Edith Rothbury Henry (c1881-1952)

Obituary
MRS. E. R. SPINKS It is with the deepest regret we record the passing of Mrs. Edith Rothbury Spinks, formerly of Wildwood, Westbrook, who suddenly collapsed and died at Ballina on Thursday evening, while on a caravan tour to Queensland. She was 69 years of age. Hardy, intrepid and gifted with a wonderful sense of humour, the late Mrs. Spinks found in her retirement from a life well spent on the land, a new and greater joy in the adventure and promise of travel. Born in 1882 at Rothbury, Mrs. Edith Spinks was the daughter of the late Patrick and Jane Henry, who at that time kept the Sedgfield Hotel. When she left school she took charge of the Sedgfield post office, while her brothers, driving as they did in those days the Royal Mail vans with a span of six horses, carried the mails to parts of the Hunter Valley and beyond. Life was hard in those times. There was no refrigeration or radio, no smooth roads or easy transport such as we have to-day. So that when at the age of 21, she fell in love and married Francis Ronald Spinks, an ambitious young farmer, and went with him to make a home on a lonely property, Wildwood, at Westbrook, it was with that pioneering spirit and fore-knowledge of the hardship ahead which has characterised the great ness of all the women pioneers of the Hunter Valley. A shrewd business woman, the late Mrs. Spinks took over the commercial end of the business while her husband, with her tireless help, developed the proprty, raising sheep and expanding through all the hazards of enterprise until they were grazing over 900 acres. The birth of five sons to bless their union and lighten the solitude as they grew to manhood did much to lessen the blow of the death in 1947 of her husband, Mr. Francis Ronald Spinks, who had been ill for many years previously. On her retirement three years ago, Mrs. Spinks sold the property at Westbrook and came to live in Singleton, where two of her married sons had made their homes. But the thought of idleness was something she could not long endure. Not for her was the prospect of being settled down in a town a happy one, so last year, determined to get as much as she could out of the time remaining to her, she bought a caravan and with her two bachelor sons, Claude and Douglas, set off to explore Queensland, returning to Singleton last November. She was off again to finish the broken trip, prior to going to England for the Coronation, when time over took her shortly after the family had reached Ballina, as she sat laughing gaily in the caravan she had loved as her home. She was brought back to Singleton by her two sons in the car which was to have taken them over the border, but driven by Mr. Col Riley, son of Mr. Jack Riley, who was formerly a locomotive driver at Singleton Railway; and was laid peacefully to rest in the Catholic cemetery on Saturday afternoon, after a requiem mass conducted by the Rev. Fr. Peters at St. Patrick's Church, at which she had been a regular churchgoer. The late Mrs. Spinks is survived by her sons, Eric Clyde (Maitland Road), Malcolm Clifford (William St.), Hilton Patrick (Edward St.), and Francis Claude and Douglas Roy, both of Singleton.

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