Obituaries Australia

Caroline Armytage, Armytage Family Collection

University of Melbourne Archives, UMA/I/2867

Concerning Mrs. Caroline Morrell Armytage, of Como, South Yarra, whose death was chronicled in the Argus of Friday, a correspondent supplies the following additional particulars: - There is hardly a charitable institution in Melbourne that will not miss the yearly gift of Mrs. Armytage and her private benefactions were also numerous. Mr. John Tuckwell, of East Leach, Gloucestershire, having met with financial losses in England, came to Australia in 1849 with his family, when this daughter, Mrs. Armytage, was in her teens. The first few days of the Tuckwells’ life in Victoria were spent in lined tents they had brought with them, pitched in Canvas Town, now called Jolimont. The publicity of cooking at the fire in the centre of a large square was one of the trials of those days. In a short time they gladly moved into a brick house. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Armytage were married at Wormbete, Winchelsea, and then went to reside at Fulham Estate, near Balmoral. For seven years Mrs. Armytage lived there, without seeing a town, shopping by a monthly mail, or at a hawkers cart. She found time not only to teach her own children in their early youth, but to teach all the children on the estate, including those of the blacks, to read, write and sew; not only to doctor all who needed her kind care, but also to share in the joys and sorrows of all in the neighbourhood. Often she referred to those years as among the happiest of her life. Later Mt. Sturgeon, an estate near Dunkeld, and North-West Bend, another in South Australia, were acquired; and still later Como, in South Yarra, was bought. Holm-park Beaconsfield, and Kalkallo, near Donnybrook, were later purchases. After the great loss of her husband, Mrs. Armytage took her family to England for some years’ education, during which time her eldest son, Norman, rowed in the Cambridge eight, and was one of the crew to win the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley, &c. Once later Mrs. Armytage paid a short visit to England. Three of her family are in London at present.