Mabel Balcombe Emmerton

F, #19259, b. 15 Jun 1890, d. 30 Apr 1975
Mabel BROOKES, by Broothorn, n.d.
from Who's Who in the World of Women, vol 2, 1934
Father*Harry Tom Emmerton b. Mar 1846, d. 19 Jul 1927
Mother*Alice Mabel Maud Balcombe b. 1865, d. 29 Jan 1943
Married NameBrookes. 
Birth*15 Jun 1890 South Yarra, VIC, Australia, #B27675/1890.1 
Birth-Notice*20 Jun 1890 EMMERTON.—On the 15th inst., at Raveloe, Domain-road, South Yarra, the wife of Harry Emmerton of a daughter.2 
Marriage-Notice*4 Nov 1909 ENGAGEMENTS. The engagement is announced of Miss Mabel Balcombe Emmerton, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Emmerton, "Raveloe," South Yarra, to Mr. Norman Everard Brookes, son of Mr. William Brookes, of "Brookewood," St. Kilda road.3 
Marriage*19 Apr 1911 Spouse: Norman Everard Brookes. St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, #M2940/1911.4
 
(Transfer to) Land-UBeac30 May 1928 GEM--38. Transfer from Harry Tom Emmerton to Alice Mabel Maud Emmerton, Mabel Balcombe Brookes, Hubert Ralph Hamer. 228a 0r 26p.5 
Land-UBeac*5 Jun 1945 GEM--38. Transfer from Alice Mabel Maud Balcombe to Mabel Balcombe Brookes Hubert Ralph Hamer. 228a 0r 26p - Mabel Brookes and Hubert Hamer are the surviving proprietors.6 
Land-UBeac*5 Jun 1945 GEM--38. Transfer from Mabel Balcombe Brookes Hubert Ralph Hamer to Ormonde Forbes Morris. 228a 0r 26p - paid £230.7,8 
Widow28 Sep 1968Mabel Balcombe Emmerton became a widow upon the death of her husband Norman Everard Brookes.9 
Death*30 Apr 1975 South Yarra, VIC, Australia, #D11267 (Age 84) [par Harry EMMERTON & Alice Mabel Maud BALCOMBE].9 

Family

Norman Everard Brookes b. 14 Nov 1877, d. 28 Sep 1968
Child 1.Cynthia Mary Emmerton Brookes+ b. 22 Jul 1912, d. 22 Nov 1961

Newspaper-Articles

  • 23 Mar 1911: Mr. and Mrs. Harry Emmerton have issued invitations for the marriage of their daughter Mabel Balcombe with Mr. Norman Everard Brookes, at St. Paul's Cathedral, on Wednesday, April 19, at 2.30 p.m., and afterwards at "Raveloe." Norman Everard Brookes10
  • 1 May 1975: Death of Dame Mabel Brookes
    Dame Mabel Brookes died early today in her South Yarra Flat, aged 84.
    She had been ill for some time. About 10 days ago she had a stroke after leaving hospital and had since been attended by nurses 24 hours a day.
    An author, historian, social worker and society hostess, Dame Mabel was married for 57 years to the well-known tennis player Sir Norman Brooks, who died in 1968.
    The only child of a prominent Melbourne lawyer, Mr H. Emmerton, Dame Mabel became the president of the committee of management of the Queen Victoria Hospital in 1924 and held the position until 1970.
    In 1943 she stood unsuccessfully as a Woman for Canberra Movement candidate in the Federal election.
    During World War II she worked at the Maribyrnong Munitions Factory for eight months after signing on as Mrs Brookes.
    Among many servicemen she entertained during the war time was Mr Lyndon Johnson, who later became President of the US. When President Johnson visited Australia in 1966 he called on Dame Mabel.
    Dame Mabel was involved in the Australian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and a variety of other charity work.
    She was awarded the French Chevalier de la Legion D'Honneur and in 1955 received the DBE.
    Dame Mabel was the author of six books. The last, 'Memoirs', published in October last year, was dedicated to Sir Robert Menzies.
    Sir Robert said tonight that Dame Mabel was "one of the most remarkable woman of our time".
    "Mabel had a keen historic sense and a beautiful organising mind", he said. . . She has left her memorial behind her in the form of the Queen Victoria Hospital."
    Talking about her memoirs last year, Dame Mable said there was nothing she would have changed in her life.
    "I'd like to travel and write some more, but I'll just jog along now and die peacefully", she said.
    "I have had a very busy life".11

Citations

  1. [S26] Victorian Government. BDM Index Victoria (Births) (online).
  2. [S11] Newspaper - The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.), Fri 20 Jun 1890, p1
    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/8612576
  3. [S14] Newspaper - Table Talk (Melbourne, Vic.), Thu 4 Nov 1909, p29
    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/145853229
  4. [S27] Victorian Government. BDM Index Victoria (Marriages) (online).
  5. [S185] Property Titles ; PROV (Public Record Office Victoria), C/T 2256-046 - Alice Mabel Maud Emmerton of "Raveloe" Widow and Mabel Balcombe Brookes of "Kurneh" Married Woman of Domain Road South Yarra and Hubert Ralph Hamer of "Motynden" St Georges Road Toorak Solicitor.
  6. [S185] Property Titles ; PROV (Public Record Office Victoria), C/T 2256-046 - Red Ink No 4234942 Mabel Balcombe Brookes and Hubert Ralph Hamer the survivors of the proprietors named herein are by the direction of the Commissioner of Titles now registered as joint proprietors of the land now comprised herein.
  7. [S185] Property Titles ; PROV (Public Record Office Victoria), C/T 2256-046 - Ormonde Forbes Morris of Gembrook Forestry Foreman.
  8. [S66] Berwick Shire Rates, 1870-1965 1944/45 - still in the ownership of Estate of Harry Emmerton - NAV 15.
  9. [S28] Victorian Government. BDM Index Victoria (Deaths) (online).
  10. [S14] Newspaper - Table Talk (Melbourne, Vic.), Thu 23 Mar 1911, p8
    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/146588265
  11. [S14] Newspaper - The Canberra Times (ACT), Thu 1 May 1975, p3
    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/110635844
Last Edited29 May 2020

Norman Everard Brookes

M, #19260, b. 14 Nov 1877, d. 28 Sep 1968
Birth*14 Nov 1877 St Kilda, VIC, Australia, #B5522/1878 [par William BROOKES & Catherine Margaret ROBINSON].1 
Marriage-Notice*4 Nov 1909 ENGAGEMENTS. The engagement is announced of Miss Mabel Balcombe Emmerton, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Emmerton, "Raveloe," South Yarra, to Mr. Norman Everard Brookes, son of Mr. William Brookes, of "Brookewood," St. Kilda road.2 
Marriage*19 Apr 1911 Spouse: Mabel Balcombe Emmerton. St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, #M2940/1911.3
 
Death*28 Sep 1968 South Yarra, VIC, Australia, #D24156/1968 (Age 90) [par William BROOKES & Catherine Margaret ROBINSON].4 

Family

Mabel Balcombe Emmerton b. 15 Jun 1890, d. 30 Apr 1975
Child 1.Cynthia Mary Emmerton Brookes+ b. 22 Jul 1912, d. 22 Nov 1961

Newspaper-Articles

  • 23 Mar 1911: Mr. and Mrs. Harry Emmerton have issued invitations for the marriage of their daughter Mabel Balcombe with Mr. Norman Everard Brookes, at St. Paul's Cathedral, on Wednesday, April 19, at 2.30 p.m., and afterwards at "Raveloe." Mabel Balcombe Emmerton5

Australian Dictionary of Biography

Sir Norman Everard Brookes (1877-1968), tennis-player, was born on 14 November 1877 at St Kilda, Victoria, youngest son of William Brookes, contractor, mining entrepreneur and manufacturer, and his wife Catherine Margaret, née Robinson. His elder brother was Herbert. Educated at Melbourne Church of England Grammar School, Norman matriculated in 1895 and on leaving school joined the Australian Paper Mills Co. Ltd of which his father was managing director. He began as a junior clerk; by 1904 he was a director of the firm.
Brookes showed a precocious aptitude for all ball games. At school he excelled at cricket, football and lawn tennis. Later he took up golf and won the Victorian foursomes championship once and the Australian twice. His great enthusiasm, however, was tennis and he devoted much of his time to improving his game. The family had its own court where he could play regularly; near by, he could study the strokes and tactics of leading players; and he received valuable coaching from Dr Wilberforce Eaves. Moreover, he had the means to go to Europe and play in tournaments there.
In 1896 Brookes was selected to represent Victoria against New South Wales. At this stage he was a fierce hitter and a baseliner. By the time he made his first journey to Wimbledon in 1905, he had changed his style of play to the controlled speed in ground shots and the aggressive net-attack that were to take him to the top. At Wimbledon in 1905 he won the all-comers' event but lost his challenge to the title-holder H. L. Doherty. That year he and New Zealander Anthony Wilding challenged for Australasia in the Davis Cup; lacking experience, they were eliminated early.
On his second visit to Wimbledon, in 1907, Brookes won the singles, doubles (with Wilding) and mixed events. He was the first player from overseas and the first left-hander to win the world title. That year Brooks and Wilding captured the Davis Cup from Great Britain; their remarkable partnership enabled Australasia to retain it in 1908, 1909 and 1911 (there was no challenge in 1910) and gave tremendous stimulus to tennis in Australia.
In 1914 Brookes again won the singles championship at Wimbledon and, with Wilding, the doubles. They regained the Davis Cup from the United States of America in New York a few days after the outbreak of World War I. Wilding enlisted and was killed in France in May 1915. Brookes, who suffered from stomach ulcers, was rejected for active service. He became a commissioner for the Australian branch of the British Red Cross in Egypt from August 1915 to late 1916; he resigned in January 1917 and in May became commissioner for the British Red Cross in Mesopotamia. Soon after, he was appointed assistant director of local resources for the British Expeditionary Force there, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
After the war, in 1919 and 1920, Brookes represented Australasia in Davis Cup matches, and in 1924 played for the last time at Wimbledon. Over the years he had won innumerable championships in Australia, Europe and the United States. Known as 'The Wizard', Brookes was a master strategist and a shrewd tactician. Spare in build, his stamina sometimes failed in long matches, but he played with rare determination and concentration. Always immaculately dressed, he wore long-sleeved shirts and a peaked tweed cap and for many years used a heavy flat-top racquet with slack strings. His ground strokes, produced with a minimum of back-swing, were accurate and powerful; his strongest weapons were his service and his volleying. He had phenomenal delicacy of touch and control of angled shots.
Brookes was president of the Lawn Tennis Association of Victoria from 1925 until 1937; it was largely due to his enterprise that Kooyong, purchased in 1919, was developed as a tennis centre. In 1926 he became president of the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia, holding the office for twenty-eight years. Though naturally taciturn and reserved he could at times be outspokenly blunt, stubborn and uncompromising. Despite his great prestige he did not escape the charge of being autocratic and he came under criticism as a selector of Davis Cup teams, but Brookes's name and fame were legendary. In recognition of his distinguished services to tennis he was knighted in 1939.
On 19 April 1911 at St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, Brookes had married 20-year-old Mabel Balcombe, daughter of Harry Emmerton, a solicitor; they had three daughters. (Dame) Mabel was for many years Melbourne's leading society hostess. In 1921 Brookes had resumed his place at A.P.M., becoming chairman of directors of the firm and later of North British and Mercantile Insurance Co. Ltd. He was a director of several other companies and a partner in the family pastoral firm, William Brookes & Co.
Brookes died at his home, Elm Tree House, South Yarra, on 28 September 1968 and was buried in St Kilda cemetery. His wife and two daughters survived him. His portrait by William Dargie is held in the family.6

Citations

  1. [S26] Victorian Government. BDM Index Victoria (Births) (online).
  2. [S14] Newspaper - Table Talk (Melbourne, Vic.), Thu 4 Nov 1909, p29
    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/145853229
  3. [S27] Victorian Government. BDM Index Victoria (Marriages) (online).
  4. [S28] Victorian Government. BDM Index Victoria (Deaths) (online).
  5. [S14] Newspaper - Table Talk (Melbourne, Vic.), Thu 23 Mar 1911, p8
    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/146588265
  6. [S55] ADB online, online https://adb.anu.edu.au/, W. H. Frederick, 'Brookes, Sir Norman Everard (1877–1968)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/…, published first in hardcopy 1979, accessed online 29 May 2020.
Last Edited18 Mar 2023
 

NOTE

Some family sections show only the children who were associated with Upper Beaconsfield.

Some individuals may be featured because members of their family were associated with the Upper Beaconsfield area, even though they themselves never lived here.