Annie Isabella Warner nee Menzies (1864-1926)

Annie Isabella Warner was the eldest child of George and Jeanetta Menzies. She was born on 20 November 1864 while her parents were in Port Melbourne in Victoria. They had married in Sydney in January 1864 but George was a seaman and he was engaged in the Australian coastal trade when they married. Neither of them had any ties to anyone or to any property and so it is likely that Jeanetta followed or sailed with her husband at first. It was the sort of romantic notion that newly weds might follow but it was not an arrangement that would work in the long term especially when it became apparent that she was expecting. For whatever reason they decided to settle in the little village of Stockton instead of Melbourne. Maybe the southern capital was too cold. Maybe the prospects of finding work on ships sailing out of Newcastle, the adjoining port, were more attractive to George. Whatever the reason, we soon find the young couple settled in Stockton NSW where all their subsequent children were born.

As she grew up, Annie soon found herself surrounded with numerous brothers and sisters. When she was 3, little Jessie was born, to be followed by brother John when she was 6, George when she was 8, William when she was 10, Robert when she was 11, Dick when she was 14, Jeanette when she was 16 and finally Maggie when she was 19. By then she was thinking about what the future might hold for her because a dashing young seaman called Ernest Warner was paying her some attention. He told her of his dreams of becoming a sea captain and indeed did become one the very next year.

Ernest Woodley Warner was born on 19th October 1857 at 8 King Street, Chatham in Kent. He was the only child of James Woodley Warner and Ann Louisa Mills. At the time of Earnest’s birth his father was a private in the Royal Marines and a veteran of the Crimea War. In the 1861 Census of England, Earnest was 3 years old and living with his mother in Halling, Kent while his father was serving in the Royal Marine Light Infantry aboard HMS “Cressy,” an 80 gun screw propelled 3rd rate warship. In the 1871 Census Earnest was 13 and living with his parents at Portsea in Hampshire and his father was a Royal Navy steward. The following year, when aged 14, Ernest went to sea.

His father died when he was 17 and 2 years later his mother remarried. In 1881 Ernest, now aged 23, received his Mate’s certificate authorizing him to take control of a vessel should the master be incapacitated. He then found his way into the NSW records as an Able Seaman in the ship “Orontes” arriving in NSW in August 1881. Following this he signed on in a ship called “Shannon” and then as mate in the ships “Wild Wave” and “Island City”. The NSW Register of Seaman (which lists every member of the crew of all outgoing ships) has him listed later that year as 1st Mate of a schooner called “May” bound for Yokohama. It says his ticket is numbered 09852. The State Archives of NSW also records that he gained his Master’s Certificate on 31 January 1884 aged 26 and his pilotage exemption for Newcastle and Sydney on 5 February the same year.

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