I recently went home to visit my parents and my Dad showed me some old photos, including some of my grandparents wedding, that I scanned. I am sharing them in this post together with other photos and paper clippings.

Amy Patricia Waddell, known as “Pat” initially lived in Two Mile, near Gympie, as her father George Waddell ran the Two Mile Hotel (see separate post). She was apparently a very independent and strong willed person and there is one fantastic photo of her as a kid taken about 1915, with curly ringlets like Shirley Temple poking out from under her hat, all dressed up in a fur coat and a matching handbag, standing in a very cheeky and defiant hands on hips pose.

Jeffery Gordon Hapgood was born in 1899 in Croobyar, Milton, NSW but by 1915 his family moved to Kin Kin Queensland. Jeff was the eldest and the only boy in the family. There is a photo of him taken at Kin Kin at Christmas in 1930 below, and there is a photo of him with his family in 1915 (same year as the photo of Amy Patricia above) in the “Hapgoods from Kin Kin” family photo.

The Hapgood and Waddell families were already connected, as Jim Waddell (b1904) had married Ina Rose Hapgood (b1907) in 1929. By 1931 Amy and Jeff were engaged to marry (if someone knows the story of the proposal, please let me know!) and there was a social event at the Kin Kin School of the Arts to celebrate their engagement and pending marriage about a week later.

They were married at St. Lukes Church, Kin Kin, on 5th May 1931 when Jeff was 32 and Amy was 24. The bridesmaid was her sister, Jean Waddell, and the best man was Bob Payne (Bob was Jeff’s best mate and also his cousin – their mothers Clara Rose Newton and Sarah Newton were sisters). The official wedding photos of the bride and groom, and the wedding party, are fairly formal. Her bridal veil was loaned to Amy Pat by her sister Dorrie Seddon nee (Dorothy Waddell) and the lace at the bottom of the hem is lovely.

Their wedding was also reported in the Brisbane Courier paper which added extra details of the gorgette dress and that Jean’s bridesmaid dress was blue.

There is also one less formal shot of Amy Pat and Jeff on the steps of St. Lukes Church, where Jeff is smiling and beaming with his chest puffed out and his suit shoulders are covered in confetti or rice. The rest of the guests are following them out of the church.

After seeing this post, my cousin Vikki shared this great photo of Pat Hapgood outside the church with her father George Waddell standing behind her. It’s nice to see one of the bride and her father. It also looks like Jean Waddell in the background, given similarity in the hat, dress and pearls with the other photos above, and it’s possibly Peggy Martin the flower girl on the left.

The wedding was also relatively early in the morning as the wedding was followed by a wedding breakfast for guests at the Waddell residence. A morning wedding seems quite sensible given the heat and humidity in Queensland and the lack of airconditioning in 1931.

Update: In Feb 2022 I visited Kin Kin and took a photo outside the church that is also relevant – see the end of this post https://hapgoodsfrommarksbury.blog/2022/04/22/visit-to-kin-kin/

For their honeymoon they went to Rockhampton and the Great Barrier Reef in North Queensland. Amy Pat wrote on the back of two photos were they were. The first one is a nice honeymoon shot of Amy Pat standing near a row of palmtrees on the beach in Rockhampton. She is wearing a polka dot dress and a hat. Presumably Jeff took the photo.

The second photo is of Jeff Hapgood leaning in the doorway of a large tin shed. Amy Pat wrote on the back “Jeff at the door of the shed we camped in at Barrier Reef, old turtle soup factory”. He is wearing a hat and seems to be holding a blanket. A honeymoon camping in an old soup factory shed doesnt sound very invting by todays standards, even if it was on the barrier reef. Perhaps it had a great view, perhaps it was all they could afford, and perhaps any room to yourselves after a lifetime of growing up with ~10 siblings each would be a luxury!

[1] Photo shared by Vikki R, who received it from our mutual cousin J. McG. (Names shortened). Shared Feb 29 2020

(Additional comments or corrections from family most welcome! Email me at karenhapgood [at] gmail.com )