Historical information
Hubert and Beulah Alice (Simpson) Rutter had five children: Hubert Jnr. (Joe) in 1913, David in 1915, June in 1917, Donald in 1922 and Samuel in 1926. Samuel died as an infant aged 17 days. Hubert was a notable figure in Eltham and beyond, with a career as a mining manager in Australia and Malaya. He served in the AIF in the First World War. While the children were growing up at ‘Yarra Braes’, Eltham, their father was an Eltham Shire Councillor in the 1920s, shire president in 1928 and a leading figure in establishing the Shire of Eltham War Memorial League, which was responsible for building the Shire of Eltham War Memorial tower at Kangaroo Ground, near where the Shire Offices were located until the 1930s. The Rutter name was commemorated after the war at Eltham High School with one of the schoolhouses named ‘Rutter House’ and at Geelong Grammar School until the 1960s where a ‘Rutter Badge’ was awarded to junior boys for leadership.
The family home, ‘Yarra Braes’ was destroyed in the devasting Black Friday bushfire, 13 January 1939 and Beulah relocated to Toorak, Hubert working in Western Australia. Tragedy struck the family again December 19, 1940 when daughter June was killed after falling from the Heidelberg train on to an adjacent track into the path of a Reservoir train at Victoria Park station.
Sons David and Donald both served in the R.A.A.F. during the Second World War and were killed in action, David in Libya in 1941 and Donald in Germany in 1945. The wreck of his plane and his body were not recovered at the time and Hubert never ceased to chase down leads as to his whereabouts. Beulah never gave up hope that Donald was still alive. Hubert had received several reports shortly after the war that his son was still alive but these were ultimately accepted as misidentification. Such was the anguish of the grieving parents, their son’s plane not found to confirm the fact for certain. Hubert wrote to the Air Force in frustration, failing to understand how the plane could disappear when it crashed in a relatively populated area. Unfortunately the answers came too late for Beulah who died in 1946 and was buried in Eltham Cemetery along with her daughter June and baby Samuel.
Donald’s plane was eventually located and his body recovered in 1949. He is buried in the Hanover War Cemetery, Germany. David is commemorated on Column 245, Alamein Memorial, Egypt. Both David and Donald are commemorated on Eltham’s Roll of Honour Board, commissioned by the Eltham War Memorial Trust to be hung in the Baby Health Centre, part of the Eltham War Memorial building precinct.
Hubert Senior and Hubert Junior both continued to work in the mining industry in Western Australia. Hubert senior died 1957 at Plantagenet Western Australia and Hubert junior in 1979 at Gascoyne, Western Australia.
Sacred to the memory of
Beulah AliceBeloved wife of
Hubert Rutter
Died August 21st 1946
also
June
Beloved daughter of
Beulah and Hubert Rutter
Died 19th December 1940 aged 23 years
Also her baby brother
Samuel
Died 7th October 1926, aged 17 days
Physical description
Born Digital
Subjects
References
- THROWBACKTHURSDAY: OFFICIAL OPENING, ELTHAM HIGH SCHOOL, OCTOBER 13TH,1928 At the opening of the Eltham Higher Elementary School on 13 October 1928, in the marquee there are small tables dotted about with groups of people sitting around them. The tables are decorated with posies of early Victorian period made with forget-me-nots, daisies, picotees, heavenly blue, stock and wallflowers. The posies are the handiwork of Mrs. H. Rutter, wife of the president of the Eltham Shire, and the sweet-smelling blooms come from the beautiful garden at “Yarra Brae,” Eltham, the home of Cr. and Mrs. Rutter. They are greatly admired and sought after. Cr. H. Rutter, president of the shire, was an apology for the event as he had been called away unexpectedly to England earlier in the week to fulfill an important business engagement in connection with the firm with which he is associated.
- THROWBACKTHURSDAY: BLACK FRIDAY, WARRANDYTE, 13TH JANUARY, 1939 At Eltham on Black Friday, 13 January 1939, the fire begins in the morning in the vicinity of Mr. C.A. (Clarrie) Hurst’s Eltham Poultry Farm and Hatchery in New Street (present day Lavender Park Road), one of the oldest in the State, consuming some fowl pens and killing many birds. The fire-bell is rung, and all the firemen of Eltham, together with most of the male residents turn out to fight the flames. Speeding before a strong and searing north wind, it passes on to Mr. H. Rutter’s house at Yarra Braes. It is while the firemen are at Mr. Hurst’s property that the fire attacks Mr. Rutter’s house. Despite desperate efforts, the home is burned to the ground. It then crosses the valley, and threatens Killeavey in Laughing Waters Road, the home of Mrs. J. (Beatrice) Morrison, daughter of Sir William Irvine. The fire leaps the river at three points between Mr. Rutter’s and Mrs. Morrison’s where it continues to advance rapidly, racing through tinder-dry grass and forest almost as fast as the wind itself, demolishing every habitation in its path. It joins another fire, and the two converging bush fires sweep down on Warrandyte about 2 p.m., razing nearly half the houses in the district within an hour. It is believed 100 homes have been lost. So sudden is the onslaught of the fire that few people have the opportunity to save more than the clothes they wear.
- ELTHAM ROLL OF HONOUR: FLYING OFF. DAVID RUTTER, 9 DEC 1941, BIR EL GUBBI, LIBYA
- ELTHAM ROLL OF HONOUR: FLT. LT. DONALD HEMPHILL RUTTER, 5 APR 1945, VARRELBUSCH, GERMANY
