ALLAN LELLO
1909-1979
This short note on Allan's life has been compiled by sifting through the memoirs of two of his children and his sister Nell, and from notes made after a tour of Ulverstone and the Forth area conducted by his granddaughter Jan, for which grateful thanks are due. My thanks are due to Allan's son Keith for several corrections.
Allan came third in the family, although had his elder sister Blanche survived babyhood, he would have been precisely the 'middle' one. He was born on 13th January 1909, at home in South Queenstown, in the house that his father Harry built. The house stood between the railway track and the Queen river on a block large enough for a big vegetable garden. It still exists, and plans of the house as it finally became, around the time Allan was in late adolescence, can be seen by clicking here.
Allan's father, who was born in England, and owned a small block of land at Frankford in West Tamar, worked as a labourer in the machine shop at the Mt Lyell mine. His mother, alongside raising her young family, boosted the family income by working as an unqualified community wet nurse, midwife and factotum. The children were raised in a musical household: Harry played several instruments, one of which Allan inherited then passed to his son Tom – the fine old violin that belonged to Robert, the uncle of his great-grandfather James Crocket. Sadly, Allan never learned to play, but his sister Nell said he was musical like all of the Lello children.
At the point of his birth, ahead of Allan and already at school were Tom (aged 10) and Nell (nearly 8). Edith was nearly 3. His mother was soon pregnant again, although the baby was stillborn. After that, Allan remained the baby for a further two years until his little brother Donald arrived in August 1913. By then war was in the offing, and when Allan was only five, his big brother Tom left home to join the Imperial Expeditionary Force, heading for Europe. Tom returned quite soon, after being demobbed due to war wounds. By then, his mother had given birth to twin girls in 1916.
As a small boy, Allan was often cared for by his big sister Nell, as his mother was frequently out of the house. Nell took a pride in looking after him, washing him, brushing his hair, shining his shoes on the old chest outside the house – their father Harry's sea chest. Nell said Allan was a 'darling little quiet boy, who seized on a hard word and used it correctly too.' While Nell always had Edie as a companion, Allan was less alone once Donald arrived – the two little boys grew up together.
The Lello household was not always an easy or happy home. While their mother was a gentle and kind woman, their father Harry was reputedly a 'hard man' and unpopular in the neighbourhood. He was also violent towards Bessie, although this moderated over the years. His children could all tell tales about harsh and wounding words said to them, and Allan was no exception. The children weren't allowed to talk at the table, but sometimes when the meal was over, before asking permission to leave, they might get in a word or two.
Bessie was so worried about the way Harry picked on his bright and sensitive son Allan, that she arranged for him to leave Queenstown as soon as he was old enough for an apprenticeship. By then he had completed his education, starting at the South Queenstown school, almost opposite the house. His sister Nell was back in the area at this time, working in Strahan and then in Queenstown. Having left for Hobart, the story is that Allan never returned to Queenstown until his father died, but there is a photograph of him alone with his mother in Queenstown – he was plainly still a young man. It seems likely, however, that Allan felt something of an exile, or perhaps preferred to keep away from his tough father.
Allan was only 15 went he went to lodge with his mother's sister Fan in Derwent Park. The story is that Fan found him the apprenticeship and set him on a path that had fateful consequences. Fan and her husband Mack ran a small shop. Allan was apprenticed with Millingtons, Funeral Directors, catching the train into Hobart each day. His job at their Liverpool Street workshop entailed not only making coffins, but crafting furniture. This was much admired.
It was while he was working in Hobart that Allan's big sister Nell left Tasmania for the mainland, never to return, as she married and left for England. Allan met his future wife Blanche while in Hobart. She was a housemaid in Colebrook where Allan used to go for shooting practice, a skill he developed to a high standard, as his son Keith describes. They were married in Hobart on the 25th June 1930, just a day before Blanche turned 21. Their first baby Noelin was born in 1931, when Allan was just 22. They went on to have three more children across a span of eighteen years, Thomas Henry who was born in Moonah in 1936, Keith born at Meercroft Hospital, Devonport in 1945, and Allan (Joe) junior, born at Latrobe in 1950. Noelin's own memoir of her life with her parents can also be seen on this website.
Although the work suited him, Allan was soon in trouble with his health. He developed a spot on the lung, thought to be the consequence of working in an atmosphere laden with wood dust. He soon found work with a building contractor in Devonport where he could work outside.
The younger children spent the early part of their lives in Devonport. Allan had a motorbike with a sidecar and started taking the children back to see the family in Queenstown, so again he must have returned from time to time. He and Blanche were not well off: during the early years. When the Depression hit all world economies, Allan and Blanche boosted their income by doing odd jobs and making jewellery caskets.
On moving his family to Devonport, Allan rented a house at Chettle Street where he built a demountable shed. He and Blanch stayed there while the house Allan was building at Parker Street was brought to a partly habitable state. He then shifted both the family and the shed to Parker Street. Selling it yielded capital enough for a farm alongside the river in the Forth Valley. Blanche was in her element there as the daughter of a farming family. They kept animals, including a few cows. The wider family were frequent visitors.
Allan found work with the Public Works Department, but continued with his woodworking at home. Over the years, the family began to move away. In the later years of his life, Allan's brother Donald lived only a few miles away at Penguin. His sister Nell returned from England in 1973, and saw her two 'little brothers' for a small family reunion at Donald's Penguin home. By then Allan had been a widower for over two years: Blanche died in 1970 of a brain lesion.
Another tragic event in Allan's life must have been losing his eye through cancer, thought to have been caused by inhaling wood dust. He did not let this quench his interest in the world around him. He continued to work with his hands, read widely and sustain an abiding interest in his family. He died quietly of pneumonia at his daughter's home in Springfield, Glenorchy nearly two months after he turned seventy.