Wicken was one of the harbingers of the domestic economy movement in Australia but if she had expected that her qualifications and experience would give her a unique advantage in Sydney, she was disappointed. Mrs Rachel Macpherson, with a first-class diploma from the National Training School for Cookery (NTSC) and experience gained at the Edinburg School of Cookery, gave her first classes in Melbourne in 1879.[2] During 1880 she travelled throughout Victoria and gave classes in Sydney, Brisbane, Rockhampton and in Hobart. [3] Macpherson then went back to New Zealand. Also giving classes in Sydney and Melbourne in 1880 was Miss Margaret Fidler. Fidler also had a certificate from the NTSC and had spent the previous three years in New Zealand.[4] Miss Ramsay Whiteside, who held a first-class diploma and had trained at the Liverpool Training School of Cookery, had also been giving demonstrations in Sydney and Melbourne since 1880.[5] Whiteside was subsequently employed by the Department of Public Instruction in New South Wales to set up the Government School of Cookery in 1882 and taught there until she took leave of absence at the end of 1885 and returned to England.[6] Although conveniently absent when Wicken arrived, Whiteside returned in 1887 and continued to be active in cookery education in Sydney during the 1890s.[7] Mrs Annie Fawcett Story, another NTSC graduate, had given classes in domestic economy to students at the Technical College in Sydney since 1884.[8] The very month Harriett arrived Miss Margaret Pearson, previously superintendent and demonstrator at the school of cookery in Dundee and also with qualifications from the NTSC, advertised her lessons in high class and plain cookery in Sydney.[9] Pearson went on to take up a position as instructress at the Working Men’s College in Melbourne from 1887. Wicken then was not the first, and by no means the only, graduate to preach the NTSC doctrine in Australia.
Itinerant teacher
Harriett barely had time to unpack her bags before she commenced giving classes in October 1886.
At the Temperance Hall….Mrs Wicken (diplomee, author of ‘The Kingsgrove [sic] Cookery Book’) gave the first of a course of six demonstration lessons on cookery. These included instruction in the preparation of dishes for breakfast, luncheon, dinner and supper, also of afternoon tea and picnic dishes. Mrs Wicken had a gas stove and an abundant supply of pans and material, and whilst engaged manipulating the various mixtures discoursed learnedly upon their ingredients, the mode of preparation, degrees of heat, &c, in cooking; and, as the result of her skill, she made numerous tasty dishes. There were about 50 ladies present engaged taking voluminous notes, possibly with a view of experimenting in the art of cookery in their 50 respective homes. The second lesson is announced for Friday afternoon. [10]
During the latter part of 1886 Wicken gave demonstration lessons in Sydney and at Parramatta and even grandly announced the opening of a Sydney School of Cookery but her classes were not well attended, and she did not meet ‘with anything like the encouragement she deserves’.[11] She then removed to Melbourne.
Either by good luck or good management Wicken was able, as the Argus reported, to secure the co-operation of an influential committee of ladies, headed by the Mayoress, Mrs. Cain, and under the patronage of Lady Loch, wife of the then governor of Victoria, who attended the first of a series of six lessons at the Atheneum on 15 July 1887.[12] With only her qualifications to attest to her competence an independent teacher benefitted from patronage of one sort or another. The support of an influential patron enhanced the demonstrator’s credibility, added to the respectability of the enterprise, earned the classes some publicity and reinforced the idea that learning to cook was both a worthy endeavour and a fashionable one. A patron opened doors which might otherwise have remained closed to women seeking to advance themselves in the precarious realm of female employment. Their involvement also reflected well on the patron who was seen to be encouraging the advancement of women, endorsing the need for education, and promoting the new rational approach to cookery. It is these first classes held in Victoria which helped to establish Wicken’s reputation.
From July 1887 and throughout 1888 Wicken gave demonstrations and lectures to a variety of groups in Melbourne, from fashionable ladies at Mrs and Miss Clarke’s Ladies' College in Toorak to audiences at the Servant’s Institute in East Melbourne and at lectures arranged by the Ladies' Committee of the Australian Health Society.[13] She also travelled extensively in country Victoria–to Ballarat, Bendigo, Bairnsdale, Warrnambool, Mount Alexander, Kyneton–in addition to her involvement with the Centennial International Exhibition. These classes were very favourably received. Detailed reports, including the recipes Wicken demonstrated, were provided in Melbourne newspapers, and widely syndicated to newspapers throughout Victoria.[14]
In the main cookery demonstration classes attracted an audience of ‘ladies’ and their daughters or young married women of the well-to-do and middle classes. While ostensibly open to all comers, a course of lessons was not free and no doubt the cost precluded the attendance of many who might have benefitted from them. The Ladies Committee of the Australian Health Society sponsored the demonstrations Wicken gave to the working class women in the inner Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, so that the ticket price for individual lectures was only 6d, while the whole course of six classes cost 2/-.[15] In Gippsland, acting independently, Wicken charged 2/- per lesson.[16] In general, Wicken’s demonstrations were popular with fifty and sometimes as many as one hundred or more in attendance, although numbers varied from place to place. [17] Often the first lesson was not well attended but subsequent classes were more popular, and the first demonstration might be repeated for those who had missed out.
An itinerant teacher needed both good organisational skills and considerable fortitude. Rational and methodical in the kitchen, Wicken was equally so in her business life. When she travelled into rural areas she advertised ahead or negotiated with local authorities to determine that there was sufficient interest to warrant her travelling long distances in often uncomfortable conditions.[18] She also needed to ensure that there was a suitable venue, fitted with a gas supply, and the availability of a gas stove and the requisite cooking paraphernalia. In addition, she needed to find appropriate accommodation.
From the fees she received form her students Wicken covered the cost of her travel and accommodation as well as the expense involved with providing the raw materials for her demonstration menu and advertising the schedule of her classes. Aside from the student’s fees, some of this outlay could also be recovered through the sale of the dishes prepared after the class. Reports indicate that attendees came prepared to take their own notes, but Wicken also made pamphlets of printed recipes available for purchase.[19] No doubt she also arranged to have copies of The Kingswood Cookery Book available at the local stationers.[20]
A series of lessons could range from 6 to as many as 10 or 12, based on the enthusiasm of the local audience. Demonstrations were usually held in the afternoon and ran for 1.5 to 2 hours during which time as many as six or seven dishes might be prepared. Classes might be offered every weekday with each class covering a different set of recipes or occasionally there might be two sessions in one day, with a demonstration in the afternoon and a lecture at night.[21] The schedule was varied to suit the circumstances although the content remained largely unchanged. Her standard programme of six demonstrations included breakfast dishes; luncheon dishes; pastry; jellies and sweets; fish, savouries and vegetables; and cold dishes of meat and poultry.[22]
Cooking lectures and demonstrations were hard work. Often conducted in crowded and hot conditions with limited equipment, a successful demonstrator relied on physical stamina to maintain her schedule and an authoritative voice coupled with a certain amount of charisma to engage her audience. Good instructors were practical but not didactic, explaining what they were doing in simple terms while preparing several dishes in a short time frame required working confidently, quickly, and methodically. Reports of Wicken’s classes suggest that she had all the necessary qualifications. She was praised as an ‘efficient and painstaking teacher’, with ‘a simple, easy way of explaining all the mysteries of the art’ who ‘makes herself thoroughly understood in every detail’. [23]
Mrs Wicken at the Technical College
In 1888 Mrs Anne Fawcett Story resigned from her role as teacher of domestic economy and cookery at Sydney Technical College.[24] Miss Mary Stewart Gill, yet another graduate of the NTSC and formerly employed by the school board of Burton-on-Trent, took over as teacher of cookery.[25] Gill’s tenure was short lived. She married in December 1888, the position was readvertised, and Harriett Wicken was appointed to the post in January 1889.[26]
Only receiving payment for her classes at the Technical College in term time Harriett needed to find alternative sources of income. From December 1889 to January 1890 for example she spent her summer break teaching at the Technical School in Hobart.[27] Again, she did not venture to Tasmania until she had established suitable remuneration and a guarantee of numbers, offering to conduct 12 lessons for only the fees of the students, who were charged 10s for the full course.[28] She indicated she wished ‘to get a little rest and pleasure out of her visit’ but was prepared to give private lessons, perhaps even a few evening lessons ‘at a very small fee for servants and the poorer classes’ and even free lessons for charitable institutions should they be required.[29] Classes commenced in the Town Hall in Hobart on 11 December 1889.[30]
The following summer she ventured to Glenn Innes and then on to Armidale in New South Wales.[31] In December 1891 she returned to Tasmania and gave demonstrations in Launceston for the Launceston Gas Company and later classes in high class cookery at the Technical School there before moving on to Armidale again.[32] She was back in Hobart in December 1892 to give demonstrations for the Hobart Gas Company and in January 1893 she was again teaching at the Hobart Technical School.[33]
Harriett’s years with Sydney Tech. coincided with a nation-wide economic depression, at its worst between 1892 and 1894, forcing the Department of Public Instruction to instigate retrenchment and, in her case, withdrawal of salary, to make ends meet.[34] Surviving only on the fees paid by her students Harriett offered more and more classes on her own account. Travelling around New South Wales, to Newcastle and Maitland for example, as well as other venues in Sydney.[35] In 1894 she gave a series of lectures under the auspices of the Fresh Food and Ice Company promoting fish cookery and the use of the ice chest as well as continuing lectures for good causes such as for the wives and daughters of railway employees and for factory girls.[36] The following year, with the assistance of one of her former pupils, Harriett took a room at the School of Arts where she gave demonstrations and served afternoon teas.[37] She also tried her hand a journalism with a short-lived column in the Australian Home Journal.[38]
On the road again
At the end of 1895 Wicken began a series of demonstrations in Queensland accompanied by one of her pupils, Amy Schauer, and by January 1896 was attracting large groups of women as reported in the Darling Downs Gazette and the Toowoomba Chronicle.[39] This foray was the beginning of the end of Harriett’s association with the Technical College in Sydney. In June 1896 the Brisbane Courier announced that Mrs Wicken had been invited to give a course of demonstrations and practise lessons in Brisbane. The following month the paper reported the vote of thanks from the secretary of the Brisbane Technical College who noted the ‘thorough and ungrudging way in which [Mrs Wicken] had carried out the onerous work which had been pressed into so short a time’ and his announcement that she would soon become a resident of Brisbane and take charge of the Ladies’ Department of the Brisbane Courier and The Queenslander.[40]
Harriett’s ‘Ladies Column, writing as ‘Hafra’, ran from 15 August 1896 to 6 November 1897.[41] Her association with the newspaper did not curtail her involvement with the Technical College and Wicken, along with her protégée, Amy Schauer, continued to give lectures and demonstrations in Brisbane, Ipswich and Warwick throughout 1897.[42] Harriett used her daily column to promote her classes and to report on her social life, recording, for example, her attendance at functions organised by the then governor of Queensland, Lord Lamington, and his wife at Government House.[43]
There are few records of Harriett’s personal life after her arrival in Australia. Percy was among the first students at Hawkesbury Agricultural College, graduating with a silver medal in December 1892 and was subsequently employed as the experimentalist at the college.[44] It was through Percy that Harriett may have become acquainted with some of the more unusual fruits and vegetables she included in her recipes. In February 1900 Percy married Clara Robinson.[45] Mr and Mrs Wicken then proceeded to Perth, where Percy took up a position with the Department of Agriculture as a field officer.[46] He and Clara established a home and a family in Perth and Percy had a long and successful career with the department, retiring in 1921.[47]
Arthur on the other hand appears to have remained in Sydney. Harriett’s departure from the Technical College in Sydney in 1896 and her decision to relocate to Queensland coincide with what must have been her increasing concern for Arthur’s health. Whether or not Arthur’s situation precipitated her move to Queensland, it would appear that his condition required more care and attention than her own schedule allowed. Prompted by the awareness that there was a need for suitable accommodation for invalids not ill enough for hospital but still needing personal support, she purchased a small cottage in the centre of the town of Dalby, 200 kilometres or so inland form Brisbane, where the dry and bracing climate was said to be ideal for people suffering from chest and throat complaints. The Kingswood Sanatorium, with separate bedrooms for four male residents, one of whom was Arthur, and staffed by a qualified nurse, one of Harriett’s former pupils, was officially opened on 16th September 1897.[48] Arthur continued to advertise vacancies available at the Kingswood Sanatorium until December 1897 but he died at Glebe Point, Sydney on 5 July 1898 ‘after long suffering’.[49]
In May 1898 Harriett had announced that she would open a school of cookery in the Sydney School of Arts but this did not eventuate.[50] After Arthur’s death she went on cooking, advertising classes in Sydney and Burwood in the latter part of the year, but her career was about to take another turn. She accepted an appointment to ‘organise a system of cookery for the technical and public schools’ for the Education Department in Perth, Western Australia and left to take up her position in February 1899. [51] References to Harriett’s career in Western Australia are few and her association with the Education Department appears to have been brief. In 1901 the West Australian reported that she was in charge of the cookery classes as the James Street school in Perth but later that year she left Perth to travel overseas.[52] When she returned in 1903, Wicken gave lessons in Perth and Freemantle and as far away as Kalgoorlie but did not remain there for long. [53] For at least the next six or seven years she based herself back in Sydney, conducting occasional classes in a variety of venues and lending her name to the promotion of commercial goods, endorsing ‘Presto’ flour and giving demonstrations for the ‘Force’ food company.[54] For some of the time she also acted as lecturer and examiner in cookery for Sydney Hospital.[55]
Eventually Harriett returned to Perth to join Percy and his family. The lack of any further evidence suggests that, at age sixty-three, her twenty-four years of hard work as a cookery lecturer and demonstrator had come to an end. She would live to within a few weeks of her ninetieth birthday, dying in Perth on 27 October 1937.[56] After such a long and varied career her passing went unremarked other than for the notice inserted in the West Australian by Percy. This brief announcement also implies that ‘Hafra’, the pen name she used for her column in the Queenslander, and presumably a contraction of her names, Harriett Frances, was also the name she was known by among her family and friends.[57]
Over her years as an active cookery teacher in Australia, from 1886 until 1909, Harriett Wicken came into contact with many hundreds, possibly thousands, of women from all walks of life, from the wives of state governors to factory girls, the daughters of railway workers and women training as nurses, and she influenced countless others through her many publications. What motivated Wicken to become a cookery instructress, other than the need to provide for herself in her widowhood, remains unclear. She forged a significant career for herself but was no vocal advocate of feminism. She seems to have lacked the reformist zeal, or perhaps the hauteur, to pursue a long career as an educationalist, and there is little evidence to suggest that she sought personal advantage other than modest financial remuneration for any of her endeavours. Although she had opportunities to make a name for herself as a journalist, she did not dedicate herself to the task or use the platform provided to become a vocal proponent of dietary reform. None of her publications brashly promoted her name; The Kingswood Cookery Book was never rebranded Mrs Wicken’s Kingswood Cookery Book and whatever significance Kingswood had for her remains a mystery. Her reward then was perhaps simply the personal satisfaction of cooking creatively and well, spreading the word about domestic economy, and living a life unimaginable to the young woman who married a builder and expected to spend the rest of her days in and around Lambeth.
[1] Table Talk (Melbourne), 8 October 1886, p. 4. It is possible that George Robertson, the Melbourne bookseller, notified the paper of Harriet’s arrival to help sales of her recipe book which he stocked. Reports on the establishment of the National Training School and its progress appeared regularly in the local press
[2] John Webster, ‘Rachel V. Macpherson. A Pawky Scot,’ The Aristologist 7 (2016), p. 55 claims Macpherson taught at the Edinburgh School but advertising says only that she trained there or comes from there.
[3] Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton), 12 June 1882, p. 2 ‘The week’.
[4] Webster provides evidence that Fidler was Macpherson’s student in Edinburgh, p. 56. SMH, 16 March 1880, p. 5 ‘News of the day’.
[5] SMH, 6 February 1880, p. 5, ‘News of the day’; Evening News, 19 February 1880, p. 3 ‘Demonstrations in cookery.’
[6] Jean Peacock, A History of Home Economics in New South Wales (Sydney: Home Economics Association of New South Wales, 1982), p. 23; Whiteside leaves for London in October 1895, ‘Arcadia’s Passengers,’ Australian Star, 14 October 1895, p. 6.
[7] For return to Australia see Peacock, p. 30; ‘General News,’ Daily Telegraph 3 May 1887, p. 4; ‘Advertising,’ SMH 11 May 1887, p. 12, Miss Whiteside giving classes at ‘Sydney School of Cookery’.
[8] ‘Board of Technical Education,’ Evening News, 21 May 1884, p. 6.
[9] ‘Advertising,’ SMH, 6 September 1886, p. 14. Pearson was giving lessons in Sydney and at Ocean View House, Manly, a boarding house for gentlemen and families.
[10] Harriett arrived in Sydney (via Melbourne), on board the Carthage, on 30 September 1886. Lessons advertised SMH 16 October 1886, p. 2. Report on classes “News of the Day,” SMH 20 October 1886, p. 9.
[11] Demonstrations in Sydney and Parramatta, ‘Advertising,’ Cumberland Mercury, 13 November 1886, p. 5; announcement of School of Cookery, ‘The Week,’ Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 20 November 1886, p. 1053; ‘Advertising,’ SMH, 29 November 1886, p. 2. Quote re attendance, ‘Sydney Gossip,’ Australian Town and Country Journal, 4 December 1886, p. 35.
[12] Argus (Melb.), 11 July 1887, p. 5 ‘Monday July 11, 1887’ and p. 1. ‘Advertising’.
[13] ‘Lady’s Letter,’ Melbourne Punch, 15 September 1887, p. 10; ‘Advertising,’ The Argus 27 August 1887, p. 1; ‘Australian Health Society,”’Argus, 23 August 1888, pp. 7, 13.
[14] ‘Ladies Column,’ Weekly Times (Melb.), 30 July 1887, p. 6. The first demonstration was held on 15 July and included stuffed eggs, rissoles, American hash, stewed kidneys and maccaroni [sic], and Bedford Pudding.
[15] Mercury and Weekly Courier (Melb.), 24 August 1888, p. 2 ‘Advertising’.
[16] Gippsland Times, 7 March 1888, p. 3 ‘Advertising’.
[17] At Kyneton the attendance expected was 50 but more like 100 consisting of ‘school girls, young ladies and matrons’, Kyneton Observer, 25 October 1888, p. 2 ‘no title’.
[18] Mount Alexander Mail, 14 May 1888, p. 2 ‘Cookery’.
[19] Extant copies of those from Warrnambool, advertised Weekly Times 26 May 1888, p. 6 ‘Chit chat’ (Ladies column by ‘Viva’), available for 6d; and Hobart, see Launceston Examiner 20 January 1890, p. 2 ‘Current topics ‘has just published a supplement to the Kingswood which contains receipts given at her classes’. See also Bendigo Advertiser 28 April 1888, p. 4 ‘Books for hospital patients’; Mercury and Weekly Courier(Melb.) 24 August 1888, p. 2 ‘Advertising’; Mount Alexander Mail, 3 July 1888, p. 2.
[20] Ballarat Star, 15 February 1888, p. 3; Hamilton Spectator, 16 February 1888, p. 3.
[21] From advertising in the Mount Alexander Mail for example, it is possible to recreate Wicken’s timetable. The demonstrations sessions were held in the afternoon at 3 pm, breakfast dishes on Monday, luncheon dishes on Tuesday, pastry on Wednesday and jellies and creams on Friday and supper dishes the following Monday. On Thursday evening she gave a lecture on household economy and on the Saturday afternoon she repeated the class on jellies and creams in response to popular demand. Mount Alexander Mail, 3 July 1888, p. 2 ‘items of news’; 5 July 1888, p. 2 ‘items of news’, p. 3 ‘Advertising’; 7 July 1888, p. 3 ‘advertising’.
[22] Mount Alexander Mail 14 May 1888, p. 2 ‘cookery’ letter from Tora Crawford, president of the Ladies Benevolent Committee, and the wife of local vicar in Mount Alexander.
[23] Hamilton Spectator, 15 October 1887, p. 3; Ballarat Star, 19 November 1887, p. 2, ‘No title’; Gippsland Times, 9 March 1888, p. 3; Mount Alexander Mail, 3 July 1888, p. 2.
[24] Resignation announced, ‘Board of Technical Education,’ SMH, 5 May 1888, p. 10.
[25] Appointment announced Daily Telegraph 28 May 1888, p. 3 ‘Technical Education’.
[26] ‘Board of Technical Education,’ The Australian Star, 26 May 1888, p. 7. Marriage of Gill, ‘Family Notices,’ SMH, 15 January 1889, p. 1. Mrs Wicken to conduct classes ‘Board of Technical Education,’ Australian Star, 15 December 1888, p. 7.
[27] Mercury, 19 July 1889, p. 3 ‘Technical education’; ‘Epitome of News,’ Mercury, (Hobart), 6 December 1889, p. 2 and 12 December 1889, p. 2.
[28] Mercury, 21 August 1889, p. 4 ‘Advertising’.
[29] Mercury, 17 September 1889, p. 3 ‘Technical education’.
[30] Mercury, 12 December 1889 p. 2 ‘The Mercury’.
[31] “Local and General News,” Glenn Innes Examiner and General Advertiser, 30 December 1890, p. 2; “Advertising,” The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser, 16 January 1891, p. 3.
[32] ‘Domestic Economy,’ The Tasmanian, 19 December 1891, p. 26; ‘Tasmanian Exhibition,’ Launceston Examiner, 5 January 1892, p. 3; ‘Advertising,’ The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser, 16 January 1891, p. 3.
[33] ‘The Mercury,’ Mercury, 16 December 1892, p. 2; ‘Hobart Technical School,’ Mercury, 7 January 1893, p. 1.
[34] Alan Barcan, Two Centuries of Education in New South Wales (Sydney: New South Wales University Press, 1988), 157–158.
[35] ‘Local News,”’Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 7 November 1893, p. 4 and 16 November p. 5; Cumberland Mercury, 22 April 1893, ‘Local and general’ p. 4; 6 May 1893, p. 4 ‘Local and general’.
[36] ‘Fish dinner lectures,’ Evening News, 11 May 1894, p. 5; ‘How to cook fish,’ Australian Star, 17 May 1894, p. 2; ‘Swimming,’ Evening News1 May 1894, p. 2; ‘Brevities,’ Evening News, 31 March 1894, p. 6; ‘Working girls’ club,’ Daily Telegraph, 30 May 1894, p. 4; ‘The factory girls’ club,’ Sunday Times, 28 April 1895, p. 2. See also lecture for Newtown Presbyterian Church Ladies’ Guild, ‘Popular cookery,’ SMH, 24 May 1894, p. 7 and ‘Lectures,’ SMH, 4 October 1894, p. 3.
[37] ‘Lectures,’ SMH, 4 April 1895, p. 6; ‘Woman’s Column,’ Freeman’s Journal, 6 April 1895, p. 9; ‘Leaves from a debutante’s diary,’ Australian Town and Country Journal, 13 April 1895, p. 37; ‘Cookery classes,’ Australian Star, 2 May 1895, p. 7.
[38] Wicken’s column ran from 1 May 1895 until June 1896. Noted in ‘Women’s Column,’ Freeman’s Journal, 8 June 1895, p. 9.
[39] ‘Lectures in cookery,’ Darling Downs Gazette, 31 December 1895, p. 2; ‘Local and general news,’ Toowoomba Chronicle, 7 January 1896, p. 2; ‘Mrs Wicken’s cooking class,’ Darling Downs Gazette, 18 January 1896, p. 4.
[40] ‘Woman’s World,’ Brisbane Courier, 20 July 1896, p. 3. The Queenslander was the weekly summary and literary edition of the Brisbane Courier, published on Saturday. ‘Woman’s World’ appeared daily in Brisbane Courier and was a column of social gossip. The ‘Ladies’ Column’ in the Queenslander was more comprehensive with recipes, fashion advice, housekeeping tips etc.
[41] See Queenslander, 15 August 1896, p. 316 and 6 November 1897 p. 901.
[42] ‘Technical College,’ Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, 30 March 1897, p. 5; ‘Technical College,’ Telegraph (Brisbane), 22 April 1897, p. 2; ‘Technical College,’ Warwick Argus, 9 November 1897, p. 3. Amy Schauer completed her final examinations at Sydney Technical College, with a first grade in advanced cookery, in late 1896, ‘Technical College,’ Evening News, 8 January 1897, p. 7.
[43] ‘Reception at Government House,’ Queenslander, 29 May 1897, p. 33; ‘Woman’s World,’ Brisbane Courier, 14 May 1897, p. 6 and 22 September 1896, p. 6.
[44] Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 1 February 1896, p. 226. What Percy did between 1885 when he arrived and 1891 when the Hawkesbury College took its first intake of students is unknown. Percy was 26 when he graduated. See Barcan, p. 162, while vocational training became important in the Depression and the Agricultural College was finally established ‘its early years overshadowed by the depression. From 1897 to 1900 enrolments were about 100.’
[45] They are married at Christ Church St. Laurence. The Sydney Mail and NSW Advertiser, 24 February 1900, p. 477, ‘Family Notices’; Hawkesbury Advocate, 16 February 1900, p. 7.
[46] Appointment announced Western Mail, 3 March 1900, p. 16, ‘Appointments’.
[47] J. S. Battye, ed., Cycopedia of Western Australia, (Adelaide: Cyclopedia Company, 1913). See also Daily News (Perth), 29 July 1921, p. 6, ‘Public Service Appeal’. Percy dies on July 23 1952 at the family home 2 Hamilton Street, Subiaco, daughters Alice (Mrs Hope, Albert Victor), Muriel (Mrs Farmer, Glen Riches) and son Allan. West Australian, 25 July 1952, p. 20 ‘Family Notices’; 26 July 1952, p. 35, ‘Family Notices’.
[48] For opening of Sanatorium Queenslander, 18 September 1897, p. 578, ‘Sanatorium at Dalby’.
[49] Brisbane Courier, 11 July 1898, p. 4, ‘Family Notices.’ SMH, 6 July 1898, p. 1, ‘Family notices’. Arthur Smith Wicken. SMH, 7 July 1898, p. 10 ‘Family Notices’, member of the guild of St. Lawrence requested to attend the funeral of their brother and then to Waverley cemetery. There is no record of any of the Wickens in Sands Directory and no suggestion of where Harriett might have been living other than the preface to Fish Dainties which is dated Macquarie Street, December 1891 and of course Percy lived out near the college at Richmond. Also, no indication of Arthur’s career in Australia other than that he was associated with Christ Church St Laurence and his death certificate gives his occupation as ‘law clerk’. He died of phthisis at Glen Lea, Mary Street, Glebe.
[50] ‘Advertising,’ Daily Telegraph, 16 April 1898, p. 2.
[51] ‘Personal,’ Daily Telegraph, 22 February 1899, p. 7.
[52] ‘News and Notes,’ West Australian,” 28 March 1901, p. 4; ‘Education in the West,’ West Australian 29 May 1901, p. 7; ‘News and Notes,’ West Australian, 17 April 1901, p. 4; ‘Shipping,’ West Australian, 4 July 1901, p. 4; ‘Departures,’ Brisbane Courier, 19 July 1901, p. 2.
[53] ‘Social Notes,’ West Australian, 19 March 1903, p. 3, this article suggests she may have travelled to France and the United States.; ‘A few more knock out lines,’ Kalgoorlie Miner, 21 July 1903, p. 4, classes at the Kalgoorlie Miner’s Institute; ‘News and notes,’ West Australian, 13 June 1903, p. 6, classes at the Deaf and Dumb Institute; ‘Freemantle Technical and evening classes,’ Evening Courier (Freemantle), 13 May 1903, p. 3, classes at Freemantle Central State School.
[54] Advertising private classes in Sydney, at 29 Darlinghurst Road, SMH, 6 June 1905, p. 2; 1 July 1905, p. 2. Advertising Private classes and ‘orders executed ‘at 167 Liverpool Street, Sydney, SMH, 5 May 1906, p. 2, 11 May 1906, p. 2, 24 May 1906, p. 2. Cooking classes at Bowral,Robertson Advocate, 31 August 1906, p. 2. Advertising daily lessons and ‘orders executed’ at 157? Liverpool Street, Sydney, SMH 5 May, 11 May, 12 May and 24 May 1906, p. 2. ‘Advertising,’ Presto flour, Evening News 25 November 1904, p. 3 ‘Advertising,’ Force, Daily Telegraph, 31 October 1904, p. 3.
[55] From 1895 all nurses at Sydney Hospital received instruction in cooking for the sick along with instruction in hygiene and cleanliness, see Alison Bashford, ‘Domestic Scientists: Modernity, Gender, and the Negotiation of Science in Australian Nursing, 1880-1910,’ Journal of Women 's History 12, no. 2 (2000): 139. Giving instruction on invalid cookery in Corowa while there examining nurses, described as ‘instructress in cookery at the Sydney Hospital’; Corowa Free Press, 8 October 1909, p. 2, ‘High-class cookery’, as examiner she is visiting different hospitals throughout the state. Examining nurses in Albury Albury Banner and Wodonga Express, 1 October 1909, p. 26; present at demonstration of invalid cookery at St Margaret’s Hospital, ‘For Women,’ Daily Telegraph (Syd) 27 November 1909, p. 19. A note in the author’s possession indicates that Wicken was still examining nurses in August 1910.
[56] West Australian, 28 October 1937, p. 1 ‘Family Notices’.
[57] Percy and Clara’s eldest daughter was christened ‘Alice Hafra Wicken’. (Western Australia, Register of Births Deaths and Marriages)
