In March 1922 Mr H. Oliver of 103 Munro
Street, Coburg wrote to the head teacher of Coburg State School, William Dixon,
complaining about the treatment of his sister’s child Mary (Madge) Costello:
‘This child is one whose father is an invalid through
the Great War and I felt it my duty to notify the Secretary of the Returned
Soldier’s League and ask them is this the proper treatment for their children
who fought so bravely for King and Country.’ He claims that she was ‘dragged by
the hair between the VII and VIII grade rooms. She is in VII class and her
teacher is Miss McNally. The child is known in the family as Madge and she is
12 years old.’
A
group of schoolboys playing in the grounds of Coburg State School, December
1923. Courtesy Coburg Historical Society.
Whatever the truth concerning Harold
Oliver’s allegation of mistreatment by a teacher at Coburg State School, there
is much to be told about Mary Costello’s ‘invalid’ father, who we are told
fought ‘bravely for King and Country.’
Harold Oliver chose to shape the facts
to suit his purpose. His brother-in-law Patrick John Costello was a violent
bully whose wife Alethea (Harold’s sister) had lived in fear of her husband
from the early days of their marriage, so much so that by the time Harold wrote
his letter in March 1922, Madge and her brother John Oliver (Jack) had been
living with Harold’s family in Coburg for at least six years – well away from
their violent father.
Alethea Oliver married Patrick Joseph
Costello, a New Zealand farmer, in 1907 and they settled at Ermedale, Fairfax
on the South Island. Their three children were born there. Alethea took Jack
and Madge to her family in Coburg in 1916 and on her return found that her
husband was living with a young school teacher in Central Otago. She took out a
maintenance and separation order, testifying that ‘he had thrashed her several
times, and two months prior to her going to Australia had left her insensible
for two hours.’ She was successful. He
was ordered to pay her 30 shillings a week.
Costello found a way to avoid his
responsibilities – he joined up. On 4 October 1916, around the same time as the
court’s decision, he became 39175 Lance Coroporal Patrick John Costello, 9th
Company, 2nd Battalion, Wellington Infantry Regiment. He served in
France until 4 October 1917 when he was received a severe gunshot wound to his
left knee and was hospitalised in England. He returned to New Zealand in
February 1918 on account of that wounded knee.
So, in one sense Harold Oliver was
right. His brother-in-law did serve in the war and he did return an invalid.
Was he deserving of our sympathy, though? His behaviour after the war continued
in the same vein as before he went away – he was a drunk, he was cruel and he
continued to intimidate and abuse his wife (who was separated from him).
In July 1920, the New Zealand Truth delighted in exposing the Costellos’ story. The
paper described her as a ‘demure, petite, much-bespectacled lady’ then told the
rest, as they saw it:
‘Since he returned from the war he had been working in
the country, while his wife continued to board in Christchurch. Frequently he
came in to see her, and on such occasions he made himself a perfect nuisance at
the boarding-house. His visits were often prolonged. He would arrive drunk; the
next day he would be nearly full; on the succeeding days he would be absolutely
full. Two years ago he got up at some unearthly hour in the morning sober, but
in a fearful rage. He rampaged through the house like a madman and threatened
to sever the gullets of Alethea and her little girl with a razor. On another
occasion he boiled the “kittle” – as Alethea termed it – with a Bible that had
been presented to her in her days of happy childhood, following this up, a few
days afterwards, by beating her, knocking off her glasses and knocking her
about generally.’
Then
‘He got really annoyed… when Alethea added that a
prohibition order had proved ineffective in keeping him on sobriety’s path…
After the orders asked for had been made, and maintenance fixed at 30s a week,
Patrick Joseph [sic] followed Alethea out of court, making tearful
protestations to her to give him another chance. All his blubbering promises to
be a good boy and not to do it again were of no avail; Alethea shook him from
her and went on her emancipated way.’
Emancipated or not, from this point
until 1928 Alethea seems to have gone underground. She is not listed in the New
Zealand electoral rolls and does not appear in the Victorian rolls, either.
Perhaps she assumed another name to hide from him? In 1928 she was living in Christchurch
as Alethea Costello then moved from place to place around the South Island
until her death in October 1960 aged 84.
He, too, disappeared from sight. At the
time of the 1916 court case he was living under the assumed name of John
Patrick, so perhaps he kept this name. His World War One papers reveal that he
died in February 1964 in Auckland, so Alethea never did escape his shadow. For
all her adult life she was described as married in the electoral rolls, so it
seems they did not divorce, perhaps
because they were Catholics. Yet they had not lived together since 1916.
She was bound to him legally until her death 46 years later.
Of one of their children, nothing has
been found. But Madge, the girl who lived in fear of her violent father and who
was spirited away to the safety of her mother’s family in Coburg and was
‘dragged by the hair’ between classrooms at Coburg State School, married in
1934. I can only hope that hers was a secure, happy married life.
Their son John Oliver (Jack) Costello
lived in Munro Street, Coburg with his uncle Harold Oliver and his wife
Margueretta (Rita). He remained there with Rita after Harold’s death in 1932. A
mechanic by trade, he married Pearlie May Butler in 1941. They later lived at
Clifton Hill, Montmorency and Reservoir. He died in 1986 aged 74.
Sources:
Public Record Office of Victoria, VPRS
640/P1/1612, Central Inwards Correspondence, Primary Schools. Date range:
1921-23. Coburg State School, letter 1922/2615.
Victorian Birth, Death, Marriage Indexes
Victorian electoral rolls
Argus, 1 May 1915
Age, 6 Dec 1932
New Zealand Birth, Death, Marriage
Indexes
New Zealand electoral rolls
Southland
Times, 11 October 1916
Star, 22 June 1920
New
Zealand Truth, 3 July 1920
