William Albert Kessell (1878 - 1954)

William Albert Kessell was known in Bunbury as a classical singer who also organised the carol singing on Christmas Eve at the Bunbury Hospital for many years. He often sang for charitable causes and was quoted as saying

“Wherever I travel, I sing for any creed, colour or nationality.” (reference)

Early Life

William was born in Sandhurst, Victoria (now Bendigo) to John and Ann Kesell in 1878. His parents immigrated to Australia in the 1850s and he was the third youngest of eight children (reference, reference). His mother was also a singer and as a young girl had sung in front of Queen Victoria at Westminster Abbey (reference). William was a tenor and his range spanned two octaves. He developed an interest in singing early in his life and later recalled when told that smoking and singing do not go together, he gave up smoking and never took it up again (reference). The earliest mention of William singing is in 1892, when he was 14 years old and sang for an event put on by the Total Abstinence Society  (reference).

In Bendigo, William worked in the gold processing industry and taught Sunday School on the weekends (reference, reference).

The marriage of William’s parents was a troubled one as his father, John, had a violent temper and threatened to injure his mother several times. In January 1899, John did injure his wife badly in reaction to William telling him one of his statements was a lie, in a debate over whether young or old miners were better. He picked up a knife to stab William but attacked Mrs Kessell when she intervened. John had part of his arm amputated and he tried to hit his wife in the head with the steel hook he had inserted on his stub but gashed her arm badly instead. William then went between his parents while his mother and sister ran outside and hit his father while trying to remove the broom. Although his father was found guilty and fined, the Magistrate said that William was also at fault for calling his father a liar and for hitting him. William then wrote a letter to the Bendigo Advertiser explaining that he had told his father the statement was a lie rather than calling him a liar. (reference, reference, reference, reference). On March 24th of that year, William left to come to the Western Australian goldfields (reference).

Goldfields

William was in the Goldfields for just over 10 years. During his time there, he joined the Boulder City Brass Band playing the side drum. He also joined the Queen’s Wesley Choir and the Boulder City Orchestra which was conducted by his old Bendigo schoolmate, Mr Ernest Salter. The orchestra acted as Guard of Honor to King George V and Mary, Queen consort, when they visited Australia in 1902. The King also had them play for him afterwards by special request and Mr Kessell and his wife personally met the royal couple at a reception in Boulder. The same year, the band also won the National Band Contest in Sydney (reference, reference).

Boyanup

William and his wife left the goldfields in 1911 and moved to Boyanup where his wife’s parents and family lived (reference).  He bought a small farm and became an orchardist. He was welcomed by the small community because, as the headmaster of the school said when proposing a toast to Mr Kessell shortly after he arrived:

“Boyanup like the rest of Western Australia was in need of population, and this gentleman had also brought his wife and family to the district.”  (reference, reference).

It wasn’t long before William was singing in his new home beginning with the Boyanup Ambulance Corps anniversary in 1912 (reference). That year, he also sang at numerous functions both solo and in duets with his brother in law, his wife and as part of a septette glee party (reference, reference, reference, reference). 

Over the next few years, Mr  Kessell  sang at many community functions both in Boyanup and Donnybrook (reference, reference, reference, reference). He was also a member of the Methodist Church Choir in Donnybrook and was a lead character in the musical “Esther” when they performed it in 1916 (reference). 

As well as singing, Mr Kessell was also on the Boyanup Ambulance Committee and collected funds for them  (reference).

In 1918, even though he was 40 years old and had a growing family, Mr Kessell tried to enlist for service when there was a need for extra soldiers. However, he and several others were pronounced unfit for service (reference, reference).

Unfortunately while the family was in Boyanup, Mrs Kessell became ill soon after after the birth of her last child and passed away in 1922 at the age of 41 (reference, reference). With his eldest daughter recently married, William was left to care for the younger five children including their four month old baby Gerald and five year old Connie (reference, reference).

The following year, Mr Kessell sold the orchard in Boyanup and moved to Bunbury (reference). The baby initially stayed in Boyanup with either the eldest daughter, Doreen or Mrs Kessell’s family (reference).

Bunbury

In Bunbury, the Kessell family lived in White Road for the first year then moved to Moore Street in 1924  (reference, reference). 

Business

To begin with, Mr Kessell was an itinerant trader, selling groceries and cakes from a cart which he also used as a delivery service. He ran this business until 1930 when he was charged with 

“exposing food for sale in a public place without being registered with the local authority.”

Although he argued that his cart was registered as a shop under the Shops and Factories Act and the bakers in the town essentially did the same, he was found guilty and fined ₤2 plus costs of ₤2 12s 4d. (reference, reference). The following year,  William went bankrupt (reference).

By 1933, the Kessell family had moved to Stockley Road and at Christmas, William was visited by his older brother Walter who had driven over from Queensland. They had last seen each other in 1904 on the goldfields before Walter went to South Africa. (reference, reference, reference). Walter was a cobbler by trade and must have encouraged William to learn while he was in Bunbury because from 1937 onward, Mr Kessell advertised himself as “The Shoeman” and worked from his home (reference). William cycled when he picked up and delivered shoes  carrying them in a case that rested on the handlebars (reference). 

William was still carrying on the cobbling business in 1953, at the age of 74 and the year before he died, and was still cycling to deliver mended shoes. He also still had the same case across the handlebars of which the South Western Times said: 

“Almost as well-known as Mr  Kessell is the case containing mended shoes which rests on the handlebars of his bike. Young men and women of Bunbury can recall Mr. Kessell having the same case when they were still children” (reference).

Community

William Kessell was considerably active in the Bunbury community considering he was a single father of small children in the early years.

In 1926, he represented the Bunbury Nursing Association in the Labour Day parade dressed, as was reported:

 “in a nurse's costume, on the road to anywhere with a pram” (reference).

As such, he solicited donations and practical help for the association from onlookers.(reference)

In 1929, Mr Kessell chaired a meeting of local representatives that was convened by the local branch of the Australian Labor Party to coordinate and organise the Labor Day procession and celebrations to benefit charities in the district (reference).

William  was a vice patron of the Bunbury Women’s Hockey Association and each Saturday he would provide chewing gum and oranges for the players at half time (reference, reference). He was also concerned that there should be an ambulance kit on the grounds and donated one guinea to start a fund towards providing one (reference).

He was a dedicated member of  the Church of Christ and Sundays were his favorite day. In his latter years he was the doorman at church, a position which he described in the South Western Times:

"It is my job to welcome people to our church and to introduce newcomers to our pastor. As a doorman I meet all sorts of people, many of them from other parts of the world" (reference).

He also quite often sang in the Congregational Church and in 1940, he represented the Church of Christ at a reception to welcome the new Congregational Minister (reference, reference, reference, reference).

On Sunday afternoons, Mr Kessell would visit those sick or in hospital or others that were generally suffering hardship just to talk with them as he knew what it was to go through bad times. When asked what helped him through those times, William replied that his love of music helped him (reference). 

Music played a big part in Mr Kessel’s contribution to the people of Bunbury. He sang at many different community events either solo or as part of a group or choir (reference, reference, reference). Over the years, he was also a member of the Bunbury Choral Society, the Glee Men’s Club and the Bunbury Operatic Society (reference).

Perhaps the help that music gave William in tough times is what led him to organise the annual carol singing at the Bunbury Hospital which became his most well known contribution to the community. William was on the Bunbury Districts Hospital Committee and starting in 1943, he organised a choir each year to sing carols on the balcony of the Bunbury Hospital at Christmas. The first Carol singing was done by a combined church choir and was held at 3 o’clock in the afternoon on Christmas Day (reference). In following  years, it was held at 8 o’clock on Christmas night and speakers were used to amplify the sound so it could be heard by patients at the St. John of God and Stirling Hospitals as well (reference, reference). By 1946, the choir became open for anyone interested to join (reference) The carol singing was not only enjoyed by hospital patients but by a large crowd at first then  growing to thousands  of people who gathered in Anzac Gardens and surrounds to listen and sing along (reference, reference).

Personal

Mr Kessell didn’t seem to have a great deal of personal interests apart from those that he shared with others. Fishing, the South Western Times reported, was his choice method of relaxing:

“A great believer in the adage concerning all work and no play, Mr. Kessell likes to play truant from his shoe repairing from time to time, and often, when the weather is fine, he goes off for a day's fishing” (reference).

Mr Kessell moved in with his daughter in his last years but he stayed fit and kept working until the year before he died (reference). He attended the carol singing at Christmas in 1953 but in January 1954 he became ill and was hospitalized (reference). William never recovered from this illness and was still in hospital in June when his son, Gerald, came from Geraldton to visit him. He died there in October 1954. The Mayor, Mr Withers, remembered him as the originator of the carol singing on the following Christmas night and expressed how sad it was that Mr Kessell had passed (reference).

Family

Mrs Kessell

Mrs Kessell was born Sophia Dakin Bryce in 1881 at Elmore, Victoria (reference). Her parents were farmers in Elmore but the year after Sophia was born, they sold the farm and moved to Eaglehawk which was very close to where William grew up (reference). Sophie’s father, James, was employed as a Shops and Factories inspector at  Eaglehawk and then later ran a produce store (reference, reference). He was also a prize winning horticulturist and won many prizes for flowers in the Bendigo Spring Shows and the Eaglehawk Horticultural Society’s Shows (reference, reference, reference, reference. reference). His love of horticulture was evident when the family property in Eaglehawk was put up for sale in 1882 with greenhouses and pot plants included (reference). The family then moved from Eaglehawk to a substantial house plus 127 acres in Marong Road (reference). 

Sophia probably came to Western Australia just before she married William in 1901 as her address was given as Bendigo Victoria in the marriage announcement suggesting that she just recently arrived (reference). She may have come to help her older sister, Mrs Mary Stephens, who was already living in Coolgardie and had a baby in 1900 or she may have known William from Victoria (reference). 

In 1902,  Sophia’s parents sold up and followed their daughters to  the Western Australian goldfields (reference). They however didn’t stay long and moved to Boyanup where they took up farming and where William and his wife later joined them (reference). 

Sophia’s family was musical and Sophia sometimes sang with William (reference). She also  joined in the social life at Boyanup, going to events, dressing up in fancy dress and  playing euchre. Unfortunately, as mentioned above,  Sophia died in 1922 when her youngest child was just 4 months old (reference, reference). Mr Kessell never remarried.

Children

Sophia and William Kessell had six children: Doreen Thelma (b. 1902); Mona Jean (b. 1907); Roy Alan William (b. 1912); Joan Marie (b. 1915); Constance Bryca (b. 1917); and Gerald (b. 1922)

Doreen Thelma Kessell

Doreen was born in Kamballie near Kalgoorlie and was educated at Boyanup State School (reference, reference). She met her future husband, Claude Gardiner, at the Boyanup hotel just after he had returned home from serving in World War 1.  They married in 1922 and Claude farmed near Boyanup until 1938. Claude also served in the RAAF in World War 2. He was initially a cook stationed at Pearce airbase but later was part of the Commonwealth Contingent in Japan, where he acquired radiation sickness. Doreen and Claude had six children - three girls and three boys. Doreen died in Bunbury in 1985 at the age of eighty two (reference, reference, reference).

Mona Jean Kessell

Mona was born in Boulder and grew up in Boyanup and Bunbury. She married Frank Pearce from Bunbury. In his old age, Mr Kessell lived with Frank and Mona in Jarrah Street.  He had a small workshop there in which he mended shoes (reference). Mona and Frank had one son who died in infancy (reference, reference). Mona died in 1980 at the age of seventy two in Subiaco (reference).

Roy Allen William Kessell

Roy was the first of the children to be born in Boyanup and was only 10 years old when the family went to Bunbury. Roy was a sportsperson. He played football with the Railways Football Club and was a cyclist with the South Bunbury Cycling Club (reference, reference). Roy married Kathleen (Molly) Leo whose family was from the Warren area (reference, reference). Roy and family moved to Dardanup in the 1950s and bought a butcher’s shop in the town (reference). They had two children - a boy and a girl. Their son Brian had his 21st birthday a month before William Kessell died (reference).

Joan Marie Kessell

Joan mostly grew up in Bunbury and was educated at Bunbury High School. She played basketball and was selected to go to Perth to represent Bunbury  (reference, reference). Joan married James Monaghan in 1934 (reference). James’ father ran the Orient Hotel in Fremantle and James followed his father into the hotel business as he and Joan ran the Holtern’s Hotel in Narrogin for some time before moving to Albany (reference, reference).  Joan and James had seven children - six boys and one girl (reference). 

Constance (Connie) Bryce Kessell 

Connie mostly grew up in Bunbury.  She was educated at the state schools and was in the top three of her fifth year  in high school (reference). She married Frederick Johnston in 1939 and they lived in George Street. They had at least one son (reference, reference).

Gerald (Gerry) Arthur Kessell

Gerald grew up in Bunbury and was educated at Bunbury High School (reference). He served in World War 1 as a warrant Officer with the Australian Air Force and was stationed in England (reference). After the war, Gerald joined the Railway Department. He and his wife, Bertie, were living in West Midland when their son and daughter were born ( reference, reference).  They later moved to Geraldton (reference, reference).