Bush

DESCRIPTION

NameBushAlternative NameNee - Puttnam, LewisDescriptionHenrietta Lewis was born Kendal, England in 1878 to Henry and Marianne Lewis. She had an older brother William, and a younger brother Archer.

The family arrived in Australia aboard ‘Bombay’ in 1885, when Henrietta was 7 years old. Henry, aged 32 years was listed as a joiner on the immigration records. Henry was later responsible for building the Kensington Race Course. He was foreman of works during the construction of the Bank of Australia in Sydney. The Lewis family lived at Walcha and Murwillumbah.

Henrietta studied nursing and travelled to Fiji in that capacity when she was about 18. She married Captain Edward Puttnam around the same time. He captained the Minnie Hare around the Fijian Islands and was well known and respected throughout all the ports. In 1898, just three weeks after their daughter Alice was born, Edward suffered a heart attack and died.

Henrietta and Alice returned to Australia where she continued nursing and midwifery.

In 1906, at Redfern, NSW, widowed Henrietta married Sydney hotelier, Walter Bush. Walter was some 20 years Henrietta’s senior, and worked as a hotel operator in Sydney. He had been born in Derbyshire, England in 1857, to Samuel and Elizabeth Bush (nee Bonner).

Henrietta and Walter had a son Harry, born in 1911. The Bush’s operated hotels in Sydney before moving to Kiama where they managed and lived at the famous and recently restored Grand Hotel in Manning Street.
In 1916, when their son Harry was just five years old, Walter had a stroke and died. Henrietta’s parents moved to Kiama and no doubt assisted.

Henrietta Bush bought the ‘New Royal Hotel’ at Shellharbour from Edwin Clay about 1923. The New Royal Hotel was on the southwest corner of Wentworth and Addison Streets, Shellharbour. Henrietta renamed the hotel ‘The Ocean Beach’.

In 1929, the Kiama Reporter wrote that Mrs Bush had purchased the Seaside Flats at Shellharbour, and intended building a first-class hotel on the new site. Her brother Henry Lewis Jnr constricted the Ocean Beach Hotel at Shellharbour, for his sister, at a cost of 8,500 pounds. It had 26 bedrooms, attractive gardens and grounds and was described in the Kiama Independent as ‘an ornament to Shellharbour and the South Coast’.

The old ‘Ocean Beach Hotel’ was to be turned into tourist accommodation, but it was destroyed by fire in 1931.

Henrietta’s daughter Alice, married Charles Clinton Cullen, farmer from Rose Valley and Mayor of Kiama Municipal Council 1929-30 and Alderman 1928-3.

Walter and Henrietta’s son Harry, married Hazel Marks of Jamberoo. Harry built their home on the corner of Towns and Wentworth Streets Shellharbour, and Harry, Alice and Henrietta as partners, built the shopping arcade in Addison Street.

Alice’s husband Charles Clinton Cullen died in 1954, age 69.

Harry and Alice helped their mother operate the hotel at Shellharbour, and continued to do so after her death in 1959

In 1978, Harry and Hazel were killed in a plane crash over the Grand Canyon America. Their property was given to Barnardo’s. Harry and Hazel also bequeathed a great sum to St. Paul’s Anglican Church Shellharbour.

External LinkSeaside Flats Shellharbour 1929Shellharbour Fire 1931Fine Structure 1932Henrietta Bush's Vision 1930Death Walter Bush 1916

Henrietta Bush nee: Lewis.Henrietta Bush nee: Lewis.

CONNECTIONS

CollectionFamiliesFamilyCullenBursillLocalityShellharbour VillagePersonTwist, ThomasBush, Henrietta (nee Lewis)PlaceOcean Beach HotelSeaside

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