of their marriage.
Jane MacCabe
THE MARITIME STRIKE OF 1890
During this major industrial dispute, the Illawarra miners were the last group of strikers to go back to work. Newcastle miners went back to work in early November 1890 but the Illawarra miners held out until January 1891.
The Sydney Morning
Herald Friday 7 November 1890:
“Mr. Henry Pringle, manager of Southern Coal Company, made a very liberal offer to his Corrimal men to resume work. This was to hold good for a month, at the expiration of which time, failing an amicable settlement of the existing trouble being arrived at, he was willing to give a month's notice. The offer was regarded by the bulk of his men as a very fair and liberal one, but they wore unable to accept it on their own responsibility. Mr. Pringle attended the miners' meeting at which this offer was made, when one prominent man deliberately expressed his opinion that his company was paid by the association to make liberal offers, so that its employees would return to work and thus cause a split in the unionist ranks. Mr. Pringle subsequently received a copy of a resolution passed at the last delegate meeting to the effect that the tempting offer made by certain coal-owners was pre- arranged by the owners, with the object of creating a split in the unionists' ranks, and Mr. Pringle feeling grossly insulted has consequently determined to hold no further negotiations with the union, nor continue to exhibit any sympathy therewith. He had previously treated the men most kindly, and assisted to relieve distress in their families.”
The Sydney Morning
Herald Thursday 6 February 1890:
THE WOLLONGONG AGRICULTURAL
SHOW.
(By Our Reporter)
“The eighth annual show... In the pit horse class, out of a large entry, M. Phillips was placed first and H. A. Pringle second. The competition was strong, and it may be with other judges that the Southern Coal Company would have been in front, as it was Keira won.”
SOUTHERN COAL CO.'S JETTY AND COKE WORKS.
WOLLONGONG, Monday.
CAPTAIN IN THE ILLAWARRA REGIMENT
Illustrated Sydney
News Saturday 5 November 1892
Henry O MacCabe who died in the Mount Kembla mine rescue was known as Major MacCabe.
His brother-in-law, Henry Arthur Pringle became the "Captain Pringle (Illawarra Troop)" in the New South Wales Cavalry Regiment who "passed theoretical examinations" 1892.
Coincidentally, Henry Arthur Pringle and Maud may have lived (at least for a time) in this house owned by the MACCABES at Russell Vale. The MacCabes had 14 children, however, so if they were all living at Henry and Maud Pringle may not have cared to stay in the Russell Vale house for long – as there may not have been a great deal of room.
The eldest son Henry Osborne MacCabe was born on the 18th November 1856. Henry, like his father, was a licensed surveyor and qualified as a mining engineer. He served his apprenticeship in colliery engineering and management in England during the late 1870s He took over control of the Russell Vale mine from his father in 1883 where he stayed for 14 years.
He was a member of both North Illawarra and Wollongong Councils, serving two terms as Mayor of the latter. He was also a Harbour Trust Commissioner and commanded the South Coast military forces.
He married Marion, the daughter of R.T. "Dean" Ewing and had one son and two daughters.
He was a leader of the rescue effort at the Bulli Mine disaster in 1887 and it is reported that he was the first rescuer to go into the pit.
When the explosion occurred at the Mt Kembla mine on 31 July 1902, Henry was one of the first to volunteer his services in the rescue operation. Unfortunately he was one of two rescuers who lost their lives in an attempt to free the trapped men.
POSTSCRIPT
It is highly unlikely that a previously unknown album of “family photographs” of Illawarra from the 1880s and 1890s will ever surface again.
At the auction the Mitchell Library was conscientiously bidding to acquire this impossibly rare collection of photographs for the State of NSW.
Bidding started at $2000 and the Library bid as high as $4200. The album finally sold for in excess of $6000 (plus 15% buyers premium).
Fortunately, a good few of the images contained therein are already in Illawarra collections. And there are also a number of sufficiently good variants of many images that, while not exactly the same as those from the album, depict similar locations in the period 1900-1910.
The thing which appeared very special to me about the album, however, were the three early images of Corrimal mine and the tents surrounding it. These were the photos that were probably most significant in terms of adding to our knowledge of Illawarra’s early mining history. They may actually have been taken by the MacCabe family prior to 1889.
There was also one fabulous image of a grand – but still pretty ramshackle and rough shod – home at Mount Kembla. In my view it is an absolute classic. The finest late 19th century photo of an Illawarra house I reckon. The roofline is to die for. It's up there with Hoddle's 1830s watercolour of Henry Osborne's "Pumpkin Cottage".
OTHER IMAGES OF HIGH SIGNIFICANCE
Although six images were reproduced in the article by Michelle Hoctor in the Illawarra Mercury of the 25th June, 2011 (p. 9) these additional images were very memorable from the quick glance I was given of the album minutes before the auction.
(1) Austinmer jetty image taken from the south (looking north) – best image of the jetty in existence (clear, close-up and detailed). Fortunately, the Illawarra Museum possesses a very fine detailed scale model of the Austinmer Jetty which is not only an incredible piece of ultra-skilled woodwork but also a genuine work of art!
(2) Very early image of the cliffs and road near today’s Sea Cliff Bridge (looking north) - others exist, of course, but this one was quiet charming.
(3) Extraordinary images of the “staff quarters” when Corrimal mine was just starting – the “staff quarters” are simple small camping tents and seem little different to the tents used by railway fettlers working on the construction and maintenance of the Illawarra rail line in the 1880s and 1890s. Margaret Cairns Terry (who was present at the auction) said there was once an image (which seems to have been lost) of a tent in a similar location with “Bank of NSW “written across it. Mobile lending and banking obviously came very early to Corrimal!
(4) Two early image of Nudgia - the still extant house at Unanderra built for William Warren Jenkins.
(5) Probably the earliest image of what is today Railway Street Corrimal (looking west to Brokers Nose). Today’s Railway Street was then not much more than a narrow earthen track in the grass.
(6) A clear bright image of Captain Henry Pringle on a very handsome stallion (it appeared, from my limited knowledge, to be an Australian “whaler”). Margaret Cairns Terry said Pringle was a fine judge of horse-flesh and also won many riding competitions and this fits in with what we now know about his showing pit ponies in competition at the 1890 Wollongong Show.
(7) There is another image of an attractive unidentified woman sitting on an expensive-looking side-saddle – with an equally fine horse beneath her.
(8) An exceptional image of structure carrying a mine tramway (And looking a some sort of stranded inland jetty built up high towards the east and appearing to enter the mine at Corrimal to the west.
(9) Some images of men Gold Prospecting somewhere in central NSW.
(10) Images of camels in what appears to be Western Australia.
(11) Also some images of a town and showground which may be of places in Rhodesia (today’s Zimbabwe) to where Pringle travelled after leaving Corrimal.
(12) An image of the MacCabe house at “Russell Vale”
(13) An image of members of the “Ewing family”. Henry O MACCABE (the mine rescue hero) had married Marion, the daughter of RT "Dean" Ewing and had one son and two daughters.
14) An image of a lovely Australian colonial homestead “Under Mount Kembla”.
15) An image of a horse and some people enjoying a picnic – probably near Corrimal with the inscription: “Black Curly [?], HAP [Henry Arthur Pringle], C Owen [could it be P(ercy) Owen?], Maud [and one illegible last word – presumably someone’s name]”
(16) An image of seven people having a “picnic at Corrimal Colliery 1890”
(17) An image caption: “Proving the coal.” A fine image of precisely how to demonstrate that lots of coal is present without actually digging a deep mine. It includes 3 mine workers who presumably did the digging and two overseers – probably Pringle himself and the Mine Deputy.
Joseph Davis, 30 June 2011