AXE, FIREMAN'S

This axe was used by Sidney 'Syd' James Harding Withnell when he was a member of the Westfield?? (later West Armadale) Bushfire Brigade in the 1950s. It was issued to him when he was a member of the Maylands Fire Brigade in the 1930s.
Syd was born on 31 January1898 to Robert and Daisy at Clackline Junction near Northam. His father was the son of John and Emma Withnell who established one of the first pastoral leases in Roeborne in 1864. Syd grew up around Northam but by 1918 the family was living in Perth when Syd enlisted with the Australian Imperial Forces. By the time he completed basic training and embarked for Great Britain World War One had come to an end. He was briefly sent to France in 1919 but by June 1919 he was being discharged in Fremantle. Syd may have been inspired to enlist following the enlistment of his brother Algy in 1917. While training in Australia word reached Syd that Algy had been killed in action in France on 19 July 1918.
In 1919/1920 Syd's parents and possibly his Grandmother Emma moved to Mundijong to run an orchard. It was there Syd met Violet Evelyn Green, the daughter of Mrs Eliza Green (nee Mead) and they married at St Andrew's Church in Mundijong on 29 March 1922.
Syd and Violet briefly moved to Mullewa before settling back in Perth, mainly in the Bayswater and Mt Lawley areas. In 1929 Syd joined the Maylands Fire Brigade and served with them for well over 15 years. During these years Syd and Violet regularly visited friends and family in Mundijong and Byford. In 1949 Violet's mother Eliza joined them in Mt Lawley for the last year of her life.
Following the death of Eliza, Syd and Violet moved to Byford and Syd joined the West Armadale Bushfire Brigade where he continued to be used.
In the late 1980s Syd's health deteriorated and he was living in Nedlands. Syd died 24 August 1987 age 89. Violet would move back to Mount Lawley where she died age 97 in 1996.
From the 1930s the Armadale Kelmscott Road Board managed a number of volunteer bushfire brigades. It was not until the 1980s that a paid fire brigade unit was stationed in Armadale. Volunteer staffed Bushfire Brigades still operate in the City of Armadale.