The World
War One stories emerging from Coburg’s The Grove (or Moreland Grove, as it was
first called) have provided a glimpse of a richly diverse group of residents, unlike
those of any other street in Coburg, I would guess.
We’ve heard the stories of a number of the residents of The Grove now: Otto Neuendorf, a native of Berlin and photographer at Pentridge Prison during the WW1 era; Charles Dare, son of the developer of the area, Monty Dare; Richard Courtney of Courtney’s Post fame; Percy Cornwell of Cornwell’s Pottery in Brunswick; the Shawe brothers and their link to the British Raj.
And now it
is the turn of the Flint family,who lived at ‘Dunvargin’, 12 The Grove. Unusual
for this street (and Coburg enlistees) in that they were staunchly Catholic,
the six children of the family (all boys and all born in the local area)
attended firstly St Ambrose School in Brunswick then St Patrick’s College in
East Melbourne, where they excelled academically. Their father’s interest in
education is evident in his membership of the original Council of the Brunswick
Technical School and his continuing interest in the school council, taking up
the role of President in 1923.
Photo
of the Flint family: Arthur and Margaret Flint and sons Theo, Chris, Tom,
Claude, Arthur and Jack. Courtesy familyhistory blog of Nicole Close
The house
name, ‘Dunvargin’, speaks of an Irish background, Dunvargin being a seaside
market town in County Waterford. The family’s interest in the Irish question, which was
forefront in the minds of Irish Catholics everywhere after the Easter Uprising
of 1916, is evident in their membership of a newly established North Brunswick
Hibernian Society, based at the recently established St. Matthew’s Church, the
family church and in their participation in various Hibernian Society events.
The many
references to the sons’ academic successes speaks of a household of clever,
ambitious boys, and the electoral rolls show that they fulfilled their early
promise, most taking up careers in the civil service or the law.
Perhaps,
given their background, it is not surprising that only one of the six Flint
brothers enlisted – Christopher, the second son.
731 Sergeant Christopher Arthur Loftus Flint
When Chris
Flint enlisted in June 1917, he was attached to the 23/3 Machine Gun Company.
He was promoted to Staff Sergeant and worked as a clerk in the audit department
of AIF HQ in London where he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in
January 1919 and Lieutenant in April 1919. So, in many ways, although his
valuable contribution to the war effort was acknowledged in his war record, he was
unusual in that he did not see any action.
London, England. 28 September 1918. Horseferry
Road, looking towards Victoria Street, showing on the right AIF Administrative
Headquarters, and on the left the buildings occupied by the Australian War
Records Section. Image D00077. Image courtesy AWM.
Chris Flint returned
to Australia in September 1920 to the family home in The Grove, where he
remained until he completed university studies and qualified as a lawyer. He
married – to Mary Veronica Murphy – and had two sons, Christopher, who died in
infancy, and Geoffrey, who followed in his father’s footsteps and took up a
career in the law. His marriage appears to have failed, and the electoral rolls
over the years show that Chris and Mary lived apart from around the time he
moved to Mornington in the mid-1930s where he set up a legal practice.
It is almost
impossible from the official records to get any sense of Chris Flint, the man,
but a sense of his personality emerges from an unlikely source – Greyhound Victoria’s Hall of Fame. Here we
learn from family members that he could be difficult to get along with and that
he ‘wasn’t afraid to step on people’s toes if it meant he could achieve
something he believed in’. His nephew said that ‘if anyone got into an argument
with him, he’d [verbally] cut them to pieces.’ He was definitely not someone to
cross.
The
following newspaper report from the Argus,
1 February 1947, tells the story of a disgruntled client taking revenge for
perceived wrongs.
Photo
of coursing from Anecdotes of dogs, Edward Jesse, London, 1888.
What the
official records also don’t tell us, is that the Flint family had been involved
in coursing (greyhound racing) for many years. By the time Chris got involved,
there was great respect for the Flint family in coursing circles. His father,
Arthur, had been involved for more than forty years and there was an A.L. Flint
Memorial Cup presented annually. Chris was equally impressive and he was known
as a fearless and insightful administrator of the sport, whom his nephew
claimed ‘brought greyhound racing out of the dark ages.’ He was an impressive
figure, nicknamed the ‘Squire’.
Chris Flint.
Photograph courtesy Greyhound Racing Victoria
Geoff Flint,
son of Chris. Photograph courtesy Greyhound Racing Victoria
As well as
being outspoken and apparently fearless in his dealings with his opponents,
Chris Flint was remembered as a generous man, who bought his son and his wife
their first home. He also gave generously to the cause of greyhound racing in
Victoria. He donated money and used his public speaking skills, his legal
background, his understanding of human nature to negotiate some very difficult
times in the sport. He was involved at an administrative level from the 1930s
until his death and helped work through many difficult negotiations. He became
the first Chairman of the Greyhound Racing Control Board.
At the same
time, he maintained a legal career and at some stage, probably in the 1940s, moved
to Darraweit Gum, 50 kilometres north of Melbourne on the edge of the Shire of
Macedon Ranges, where he lived and worked 11,000 acres of land, land that was
devastated by rabbits and water erosion when he first went there, according to his
nephew. ‘He planted trees and cleared the rabbits. He really turned the place
around’, his nephew said. He had 10 people working for him to begin with, but
towards the end of his life much of the land was subdivided, although he kept
4,000 acres which he called ‘ Amesbury House’.
Chris Flint
was unwell for some years and died in 1958, aged 62.
Sources
include: Victorian BDM indexes and electoral rolls (via Ancestry), Coburg Leader, 31 January 1913, p.1; Brunswick and Coburg Leader, 23 January
1914; Tribune, 4 April 1914, p.7; Brunswick and Coburg Leader, 2 April
1915, p.2; Tribune, 4 May 1916, p.5; Advocate, 16 December 1916, p.25; Advocate, 14 July 1917; Argus, 12 December 1918; Argus, 10 December 1920, p.11; Argus, 19 February 1923, p.8; Table Talk, 23 April 1925, p.5; The Australasian, 25 August 1934; Australasian, 23 May 1936, p.51; Australasian, 23 August 1936, p.57; Australasian, 28 November 1936,
p.24; Argus, 12 August 1939, p.14; Argus,
1 Feburary 1947, p.21; WW1 service record of Christopher Arthur Loftus Flint ; WW2 service record of Geoffrey Vincent Flint; Greyhound Racing Victoria’s Hall of Fame
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