William Herbert Cherry.

Contributed By

The following was told by his daughter, Grace.

William ("Bert") Cherry was born in Townsville, Queensland to Charles Merett Cherry and Caroline McCallum. When he was about 6 years old the family moved to Perth, Western Australia. His mother died of nephritis there when he was 8, leaving Charles to raise their five surviving sons; John, the first born of twins, had already died as a toddler. Charles remarried to Mary Beard in 1906 in Adelaide, South Australia.

Charles soon put the boys to work, and there was a story of Bert driving bullock teams before he was in his teens. His youngest brother Ernest, 14, was also driving when he died in an accident. His death certificate gives the coroner's verdict, "That the deceased Ernest Keira Cherry came by death on the 10th day of December 1910 near Mt. Marshall through being accidentally thrown out of a cart and the wheels passing over his body. No blame being attached to anybody." He is buried at nearby Kellerberrin, Western Australia.

Bert ran away from home, and was found sleeping in the doorway of a butchers shop in Flemington (?) by the old German owner who took him on as an apprentice. Bert did well as a butcher, some of his grandchildren always spoke appreciatively of his brawn and smallgoods. He also had the knack of being able to look at a beast in the saleyard, know how much meat was on it and what profit he could make.

Bert and his wife Belle (Arabella) lived and worked with Charles Cherry at his grocery in Marryatville, a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia where they had married in 1915. Their daughter Grace was born there a year later, and they left when she was about 2 years old. From there they went to Jamestown in the mid-north of South Australia, where Bert was fencing and Belle cooked at the hotel. When they had saved a hundred pounds they opened a butcher shop there, and Charlie Wagner (son of Bert's aunt Sarah nee Cherry) was taken on as an apprentice.

There was a bit of confusion as to where they went next so the following are not necessarily in chronological order. Grace said once she had attended 27 different schools, as Bert would buy a run-down business, build it up and sell it and then move on. They had a little corner shop in Glenelg, Adelaide, before going to Newry in Victoria when the Glenmaggie Weir was being built. Around this time he became friends with the Bertino family of Walhalla, particularly with Bill Bertino.

Bert and Belle also had a butcher shop in Peterborough, South Australia. Belle died there in 1925 of Hodgkins disease (a form of lymphoma), and was buried in the Peterborough cemetery. The empty shop, with its blue tiled front, was still there in the 1980's.

Bert had another butcher shop in Tailem Bend, South Australia, and they also lived in a flat in Victoria Parade, Richmond, near H. Bugg, dentist.

When Grace was 13, Bert remarried, to Florence (Dolly) Smith, who seemed to take a dislike to her new daughter. Grace was soon taken out of St Peters College, Adelaide, and sent to her grandfather at Mannum (or Tailem Bend) on the Murray River. Dolly sent her out to work when she was 14. Bert's friend Bill Bertino had married Catherine (Katy) Wilson, and Grace boarded with them. Katy was Gustav Wolff's aunt; he and Grace married in 1935 when she was 19. Bert would come up to Ballarat to visit his daughter and helped her as he was able, including buying her a car.

Bert and Dolly lived in a weatherboard house in Middleborough Road, Box Hill where he died in 1961, hit by a car as he crossed the road on his way to the shop.