By Cathy Jones (2024, updated 2025)
The land bounded by Ardittos Lane to the north, Elva Street to the east, Redmyre Road to the south and Homebush Road to the west was purchased by Robert Joshua King and Mary Ann Balmain, wife of surveyor and Strathfield Council Town Clerk John Hope Balmain, in 1903. Prior to this time, it was largely considered unusable due to the presence of a watercourse and creek (which is now a Sydney Water closed stormwater conduit). King and Balmain subdivided the two allotments into 66 feet wide blocks fronting Redmyre Road and The Avenue (later Churchill Avenue), a new street to link Elva Street and Homebush Road. The land was auctioned as the ‘King Estate’.
The land was gradually taken up with the last allotments sold in 1914. Many of the sales did not correspond with the original subdivisions, a number of purchasers preferring narrower frontages. A covenant was placed on most sales requiring ‘one main building only on the said land and such building shall be a double fronted…and be built of brick and/stone with roof of slates and/or tiles and shall not cost less than £300”.
21 to 67 Redmyre Road are built on the ‘King Estate’.
31 Redmyre Road Strathfield was built in 1909 by Alfred and Henry Messervy. Alfred and Henry were prolific local builders who traded as the Messervy Brothers. Alfred and Henry Messervy acquired part Lots 57 and 58, as joint tenants, from Mary Ann Balmain and Robert Joshua King with the intention of erecting a house to on-sell. The property was sold in August 1910, likely after completion of the house, Otto Frederich Ottenburg, of Strathfield, an accountant. The house first appears in the 1912 Sands Directory as named ‘Springwood’, occupied by Otto Ottenburg. The Sydney Morning Herald on 25 February 1911, p14, reported the birth of a daughter to the wife of O F Oldenberg at ‘Springwood’ Redmyre Road Strathfield.
In February 1912, the house was sold to Cecil Patrick White (1889-1948), of Homebush. White was noted on title documents as an article clerk but later was a prominent Sydney solicitor. The house was renamed ‘Glenthorne’ and was numbered 31 Redmyre Road Strathfield.
Sands Directory 1913 lists P K White, solicitor as the occupant of ‘Glenthorne’. Patrick Kinchela White (1865-1919) and his wife Elizabeth White (1864-1932) (née Callaghan) lived in this house from 1912, which was owned by their son Cecil White. They had previously resided at ‘Estella’ Homebush Crescent (now The Crescent), Homebush from c.1906[1].
Many generations of the White family from the 1830s have been prominent in the legal profession in NSW. Patrick White’s great grandfather John Kinchella (1774-1845) arrived in Australia in 1831 as the NSW Attorney General and was appointed in 1836 as Acting Judge of the Supreme Court NSW. His great-grandson, Patrick was admitted to the Bar in 1894, as a Barrister (KC)[2]. The newspaper accounts note he was admitted at the same time as Thornton Bulmer, a resident of Burwood. Bulmer and many other local residents was killed or injured in the 1894 rail accident at Redfern on a train travelling from Strathfield.
Based on information provided by the family, at least eight generations of the White family have and are currently active as legal practitioners in NSW. According to his obituary, White attended St Ignatius College and then Sydney University. He married Elizabeth Callaghan in 1899. Though he was admitted to the bar, he requested to be disbarred in 1909 and practiced as a solicitor[3]. He was appointed by the Department of the Attorney General and of Justice as a Crown Prosecutor at Lismore on 9 October 1908[4]. He died in 1919 at St. Vincent’s Hospital from the effects of bronchial pneumonia[5].
Mrs Elizabeth White continued to live at ‘Glenthorne’ after her husband’s death. She was “an ardent charity worker for the (Catholic) church and convents” and received the last rites from Rev Father Kerwick, of St Martha’s Catholic Church Strathfield before her death in 1932[6].
In February 1933, Cecil White transferred ownership to his sisters, Edith Mary White (1895-1956) and Muriel Mary White (1896-1984), as tenants in common. The transfer notice indicates that the late Mrs Elizabeth White had a life tenancy of the house.
In April 1933, Muriel White transferred the property to her sister Edith White, who soon after married John Connare. According to electoral rolls, the Connare’s resided in the Eastern Suburbs and therefore, are likely to have leased the house.
In April 1946 Dorothy Sisley and Beatrice Proctor Passan, mortgagees exercising their right of sale transferred the property to William James Thomas, retired and Alma Thomas his wife. Following the death of William James Thomas, the property transferred to the surviving tenant Alma Thomas in January 1952. In August 1970, Alma Merle Thomas of Strathfield was the sole owner of the property.
Footnotes
[1] Sands Sydney Directory notes P K White from 1907 (which usually references the previous year)
[2] Admission of Barristers (1894, May 5). Freeman’s Journal, p9
[3] Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 – 1930), Saturday 28 June 1919, page 14
[4] Appointments (1908, September 23), Government Gazette of NSW, page 5089.
[5] Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 – 1930), Saturday 28 June 1919, page 14
[6] Freeman’s Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1932), Thursday 28 January 1932, page 27
References
Admission of Barristers (1894, May 5). Freeman’s Journal, p9
Appointments (1908, September 23), Government Gazette of NSW, page 5089.
Births Family Notices (Oldenberg) (1911, February 25), Sydney Morning Herald, p14
Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 – 1930), Saturday 28 June 1919, page 14
Department of the Valuer General NSW – Valuation List – Valuation District of Strathfield 1924, 1930 and 1960
Fox & Associates, Strathfield Heritage Study, 1986
NSW Land Registry, v.3695 f.123
Obituary Mrs P K White, (1932 January 28), Freeman’s Journal, page 27
Strathfield Council Notices of Land Transfer (1927-1960s)
