Captain Arthur Craven Jowett
Arthur Craven Jowett was born at St. Kilda in Melbourne in 1889, but let’s put it all into perspective by starting the story with Arthur’s father, Edmund Jowett.
Edmund Jowett had been born in Yorkshire, England, and came out to Australia with his father and his older brother when he was just 18 years old. Edmund’s uncle owned a woollen mill in Yorkshire, and after leaving school, Edmund had learned about “the Wool Trade” there. Though he didn’t have any capital when he arrived in Melbourne, he gradually acquired pastoral properties in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. (Maybe young Edmund had access to “The-Bank-of-Mum-and-Dad”?)
In 1883 he married Melbourne-born, Annette McCallum. He was 25 and she was 21. They were married in St George’s Presbyterian Church in St Kilda East. The church is still there today. They had 5 children, and Arthur was the middle child, between 2 older sisters, and a younger sister and finally, a brother.
When Edmund died in Queensland, in 1936, at the age of 78, he owned over 40 properties, totalling more than 6-million acres. He was also a politician and an early deputy leader of the Australian Country Party. (He had entered politics after his youngest son, Eric, was killed during WW1.) He was a keen supporter of Conscription.
It was reported in the Bulletin magazine that when he died, he owned more sheep than anyone else in the world!
Young Arthur Jowett was born and grew up in Melbourne. He went to school and later, university, in Melbourne, before traveling to England and continuing his studies at Cambridge University. In 1914 he joined the Royal Flying Corps, rising to the position of Captain and serving until 1918. While at Cambridge, he met and married Evelyn Frances Hill, in 1915. She was Australian, having been born in Rockhampton two years before Arthur, and educated in England at a French-speaking school in Bournemouth. At the time of their marriage, Captain Arthur Craven Jowett was serving with the Northumberland Fusiliers and later the Royal Flying Corps.
When the War finished, Arthur and Evelyn returned to Australia and worked on properties owned by Arthur’s father, Edmund.
They had 4 children, Doreen (born 1918), Humphrey (born 1921), Eric (born 1926) and another Edmund (born 1929). Arthur was recorded as being a “grazier”, like his own father.
At one stage Arthur lived at Clonbinane Park Homestead, the lovely old home built south of Clonbinane, and just off the Anderson’s Gardens Road. Tragically, the building was totally destroyed in the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. The homestead was built by the famous M.K. Mackenzie around 1885. In 1922 Clonbinane Park, where the homestead stood, was a property of 1924 acres with “excellent potential for cattle grazing and wool production”.
Bruno Leti
Now it connects up with Broadford and gets very interesting.
Have you heard of the internationally acclaimed Italian-born, Australian abstract artist, Bruno Leti? Did you know he went to secondary school in Seymour and played footy for Broadford Football Club? A friend of mine remembers him as a fierce footy player, and VERY LOUD.
We had heard somewhere that Bruno Leti’s father, an Italian farmer, had been invited to come and work on the “Clonbinane Park” property, by Captain Arthur Jowett. Recently have we found out how this came about, and we can thank Franca Leti, Bruno’s sister, for this new information.
(As background, old Edmund Jowett with all those sheep, had 2 sons, Arthur, and Eric. Arthur was Captain Arthur Jowett of the Royal Flying Corps, serving between 1914-1918. Edmund’s younger son, Eric, was a Flight Lieutenant in the RAF. In July 1916, Eric’s aircraft was shot down over Somme, in France, and he died, aged just 24.
Captain Arthur Jowett named one of his sons Eric, after the brother he lost in WWI. I can only imagine how he must have felt when his own eldest son, Humphrey, became a Flight Lieutenant in the RAAF and was shot down over Italy in WWII.)
During WWII Bruno and Franca’s Leti’s father, Gervasio (Gerry) Leti, and their uncle, had between them saved quite a few people from the Germans near their family farm north of Rome. One of those whose lives was saved was Humphrey Jowett, eldest son of Captain Arthur Jowett, whose aircraft had been shot down. Humphrey parachuted down, landing in the hills near the Leti farm. He was fed and hidden by the family, and Franca, “can remember her father sneaking them into the house for a wash, etc.” Had they been caught, they would have no doubt been shot!
After the war was over, in 1948, Gerry Leti received letters from two of the people he had helped to save. Both writers were hoping to repay the brothers’ kindness, by helping them migrate with their families, away from war-torn Europe. One letter came from America, and the other from Captain Jowett of Clonbinane Park. Gerry’s wife, Velia, wanted the family to go to America because her sister lived there, but her husband was adamant. Australia it was to be!
In 1950, Gerry went to Australia, leaving his wife, daughter Franca, and son Bruno behind in Italy. Gerry travelled to Clonbinane, and the family followed him in 1952. Franca tells the story that “Mum and I cried for months. We hated it there! No people to talk to and no Italian food!”
A baby sister was born in 1952 and for a while the family was split up, before coming together again in Broadford in 1953. Franca got herself a job at the Clothing factory in Broadford in 1953, and Gerry got one at the APM paper mill, where he worked for many years. The family was unable to live together while they were looking for a home, but eventually they found one in Pinniger Street, Broadford.
Today Franca lives in Melbourne and she has family living in Kilmore. Her brother Bruno and sister Alex (Sandra) are both artists. Sandra was a year ahead of Margie Inness at Broadford High School. Bruno has gone on to greater things.
“Bruno Leti (born 1941), is a painter, printmaker, photographer and publisher of artists’ books. His semi-abstract etchings, woodcuts, aquatints, monoprints and collagraphs are well known in Australia through exhibitions and numerous publications.”
“Leti has been exhibiting regularly since the late 1960s in Melbourne, Canberra, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide as well as abroad, most notably in Chicago, Cologne, Kyoto, Milan, New York, and Washington DC.”
Unfortunately, the list of Bruno’s exhibitions left out one other important site- Broadford Shire Hall in 1967.. In fact, Mitchell Shire owns a Bruno Leti original, which I will try to locate. If it’s not on permanent display, perhaps I can get someone to put it out where we can all see it, some time soon. I estimate Bruno is now 81 years old, and he lives in Melbourne.
Several years ago, Cathy Coppinger, a senior teacher at Broadford Secondary School, invited Bruno to address some of their students. Bruno happily agreed, and it was apparently a wonderful and memorable experience for everyone. Cathy remembers him as “a lovely man, and very generous with his time.”
Bruno’s sister, Alexandra, (Sandra) is also a very talented Melbourne-based artist.
Background
How did we become interested in Captain Arthur Jowett?
Thanks go to Jesse from Broadford Alternative School for his work restoring historic items from the Broadford Historical Society.
We have an old pack-saddle from 1915, which we believe once belonged to Captain Arthur Craven Jowett of Clonbinane Park. It was badly in need of some care and attention, and Jesse was just the one to do it for us.
Under supervision from the fellas at Broadford Men’s Shed, Jesse has brought it back to life. The rust has gone, and the leather has been oiled and polished. Captain Jowett would be so pleased to know that is still around and looking like new, almost.
