A young Alfred Charles Bray 1882

Alfred Charles was the eldest of their eight children and born at the family home at 32 Bullinaminga Street, Redfern on 24 May 1871. By the time Alfred married Ellen Louisa Cole in 1894, he was employed as a sorter at the General Post Office and his family had moved to Hurstville where they owned adjoining properties at Woids Avenue and Bellevue Avenue.

Alfred and Ellen initially lived at Hurstville with the Alfred's family and their first daughter, Levena Mary, was born six months after their wedding on 29 August. In 1897 their second child, my grandfather Alfred Ernest Cornelius, was also born at Hurstville. By the time their next child, Marjorie Elizabeth Martha was born in 1899, Alfred was working as a mail guard based in Orange. They then spent a number of years in Cootamundra where daughters Daisey Fredrita and Dorothy Grace were born in 1901 and 1903 respectively. Finally the family moved back to Hurstville and the Woids Avenue/Bellevue Avenue property. Here they had three more children with Pearl Louisa born in 1906, Charles Cole in 1908 and Ruby Esther in 1910 but she died after two days.


The Exeter Tragedy

Alfred tragically died on 16 March 1914 in his mail van on the Temora Mail train when it crashed into a goods train as it approached the station at Exeter shortly before midnight. It was thought that the heavy fog obscured the signal and in the carnage that followed 14 people were killed and another 26 injured.

For more details of Alfred and one of Australia's most horrific train crashes, see: https://morrisonfamilyconnections.wordpress.com/2018/03/

Alfred Charles Bray
The Exeter Rail Disaster 1914
Alfred's Funeral Card
Exeter Railway Disaster Memorial
 

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