Rang Gwen Cruwys on 24/4/2005.
Irene Watts was born 1888 at Darling St. Balmain. Irene was a Dressmaker. She died in Westmead Hospital of Hypothyroidism.
SMH - CRUWYS, Irene Lillian - Sep 20, 1986, at hospital, formally of Gladesville, dearly beloved wife of the late John Edward CRUWYS, dearly loved mother & mother-in-law of Ebb & Bess, Ray & Gwen, loving grandmother & great-grandmother of their children. In her 99th year.
FUNERAL - CRUWYS - The funeral of the late Irene Lillian Cruwys, formally of Gladesville, will be held at Northern Suburbs Crematorium on Wednesday 24th Sep 1986.
Irene Lillian Watts, was Henry & Florence Watts' 3rd child, She went to Sunday School on Sunday afternoons at the Methodist Church on the corner of Birchgrove Rd, & Darling St, Balmain. This is where she met her husband, John Edward CRUWYS - he used to follow her & her cousin home from Sunday School! Irene started school at a "little private school" in the church hall on the corner of Beatie & Evans Sts, Balmain. There was a German headmaster by the name of Mr. Willemby.
The Primary School was at Smith St, which later became the site of Balmain Teachers' College.
Irene, who had long dark hair like her mother, remembered being sent to bed without any dinner for coming home muddy as a result of trying to catch tadpoles on the way home from school. She later went to Fort Street Girls' High School and travelled by ferry from Darling Street Wharf to Erskine St. Wharf. Irene Watts mother, Florence, coducted a drapery shop at 32 Beattie St, Balmain. She made shirts & childrens' clothes & Irene helped at 12 years of age. The irons were heated on the fuel stove. Irene described the house at 32 Beatie St. as having two bedrooms upstairs - the pan toilet was situated in a shed at the end of the yard, so they had chamber pots under their beds. They used to boil water in the copper once a week for a bath.
Florence WATTS (nee Cook) later bought land at 79 Beatie St. & had two shops built with a residence above.
signed Judith Bowen.
