ARCHITECTURE
Inter-War, Bungalow Porch House w Californian Bungalow Influences
No 5 Gill Street is a single storey building constructed in brick and rendered brick with a hipped and gable tiled roof. It is a fine expression of the Inter-War California Bungalow style. It is asymmetrically composed with a thrust gable bay and a gable roofed porch. The half-timbered porch is supported on square columns set on piers. A rendered balustrade spans between the piers. The porch is set proud of the house. The half- timbered gable bay features a set of double hung sash windows.
HISTORY
1945 For Sale. Engagement Ring, I8-carat gold,single stone, new, £19/10 Ward. 5 Gill-st, East Fremantle. (reference)
1946 Smokers Fined Two men were fined $1 each in Fremantle Police Court today for having smoked in sheds at Victoria Quay. They were tally clerk Valentine Ward of Gill Street, East Fremantle, and lumper James Spoor of Parry Street, Fremantle. (reference)
1946 The marriage of Alma Rose, youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. Riatti, of Mornington Mills, to Val only son of Mr. and Mrs. V. Ward, of 5 Gill-street, East Fremantle… (reference)
1947 Deserted By Yank Hubby. Several weeks after Joan Clifford Bodwell, of Gill-st, East Fremantle, wedded American soldier John David Bodwell at Claremont in April 1943, he sailed away with his buddies to New Guinea. And he didn't return to the West. In the Divorce Court yesterday Joan Bodwell applied to have the marriage dissolved on the grounds of desertion… (reference)
Joan Clifford WARD was described in newspapers as an attractive brunette. Her ‘Yank Hubby' had brown hair and eyes with a ruddy complexion, and was 168cm tall. She petitioned for divorce on grounds of desertion, which was granted in August 1947... She was a stenographer and living at home with parents at 5 Gill Street in 1954.
She moved to 94 Subiaco Road, Subiaco, by 1958, and 69 Coogee Street, Mt Hawthorn, by 1963, She moved to Brookvale, NSW, by 1977, and was still working as a typist but had dropped the ‘Clifford’ from her name. Retired to Nowra, NSW by 1980.
As to John Bodwell… He enlisted in the National Guard/Coast Artillery Corps (or Army Mine Planter Service) on 16 September 1940. He must’ve married Joan and gone almost straight back to the US where he was discharged before October 1945. Next of Kin Claire Savage, his mother. He joined the Marine Corps in 1946 and married again, to Jane Bordeaux ? on 12 May 1947… three months before Joan divorced him in Australia. They separated on 1 October 1947 (again, no children) and she divorced him for desertion in April 1950…except he married Elizabeth Wood in Portland, Maine, on 15 October 1948, long before that divorce was on the table!
RESIDENTS
1931 - 1932: Ward
1933 - 1949: Ward, Valentine C.
