A small metal spectacles case that belonged to my grandmother prompted me to find out more about one of Rockhampton’s early optometrists, Charles Edward Crew.

The case, neatly enveloped in fine black leather, has the following words embossed in gold lettering on its lid: “Charles E Crew, Optometrist, 12 Ross Street, Rockhampton.”

I don’t remember my grandmother ever wearing the glasses I found in this case. She wore glasses, mostly for reading, but not this pair—or at least, not as far as I can recall. Perhaps they belonged to an earlier period of her life, and she kept these as a keepsake.

The glasses themselves are intriguing. Small and delicately made, they have bifocal lenses, a gold-plated metal bridge, nose pieces, end pieces and hinges, and springy, curved cable temples. There are no plastic components. The glasses are well-preserved in their original case.

Curious, I wanted to find out about the person who supplied them to my grandmother—Charles E Crew, Optometrist of Rockhampton.

This story has been in the making for a long time. I first began researching Charles Crew several years ago but eventually stalled when I couldn’t identify his parents and siblings. This year, I returned to my earlier research, determined to dig a little deeper into Charles and his family history.

What I discovered is a story that reaches well beyond the name embossed on an old spectacles case.

Charles E Crew conducted his optometry practice from his home at 12 Ross Street, Rockhampton, for almost 23 years, from 1925 until 1948. From 1938 onwards, he made weekly visits to Mount Morgan, where he held consultations at the Olympia Theatre.

My grandmother lived at Rannes, 41 miles (66 kilometres) southwest of Mount Morgan. I wonder if she had her eyes tested there during one of Mr Crew’s visits to Mount Morgan. Perhaps she visited Mr Crew at his Rockhampton consulting rooms. I may never know. But what I do know is the name of the man who made and supplied these vintage glasses.

NOTE: A list of references I used in preparing this article is found at the end of the post. Specific references are numbered and noted throughout the text by brackets: [X].

Charles Edward Crew’s family

Charles Edward Crew was born at Blackwater, Central Queensland, on 7 October 1880. According to his birth record, he was the fourth child of Henry William Crew and Elizabeth Jane Adams, migrants from England and Jersey respectively.

Charles’s father, Henry, was born at Corsham, Wiltshire, in October 1847. At the age of 22, on 30 July 1870, he left England aboard the passenger ship Royal Dane, bound for Australia. He celebrated his 23rd birthday during the voyage. The ship arrived at Rockhampton on 19 November 1870. [1]

His mother, Elizabeth, was born at St Helier, Jersey, on 12 April 1848. On 10 December 1865, at St Saviour’s Parish Church, Jersey, she married Thomas Alfred Webber, who was about eight or nine years her senior.

The Webbers came to Australia the following year and settled at Copperfield, Central Queensland. Thomas, a bricklayer, found work building smelters for the Peak Downs Copper Mining Company. Established in 1861 following the discovery of copper near Clermont, the company developed Queensland’s first successful large-scale copper mine. The historic mining town of Copperfield grew alongside it.

Elizabeth and Thomas had three daughters: Elizabeth Ann, born 23 November 1866; Helena, born 22 November 1868; and Alice Hayson, born 7 February 1872, according to Queensland birth records.

These three girls would later become Charles Crew’s older half-sisters.

A complicated family history

The circumstances of Charles’s parents’ meeting are less certain. I suspect they met at Copperfield, where both had come to live, although I have found no record confirming this. Charles’s birth record indicates that Henry and Elizabeth were living together as husband and wife at Peak Downs in 1874.

However, there was a complication: Elizabeth was still married to her first husband.

Thomas Alfred Webber—also known as Alfred—was still living and working at Copperfield when Elizabeth began her relationship with Henry Crew. On 14 November 1879, Alfred was admitted to the Benevolent Asylum at Dunwich, on North Stradbroke Island, following a referral from Mackay Hospital. He was suffering from paralysis. He died at the asylum on 12 April 1881, aged 43. [2]

Henry and Elizabeth married at Rockhampton on 19 January 1883, about two years after Alfred’s death. The Reverend Robert Hartley, a Primitive Methodist minister, conducted the ceremony at his home. At the time of their marriage, Henry, Elizabeth and their children were living in Rockhampton.

By 1883, Henry and Elizabeth already had five children together: Annie Jane, born about 1875; Amy Alice, born 7 January 1878; Henry William, born 13 March 1879; Charles Edward, born 7 October 1880; and Emily Amy, born 3 August 1882.

Sadly, two of their five children died during infancy. Amy Alice survived for only two months, dying on 9 March 1878. Emily Amy died on 9 November 1883, aged just 15 months.

After their marriage, the couple welcomed two more daughters: Florence Lucy, born 13 April 1884, and Amy Helena, born 20 April 1887.

Tragedy struck the family again the following year. Charles’s only brother, Henry William, died of meningitis on 28 August 1888. He was 9. [3]

Charles grew up surrounded by family, but his circumstances were far from straightforward. He had three older half-sisters from his mother’s first marriage and, as one of Henry and Elizabeth’s children who survived infancy, a brother and sisters of his own. He must have found it especially difficult to lose his only brother when they were both so young.

Henry Crew’s early years in Queensland

Henry Crew’s life in Queensland began a decade before Charles was born.

Soon after arriving at Rockhampton in November 1870, Henry travelled by boat to Mackay, where he found work on the sugar plantation Meadowlands. Several months later, he moved on to Copperfield, west of Mackay, where he worked at the furnaces. He remained there for most of the next four years. [4]

By 1880, when Charles was born, Henry was working as a labourer on the Central Railway at Blackwater.

The Central Railway (or Central Western Railway as it is known today) between Rockhampton and Winton was constructed section by section between 1865 and 1928. The first section, from Rockhampton to Westwood, 29 miles (45 kilometres), opened in September 1867. [5] The second section, from Westwood to Gogango, 8 miles (13 kilometres), opened almost seven years later, in June 1874. [6] During 1876, the railway reached Dingo, 44 miles (71 kilometres) west of Gogango. The line between Dingo and Blackwater was completed in 1877. [7]

A telegraph station opened for public business at Blackwater in November 1879. [8] The newly constructed railway station at Blackwater housed the local postal service and the telegraph station.

In February 1881, Henry gained a position as a telegraph line repairer on the Central Railway. By 1899, he had been promoted to Telegraph Maintenance Overseer, responsible for various maintenance gangs working on the Central Railway. [9, 10]

His working life thus followed the expanding frontiers of Central Queensland: from a fledgling sugarcane industry to mining, to railway construction, to maintaining an expanding telegraph network that linked growing communities.

After retiring, Henry spent his remaining years at Rockhampton. His wife Elizabeth died on 6 March 1921, after a long illness. She was 72. Henry outlived Elizabeth by 16 years. He died on 21 February 1937 at the age of 89.

His long life spanned a remarkable period of change in Central Queensland, from his arrival as a young English migrant in 1870 to the development of the railway and communications systems that transformed the region in which his family made its home.

Charles and Grace Crew: Marriage and family

Henry and Elizabeth’s surviving son, Charles Edward, married Grace McDonald at Rockhampton on September 12, 1903. Charles was 22 and Grace 24. Grace was the daughter of Peter and Euphemia McDonald (nee Smith). Peter McDonald was one of three founding directors of the Mount Etna Glenmore Lime Works, near Rockhampton. The marriage took place at the Yaamba Road residence of Grace’s sister, Mrs Elspeth Pfaff. The Reverend Irvine Weir, of the North Rockhampton Methodist Church, officiated. Charles and Grace spent their honeymoon at nearby Emu Park. [11, 12]

Charles and Grace made their home in Larnach Street, Rockhampton. Larnach Street runs parallel to, and one over from, Ross Street, where Charles’s parents lived and where Charles lived before his marriage. It is also the street in which St Mark’s Church of England, Allenstown, was situated. For many years, even before his marriage, Charles was organist and choir director at St Mark’s Church.

The couple’s marriage produced four children: Henry William Adams, born 15 December,1905; Charles Edward Pfaff, born 6 February 1908; David Edward, born 16 February 1914; and Elizabeth Euphemia, born 4 September 1917. Note how they named their children: after Charles’s father and brother Henry William; after Charles himself; after Charles’s mother Elizabeth (nee Adams); and after Grace’s sister (Mrs Pfaff) and her mother Euphemia.  

Charles E Crew: Jeweller and Optometrist

As a young man, Charles worked for Mr W G J Edgar, Jeweller, Watchmaker and Optician, of Rockhampton. From Mr Edgar, Charles learnt the rudiments of jewellery making, watchmaking, engraving and optometry.

William George Johnson Edgar established his jewellery and watchmaking business at Rockhampton in 1883. In 1895, given the success of his Rockhampton enterprise, he opened a branch store at Longreach, the terminus township of the Central Railway at that time.

In 1900, Mr Edgar expanded his business further by opening a store at Mount Morgan. By then, William Edgar and his son, James Faulds Edgar, were fully qualified optometrists. [13, 14]

Charles E Crew, Manager, W G J Edgar’s, Mount Morgan

Around 1910, Mr Edgar appointed his protege Charles Crew as manager of his Mount Morgan store. Charles, Grace, and their (then) two small children moved to Mount Morgan. They resided there for about six years. Grace gave birth to their third child during this period. Charles joined the Freemasons [15], the Mount Morgan Glee Club (becoming its conductor) [16] and the Mount Morgan Methodist Church, where he played the organ and conducted the choir. A much gifted and versatile musician, Charles also taught singing.

The Mount Morgan Glee Club held a very enjoyable concert at the residence of the President (Mr F M McCarthy) on Saturday night last. Under the conductorship of Mr C Crew, a first-class programme of music was given. At the conclusion, the President heartily praised the club for its splendid rendering of some difficult pieces and expressed the hope that the members would work well together so that they might have many more enjoyable gatherings.

In June 1913, while still managing Edgar’s Jewellery Store and living at Mount Morgan, 32-year-old Charles was appointed a Justice of the Peace. [17] This appointment added an official civic responsibility to his already varied professional and community roles.

During his time at Mount Morgan, Charles became a respected member of the local community. Alongside his voluntary work with church and cultural organisations, he supported a range of sporting activities, including athletics, rugby football and rifle shooting. [18, 19, 20]

Charles conducted the Mount Morgan Methodist Church choir at two of the church’s milestone events. He prepared the choir and spoke on its behalf at the church’s stump-capping ceremony on Saturday 21 October 1911. [21] Four months later, on Sunday 11 February 1912, he conducted the choir and presented special music at the opening ceremony of the newly erected church building. The Reverend Frank Dunsbury, President of the Queensland Methodist Conference, assisted by the superintendent minister, the Reverend Martin Webster, presided at the opening ceremony. The new church building was located at the corner of East and Gordon Streets. [22]

Charles maintained his connection with the Mount Morgan Methodist Church after leaving the town. More than 20 years later, in 1939, he returned as guest conductor for the church’s Annual General Meeting. He led a special choir, augmented by several members of St Enoch’s (Mount Morgan) Presbyterian Church choir. [23]

The members of the Mount Morgan Methodist Church recognised Charles’s contribution to the church. In October 1912, they presented him with a special gift in appreciation of his dedicated work with the choir. [24]

A very pleasing little function took place at the Methodist Church last night, when Mr C Crew the conductor of the choir, was presented with a handsome enlarged photograph of the choir as a slight recognition of his unselfish efforts on behalf of the church. Several speakers made reference to the untiring labour of Mr C Crew to bring the choir to a high standard. Mr C Crew thanked the speakers and the members of the choir for their gift and said that had it not been for the whole-hearted co-operation of the choristers, his work would have been of little avail.

Charles E Crew, W G J Edgar’s, Rockhampton

In 1917, Charles, Grace, and the family moved back to Rockhampton. They settled at 12 Ross Street, the home of Charles’s parents and Charles’s childhood home. Charles’ parents moved out to a house on Port Curtis Road, not far from Charles and Grace.

Charles returned to the staff of the Rockhampton branch of Mr W G J Edgar’s business. By then, William Edgar had opened a photographic supplies shop on Denham Street and moved his main jewellery and optometry business to new premises at the corner of East and Denham Streets. In July 1916, in order to accommodate his thriving Rockhampton business, Mr Edgar purchased a large two-storey commercial building at the corner of East and Denham Streets (diagonally opposite the Rockhampton Post Office). The property became known as Edgar’s Buildings. [25]

After Mr Edgar’s death in 1920, his son James took over the business briefly before deciding to sell both the building and the business. In September 1922, The National Bank of Australasia Limited bought the building and, over the next couple of years, remodelled and structurally altered it to suit its use as a banking chamber. [26]

Meanwhile, Charles continued his optometry studies. In November 1918, while still in the employ of Mr W G J Edgar, he passed the examination of the Board of Optical Registration, Queensland, which meant he was now a certified optometrist registered to practise in Queensland. [27]

Alongside his developing career in optometry, Charles resumed his work with Rockhampton church choirs. During 1917-1918 he directed the St Andrew’s and John Knox Presbyterian Church choirs, possibly others. [28] At the beginning of 1919, when Charles changed employers, it appears that he relinquished the leadership of these choirs. [29]

At the weekly practice of the John Knox Presbyterian Church Choir, Mr W N Cook, in the absence of the Rev Whyte, and on behalf of the members of the choir, presented the conductor, Mr C E Crew, who is leaving Rockhampton, with a handsome silver-mounted pocket wallet. Mr Crew suitably responded.

Charles E Crew, Manager & Representative, S B Heiser, Mount Morgan

In January 1919, Charles left Edgar’s to join the staff of S B (Svend Borge) Heiser, watchmaker, manufacturing jeweller and gold buyer of Rockhampton and Mount Morgan. Heiser appointed him manager of his shop at Mount Morgan, where Charles’s previous experience with W G J Edgar made him known and trusted by local residents. [30]

In May 1921, S B Heiser opened a jewellery shop in Kent Street, Maryborough, Queensland. It was located directly across the road from the massive, prominent G. Horsburgh & Co Ltd, hardware and ironmongery store situated at 320 Kent Street. [31]

Charles E Crew, Manager & Optometrist, S B Heiser, Maryborough

Towards the end of 1921 Mr Heiser sent Charles to Maryborough to manage the Maryborough business. [32]

S B HEISER & CO—The above firm have been in business for some time now and a few months ago removed to larger premises immediately opposite the Royal Hotel, and they have now room to display their splendid stock of jewellery, watches, and silver and electro plate ware. The shop is fitted up with the latest in show cases, and the display is very effective.

The Maryborough business is in charge of Mr C E Crew, who, besides being an expert working jeweller and watchmaker, is also an engraver and a qualified member of the Institute of Ophthalmic Opticians of Queensland. His optical parlour is thoroughly up-to-date and fitted out with the latest instruments of the profession, so that those in need of eye aids can be assured of the best possible treatment. Initials or inscriptions can be engraved on presentation articles in artistic fashion while you wait. Call on Mr Crew, Heiser & Co, opposite Royal Hotel, Kent Street, Maryborough. Phone No 407.

Historic newspaper advertisements indicate that Charles Crew managed S B Heiser’s Maryborough jewellery business and optometry service from November 1921 to October 1922. [33, 34]

The period between October 1922 and August 1925 remains a gap in my account of Charles Crew’s life. Despite extensive searches, I’ve found no reports of employment or his involvement in church or community activities during this time. Two newspaper items, however, suggest that illness may explain this hiatus in the historical record. The first is a notice of thanks that Charles placed in a Rockhampton newspaper in January 1924 [35]:

THANKS. I WISH TO THANK the MEDICAL SUPERINTENDENT for his kind and skilful treatment to me during my illness; also Matron and Nursing Staff for the kindness shown me while an inmate of the General Hospital. CHARLES E CREW.

The second appeared in one of Charles Edward Crew’s obituaries and linked his departure from Maryborough and return to Rockhampton with a period of ill health: “Following a severe illness there [Maryborough] he came to Rockhampton and commenced business.” [36]

Charles E Crew, Optometrist, 12 Ross Street, Rockhampton

Charles Crew established his own optometry practice at Rockhampton in November 1925. He set up his consulting rooms and workshop at his home at 12 Ross Street, Allenstown. [37]

MR CHARLES E CREW. In this issue Mr Charles E Crew, Optometrist, announced that he has commenced practice at his new optical parlours, No 12 Ross Street. Mr Crew was for a considerable time in the service of the late Mr W G J Edgar as an optometrist and his qualifications were favourably recognised. Mr Crew will make a special feature of all kinds of optical repair work. His optical parlours will be replete with the most up-to-date appliances.

From his Ross Street premises, Charles Crew ran a successful optometry practice for more than two decades, serving the people of Rockhampton and the surrounding centres of Yeppoon and Mount Morgan. For a number of years, commencing in May 1927, he visited Yeppoon every Friday, consulting from Jamieson’s Myola Hall, James Street. [38]

From October 1938, Charles also visited Mount Morgan, holding weekly consultations at the Olympia Theatre on East Street. He continued these visits throughout the 1940s. [39, 40]

As he established his optometry practice in Rockhampton, Charles also reengaged in the local community. He joined the Allenstown Progress Association, resumed conducting choirs, and donated trophies and medals to local schools, youth clubs and sporting organisations. [41, 42, 43]

By the 1930s, Charles had resumed his role as conductor of the St Mark’s Church of England choir, as this 1935 newspaper report records [44]:

The choir of St Mark’s Church, numbering twenty voices, has been for some time past practising special anthems and carols for the Christmas season, under the zealous direction of Mr C. E. Crew. This music will be sung at tomorrow evening’s service at St Mark’s.

Charles Crew’s legacy

Charles Edward Crew died on 27 May 1948. He was 67. His death came as a shock to all who knew him, as he was still actively engaged in his optometry practice and the local community. He was survived by his wife of 45 years, Grace, and four adult children (three sons and one daughter), their spouses and children, his sister Helena Amy and her husband, and his half-sister Alice. The Reverend R J (Robert James) Oscroft, of St Mark’s Church of England (Allenstown), conducted the funeral service. [45]

The following obituary appeared in The Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton) on Saturday 29 May 1948 [46]:

The sudden death on Thursday (27 May) of Mr Charles E Crew, Rockhampton optometrist, was a shock to friends here and in Mt Morgan.

Before launching out on his own, he was for many years manager of Edgar and Sons’ jewellery and optical business in Mt Morgan, when the town and district sported a population of 15,000. After the first big close-down at the mine, the business also closed down, and Mr Crew went down to the Rockhampton business. Later he launched out on his own. A splendid organist, he was leader of the Mt Morgan Methodist Church choir and was also a teacher of singing.

His generosity in helping financially patriotic, charitable and sporting bodies will never be forgotten in Mt Morgan. Only recently, he donated a fine silver cup to the Mt Morgan Rifle Club.

This tribute, one of many that followed his death, captures the breadth of Charles’s contribution and the esteem in which the communities he served held him throughout his adult life.

Much to my surprise, during my research, I discovered a personal, although indirect, connection with Charles Crew. Charles Crew and Harry Irvine Weir (1913-1986), of Mount Morgan and Rockhampton, were friends, despite their age difference. Mr Weir (as I knew him) was my Grade 7 school teacher and someone I greatly admired. I’ve written about Harry Weir previously, in When television came to Rockhampton and district (October 5, 2017). Like Charles, Harry Weir was a fine musician who played the organ and conducted choirs in Mount Morgan and Rockhampton. Further, Harry Weir’s father, the Reverend Irvine Weir, conducted the marriage ceremony between Charles and Grace in 1903.  

Epilogue

I estimate that my grandmother’s glasses and their case are between 80 and 100 years old. Although I will likely never know precisely when or where she obtained them, they have survived as a tangible link between her life and that of Charles Edward Crew.  

The name embossed in gold on the spectacles case led me beyond the objects themselves, to the story of the man behind the name. I discovered a skilled optometrist and jeweller, a gifted musician, and a generous member of the Rockhampton and Mount Morgan communities. Through his work, Charles Crew helped people see more clearly; through his music and community service, he enriched the lives of those around him.

The glasses have outlasted both their maker and their original owner, but they still carry something of each of them: my grandmother’s decision to preserve them, and Charles’s name and workmanship. What began as curiosity about the name on an old spectacles case has revealed the story of the man behind the lettering—and given this small family keepsake a history I can now pass on.

REFERENCES

MAIN SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Rockhampton Regional Council. Cemeteries: Burial indexes.

SPECIFIC REFERENCES

FURTHER READING