Philadelphia Alaine Alexia Saint GILES [9235]

  General Notes:

England Birth Index.
Oct Qtr 1925
Giles Philadelphia A A S. Mothers Maiden Name Fraser. Preston 8e 728

Philadelphia was born in a farmhouse near Preston Lancashire, UK, her father being stationed there a colonel in the Royal Engineers. When she was two years old, he retired and as her mother was a Scot from Aberdeenshire they moved up to what had been a coaching inn west of Aberdeen. In those days it was very remote and the lady who owned the store some miles a way delivered their groceries by pony and trap. There was no electricity other than a big old generator, which gave them 32-volt lights. As the temperatures were so cold, they did not need fridges. They grew all their own fruit and vegetables and a beautiful flower garden.

At that stage she shared a governess with another local family, a variety of teachers who were not very good, but her father gave her lots of books to read and helped in other ways. In 1935 she moved to a house to Bexhill Sussex on south coast of England, . There she went to a boarding school with brilliant teachers who broadened her knowledge. Apart from the three R's she studied botany, arts, crafts and music, it was a small school of twenty-five children and six teachers. In 1939 she attended the well respected Cheltenham Ladies College in Gloucestershire, which her mother had attended in 1901.

War broke out just before term started, so life became different. They were bombed from time to time. For one term, some of the houses were moved to a large country estate. When they returned, they found the army had taken over their swimming pool and they were moved again. Some of the best teachers had gone to war and life was generally disrupted with air raids. In 1942 she left school at 18 to join the war effort. She had just completed the end of which would have been (Australian) grade ten, because she had to be nineteen to start her general nurse training, she trained as a children's nurse in a home taken over by the Americans for young children to five years of age, who were evacuated from the London slums or had parents serving over seas with the forces.

The work was very hard, twelve hour days were common, with one day off a month. As they were near the Kent Coast they were regularly in the path of German bombers. She often spent several hours outside at night fire watching, to give the alarm if incendiary (fire) bombs, were dropped in the vicinity. If she was in bed before the raids started she had to be at her post fully dressed before the warning siren finished wailing. She soon learnt to wake up before it started. Finishing this training, she had a few months to fill in before she started her nursing and took a job in a Rudolf Steiner home for intellectually handicapped children. It was a most interesting experience being far advanced from what was done elsewhere at the time.

January 1944 saw the realization of her lifetime ambition to become a nurse. She was accepted at London's Saint Thomas's hospital, where Florence Nightingale started the training school. A few of the older Sisters had known her personally before she died in about 1912. The hospital was straight across the Thames from the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, and during the time she was there, it was bombed. Early in her training some of the younger staff were sent up to Edinburgh for a few months to get away from some of the fiercest bombing. It was while she was there she got word of her fathers death and returned home to take care of her mother who was recovering from a burst appendix. She was able to return in May and spent the next four years doing work she really loved.

After graduation in early 1949 she wanted to go overseas. An advertisment in the London Times led to a job caring for an old lady returning to her family in Australia. She travelled by ship of course, and had a very interesting trip. After six weeks, they disembarked in Sydney and went, as pre arranged, to do her midwifery training at the King George Hospital there. Sydney was a beautiful city then, she met lots of people through a first cousin who had married into the Lindeman family. She met an elderly lady at a party and was telling her that she would love to see more of the country but did not know anyone else outside of Sydney. The lady responded that she had just come down from North Queensland where she had been writing a book about her cousin, they loved having visitors and she would arrange an invitation. It duly arrived and when she completed her midwifery training she boarded a flight to Cairns to be met by the lady in the book, Glen Atkinson, my great grandmother.

She arrived at Gunnawarra in the mid 1950's in the middle of the mustering season. She stayed for about four to five months and was proposed to by Kate's son Geoffrey Good Atkinson, she then returned to the UK to get her belongings. She stayed in the UK for twelve months to save her return fare and worked in England during that time. On her return she went first to Alice Springs where she stayed with friends for a month, then the three friends, all girls, drove to Mt Isa, camping on the roadside for two nights. She then caught a train to Charters Towers where she worked in the hospital for three months. In December she was picked up and returned to Gunnawarra for Christmas.

She was married there at the station on January 12^th 1952, where she had her five children Francis Giles, Vivyan Thomas, Penelope Glen, Jeremy James and Christopher Phillip Geoffrey ( my father). She remained at Gunnawarra during this time, travelling back to Europe and the UK twice. She battled cancer, drought and the beef depression and retired to the Atherton Tablelands in 1980. She achieved citizenship in 1993, a real Aussie now!

Rosamond remarks that she has been speaking to Philadelphia in Atherton Qld. - 2008

Her husband Geoff died in November 1995 and she moved into a smaller house in the township of Atherton. She then decided to put all her energies back into her career and enrolled to learn palliative care nursing. She is a volunteer with the Cancer Council and attends chemotherapy sessions, making the patients more comfortable and someone to chat with during their time in the hospital. She also helps with respite home visits. She is an active member with Rotarians (ladies contingent of Rotary) and works fundraising for her local church.

She has eight beautiful grandchildren and one dear little great grandchild who all visit often. She is blessed with good health and an active mind and looks forward to whatever challenges the future holds.
Remy Atkinson

Bim Atkinson Writes 2016
"Delphie retired at the beginning of 2012. On Australia day, January 26th 2013 she was awarded an OAM - Order of Australia Medal for her years of dedicated work to the community and the church. The application was secretly processed by her son Bim Atkinson."

For our loving Mother, Grandmother and Great Grandmother
Philadelphia (Delphie) Alaine Alexia Saint Giles
Born at Stoneleigh Court, Dutton, via Preston Lancashire, England at 12.45 am on the 8^th of December 1925.
Died at the Carinya Home For The Aged, Atherton Far North Queensland, Australia. At 1 pm on the 22^nd of June 2017 at the age of 91 years.
Ashes laid to rest beside her loving husband Geoffrey Good Atkinson at the Gunnawarra Cemetery, Gunnawarra Station, Mount Garnet, North Queensland

Eulogy for Delphie's Funeral at Guilfoyles Atherton Crematorium at 2 pm on the 30^th of June 2017

Delphie's Eulogy (read by Lucy, Samantha, and Casey)
We are sad to say goodbye to our grandma today but what a life to celebrate. She was fortunate to live a brilliant, privileged and full life in every way. She experienced more in her life than many could dream of true love, a big family, inspiring career and travelling the world. She had a true spirit for helping and giving to others. My grandma was always interested in the lives of her family and others and keenly supported our every endeavor with pride. I was thrilled as I went about my business in town this week to find many knew of her passing and had a little story to tell of the last time they saw her in recent weeks - she truly touched the lives of others and that is a gift to her and the way she will be remembered.
Philadelphia Alaine Alexia Saint Giles, better known to all who knew her as Delphi, or Mum to Giles, Bim, Penny, Jeremy and Christopher or Grandma to Jesse, Lucy, Samantha, Lindsey, Casey, Remy, Holly, and Buster and Great grandma to Clint, Elsie, Charlotte, William, and Adalyn. Delphie was born in the small village of Dalton in the county of Lancashire in the north west of England on the 8th.of December 1925. Delphie's father Valentine Giles who was 48 at the time was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Engineers and was stationed nearby. Her mother was 39 and both were on their second marriages, her mother's 1^st husband having been killed in France in the first weeks of the war leaving Delphie a half brother, Archie Robertson Glasgow, and Valentines wife having died of Spanish Flu while he was stationed in France in 1917 leaving him with 2 teenage children, Austin Saint Giles and Valerie Saint Giles, Delphie's half brothers and sister.
In 1928 at the age of 3 Delphie's family moved to Taitswell house at Mintlaw in the northeast of Scotland where they lived for the next 7 years. Delphie's schooling started here, sharing an endless stream of governesses with the children of the local Laird. On her own admission she says she learned very little apart from a litany of Kings and Queens and the battles of Scotland and some basic French. Fortunately her father instilled the love of reading in her and she was a prolific reader right up till the end.
In 1935 her father's health caused some concern and family sold the house in Scotland and moved to the warmer climate on the south coast of Sussex to a small seaside town called Bexhill-On-Sea. It probably only attracted them because so many of their army friends from India and Burma had retired there. Delphie at the age of 10 was put into a boarding school there although it was only a couple of kilometers from where they lived. It was a very small school with only about 20 pupils with excellent staff so was much more enjoyable than her earlier schooling. Her education continued on to high school where she was a boarder at Cheltenham Ladies College. War was declared during that summer holidays and Delphi could well remember the negative impact on her parents after being involved in the 1^st world war.
Early on in the bombings her father suffered a severe stroke and her parents moved to a serviced flat in a beachside hotel where they were often able watch the coming and goings of the bombers and fighters. Delphie had always wanted to train as a nurse on leaving school but one had to be 19 years old to begin at a general hospital, so at the age of 17 in 1942 she began work in a children's home.
In 1944 at the age of 19 she began her nurses training at St Thomas's Hospital in London. The training school there had been set up by Florence Nightingale so the nurses there were known as nightingales a name Delphie bore with pride. In 1945 while doing her nurses training her father died, her mother was very sick at the time and her half brother Austin and half sister Valerie were overseas. Archie was off fighting in France. It was left up to Delphie to organize the funeral. And alone Delphie buried her father.
Delphie remembers nursing at St. Thomas's as the happiest days of her single life, even though a war raged around them and they worked 12 hour shifts with 3 days off every 3 weeks and alternating between day and night shifts every three months.
In early 1949 after completing her finals and after a chance meeting with an Australian nurse who had been doing some training at St. Thomas's, Delphie and friend decided to try their luck in Australia at a new gynae and obstetrics hospital that had opened in Sydney. At the last moment the friend pulled out but fortunately Delphie, who was not keen to travel alone, landed a job as a companion for an elderly lady travelling back to Australia and had her passage to Australia paid for - and so a new adventure began.
Delphie now found herself in a strange country and was very lonely to start with. She was training as an obstetrics nurse at King George V hospital in Sydney and was lucky to have the Lindeman family who her first cousin Pip Fraser from Tornaveen had married into and was invited to their house in Vaucluse in her time off. Towards the end of her time in Sydney a friend invited Delphie to a cocktail party. There she met an elderly woman and author, Glens cousin E. Marie Irvine, who took an interest in what she was doing and when Delphie remarked that she would love to see more of Australia, but did not know anyone outside of Sydney, Marie Irvine's immediate response was that she had just returned from visiting a cousin in North Queensland who loved having visitors and so she would get her an invitation.
In due cause as soon as Delphie had completed her training at King George she boarded a DC3 for the 10 hour journey to Cairns where she was met by Glen Atkinson from Gunnawarra. On arrival at Gunnawarra they were greeted at the gate by Glens son Geoff and so began, in Delphie's words, "the saga of my life"
For all intents and purposes it must have been a whirlwind romance, for Geoff popped the question as Delphie was leaving to return to England after her stay at Gunnawarra. She did not give an answer straight away but said she would like to think about it. On her return to England she must have decided no matter what she was returning to Australia, for she says she got a job just to make enough money so she could get all her personal effects and herself back.
Delphie arrived back in Australia sometime in 1951 and after a short visit to the Alice Springs area with one of her best friends, Eve Bowen, she found herself at Charters Towers to start work at the hospital there. After only 3 months Christmas rolled around and Geoff was on the door step to take her up to Gunnawarra to spend Christmas. There must have been some pretty frantic organization and planning going on, considering communications in the bush, for Geoff and Delphie were married at Gunnawarra on the 12^th of January, 1952.
The cook at Gunnawarra at the time was, in Delphie's words, a bit of a shady character and was tasked amongst other things to make a fruit cake for the wedding. For this he was given rum for the cake but unfortunately got his wires crossed, drank the rum instead, and went to sleep in the back of the kitchen. The cake was not finished, however, in true bush tradition it was somehow sorted just in time for the wedding.
Geoff's uncle Earle Johnson gave Delphie away while Geoff's sister Nancy Collins, from Spring Creek, was maid of honor with her son Bruce and daughter Errolly as the Paige boy and Flower girl. The story goes that Bruce had to wear a Scottish Kilt and his mother had forgotten his under pants so as if wearing, what Bruce considered a dress, was not bad enough, add insult to injury, he also had to wear a pair of his sister's drawers.
Geoff and Delphi e did not waste any time in setting about creating the next generation. Eldest son Giles was born 9 months later and the following year twins Rupert and Alexia were born. Tragically they only survived for a day or so and are buried in Cairns. In 1955 Bim came along and then Penny in 1957, Jeremy in 1960 and in 1963, Christopher. By the time Christopher came along Delphie had this baby thing down pat and was pretty confident about a home birth and so Christopher was born at Gunnawarra.
In 1961 after some good seasons and some excellent cattle prices Delphie decided she would like to take Geoff and the children over to England to meet her relations and friends. Her mother, who had stayed at Gunnawarra for 18 months after the twins were born, had sadly passed away in 1956 and it had been impractical for Delphie to return for the funeral.
Delphie's married life at Gunnawarra was a far cry from her early life in England, what with managing a large household on a cattle station often cooking for 20 odd people, getting children schooled and off to boarding school and everything that went with a station in those days. Life for Delphie was far from boring; there was a constant stream of friends and relations staying. Most business in those days was conducted in Cairns so many of Geoff and Delphie's friends were from there; many lifelong friends were made including the Hannams, Hoptons, Trezises and Lavers with some of the next generation here today. Delphie was one to keep in contact with friends even if was just a Christmas card. She also hosted many children from St.Barnabas in Ravenshoe and St.Mary's in Herberton over school holidays if it was too far for them to travel home for the shorter holidays, some of them who are also here today, such was Delphie's empathy and kind heartedness.
Forefront in Delphie's mind was obtaining the best education that she could afford for her children even if it meant dragging them kicking and screaming and sacrificing her own personal things such as holidays etc.
Even so Geoff and Delphie managed a few trips back to England as well as a trip to China where Delphie's Grandfather had spent the best part of his life as a diplomat and sinologist and where her father was born. But I think the trips that they cherished most were those to the outback camping and gem fossicking with friends such as the Hoptons from Cairns who were lifelong friends or attending the local bush race meetings. Delphie had a strong sense of history, obtaining National Heritage registration for the old Gunnawarra homestead and hosting a centenary race meeting at the old Gunnawarra race track in 1978.
1980 saw Geoff and Delphie enter a new chapter in their lives when they retired to Atherton, after putting up with the old homestead at Gunnawarra for 30 years Delphie was able to build her dream home on the Eastern side of Halloran's hill, they enjoyed many years here hosting family and friends and getting involved in the local community, Delphie's main interest was involving herself with the local 'Church of England' helping wherever needed on a voluntary basis.
1990 saw them downsize to a smaller house that was more manageable for their ages, this was built at Black Gully road at Tinnaroo. This was where they lived until Geoff passed away in 1995, Delphie had become involved working in Palliative care and nursed Geoff until his passing in their home. 1996 saw the sale of the house at Black gully road and Delphie moved back into Atherton, not only to a smaller home but because of her workload at the Church, and in Palliative care meant she didn't have to drive back and forth from Tinnaroo every day.
In 2013 Delphie was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for her community work mainly with Palliative care and disability work at the hospital. In 2012 while working at the hospital Delphie tripped over backwards over a set of scales on the floor and badly broke her elbow, on recovering she presented back for work and was really miffed when told she was too old and they had not realized she was that old in the first place or she would not have been able to work there.
The last three and a half years were spent at Carinya home for the aged, she was very well looked after there and here she enjoyed her final years. Her son Jeremy who lives in Atherton must be commended, and I think I speak for all the family, for his dedication visiting Delphie on a daily basis and giving her some independence.
It seems absurd to sum up someone's life in pages of words, while this is the story of her life it is not a story about who she is, that was something different to each of us who loved her and something we will forever hold in our hearts.
Grandma, your life was full of loving deeds, forever thoughtful of our special needs.
Today and tomorrow, my whole life through, I will always love and cherish you.

  Research Notes:

Image courtesy: V C Nash
Images courtesy of Giles Family Website
Image courtesy Bim Atkinson

  Other Records

1. Philadelphia Giles: Some images through her long and varied life.
With her grandmother as a child, in blue with pearls at the Atkinson Centenary Wairuna Station Qld. 1963, with Rosamond House, in old age.
Wairuna Station: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wairuna_Homestead

Philadelphia married Geoffrey Good ATKINSON [9236] [MRIN: 3187], son of Thomas Joseph Good ATKINSON [21350] and Jessie Glennie Godschall JOHNSTON [21352], on 12 Jan 1952 in Gunnawarra Queensland. (Geoffrey Good ATKINSON [9236] was born on 17 Jun 1917 in Pt Douglas QLD, died on 12 Dec 1995 in Tinaroo Kairi Atherton QLD and was buried in Gunnawarra Queensland.)