John Cannon

(1896-1989)

John Cannon was born in 1896 in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland. He married his wife, Elizabeth Vance in Bray in 1920 after service in the First World War as a Royal Marine.

John and Elizabeth had really tough childhoods. John’s father died of meningitis when he was 4 and by the time he was 12, his older brother and sister had also died of TB. He is in the 1911 UK Census for Bray, working as a ‘Yard Boy’, at 13.

Elizabeth Vance was one of 11 children. By the time she married her two eldest brothers had been killed in the First World War and she had lost a sister in infancy.

Relocating after WWl to Glasgow, Scotland, John joined the police force and worked there for several years. In 1923 the couple migrated to Albany, Western Australia, from London, on the ship Euripides. When they left Ireland to start a new life, John and Elizabeth also left behind their two widowed mothers, who they never saw again.

John intended to become a soldier settler but didn’t like what he saw on his arrival in Albany and came up to the city, obtaining his first posting in the police force in Fremantle in 1926. He spent only a year in uniform, before joining the CIB and served in Kalgoorlie, working undercover on the gold trains. He lived in Carnation St, North Perth before buying the families first home at 144 Marmion St, East Fremantle (Now 85 Irwin St). This was my Grandfather, John Cannon’s house for over 40 years. I’m not sure when he first purchased it, but his name was at this address on the 1943 Electoral Roll.

The couple had three children, Lilian (1926 - 2019), Ronald William (1928 - 2015) and Benedicta (1930 - 2013). Lil and Ron lived at 144 Marmion St until their marriages and Benedicta (Benny) became a nun, joining the Order of St Joseph of the Apparition in 1947. Lil worked for the St John’s Ambulance Brigade in her early days and drove the local Ambulance. Ron graduated as a lawyer and joined the British Colonial Service and moved to Uganda, East Africa in the early 1950’s.

Family was everything to them and Grandad always had a smile on his face. In his last years in the work force, John worked as a store detective at the Perth Boan’s branch and we loved surprising him with a visit when he was at work. He and his neighbour Jock Anderson, across the road, on the corner of Marmion and Irwin St, would share a newspaper subscription. Grandad like to get up early and read the paper first, then he would deliver it to Jock a little later. The Browne’s Dairy was opposite Marmion St and when we stayed overnight during school holidays, Grandad accompanied us to the Dairy to get supplies of chocolate milk.

John’s son-in- law, Saville Stanley Bowden worked as a printer at the nearby premises of the West Australian. After an early morning start, Sav would finish work in the mid-afternoon and would often walk over to my grandparent’s house to enjoy a cup of tea with them before returning home.

John and Elizabeth were very houseproud and carefully tended the garden beds of roses surrounding the property. Gerberas were a favourite flower of Nana’s and when you visited, she would always gather some freshly cut blooms for you to take home. Grandad also owned the block of land behind the house, which was divided by a tall, neatly pruned hedge. This was the utility part of the garden, where the clothesline, vegetable beds and chickens were kept.

A grapevine covered path led up from their side gate on Irwin Street and outside his sleepout bedroom. This room was sparsely furnished with grey army blankets on the bed and a dresser with a glass top where Grandad kept all his precious family photos.

Grandad loved birds and always kept a galah or cockatoo. A water tank and a garage and shed were at the side, behind the house. He loved wearing hats and a hat for every occasion hung on a large rack on the wall. His grandsons loved to try them all on.

The Cannons remained at 144 Marmion Street all their lives. In her later years Elizabeth moved into a rest home, before dying in 1985. John remained in the house, until he moved in with his daughter Lil Bowden, when he began to lose his sight. 144 Marmion St was sold after John’s death in 1989.

This story and the photographs were shared by Kim Cannon, John’s granddaughter, June 2020