Welcome (Home)
UK Family Origins
Introduction
In The Beginning
Penn Parish Records
Manorial Records
Stonehouse
Watercroft
Grove Graves in the UK
Sir George Grove
Letter Extracts
Family Tree
Groves in America
Introduction to America
The American Adventure
Groves in Australia
Introduction to Australia
The Australian Family
Acknowledgements
Author and Researchers
Technical
After she returned to England from America in 1892, Isabel (Tiny) Grove lived at Fawley Bottom Farm on the Stonor Estate where her father, George Dodd had resumed farming. In 1900 the family consisted of George Dodd and his wife, and their children Mary Agnes aged 25, Grace Mary 22, Isabel 19 and George Joseph aged 11. By 1901 Mary Agnes and Grace Mary both had employment away from home. After her mother died in 1908, Isabel (Tiny) kept house for her father and brother, George Dodd and George Joseph. In 1912 she married Joseph (Joe) Grant in the chapel of Stonor House. Joe was the son of Frank Grant, originally of Bix Bottom (also part of the Stonor Estate) the family subsequently moved and leased Coxlease Farm in 1915, the farm next door to Fawley Bottom.
Coxlease Farm in 2003
View from farm over Buckinghamshire countryside
On his marriage Joe Grant took over the lease of Fawley Bottom (see picture in In the Beginning) and managed the farm, although George Dodd continued to live there. The couple's four children, Josephine, Angela, Peter and Teresa were born at Fawley Bottom, and christened in Stonor Park Chapel, scene of many family weddings and christenings.
Stonor House with the Chapel on the right, where many Grove family weddings and christenings have taken place
Stonor Park Chapel
Both Joe and his brother-in-law George Grove were members of the Yeomanry Regiment, the Queen's own Oxfordshire Hussars, the Q.O.O.H (known as 'Queer Objects on horseback'!), and at the outbreak of war were quickly called to the colours. Joe became a sergeant major and was wounded in France. After the war, Joseph Grant returned to farming, but became very disillusioned with the prospects for farming in England.
Isabel and Joe Grant with Josephine, Peter, Angela and Teresa shortly before emigrating
Joe decided to emigrate to Australia to join his farming brother Frank who lived at Mulwala near Yarrawonga, Victoria and would provide the sponsorship required to allow the family to enter the country. Isabel was reluctant and thought Australia would be just like America "hot and dusty with flies everywhere". Despite her misgivings, the Grant family sailed on S.S Beltana, via the Cape to Sydney, on an assisted passage, a concession available to Joe as a former soldier. Isabel, Joe and the children spent Christmas 1921 at sea, arriving at Sydney on 9th January 1922.
Christmas 1921 greetings to passengers from the crew of S S Beltana
The family travelled by train to Mulawa where they settled. Joe took up share farming and the children grew up on the farm. Writing about their arrival, Angela says: "It was all very strange, so hot and dry. The trees seemed so big and birds like kookaburras so different from those in England, and those goannas gave us the creeps! Pop built our first house in a paddock known as Selection, and bought a team of horses and farm implements, and started to grow wheat. It was a wonderful life out there in the bush. We ran around bare-footed and carefree, although sometimes it was so hot and dusty, we stayed inside all day with Ma. We couldn't go to school, but had correspondence lessons sent each week from Sydney and did quite well. Ma kept us at it!"
Isabel with her daughter Teresa
Peter went to the Christian Brothers in Albury for his secondary schooling. Teresa also went to boarding school and trained as a domestic science teacher. Josephine and Angela continued to be educated by correspondence. Isabel seems to have been 'homesick' for England all her life, and waited eagerly for letters from the family she had left behind.
Teresa and Josephine Grant
Angela and Teresa with their horses
On leaving school, Peter took up farming with his father and also joined the C.M.F Light Horse regiment. Josephine was in domestic service in Yarrawonga, Angela married Dave Meloury and lived in Wangarratta and Teresa was a teacher with the Victorian Education Department. At outbreak of war, Peter joined the 8th Light Horse and on 30th January l942 he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (who were recruiting from the Light Horse) in Melbourne.
Peter with his mother Isabel Grant before leaving Australia for duty in the UK
Flying Officer Peter Grant in the UK
After his initial training, he was posted to 2 Air Observer School, later becoming a pilot officer. He was posted to England in 1943 and enjoyed the chance to visit Coxlease, Fawley Bottom and Cray's Pond and to meet members of the Grant family as well as his cousins, the Battys. He became a Flying Officer in April l943. Tragedy struck on the 29th December when his Lancaster was brought down during a raid on Berlin. Reported as missing, he was later presumed dead. Peter is commemorated on the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour at Canberra and also the Runnymede Missing Memorial in the UK. Peter corresponded with his mother and sisters regularly during his wartime service, and the letters were preserved by his sister Josephine and later in 1993 published as a book 'Letters to Jo', edited by his niece-in-law, Bernadette Trotter. His sister Angela wrote a moving poem To my brother as a tribute to him.
The Memorial Roll of Honour in Canberra with poppies placed in memory of Peter Grant by Jane Smith and Ann Gomar in November 2000
The Grant sisters all married Australians. In 1942 the late Josephine married George Trotter in Hobart, where he served with the Army in the Signal Corps. The couple had 7 children.
George and Josephine Trotter
George and Josephine's bungalow in Tasmania
Josephine with her children, Peter, Cathy and Arthur
Josephine with her sister Teresa and children, Peter, Cathy and Arthur
The late Angela married the late David Meloury in 1938 and had 10 children. Angela wrote an interesting handwritten account, illustrated with photographs, of her life 'Memories of a Lifetime' in two volumes. Teresa married Fred Gray in 1960, and had 3 children. Teresa and Fred recently moved from Cohuna to Leongatha, Victoria to be nearer their family.
Today the family started by Isabel Grove and her husband Joe Grant is extensive and successful, its members can be found in Hobart, Melbourne and all around the east coast of Australia.
Isabel and Joe Grant in later life
Isabel died in 1964 aged 83 and Joe Grant in 1961 aged 73 in Yarrawonga, where they are both buried.
The Australian branch of the family are joined by Jane Smith - grand-daughter of Grace Mary Batty (nee Grove). She left England in 1971 to teach Home Economics in Sydney. In 1973 she married Australian Tom Smith, had two children and in 2003 retired with him to the Gold Coast of Queensland.
Granddaughter of Grace Mary Batty, Yvonne Ford lived in the Blue Mountains for some years. Yvonne with her daughter Katje returned to England some time ago and now lives in Somerset. Yvonne's children, Debbie, Derek and Tim Uren all live in Queensland.