Dan Desbois wearing “Piccadilly Weepers”
(A particular style of facial hair taking the form of exaggerated bushy sideburns.)
Photo: Rosewood Scrub Historical Society
Rosewood History
Dan DESBOIS and Mary Ann PRITCHETT
Name: Dan BESBOIS
Occupation: Watch Maker (1851); Divinity Student (1863); Missionary (1864) Teacher (1873)
Birth: 3rd July 1836, St Mary, Islington, Middlesex, England
Baptism: 7th October 1836, St Mary, Islington, Islington, England
Education: St Augustine’s College, Monastry Street, Canterbury, Kent
Residence: 1864 Greytown, New Zealand.
Immigration: 11th February 1871, City of Brisbane arrived at Brisbane from Sydney.
Land Purchase: 7th November 1871, 80 acres 2nd class pastoral in East Moreton
Death: 24th August,1898, Woogaroo Asylum, Goodna, Queensland aged 62 years
Religion: Church of England
Father: Daniel DESBOIS
Mother: Susanna EVANS
Spouse: Mary Ann PRITCHETT
Birth: 13th October1844, Limehouse, Middlesex, England
Baptism: 16th November 1844, Ratcliffe, Tower Hamlets, England
Immigration: 11th February 1871, City of Brisbane arrived at Brisbane from Sydney.
Death: 14th June 1880, Warwick, Queensland aged 35 years
Buried: 15th June 1880, Warwick Cemetery
Father: Charles PRITCHETT
Mother: Mary Ann RIDDLE
Marriage: 8th August 1863, St John the Baptist Erith, Kent, England
Children: 8
Dan Evans DESBOIS (1864-1933) = Sarah TRIMBLE
Gerald DESBOIS (1866-1932)
Alice DESBOIS (1868-1949) = Charles William House MORGAN
Janet DESBOIS (1870-1870)
Godfrey DESBOIS (1871-1951) = Mary Gertrude SEABORN
Hugh DESBOIS (1872-1893)
Ruth DESBOIS (1877-1968) = John Charlton KABLE
Louis DESBOIS (1879-1975) = Alice Mary MURRY
Dan Desbois was the first teacher at the Rosewood Gate Mixed Primary School.
Dan was descended from a French Protestant family who fled France for England in the 17th century because of persecution by the French Catholic government. They were amongst the 200,000 people known as “Huguenots” who left France. Many Huguenots were master craftsmen and there were several in the Desbois family.
Dan was a member of the third generation of Desbois born in England and began his working life as a watchmaker. By the time he was fourteen years old he was a finisher (filing and polishing the edges, bevelling or chamfering) and he was apprenticed to his father, who was a watch and clock manufacturer like his father before him. Their home and business, Daniel Desbois & Sons was at 9 Gray’s Inn Passage, Holborn.
Even though he was the eldest son, and after much consideration, Dan decided that his future lay elsewhere and he went to study at St Augustine’s College in Canterbury. He became a Church of England missionary and by 1864 he and his family were living in New Zealand where Dan was attending to the spiritual needs of New Zealand settlers. He was the only son to leave England for the colonies and Dan was never to see his family again.
Dan’s father was not completely happy with his decision but gave him his good wishes. ‘You know I did not wish you to leave me and I certainly shall much miss you, but hoping all for the best believe me Dear Dan.’ (1)
Almost immediately after he and his family arrived in Brisbane in 1871, the Diocesan Council granted Rev. Dan Desbois £50 as a stipend for him to be their missionary to the Logan, Albert, and Pimpama region for three months.
We have at last been favoured with the presence of a clergyman of the Church of England, the Rev. D. Desbois. The Independents, Lutherans and Wesleyans have established churches in this neighbourhood for some time. What more can be desired? Mr. Desbois will find his parish rather large but he certainly seems determined to spare himself no trouble in attending to the spiritual wants of his parishioners. (8 April 1871)
The Rev. Mr. Desbois gave a very acceptable series of readings in the new school-room at Waterford, on Monday evening (5 June 1871). This is just the sort of clergyman for a widely scattered people, and being indefatigable he must succeed.
He remained there until 1873 when the Department of Public Instruction appointed Dan as head master of St Mark’s School at Warwick. Dan wasn’t trained to be a teacher. He educated himself in how to teach and run a school through first-hand experience.
At the end of 1874 Dan and his family left Warwick for Rosewood Gate. A new State school had been built there with a small school house. The residents of the district had raised the necessary one-fifth contribution towards building the school and the school buildings were established in the latter part of 1874.
Previously there had been a provisional or temporary school operating at Rosewood Gate since 1870 in the dining room of the old Rising Sun Hotel. It was subsidised by the parents and government. From 1869 provisional schools could be established with as few as 12 children if the local people were willing to provide some sort of school building and accommodation for a teacher. Provisional schools often became permanent State schools. Walter Hore was appointed as teacher of the provisional school and after he left at the end of 1872, John William Vance conducted a school in his residence.
Dan was appointed as the first teacher at Rosewood’s first State School and was given an annual salary of £50. He took up his duties in January 1875 and remained at Rosewood Gate Mixed Primary School for three years. During the first year, 143 pupils from the surrounding district ranging from half-a-mile to five miles away, were enrolled at the school. His wife was appointed to assist him and was paid £30 per year.
The first names written on the roll of the Rosewood Gate Mixed Primary School No. 131, on the 1st February, 1875, were: Dan Desbois, Gerald Desbois, James Mulholland, John Matthews, Albert Boughen, Arthur Boughen, James Matthews, Frederick Hannant, Richard Mason, Michael Farrell, John Vance, William Vance, Thomas Walker, George Walker, Samuel Hammill, John Hammill, Richard Scanlan, Francis Pedrazzini, Daniel Dale, Lawrence Ryan, Patrick Ryan, Robert Hallam, Julia Ann Moran, Alice Desbois, Helen Smith, Margaret Black, Rebecca Mulholland, Catherine Farrell, Mary Ann Farrell, Margaret Matthew, Margaret Ellison, Sarah Jane Hammill, Elizabeth Dale and Bridget Ryan.
Additional pupils on the register who were included in the first quarter’s attendance were: Michael Doyle, Martin Doyle, Mary Pedrazzini, Henry Smallbone, Arthur Beuseley, Charles Hallam, George Dutney, James Madden, Ivy Smallbone, Lawrence Smallbone, Thomas Madden, Francis O’Donnell, Frederic Perren, Hezekiah Perrem, James Dale, Martha Bamberry, Victoria Vance, Margaret Haley, Mary Jane Ellison, Elizabeth Waight, Henry Walker, Alexander Walker, Michael McCarthy, Harriet Perrem, Selina Perrem, Richard Eaton, Samuel Eaton, Joseph Vance, Joseph Wiles, James Perrem, William Madden, Thomas Haley, Edward McCarthy, Sarah Hawkins, Caroline Dutney, Louisa Dutney, Ellen O’Donnell, Catherine Loveday, Anne Wiles, Elizabeth Wiles, John Mason.
Six desks each 11’6, 12 forms each 5’6, one blackboard and one book cupboard were purchased at a cost of £18. Six cedar chairs and one cedar table 40/-, an iron bedstead 65/-, pine washstand 12/- and a pine table 17/6. The school was a low set building with a shingled roof and it stood on 10 acres of land. Mr John Byers was the contractor (£303). Mr Dave Bourke’s bullocks pulled the stumps for the building.
On the 16th February, soon after the school opened, Dan started a night school for the young men of the district. He soon realised that the small school house was inadequate for his family of eight (Dan, his wife, a maid servant, and five children) as there were only two small bedrooms. Dan wrote to the Board of General Education about it on 25th August.
Water had to be carried from the river for his household until two ship tanks plus taps and stands were installed at the school in April 1875 at a cost of £96.19. The tanks had engine taps at that time. (Dotted about the Australian landscape in the most unexpected locations are large square rusty iron tanks. These containers are called ship tanks. They were originally designed to replace the wooden barrels which were used for water or perishable goods. They were adapted for many purposes.)
Inspectors Report dated 19th October, 1875
The school is reported to be in fair order although it is overcrowded and the schoolhouse needs extension. Maps of the respective continents are to be sent, also a supply of 1st, 2nd and 3rd books. Attendance: Seems to be increasing. The average for last quarter was 70 percent of the aggregate; but only 6 out of 86 on the roll attended four days out of five. The school suffered from measles from the middle of June to the end of August. (3)
Dan was an energetic and competent teacher and was a popular and well-liked member of the community.
Our young ones long to come to school again-the holidays are too long. The teacher says he fears he might be led to drown himself, if there was water enough, in which case he should desire his neighbours, who would sit upon him, to record a verdict of temporary insanity, brought on by heat and drought and nothing to do. He contemplated offering his services to the railway ganger, but feared that his long pent up energy would break the tools. You see how mad he is already. (2)
On 25th January 1876, the first pupil teacher, a 16 year old youth named Richard Scanlan, was appointed to the school. He received a salary of £30 per annum. The school was close by to the Rising Sun Hotel. Dan Desbois wanted the school fenced off from the hotel for the safety of his pupils because of the broken bottles, drunkenness and horse racing carried on by some of the patrons of the public house.
Dan wrote to the Board of General Education again on 31st January 1876 about the inadequate accomodation for his family. See the letter Dan wrote here. The Board agreed that his family was too large for a 24 ft cottage, and as he was a useful teacher, they would accomodate his request to have a 24ft x 12 ft detached building erected close to his residence.
Here are the Inspector’s Reports for Rosewood Gate School in 1876.
April – The ground is not yet fenced the floor space of the school room has been increased during the year by making the back verandah 14 feet wide and enclosing it at each end. (3)
Inventories of Movable Property – Supply of exercise books is private property. Children buy from teacher: copy, pens and holders. 6 desks had been repaired and are as good as new. 2 blackboards without stands. Teacher had to pay for these. One lock and key. (3)
17th May and 19th October.
First inspection: Enrolled, 98; 57 boys sand 41 girls. Present, 63; 39 boys and 24 girls.
Second inspection: Enrolled, 89; 50 boys and 29 girls. Present, 77 ; 43 boys and 34 girls.
The buildings are in good order. The grounds are clear, but unimproved, except that the teacher has a vegetable garden, in good cultivation, effectually fenced by himself. The residence is too small to accommodate the teacher’s large family, and the school is overcrowded. The attendance is very fairly regular, but not steady; punctuality is very good. Order is very fair, discipline fair, and the tone somewhat rough. The proficiency is only moderate, but fair progress has been made since the opening of the school in the beginning of the year. The teaching rather lacks patience, but vigour and industry are apparent. (4)
In August an Agricultural Reporter for the Brisbane Courier visited the Rosewood Scrub and wrote about his observations.
The immense extent of the Rosewood Scrub district necessarily militates against educational facilties, nevertheless, the Primary School at Rosewood Gate supplies the means of instruction to over a hundred children, who come from various distances ranging from half a mile to five miles. Several children living at the longer distance are amongst the most regular attendants. The school is under the charge of Mr. Desbois, and from what I learned from the parents, and from personal observation, I conclude that an excellent work is being ably performed by this energetic teacher. The school is aleady becoming too small for the increased attendance. A suggestion has been made that a large school-house at Rosewood Gate would be more efficient than a number of small schools along the line, and to this end it has been proposed that a move be made to induce the Government to give free passes to the children from Helidon to Walloon, to enable them to attend the central school. How this plan would work as regards Western Creek and Laidley, large scattered districts, I am not sufficiently up in the topography of the country to say, but the suggestion has more than once been made in my hearing. (6)
Early in February 1877 the school was closed for a week because Dan and most of his pupils were “blind with blight” (a contagious bacterial eye infection linked to poor personal and community hygiene). A journalist wrote: The teacher caught it. He went on teaching some time after he failed to distinguish a boy from a girl, but when he tried to write and found his own nose in contact with the blackboard instead of the chalk, and then failed to see the mark, he thought it time to dismiss school and nurse his misery in peace and quietness.This is all I have to say about the blight. I hope it won’t give you sore eyes to read the account.
The town’s first show was held at the school in his classroom in July 1877. Dan was the secretary of the show. There were very few surveyed roads in the district. They were just bridle tracks at best, and the settlers experienced great difficulty trying to get their produce to market. Politicians and people in Brisbane knew little about the scrub lands and doubted their productivity. It was suggested that the settlers have an exhibition of their produce to let the outside world see what could be grown. It was really more like a Paddy’s Market. There were no cattle or horses, only exhibits of produce such as maize, bugle pumpkins, spotted pie melons, sweet potatoes and some samples of home cured bacon. One exhibit was a huge bunch of carrots with the black soil still adhering. A short programme of foot-racing was arranged and Mr Paddy Madden became the winner of the first Rosewood Handicap. This exhibition was very successful in showing the wonderful capabilities of the district, which just a few years before had been an unpopulated scrub. Very soon surveyors were at work and a road was built from Tallegalla to the Rosewood Gate.
Immediately after this event a meeting was called by John Vance to form the Rosewood Farmer’s Club and Dan Desbois was appointed as one of the nine founding committee members of the newly formed Club in August 1877. He became secretary for a short while. Mr James Moore was president, Messrs John Mitchell, L. Smallbone, John W. Vance, Joseph Hudson, Mark Bensley, W. Perrem and Nicholas Weigand were the other members. Their monthly meetings were held at the school. Their first purpose was to agitate for a water supply to keep farmers from leaving the district.
Dan’s wife Mary Ann suffered from epilepsy and when she became ill in 1877, she could no longer assist him at the school. At the end of the year Dan was transferred to East Warwick. His replacement was Francis William Johns who came to Rosewood from Moggill. The school’s name changed to Rosewood Primary School.
If you’d like to read about the regulations for teachers in 1878 or about their pay you will find articles here. Regulations Renumeration
Mary Ann Desbois died in Warwick in 1880, aged 36 years, leaving Dan and seven children.
Dan Desbois was a volunteer soldier with the Warwick Company of the Queensland Defence Force and was Commander of C Company.
A case of some interest to volunteers and other marksmen, was recently tried in the Warwick Police Court. A party of volunteers, under a Defence Force officer, went to the rifle range, and found that some other persons were firing close to them. The officer, Dan Desbois, went to these persons, and ordered one, who was firing at a bear, to desist, on the ground that he was using Government ammunition. The man, William Law, having satisfied Desbois that he was doing nothing of the sort, was again ordered to “cease firing” and to “halt” as he was “endangering people’s lives.” He replied:- “No more than the volunteers when they miss the target.” It was then alleged that Law was encroaching on the range and disturbing the volunteers and he was, therefore, served with a summons. The evidence tended to show that Law and his companions were beyond the boundaries of the range, and that one firing party would not interrupt another. Law was fined £1, “the lowest penalty” which could be inflicted. Now, Law is anxious to know what he was fined at all for. It seems that he infringed the 11th clause of the Defence Act.
For firing at a blamed old ” b’ar,”
Law got an all-fired claw;
Now William Law’s worst terrors are
The terrors of the law!
With sow’s ear make une bourse de soie,
But never dare the bold Desbois. (5)
Over the years he wrote to the newspapers about various topics like the benefits of Charcoal As A Cure For Colic and The Scotch Thistle.
He hadn’t forgotten his watchmaker background and in March 1874 he wrote and article titled The Place To Carry A Watch.
Dan was head teacher at five Queensland schools from 1873 to 1896 (Warwick, Rosewood, North Maclean and Eton). His spiritual legacy was the construction of St George’s Anglican Church in Beenleigh, built in 1875.
In the first 50 years of the school, eight teachers had been charged with the important task of educating the local children. They were D. Desbois, F. W. Johns, G. W. Swan, G. Walker, J. Tuffley, Major J. W. Watkins, J. R. Mark and W. A. Zerner.
In October 1927, Dan’s son Gerald, an itinerant teacher in Western Queensland, visited Rosewood and his old school on his way to Brisbane.
As a matter of interest, I came across some letters which Gerald Desbois wrote from Palestine while he was serving aged 50 in the 2nd Australian Remount Unit. The remount unit was responsible for tending to the horses that were used for reinforcements for those horses wounded or killed in action. They helped break them in, trained them and looked after getting them ready for war.
Read Gerald’s letters here if you wish.
One grandson, Daniel Robert Desbois, served at Gallipolli where he was wounded in action. He was wounded a second time in France and was sent to the Leicester Royal Infirmary. While at the infirmary, and just as he was recovering from his injuries, Corp. Debois submitted himself to a procedure for the benefit of a young New Zealander with a wound in the thigh. The young man was failing and a blood transfusion was needed. Daniel offered and gave a pint and a half of his blood. When the chaplain saw Dan the next day in bed and in a very weak condition, Dan said his only regret was that he had not been able to save his comrade’s life.
Lieutenant Desbois was awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous bravery in the field at Mont de Merris, and was decorated by the King at Buckingham Palace. He enlisted and served again as a Captain in the Second World War.
© Jane Schy, 2024
Sources:
(1) Dan Desbois (1836-1898) A Life of Spiritual, Educational & Military Service by Geoffrey R. Morgan 2012
(2) The Week, Saturday 15 January 1876, page 16
(3) 125th Anniversary 1875 Rosewood State School 2000 – Erinport Pty Ltd
(4) The Queensland Times, Tuesday 6 June 1876, page 4
(5) Qld Figaro and Punch, Saturday 11 July 1885, page 12
(6) Brisbane Courier, Saturday 5 August 1876, page 6