Driscoll's of yesterday - Maynard's of yesterday

 A Web Site of Driscoll and Maynard family lines connected during the mid 20th century through marriage in Melbourne, Australia!
With strong ancestral lineages of Jackson, Harrington, Sellick and Scown.
And the linking of Greek Ancestral history of the Theofanopoulos family line in the late 20th century!

This site has been relocated to www.brett.driscoll.name - please click here to redirect to the new homepage.

Origin:
Born in Fitzroy, the middle of 17 children when his family resided at Johnston Street.

His Family Life:
Bernard was a strong member of his family, always there to support his siblings and his parents when the need arose.
Being one of so many children, his eldest sister was already caring for the younger of the family and later he became a role model for his younger brothers.  The family was dominated by boys with only three girls maturing to adulthood.

Two of his eldest siblings passed away in their early adult years from Tuberculosis and Cancer and four of his siblings did not survive passed one year - this was the reality of a mid-20th century working class family.  As an adult he survived for many years as one of eleven, with only one sibling not marrying and contributing to the next generation.  His siblings produced in all 35 nieces and nephews and he was a favourite uncle to all of them.

When a child, his mother would send him down toe Smith Street to do weekly shopping.  He would return with flowers, some chewing gum and a pig's head, that would be made into a stew or soup.

In his late teens he had already mastered many wood-working skills through his tech-school education and strongly considered joining the Catholic priesthood - that was until he met Irene Mavis Maynard, who changed his life and was his partner from the age of 20 until the day he passed away in 1996.

As an adult into his middle years, he saved many marriages, built many house extensions, sheds and bookcases, assisted a Scout group to become more affluent, built a holiday shack in Blackwood, Victoria and even became the carer for his brother and sister in law Reginald and Mary Maynard, when Reginald was diagnosed with Parkinson's and Mary was constrained by a wheelchair.

His passing was sudden when he was taken down by a severe heart attack and lasted only 24 hours more.  His family was with him, however he never met his twin grandchildren born only four months later.

Occupation:
Originally Bernard was a qualified Cabinet Maker - skills that seemed to come naturally to him.  Unlike his siblings, Bernard was able to continue his schooling as he was attending a technical school.  Reaching grade 8 was the highest level of school any of the family ever achieved.

When Bernard was courting Mavis, he could never find any peace at home.  He would play hide-and-seek with the children, climb onto the roof of the house and throw buckets of water over them.  he would then disappear down the street to the phone box and call Mavis up in privacy.  Mavis was then living at Doncaster Road, Balwyn.

When he married he needed a 'real job' to support he and his wife and joined GJ Coles at 282 Little Collins St. from 21 June 1954 to 5 February 1957.  This sparked his interest in sales and started a phase that endured for the next 25 years.

Bernard joined Webb's Radio in the late 1950's as a TV salesman.  He commenced as a junior, but quickly demonstrated his gift for sales - and with it his honesty and integrity was maintained.    These were the days when a television was a luxury, and would be either paid off over several years, or rental was with coin-box at the back of the TV unit providing 4 hours viewing time for two shillings ($0.20c), cleared every fortnight.
As an awarded "Webb's Man" many times over, he moved onto other TV sales companies including John James TV,  Macon and Sons as Sales Manager, and later to Cambridge TV as the General Manager around 1968.  Not content with being so successful for other wealthy investors, he opened his own rental business in 1972 named "Global Television Rentals" based in Hampton, Victoria.

For the next 3 years, Bernard was very successful and grew his business quickly in the days of Black and White TV.  He became bored and after much consideration, he opened a 'mega-store' in Hampton, called "Paddys World", selling electrical goods, carpets, toys and had the largest cafe in the local area of the day.  The retail side did not perform well, but the cafeteria turned over $3,000 per week (when a cappuccino sold for $0.50c).  Unfortunately, even with the district's first retail Santa and the introduction of colour television in March 1976, the business was not successful and closed 13 months later, almost taking Global TV with it.

Bernard worked hard as always; he quickly built up the profitable angles of his business, and kept good his promise to pay off his debts which took him into the early 1980's.
He returned to his passion - wood and building - and after selling his business, set up "Bernie's Handyman Service" on 19 August 1986.  His skills delivered many a successful project to many happy people and eventually enabled he and Mavis to buy land in Bendigo and build a home for their retirement.

His Marriage:
Bernard married Irene Mavis Maynard from Collingwood, born 1 June 1924.  They were married on 7 May 1954 at Kew in a Church of England ceremony at the Holy Trinity.  At the time of their marriage Bernard was 20 and Irene was 30.

His Wife - Irene Mavis's Life:
Mavis (she preferred this to Irene) had worked mostly in retail sales and office duties particularly for Nancy and Cato's stores.  She also worked for Bernard at this businesses running his office and keeping the family in order.  Her diligence and effectiveness hid the pain and difficulty she had faced for many years

At the age of 20 Irene was struck down by Tuberculosis and spent two years in recovery, most of this at the "Kingston Centre" in Heatherton, Victoria (at the time a semi-rural location only 20 km from Melbourne).  This left Irene with a permanent sideways disfiguration of the spine which she worked hard to compensate. In her later years this would lead her to a hip replacement, and contribute towards other health issues.

Irene relocated to Melbourne after selling up the family home in Bendigo and now lives in an apartment with the support of her son and daughter-in-law in Richmond, Victoria.

His children:
With Irene:
Brett Phillip, born 9 March 1959.

Residences:
From family notes and personal experience, details of where Bernard was living at different times.

Rowville was the first home of Bernard and Irene and they built it as a new dwelling.
It was an 18 square brick-veneer home with carport, off-set on a large 1/3rd acre block.  It cost $14,800 to build in 1971-1972 and the land was $3,100 purchased in 1970.  The house included solid brick feature walls and shag pile carpets.  The land was large and was quickly filled with trees and gardens though the soil was hard clay.  The estate had unmade roads, no phone (12 months wait), half-hour walk to the local store and only 1 in 3 blocks occupied.

The mortgage taken was for $11,200 at 7.75% for 30 years (in 2001) at $80.98 per month.  Compare this to a typical loan in 2001 for $300,000 at a repayment rate of around $1,800 per month - by the time the loan was repaid, the monthly payment was about the same as a reasonable dinner for two!

Funeral:
Details of Bernard's funeral arranged by Mulqueen and Sons, Bendigo.

"Roman Catholic.  Living at Homebush Drive, Junortoun (Bendigo), aged 62.
Funeral date 27 September 1996.  The funeral was officiated by a Catholic Priest (Father Peter) a long-time family friend at the local Catholic Church in Sandhurst.
A traditional funeral procession was lead on foot with a burial at Bendigo General Cemetery."

Burial Location:
Bernard is buried at the Bendigo General Cemetery at a location "with a view".

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Any errors, omissions and contributions are gratefully accepted.  Please forward to the address or email on the Homepage.
(c) Brett Phillip Driscoll, 2004-2012.
All care has been taken in compiling this information, but no responsibility accepted for any information taken from this site that is not used in an appropriate way.