Nellie Cathrew Fetherstonhaugh 1858-1925

*  *  *  Photographs as named in the Fetherstonhaugh Family Album  *  *  *

To me these two photos look like the same woman with the one on the right some years older, however, the names written in the album say one is Mrs C Fetherstonhaugh neé Cathrew and the other Mrs Cathrew, so maybe the older one is the younger one’s mother? The only thing in both photos that looks similar is the ring on the ring finger of the right hand, I can’t tell for sure as it isn’t that clear but they do look very alike.

What I do know is that Ellen Cathrew was born about 1858, the daughter of Allen Foster Cathrew & his wife Mary (maiden name unknown) of Ballinagore, Westmeath. This shows up in the newspaper report of her marriage in Australia in 1891 to Charles second son of the late William Fetherstonhaugh of Grouse Lodge, Westmeath in Ireland:-

I’ve written about Charles previously on this page but at that stage hadn’t realised the above photo was of his wife because I’d originally thought the surname was Catheen, thanks to Maureen I realised that it was Cathrew as she suggested. I’d also noticed the two photographs were taken in Italy so hadn’t really taken much notice of them at the time. Since then I was searching on the Australian newspapers website Trove and in the process was linked through to the NSW State Archives where they hold this photograph of Charles, he’s much older than in the photographs I have of him so it’s hard to tell if they are the same person, one of my photos was unnamed and the other one just said ‘C F h’ but it was with the few that said they were from Grouse Lodge, which is where Charles was born:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© State of New South Wales through the State Records Authority of NSW 2016

 

Although the stands are different in the two photos the curtains are the same and obviously taken a few years apart, the earlier photo looks like an altar boy outfit and perhaps the other one was taken as he was about to head off to boarding school. The photo from the archives is available to copy under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.

Charles and Nellie had only one son, Cuthbert Foster Fetherstonhaugh 1892-1937. He was on active duty during WWI when his father passed away suddenly at the age of 63 at  his residence in Ferguson St, Williamstown, Victoria:-

 

Soon after he was named on the list of deceased practitioners and removed from the Register.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wife Nellie died and was buried on 25 Sep 1925 in the Williamstown Cemetery alongside her husband of 26 years.

Their son, Cuthbert Foster, was wounded in the foot in 1915 and possibly sent to England to recuperate, while he was there he was married, in Sussex, to his cousin, Dorothy Frances Fetherstonhaugh, daughter of Charles’ brother Arthur. After the war they moved back to Australia where they had two children.

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Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz