Early Shopkeeprs at 4 Montrose Ave, Darlington

Hubert Lawrence Taplin 1912 – 1917

Born 1879 in South Australia, he married Janet Smart Drysdale in 1902 at Beaconsfield, WA. They had 4 children who all attended the early Darlington Primary School at Leithdale in 1912. Taplin’s store was a “Daily News Agency”, a polling place and a post office during its early years. Mrs Taplin was the Post Mistress. Hubert died suddenly at Darlington in 1917 from influenza, aged 38, and was buried in the old section of the Guildford Cemetery. Janet continued to operate the store until 1920 then moved to Guildford with her family and in 1928 remarried James F. McConvill.

John Frederick and Mena Maud Mitchell 1920 – 1922

This couple appear to have migrated to WA around 1912 and first farmed at Balkuling near Greenhills but after a poor season and a fire that destroyed their home in 1916, they sold the property called “Terowie” then purchased the store from Janet. In late 1920 they applied to the Greenmount Road Board for a permit to build a shed on Lot 17 which would be the brick building that was added to by Morrie Owen around 1930 to convert it to a bakery. Mitchell Rd off Lionel Rd is possibly named after this early storekeeper. Not long after, the Mitchell’s appear to have either leased or sold the store to the Leedmans then headed to the city.

Cecil Valentine and Blanche Estelle Leedman 1922 – 1923

Cecil was descended from an early pioneer couple Louis Leedman and Jennie Cohen who came to WA from Poland/Russia in the late 1890s with their young family. At the age of 38 in 1905 Jennie died at Menzies leaving 4 children, the youngest aged 3. Cecil was 16 when his mother died and would have spent his younger years at Menzies. It must have been a busy year for the Leedman family in 1916 as father Louis remarried Christiana Richards, his son Cecil married Blanche Estelle Higgins and son Charles Herbert married Juliet Morris. The Electoral Rolls show that Cecil first worked as a clerk in Menzies before becoming a storekeeper at Shackleton which gave him the experience to take on the store at Darlington. It is unknown if Leedman leased the store from Mitchell or purchased it. Newspaper articles at this time give the store’s phone number as 2.
After Darlington, Cecil returned to Shackleton becoming an agent, then after the death of his father in 1935, the family returned to Darlington where he took on the post office as well as doing some local real estate. On his return to Darlington Cecil bought with him John Robert Woods (Woodsie). In 1954 the Electoral Roll placed the Leedmans in Nedlands and it appears that they had retired.

Ralph William Baxter and Caroline Mary 1923 – 1925

Ralph and Caroline were from Derbyshire, England. They married there in 1906 and arrived in WA late 1911. Ralph, whose occupation in England was a coal merchant, tried his hand at a variety of jobs when he arrived in Perth; firstly a painter then farmer at Eubin Siding before arriving at Darlington to take on the Grocery Store. Again this was possibly a lease from Mitchell or a sale that fell through. While at Perth in 1914, the couple had a daughter, Ivy. Whether homesickness overcame them or Western Australia didn’t live up to their expectations, the couple with their daughter returned to Hull, England in April 1925.

Arthur and Ellen McInnes 1925 – 1925

Arthur McInnes was born in Kent, England and managed a variety of stores when he arrived in WA: at Albany and Perth before Darlington. It would appear his time running the Montrose Store was very brief, just a few months before he moved to East Perth. This was his last store and eventually he retired to Chidlow where he died in 1955.