James Greenbank's Family

James was born in June, 1891, the tenth child of Leonard and Eliza Greenbank of Greenhill Farm, Preston Hill, Carngham, near Snake Valley, Victoria, Australia.  James's father Leonard, is listed on his birth certificate as a farmer.  

 

James's birth would have also brought with it much sadness as Eliza was very ill with stomach cancer and was to pass away within three months of his birth.

At this time Leonard and Eliza's eldest daughter Alice was twenty-five years of age and unmarried.  At the time of her marriage three years later, her marriage certificate shows that she was a housekeeper at Snake Valley, so either working in the family home or in other paid work.   The second child William, was twenty-three years old, unmarried, and at the time of his later marriage in1894 was listed as a farmer at Carngham, so most probably still living and working at home, as were Thomas at twenty-one years of age and John eighteen (both listed as farmers at Carngham on future marriage certificates); Mary was sixteen, Leonard thirteen, Eliza ten, Richard eight and Margaret five.

Family stories tell us that the girls in the family reared baby James, and the bulk of this responsibility would most probably have fallen to Alice until she married, then Mary who would be nineteen by then.  In fact, with the three youngest children in the family ranging in age from ten to five at the time of their mother's death, it would have taken all the family pulling together to help look after one another, the smaller children and a baby.

We can only imagine the grief and hardship that Leonard would have endured having his beloved wife and the mother of his children taken in the prime of her life. 

Mary was thirty-one years of age when married in 1906, and listed on her marriage certificate as a "lady", living in Eyre Street, Ballarat.  By this time James would be fifteen and a young man.

By September 1914 young James, at twenty-three years of age, took up the call to arms, for a great adventure for King and country, and enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force for service abroad.  His personal details state that he was a laborer living in Snake valley, with his father Leonard being next of kin and now residing in Mair Street, Ballarat.  It is known that Leonard lived for some time with his daughter Mary and her husband Angelo Giuliano, at their fruit shop in Mair Street, Ballarat.