Susan Georgina Gormon Bourke

#31, (5 July 1881-7 June 1924)
FatherMichael Bourke (23 Jun 1847-27 Nov 1883)
MotherSusannah Alletta Nicholson (16 May 1850-31 Aug 1907)
ChartsBourke family - descendants
Brown family - descendants
Miller Family (Scotland) - descendants
Nicholson Family 1 - descendants
Descendents of Patrick Bourke
Four generations
Last Edited18 Dec 2022
WikiTree ID:https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bourke-1677.
     NOTE: The information on this page is my research to date and is subject to change as I become better informed. I very much welcome any corrections or additional info you might have - my email address is at the bottom of this page. Whilst historical facts are not copyright, my writing about these facts are. If you wish to use any text from this site on Ancestry or on any other website, please ask me first - Tim Hill.
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(For a brief history and context on the Bourke family see this page)

Susan was born on Tuesday, 5 July 1881 at the tin mining town of Stannifer, New South Wales. The "Gorman" part of her name comes from her her aunt's married name, as the Gorman's also lived in the district and were also publicans..1 She was the daughter of Michael Bourke and Susannah Alletta Nicholson. Her common name was Susie.

Her father died 27 November 1883 at the age of 36. Susan was aged 2 when this happened. Michael, a publican, died of alcohol poisoning in Sydney in the care of his brother.2 She presumably lived with her mother at the Sydney suburb of Macdonaldtown in May 1888.3

Although there is no evidence that she attended the wedding, her mother Susannah married John Dalgety Thomson in a Wesleyan ceremony at the parsonage 379 King St. on Monday, 7 May 1888 at the Sydney suburb of Newtown. It is likely that at least some of Susannah's children would have chosen to live, at least for a while, with their mother and her new husband. Marie, who was very young when her mother remarried, called herself Marie Thompson on at least one occasion.4. She was 6 years old.5

After five years of widow-hood, their mother remarried a John Thomson on 17 May 1888 when Susan was about six. Mr Thomson was an engineer, and was eight years younger than their mother.

Although their mother's new husband called himself an engineer on his marriage certificate, he was apparently working as a publican within a year. This may have been Susannah's influence, given her family's involvement in the hotel trade. However, the situation is clouded due to how common his name was; in any event, it would seem they spent the next six years moving from pub to pub in Sydney. Nearly three years later on Thursday, 10 December 1891 a John Thomson relinquished the licence to at the Captain Cook Hotel Clyde Street in the Sydney suburb of Millers Point.6 On 23 December 1891 a John Thomson relinquished a colonial wine licence associated with at 341 Oxford Street in the Sydney suburb of Paddington.7

In 1893 a John Thomson was the publican of the Blue Anchor at 176 George Street, in Sydney. It is very likely that this is the John Thomson of our interest.8 John acquired the publican's licence to Trafalgar Hotel in Castelreagh Street, in Sydney, on Thursday, 29 June 1893 on the same day that he relinquished the licence to the Blue Anchor.9 John acquired the publican's licence to the Glasgow Arms at 312 George Street, in Sydney, on Wednesday, 30 August 1893 on the same day that he relinquished the licence to the Trafalgar Hotel.10

The Thompson family were the managers of the Como Hotel, in Como, Sutherland, New South Wales, for at least a year or so circa 1895.
The Como Hotel (photographed 1883-1910?)
(source: National Library of Australia - William Robert Easdown collection - nla.pic-vn3297758)


Her step-father died 16 March 1898 at the aproximate age of 39. Susan was aged 16 when this happened.

Susan attended the wedding of Joseph William Hill and her sister Mary Alberta MacCallum Bourke in a Church of England ceremony at St. Peter's on Monday, 11 February 1901 at the Sydney suburb of Wooloomooloo. They also signed the marriage certificate as witnesses. Both of their fathers had died when they were children. Others who may have attended the wedding include Susannah Alletta Nicholson as mother of the bride and Maria Holmes as mother of the groom.11

Her mother died 31 August 1907 at the age of 57. Susan was aged 26 when this happened. She died of cancer after a 10 week illness..

By 1907 Susie's mother died, and by 1909 Susie was living with her sister Mary and her husband in Manly. In 1913 she was again living with her sister and family. Susan was employed as a typist in 1909.12

She may have attended the wedding of her brother in the marriage of Don Bourke and Ivy Pearl Owens in a Presbyterian ceremony at the house of Eleazar Owens on Tuesday, 11 April 1911 at Mandurama, New South Wales. Don and Ivy went on to have three known children together.13,14 She was living with Joseph William Hill and family at at 'Woniora' 78 Osbourne Road in the Sydney suburb of Manly in 1912. This extended family, which at that time included Mary's sister Susie until she moved to London, were to live in this house until about 1917, when they moved to 58 (now 30) Addison Road, next door to Mary's older brother Don on one side, and their friends the Gahan's on the other. Joe and Mary were to stay in this house for the rest of their lives.15 Susan travelled on 23 May 1914 to London.16 Susan was employed by the NSW Agent-General as a typist at London from 1914 to 1918. More than a dozen letters that she sent to her sister Marie in Sydney throughout the 1st World War have survived, as well as a number of those that she received from her brother Gyle and other soldiers on active duty.

Susie describes wartime England in great detail, and with a keen eye; the zeppelin raids in which her flat is damaged; the rationing and food parcels from Australia; the streets full of soldiers and land army women; and the cold weather of the four winters she spent there. She also notes the declining morale of the Londoners as the war continued and the casualties mounted. As a keen theatre goer she also describes the shows she has seen and the people she visited.

What is most vivid in her writing is the sense of an extended family of relatives and friends that she is central to. They write and visit and go out; she forwards their letters home through her letters to her sister, and their relatives in turn have her distribute letters to the men on active service. There is also much devoted to the goings-on in the office..17

Susan had an excerpt from one of her letters published in the paper on 19 May 1916:
'Miss Bourke, a sister of Mrs. J. W. Hill, of Addison Road, Manly, in one of her letters from London, tells how the Australian soldier keeps his individualitv. 'They don't resemble anyone but themselves, ' she writes, 'and I for one can go through the Anzac Buffet at Horseferry Road and pick out every Englishman in Australian uniform with out talking to him. One of the men tells me that Sir George Reid has gone one better. He went into a hospital ward and picked out all the Australians in bed, which is much harder!18'

Susan lived in 1918 at 26 Regent Square, St. Pancras, London.19

She married James Curry Beatty, son of James Daniel Beatty and Annie Eliza (?), at The Register Office on Friday, 2 August 1918 at St. Pancras, London. She was 37 and her husband James was 25..19 Evidently, soon after Susan returned to Sydney (James returning by troop-ship.)

On Thursday, 2 March 1922 Ivy Nicholson hosted a birthday party for her young son Donald attended by Susan, her sister Mary and her sister-in-law Ivy Bourke.20 Susan and James lived circa March 1924 at at 'Rothsay' in the Sydney suburb of Manly.21

(an unknown value.)21 Her body was interred at the General Cemetery on 7 June 1924 at the Sydney suburb of Manly. On the same day she died.21,22,23

Susan died on 7 June 1924 at at 'Woniora' 58 (now 30) Addison Road in the Sydney suburb of Manly at age 42. Susan had breast cancer for about 18 months, but this had apparently spread to her liver within the last two months.21,24

Timeline

DateEventPlace
Family
Family
1881Birththe tin mining town of Stannifer, New South Wales1
Name-Comm
1909Note memo only CR CR
1909Employment12
1913Occupation-hide25
1914TravelLondon16
1914-1918EmploymentLondon17
1915Occupation-hideLondon26
1916Quotation type 118
1918Residence26 Regent Square, St. Pancras, London19
1918Married Name19
1918MarriageThe Register Office, St. Pancras, London19
Note memo onlySydney
1924Residence at 'Rothsay' in the Sydney suburb of Manly21
1924Note memo only CR CRthe Sydney suburb of Manly21
1924Burial at the General Cemetery in the Sydney suburb of Manly21,22,23
1924Death at 'Woniora' 58 (now 30) Addison Road in the Sydney suburb of Manly21,24

Family

James Curry Beatty (7 Jul 1893-3 Jan 1955)
Child

Citations

  1. [S1] New South Wales, Birth Certificate, Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages 1881 No, 19,252.
  2. [S2] New South Wales, Death Certificate, Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages 1833 No. 1973.
  3. [S3] New South Wales, Marriage Certificate, Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages 1888 No.2731.
  4. Birth certificate, Argyle Hill, 1902 No. 5981
  5. [S3] New South Wales, Marriage Certificate, Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages 1888 No. 2731.
  6. [S268] The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1891 'WATER POLICE LICENSING COURT.', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 11 December, p. 7, viewed 25 September, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13845640
  7. [S641] The Evening News, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1891 'Water Licensing Court.', Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931), 26 December, p. 6, viewed 25 September, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article111990802
  8. [S31] Sand's Directory,NSW, Australia (various dates), 1893 p.883.
  9. [S268] The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1893 'LICENSING COURT.', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 30 June, p. 3, viewed 25 September, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28262848
  10. [S268] The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1893 'WATER POLICE LICENSING COURT.', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 31 August, p. 3, viewed 25 September, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13937470
  11. [S3] New South Wales, Marriage Certificate, Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages 1901 No.424.
  12. [S367] Australia - Electoral Rolls, Division of North Sydney, Subdivision of Manly 1909, p.3, p.37.
  13. [S37] Unknown newspaper,.
  14. [S3] New South Wales, Marriage Certificate, Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages 1911 No.5080.
  15. [S31] Sand's Directory,NSW, Australia (various dates), 1912 p.464 (This house is now demolished, but is perhaps located where 60 Addison Road is now.).
  16. [S338] Ancestry.com.au Ancestry.com, (http://www.ancestry.com.au/) UK Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Original data: Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Inwards Passenger Lists. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA). Series BT26, 1,472 pieces. Class: BT26; Piece: 592; Item 15.
  17. [S204] Letter from Susie Bourke to Marie Hill, 12th October 1915.
  18. [S684] The Richmond River Herald and Norther Districts Advertiser, New South Wales, Australia, 1916 'NEWS AND NOTES.', The Richmond River Herald and Northern Districts Advertiser (NSW : 1886 - 1942), 19 May, p. 1, viewed 1 October, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article125929670
  19. [S242] General Register Office, England - Marriage Certificates, Certified copy of an entry in a Register of Births, District of Pancras Vol 16 page 199 (July-Sept 1918) Entry 111.
  20. [S641] The Evening News, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1922 'For Women.', Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931), 3 March, p. 2, viewed 1 October, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article118869329
  21. [S2] New South Wales, Death Certificate, Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages 1924 No. 9423.
  22. [S268] The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 9th June 1924 p.6.
  23. [S466] Find a Grave (http://www.findagrave.com) http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=146117172&ref=acom.
  24. [S268] The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 9th June 1924 p.5.
  25. [S367] Australia - Electoral Rolls, Division of North Sydney, Subdivision of Manly 1913 p.54.
  26. [S378] The AIF Project (http://www.aif.adfa.edu.au:8080/index.html) http://www.aif.adfa.edu.au:8080/showPerson?pid=27831