This post came through my research into George Rae one of Brisbane's leading inter war architects. A newspaper article with a reference to Grays Road, Hamilton was one of the references found in my research on George Rae. The home depocted in this article appeared familiar. I had photographed and written about the house next door (Onedin) in a previous post. In 1938 George Rae had designed the new home for the married couple of Mr. and Mrs. W. B Tooth. During the 1930 decade for those who were wanting a home of distinction building in brick was oen way of doing this. There was a move to look at brick as an alternative to the timber construction methods that had been common place in Queensland.
W. B. Tooth or William Butler Tooth who George Rae had designed the house for was a Brisbane tailor. His father Robert Ernest Tooth was also a tailor in Brisbane and proprietor of the Australian Tailoring Company. It is hard to imagine in today's modern world of fashions that the trade of tailor was a very large industry. It is reported that at the start of the twentieth century there were over a thousand registered clothing manufacturing businesses in Queensland. Tailored suits for a man was a common piece of a clothing. The drapery and tailor business bacame a major industry throughout the first half of the 20th century. Companies such as Stewart and Hemmant, Twomey and Company, Fred Simmons and Freedman and many others provided newspaper advertisements that promoted their business as tailors, hatters and mercers. W. B. Tooth's father, Robert Ernest died in 1933 leaving the business to his son.
Robert Ernest Tooth or R. E. Tooth
Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), Wednesday 21 June 1933, page 11
LATE MR. R. E, TOOTH.
Mr. Robert Ernest Tooth, aged 58, who died at his residence, Hamilton Road, Hamilton, on Tuesday morn-ing, was born in Dalby and came to Brisbane when he was 10 years of age. At the age of 17 he started in the tailoring trade, later becoming a master tailor. During the past 15 years he was the proprietor of the Australian Tailoring Co. He is survived by his widow, daughter, and three sons.
The Australian Tailoring Company had originated in Mackay under the ownership of Robert Ernest Tooth but then moved to Brisbane in 1928. A young W. B. Tooth had been the manager in Mackay. In 1933 the Asutralian Tailoring Company had met with taxation difficulties and was in receivership.
Why the name W. B. and not William Tooth? A common or popular naming convention in newspaper references was to use the christian name initials of a person. This of course creates great difficulty in modern research as one has to be mindful of the dates being read. In this case we have another W. B. Tooth but he died some 60 years before the house in Grays Road was built.
This William Butler Tooth of Grays Road had his family ancestry from Cranbrook, Kent. The Tooth family in this post are descended from the union of William Hedley Tooth and Ann Fulcher who were inhabitants of Cranbrook, Kent. William Hedley Tooth's mother was Catherine Butler and this is where the name Butler as a family christian name is derived. William and Ann had twelve children. Two of these William Butler and Atticus emigrated to Australia.
In early 1938 W. B Tooth the Brisbane tailor had his house in Grays Road featured in the Better Homes section of Brisbane's Telegraph.
Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), Tuesday 18 January 1938, page 19
BETTER HOMES
DELIGHTFUL COTTAGE at HAMILTON
THE scrolled gables of picturesque Holland dominate the pleasant exterior of the new brick home of Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Tooth in Grays Road, Hamilton. Here is a delightful home that is characteristic of a popular trend in Brisbane and although it is very new already imparts that atmosphere of homely comfort that is so desirable. There is nothing overdone tn this compact little cottage. It does not pretend to be anything that it is not and that is worthy of special note because there are so many homes built nowadays that give an entirely false impression from the outside. - Having a particularly large window area and cool in its cream textured walls, this cottage.-gives a good impression from the beginning but inside it has a latent quality of comfort that is not always found in much more expensive homes. While some of the credit is due to the architect. Mr George Rae, it is obvious that in his contract he enjoyed a harmonious relationship with his clients for that is reflected in the effectiveness of the .planning and the internal fittings.
As in the entrance porch and heavy oak door there is a suggestion of the Spanish in some details of the planning, but the whole scheme is one eminently suited to Queensland. From the lobby access is had to the lounge and dining room, all papered in biscuit tonings with curtains, carpets and mats to match. The lounge is furnished with a roomy Chesterfield upholstered in a bold art design with an ultra-modern two-tier occasional table, and a notable feature is the textured face-brick fireplace, which although designed to accommodate a glowing wood fire at present houses an electric radiator. The dining-room opposite is delightfully furnished in rich oak of period design. Convenient to the dining-room, the kitchen is unusual because it is of galley design. The colour scheme here is outstanding, being enamelled in bright yellow. It is gas equipped, and has particularly well planned cupboards cabinet finished. There are two bedrooms and a nursery, the main room being furnished oak of Queen Anne design against a background of cream papering, drapes and floor covering The nursery is convenient to the main bedroom, and here also the dominating tone is cream. A sunporch is entered from either the main bedroom or the nursery, where a squatter's chair and seagrass furniture help the visitor to enjoy a delightful panorama of the Newstead and New Farm reaches of the Brishane River There is a completeness and a compactness in this admirable cottage that is not always found in the modern small home, and the owners should be proud of their possession.
The W. B. Tooth the tailor of Grays Road died in 1949.
Brisbane Telegraph (Qld. : 1948 - 1954), Saturday 1 October 1949, page 27
CITY TAILORING FIRM HEAD DIES
The head of a prominent city tailoring firm took a stroke and died early last night. He was Mr. W. B. Tooth, who traded as Hector Power, tailor, of Queen Street.
Mr. Tooth, who was born in Brisbane, 45 years ago, was a keen sportsman. He began his business career with his father, the late Mr. R. E. Tooth, who was a prominent Brisbane tailor. Mr. Tooth, who lived in Grays Road, Hamilton, is survived by his wife and four children.
The ancestry of this particular Tooth family, (W. B. Tooth the tailor being one) have left a mark on Queensland's history.
Who was the first William Butler Tooth or as he was commonly known and recorded in history, W. B. Tooth?
William Butler Tooth 1822 - 1876
William Butler Tooth epitomises the early land baron in Australia's colonial history. Intent on living the life of the British squire he created an empire but died at 53 years of age. His biography is worth reading and one can determine their own opinion on Queensland's first W. B. Tooth.
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/tooth-william-butler-4733
Atticus Tooth
Atticus Tooth is the grandfather of W. B. Tooth the tailor in Brisbane. He has not been as well known in Queensland's early colonial history as his brother W. B. Tooth.
The following is taken from the online biography of W. B. and Atticus Tooth.
Atticus joined G. E. Dalrymple's expedition to Port Curtis in 1859 and settled near Bowen as a station manager. On 22 December 1869 he married Sarah Emmerson, daughter of a grazier; as a manager he rejoined William, who was then settled at Clifton. After William's death, he managed the Brisbane municipal markets but returned to Bowen just before his death on 15 January 1915. Survived by his wife and eleven children he was buried in the Church of England section of the Bowen cemetery.
Other Notable Tooth Family Descendants
Sir Edward Marsden Tooth or E. M. Tooth
The footprint of this descendant has continued to provide funds and infrastructure for the Anglican church. The E. M. Tooth Memorial Home is just one of these. His biography is wort reading as he left an estate of over 700,000 pounds in 1957.
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/tooth-sir-edwin-marsden-11872
Sir Seymour Douglas Tooth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Tooth
Emily Tooth - Wife of Sidney Herbert Tooth
Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954), Monday 2 December 1940, page 5
MRS. EMILY TOOTH DIES AT AGE OF 89
A link with the pioneer days of Queensland and New South Wales was broken yesterday by the death, in her 90th year, of Mrs. Emily I. Tooth, wife of Mr Sidney Herbert at her home, Bowen Terrace, New Farm. Both Mr. and Mrs. Tooth, who celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary in June, 1939, at the home of their son, Mr. E. M. Tooth, came from Australian pioneer families. Mr. Tooth Is a son of the late Mr. W. B. Tooth, of Clifton station, Darling Downs, from which the town of Clifton took Its name. Mrs. Tooth, before her marriage, was Miss Emily Isabel Hassall, eldest daughter of the Rev. J. S. Hassall, of Berrima, New South Wales, and a great-granddaughter of the Rev. Samuel Marsde*n, famous missionary md one of the founders of the Australian wool industry. Her great-grandfather landed in Sydney in 1793 as Church of England Chaplain to the Colonies, and the historic church of Cobbity, New South Wales, had as its first pastor the Rev. Thomas Hassall, grandfather of Mrs. Tooth. Mrs. Tooth's father, the Rev. J. S. Hassall, for many years was rector of St. Matthew's Church of England, Sherwood, and Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Tooth were married in that church on June 19, 1879. Mrs. Tooth devoted much time to church and charity work. She has one brother and one sister still living— Mr. W. H. Hassall, Eagle Heights, Tamborine, and Mrs. F. L. Pratten, Corinda. She is survived by her husband, three sons— Mr. E. M. Tooth (Hamilton), Mr. H. L. Tooth (Brisbane), Mr. S. W. Tooth (Gympie)— and one daughterMrs. A. V. Dodwell (New Farm). Her prreat-prandchildren are the sixth generation of the family to be born in Australia.
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