Jeanette (‘Netta') Anne Warner (1887 – 1973)

The first child of a total of 10 children born to Ernest and Annie Warner was Jeanette (‘Netta) Anne Warner. She was born in Stockton NSW in1887 and never married but an early highlight of her life was to be bridesmaid to her Aunt, Maggie Grace Menzies, when she married Captain Albert Brew in in December 1907 (see photo). At this time Maggie was 23 and ‘Netta, 21, and it is said that they had been great friends from childhood; one the youngest daughter of George and Jeanetta Menzies and the other the eldest granddaughter.

Jeanette or ‘Netta as she was always known, finished school in 1901, the year the family moved to Sydney from Stockton. After this, her mother had 3 more children, the last when she was 43 years old so no one was surprised when ‘Netta fell naturally into the role of being the family’s ‘mother hen’. There was just no opportunity of her taking up a career of her own and from that point she spent her long life caring for her siblings and sometimes for her cousins. She was the quiet worker in the background, she never complained and was not passed scrubbing floors on her hands and knees for the people she loved. She was 6 years older than her next surviving brother, Arthur, and 7 years older than her next oldest sister, Ethel, known as Dot. Her youngest sister, Jessie, was as much as 20 years her junior. In fact Jessie was born the same year as ‘Netta was bridesmaid for her ‘Auntie Brew’.

‘Netta’s life at home was filled with the usual family events such as births, deaths and weddings, and by the time her mother, Annie, died in 1926 at the relatively young age of 62, ‘Netta had ‘experienced’ or helped at 5 family births, (Willie, Kathleen, Jessie, Arthur’s son Geoffrey and Ruby’s son Peter), 5 family deaths (Ernest, George, Annie and her mother and father) and 3 family weddings (Arthur, Ruby and Willie), all in the space of 37 years .It seemed as if there was no time for ‘Netta to have a life of her own

After Captain Ernest and Annie Warner had passed away the family home in Glen Street, Milsons Point, was sold and the 4 surviving Warner sisters had to set up their own homes. In that year ‘Netta was 40 years old, Ethel (Dot) 32, Kathleen 21 and Jessie 19, moved into a house at 6 Cambridge Street, Northbridge. This is where the electoral roll for 1930 found all four sisters.

However the roll for 1932 found that they had all moved to Unit 2, Argyle Flats, Wharf Road, overlooking Watsons Bay, Vaucluse. This was not far from where the Carsons, and the Brews, their kin, were living. Netta put her occupation down as ‘home duties, Dot as ‘dressmaker’ and Kath and Jess said they were ‘typists’.

Excerpt from the book Jane's Legacy by John Brew.