Larry (Laurence Lee) Phillips
FatherJohn Phillips b. 25 Jul 1863, d. 6 Aug 1925
MotherEllen O'Loughlin b. 26 Mar 1869, d. 24 Jun 1951
Pedigree

Birth, Death, Marriage

Laurence Lee Phillips was born on 17 January 1892 in Lillimur, Victoria.1,2 
He married Ruby Barnes, daughter of George Barnes and Mary Jane Cook, in 1914 in Lake Boga, Victoria.3,4 
He died on 6 January 1970 in Shepparton, Victoria, at age 77.3 

Family

Ruby Barnes b. 1894, d. 1965
Children
ChartsO'Loughlin, Michael, descendant chart
Phillips, James, descendant chart

Story

The oldest of ten children, Larry Phillips spent most of his childhood in Bacchus Marsh. He was a hairdresser for all of his working life, and was also an SP bookie. He worked in Bacchus Marsh, Lake Boga and Swan Hill. With wife Ruby, he had two sons. Larry died aged 77 while living in his brother Tom's Hotel Australia in Shepparton.
 
Laurence Lee was born in Lillimur in western Victoria on 17 January 1892. He was the oldest child of Ellen and John. Unusually, he has the same birthday as two single-birth siblings, Joe and Eileen. He was known as Larry.

When Larry was born, his father worked for the railways around Nhill, and they likely lived in a railway house in Lillimur.

At age five, he moved with the family to likely another railway house in Bacchus Marsh. All of the children attended St Bernard's school or St Joseph's Convent school.5,2
 
In 1890 four sisters of the order of St Joseph's, arrived from Sydney to act as educators. A house was purchased for them to use as a convent and high class ladies' school. In time, a detached schoolhouse was erected at the site and it was then that the students were relocated for the last time to our current site in Gisborne Rd - St Bernard's School.

Our beautiful convent was erected in 1900 with classes being held in the downstairs area and the upper floor being used as convent and boarding school. The attached chapel was built in 1905.

St Bernard's was the first Catholic school to be run by the Sisters of St Joseph, founded by Saint Mary MacKillop. Mary would often visit the convent on her journeys between Sydney and Melbourne and past students fondly remembered her handing out boiled lollies to the children.6
 
Drawing book 1st prize: It seems young Larry had an artistic flair. In the Bacchus Marsh show of October 1902, Master Laurence Phillips received first prize in the category 'Drawing book by boy or girl not over 11'. To prove that he was no flash in the pan, Larry repeated the result the following year. Two years later, he came second to Queenie Cowan.7,8,9
 
In 1908, the family moved into the gatehouse on Vallence Rd.10,11
 
The gatehouse was next to the railway line on the north-east corner of the Vallence Rd crossing (this crossing was removed in 2004). It was a small four-roomed house, and the older boys slept in a tent in the back yard.

The children would play with any children nearby or who were known through school or St Bernard's church. There was a strong connection with all the Vallence families with a number living nearby including Nell, Eddie, Amy and Harry, who were just over the railway line. Lifelong friendships were known between the Phillips children and Vallences. And Mary married Bill Vallence.

The wide age range of the children, nineteen years to the day between the eldest and youngest, created an interesting household. Larry was working as a hairdresser before Eileen was born. He married when Eileen was just three, and made her Auntie Eileen at age four, before she started school.

During and following the First World War, the children gradually started leaving home.

Larry was first to leave the gatehouse, around 1914. About five years later he was followed by Tess and Tom. Last to leave home from the gatehouse was Mary in 1923.12,13,14
 
Larry was a hairdresser all his life. He was also an SP (starting price) bookmaker, an activity also taken up by his brothers Tom, Jack, Joe and Danny.

By age 18, he was running his own barber shop in Bacchus Marsh. A valuation of rateable properties in the Bacchus Marsh shire shows Larry in a shop in Grant St in August 1910.15,16,17
 
In memoirs of growing up in the Marsh, Eddie 'Darkie' Hehir mentions Larry when talking of the dairy near the Maddingly bridge on the site of the current swimming pool:
When the milk factory was operating at the bridge, there was a barber's shop over there next to the factory. A bloke named Larry Phillips ran it. A lot of the cockies would stop for a haircut or shave when they took the milk in.18

 
Marriage and Family
Ruby Barnes and Larry Phillips were married in Lake Boga, Victoria in 1914. They had two children between 1915 and 1923.3,4
 
At the time they married, Larry was a hairdresser in Lake Boga, where he continued until the late 1920s.19,20,21,22
 
From the late 1920s until the mid to late 1960s, Larry was a hairdresser in Swan Hill.23,24,25,26
Image: Sporting Globe
Larry and Ruby's two sons, Laurie and Allan, both served in the Second World War.
Larry (Laurence Lee), Allan, Laurie (Laurence Henry) & Ruby Phillips (Barnes)
The first grandchild was Julie Kaye. Second grandchild Trevor, stayed with Larry and Ruby in Swan Hill when he was 15, and again when he was 21.27
Julie Kaye, Larry (Laurence Lee), Ellen (O'Loughlin) & Laurie (Laurence Henry) Phillips
Around 1965 when Ruby died, Larry gave up hairdressing. He was approaching 70, left the family home and starting living in pubs.27
 
In 1969, he lived in room 17 at his brother Tom's Hotel Australia in Shepparton. Nephew Don had a venture with coin operated billiard tables and jukeboxes. Larry, and Don's wife Marion, used to drive all over the countryside collecting the money.28,29,30
 
Laurence Lee Phillips died of heart attack at the Hotel Australia in Shepparton on 6 January 1970, aged 77. He was buried at Swan Hill cemetery on 8 January.3
 

Citations

  1. [S31] Eileen Redden, personal communication, 10 March 1996.
  2. [S270] Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, registry and index, Laurence Lee Phillips entry, birth registration no. 5562, 1892.
  3. [S397] Laurence Lee Phillips, death registration no. 6193, 6 January 1970.
  4. [S270] Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, registry and index, 'Laurence' Phillips and Ruby Barnes entry, marriage registration no. 3736, 1914.
  5. [S318] Bacchus Marsh & District Historical Society, personal communication, 3 November 2013.
  6. [S2] 'History', St Bernard's Parish Primary School, online, St Bernard's Parish Primary School, Bacchus Marsh, August 2021, viewed 12 September 2021.
  7. [S276] 'Bacchus Marsh Show', Bacchus Marsh Express, 1857-1983, newspaper, Christopher Crisp & George Land, 25 October 1902, p. 4, viewed 5 November 2013, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/90580402
  8. [S276] 'Bacchus Marsh Show', Bacchus Marsh Express, 1857-1983, newspaper, Christopher Crisp & George Land, 7 November 1903, p. 4, viewed 5 November 2013, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/90581736
  9. [S276] 'The Bacchus Marsh Show: Educational', Bacchus Marsh Express, 1857-1983, newspaper, Christopher Crisp & George Land, 28 October 1905, p. 3, viewed 4 April 2020, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/90166635
  10. [S392] Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, online, division of Corio, subdivision of Bacchus Marsh, 1908.
  11. [S1] Ellen has two electoral roll entries for 1908, one as homeduties in Bacchus Marsh and one as gatewoman in Maddingley, so we have assumed this is the year she started work as a gatewoman.
  12. [S331] Joan McClure, personal communication, 11 December 2013.
  13. [S38] Lynette Dow, personal communication, 18 December 1996.
  14. [S318] Bacchus Marsh & District Historical Society, personal communication, 8 November 2013.
  15. [S31] Eileen Redden, personal communication, 18 March 1996.
  16. [S61] Beverley Scott, personal communication, 12 July 1996.
  17. [S276] 'Shire of Bacchus Marsh: Bacchus Marsh riding', Bacchus Marsh Express, 1857-1983, newspaper, Christopher Crisp & George Land, 20 August 1910, p. 4, viewed 3 November 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article90171229
  18. [S287] 'Eddie "Darkie" Hehir', Bacchus Marsh by Bacchus Marsh: An anecdotal history, Shire of Bacchus Marsh in conjunction with Hargreen Publishing Company, North Melbourne, 1986, p. 61.
  19. [S392] Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, online, Commonwealth division of Wimmera, Victorian division of Swan Hill, subdivision of Swan Hill, 1914.
  20. [S392] Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, online, Commonwealth division of Wimmera, Victorian division of Swan Hill, subdivision of Swan Hill, 1919.
  21. [S392] Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, online, division of Wimmera, subdivision of Swan Hill, 1921.
  22. [S392] Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, online, Commonwealth division of Wimmera, Victorian division of Swan hill, subdivision of Swan Hill, 1924.
  23. [S392] Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, online, Commonwealth division of Wimmera, Victorian division of Swan hill, subdivision of Swan Hill, 1931.
  24. [S392] Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, online, Commonwealth division of Wimmera, Victorian division of Swan hill, subdivision of Swan Hill, 1936.
  25. [S392] Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, online, Commonwealth division of Wimmera, Victorian division of Swan hill, subdivision of Swan Hill, 1942.
  26. [S392] Australia, Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, online, division of Mallee, subdivision of Swan Hill, 1954.
  27. [S193] Trevor L Phillips, personal communication, 24 September 2004.
  28. [S215] Trevor J Phillips, personal communication, 24 June 2014.
  29. [S102] Jack Phillips, personal communication, 2 March 2013.
  30. [S264] Don Phillips, personal communication, 28 June 2015.