Talgai West

Uncle Roy and Aunt Maida were married in Toowoomba on Wednesday, September 1, 1920, and a full account of the event appeared in the social pages of the following morning’s Brisbane Courier (p. 11): “An interesting wedding was celebrated at St. James’ Church, Toowoomba, yesterday morning [September 1], the Rev. A. Davies officiating. The bride, Miss Maida Dowling, is the second daughter of the late Mr. Aubin Dowling (Talgai West) and Mrs. Dowling (Toowoomba)”. Talgai West (above), formerly Ellenthorpe, belonged to the Scottish Australian Investment Company, and Aubin Dowling was its manager. Maida and her sister were born there. In his The Garden of Queensland: Darling Downs (Toowoomba: J. H. Robertson & Co., 1899, p. 42) George Essex Evans described Mr. Dowling as “a prince of managers.” The run consisted of 22,000 acres, about half rolling downs, and the other half lightly timbered loamy ridges. It carried about 1,000 cattle, 70 horses, and 12,000 sheep, chiefly studs, and was purchased by the company for supplying their vast western stations with flock rams. Aubin Dowling originally brought the sheep from Tasmania, where on September 4, 1849, he was born at Campbelltown, the son of John Leonard Dowling, grazier of Ellerslie, Fairfield, and Cecilia Ann, the daughter of Major Thomas Daunt Lord. “The bridegroom, Lieut. Roy Pearson, M.C.,” continued the Brisbane Courier, “is the only son by the late Hon. William Pearson and Mrs. Pearson (Kilmeny [sic] Park, Sale, Victoria). The church was decorated by the girl friends of the bride with a profusion of spring flowers. The bride, who was given away by Mr. Clarke (Talgai), wore a simply cut gown of ivory satin, with overdress of old Limerick lace. A bridal veil of Limerick, lent by Mrs. Tyrwhit, was also worn, and was held in place by a wreath of orange blossom. The bridal bouquet was set in an old-fashioned silver holder. Miss Marjorie Dowling (the bride’s sister, was bridesmaid, and wore a frock of lemon coloured georgette, and a hat of coarse straw in the same shade, set with French posies. Miss Dorothea Walker (the bride’s niece [presumably a daughter of Maida’s half-sister Dorothea; Mr. Dowling evidently married twice]) was also in attendance, wearing a frilled frock of lemon georgette, and small hat with ribbon streamers in a darker shade. They each carried a bouquet tied with the bridegroom’s regimental colours. The bridegroom, who was attended by Colonel Crowther, D.S.O., wore the uniform of the King’s Own Yorkshire Mounted [sic] Infantry, to which regiment he was attached during the war. After the ceremony, Mrs. Dowling entertained the wedding party, which was confined to relatives and a few intimate friends, at tea at the Western Hotel, Toowoomba, where bowls of stock and sweet peas decorated the tables. On leaving for the South, en route to Europe, Mrs. Pearson wore a coat and skirt of fine navy blue serge, and a toque of black straw touched with gold.” I wonder how Uncle Roy earned that Military Cross, to which I have never seen any other printed reference.