Some readers have asked for more information about F W Boreham’s family. While there are several photos that we have (many of which have been posted on this blog site) there are not a lot of references to his children in his writings.
This is one of the few photos we have of F W Boreham’s entire family. This photo was probably taken in the late 1940s. Here are the names and dates (according to T Howard Crago’s biography).
From left to right:
Stella (FWB’s wife)
F W Boreham
Ivy Tireni Boreham who was born on 27 September 1897 was the eldest daughter who married Rev Norman McDonald, a Presbyterian minister who served around Victoria, Australia.
Stella Wroxton Boreham who was known as Wroxie did not marry and with FWB and Stella not being drivers, Wroxie was the one who did most of the driving. Wroxie was born on 13 May 1902 and died on 8 November 1953.
Estalle Boreham was born in 1909 and died in 1959 about one month after the passing of FWB.
Frank Boreham who was born in 1913, married Betty and worked for the Gas & Fuel in Melbourne.
Joan Boreham was born in July 1916, married Harvey Lincolne and lived for most of her life in Hobart.
Reference has been made in an earlier posting to Frank Boreham Jnr and the essay F W Boreham wrote at the time of his birth, entitled, ‘It’s a boy!’.
There are two more references to Frank Jnr, both of which speak of father and son walking at night and looking up with wonder (and lots of questions) at the stars.[1]
I am unsure how Wroxie got her name but ‘Wroxton Lodge’ was the name of the Boreham house in Tunbridge Wells and it was the name (shown on a plaque) of the homes where FWB and Stella lived in Mosgiel, Hobart, Armadale and Kew. The death of Wroxie was a real heart break to the family. After she died in 1953 FWB and Stella had regular picnics in the cemetery around her grave. There is an oblique reference to Wroxie’s passing in the opening pages of In Pasture’s Green where F W Boreham says:
“These studies in 23 Psalm are born of a profound personal experience. I fondly hope that it will pour into the hearts of its readers something of the comfort and grace that the Shepherd Psalm has, in my eighty-third year, ministered to me.”
More will be said about young Stella in the next posting.
Geoff Pound
Image: A Boreham Family Photo
[1] F W Boreham, The Nest of Spears (London: Epworth, 1927), 240; F W Boreham, When the Swans Fly High (London: Epworth, 1931), 87.