Charles Clifton Brittlebank


Charles Clifton Brittlebank was an Australian plant pathologist, mycologist, scientific illustrator, university lecturer and farmer. In all of his endeavours he became outstanding in his field, gaining international acclaim for his discoveries and publications. In February 1992 he was officially commemorated by the naming of the road Brittlebank Circuit, in the suburb of Banks, in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.

Ancestors

From 17th to 19th centuries the Brittlebank family was well-established in Wirksworth, in the Peak District of Derbyshire in England. The family prospered as members of the legal profession and owners of lead mines. In 1700 Hugh Brittlebank moved from Wirksworth to the village at the centre of lead mining, Winster, becoming the owner of the substantial manor house and grounds, Oddo House.
Hugh Brittlebank's family came to own most of the village of Winster. They were at the centre of dramatic events in 1821 when they seem to have overstepped the mark, as the Times reported on 2 June 1821: three of Hugh's great-great-grandsons forced a local doctor, William Cuddie, into a duel at which he was mortally wounded. The shooter, William Brittlebank, then disappeared completely. The other two brothers involved, Andrew and Francis, were tried for murder but were acquitted, in August 1821.

Parents and siblings

A fourth brother, not involved in the duel, was Thomas Brittlebank whose son, Andrew William Thomas Brittlebank, was recorded in the 1871 England Census as having moved away from the traditional family village of Winster to a small seaside village, Hornsea, in the neighbouring county of Yorkshire. He was accompanied by his wife Ellen Sarah Leese, his mother-in-law Mary Leese, and three sons: Lewis Oswald, Charles Clifton and Thomas Andrew. The head of the house was not employed – he enjoyed a private income derived from his investments.
Andrew WT Brittlebank took his wife and children overseas, spending two years in Vanuatu, before going to Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, where the passenger list of the ship Sam Mendel records their arrival on 28 July 1875
In 1876 and 1877 The Brisbane Courier frequently reported local waves of epidemics such as smallpox, malaria and influenza. In March and April 1877 Andrew WT Brittlebank and his eldest son, Lewis Oswald, both died and were buried in the South Brisbane Cemetery in Plot 11a, graves 268 and 269. Administrative procedures appear to have taken two years, for the Brisbane Telegraph reported, on Friday 14 March 1879, page 3, that "his widow Ellen S. Brittlebank was appointed guardian of the persons and the estates of Charles Clifton Brittlebank and Thomas Andrew Brittlebank".
The family then went south to the island of Tasmania. However, they did not remain in Tasmania, but returned to the mainland and finally put down roots in Myrniong, near Bacchus Marsh, in the state of Victoria. The Bacchus Marsh Express, 28 November 1885, page 2, announced that a mixed farm of 363 acres was up for lease, after the death of the owner, William Dunbar in July 1884. It appears that the Brittlebanks took the lease, because the Bacchus Marsh Express reported in 1888 that the two brothers were the owners:
The Messrs. Brittlebank, the present owners of Dunbar's farm, have done excellent work, and have almost entirely eradicated the rabbits from their property. They have also erected a quantity of wire net fence. - Bacchus Marsh Express, 17 Nov 1888, p.3.

Throughout their lives, the work of the brothers Charles and Thomas, whether joint or individual, contributed significantly to the dissemination of new knowledge of Australian plants, animals and geology. The Victorian Naturalist summarized their contribution as follows:
They compiled one of the first comprehensive bird lists for the area . Charles was a renowned artist and contributed illustrations of birds and their eggs, insects, fungi and mistletoes for pioneering works on those subjects by AJ Cambpell, JA Leach, Charles French, Daniel McAlpine and himself. He published widely and was considered an authority on the evidence for glacial action in Werribee Gorge. Thomas was a skilled egg collector, bird observer, landscape artist and contributor to his brother's and AJ Campbell's studies. Together they helped to lay the foundations of natural history study in Victoria. - Marilyn Hewish, Victorian Naturalist, Oct 2006, pp.314-317.

The brothers remained at Myrniong until 1910 after which the Australian Electoral Rolls show that Charles and family moved to Caulfield near Melbourne, whilst Thomas took up a position as the manager of the Agricultural High School Farm, in Sale, Gippsland and, later, the Agricultural High School Farm in Warnambool.

Marriage and children

Charles Clifton Brittlebank and Sarah Jane Palmer were married on 1 August 1894, in St Matthew's Church in Kensington, Victoria.
They had only one child, Cyril Clifton, born in Myrniong in 1895. When World War I occurred he enlisted in Australian 13th Light Horse Regiment in May 1915. After fighting at Gallipoli and on many of the battlefields on the Western Front, and having survived typhoid and various wounds, he died of influenza on 25 May 1918. He was buried in Etretat Cemetery, Le Havre, Haute-Normandie, France. His grave is listed on the Etretat Churchyard Extension web site .
A couple of months before the wedding of Charles and Sarah, Brittlebank's brother Thomas Andrew had married Marion Margaret Myers, on 10 June 1894. They had three children.
Their eldest son, Andrew Buxton Brittlebank, was born 10 February 1895. Like his cousin Cyril, he enlisted in 1915, as reported in the Melton Express on 19 June 1915, page 3. He became a corporal in Australian 59th Battalion, was repeatedly wounded, and died of pneumonia on 15 Oct 1917. He was buried in Aeroplane Cemetery, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium, and is listed on the cemetery's web site .
As described on the history page of the Shrine's web site , the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Victoria, was originally erected to commemorate the 19,000 Victorian victims of World War I who, like the Brittlebank cousins, were buried overseas, leaving their Australian families without graves at which to mourn.
The name Buxton was the maiden name of Andrew William Thomas Brittlebank's maternal grandmother, Margaret Buxton who lived in Thorpe, Derbyshire, England. Furthermore, Buxton was also the name of one of the most important towns in the Peak District of Derbyshire. Thus the name may have held sentimental value for the expatriate Thomas Andrew Brittlebank who had been brought to Australia as a child. He and his wife Marion gave each of their children the middle name of Buxton: Andrew, Olive and Tom.

Career

The value of Charles Clifton Brittlebank's work can be appreciated from the excitement generated by the announcement of a discovery reported on 29 September 2013, on The Age web site :
Researchers have found "the holy grail of entomology" - a long-lost guide to Victoria's insects written by pioneer researcher Charles French.
The handwritten manuscript, beautifully illustrated with artwork by Charles Brittlebank and LC Vald Anderson, describes the state's bug life before insecticides were used. - Bridie Smith, The Age, 29 September 2013.

Recognition for his many and varied accomplishments in the field of natural history came to Brittlebank long before his official appointment as Government Plant Pathologist. Some of the significant milestones of his scientific life include the following:
Charles Brittlebank's brother Thomas lost his wife, Marion, in July 1932, and Charles himself became widowed in 1935 when Sarah died. After that time the brothers both lived at No. 48 York Street, Caulfield, near Melbourne.
Charles pre-deceased his younger brother by three years, dying in 1945, aged 83. He is buried in the family grave in the Maddingley Central Cemetery, in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. The cemetery has been in use since the 1860s. The Brittlebank grave also holds four other relatives of Charles, as follows:



Brittlebank Ellen Sarah.jpg| Ellen Sarah Brittlebank
Brittlebank Marion Margaret.jpg| Marion Margaret Brittlebank
Brittlebank Sarah Jane.jpg| Sarah Jane Brittlebank
Brittlebank Charles Clifton - grave.jpg| Charles Clifton Brittlebank
Brittlebank Thomas Andrew.jpg| Thomas Andrew Brittlebank

Obituaries
An insight into his character is found in the tribute to him from his colleague and successor Stanislaus Fish:
I worked with him for 3 years before he retired as a plant pathologist, artist, naturalist, successful farmer, professional boxer, and no mean golfer - an unforgettable character. - S. Fish, Annual Revue of Phytopathology, 1970.

Regret at the loss of a good friend, and appreciation for his contribution to science are also evident in other obituaries, such as that in Wild Life and in the Victorian Naturalist:
he had not only left his mark upon Victorian natural history as a leading authority on fungi, but he had wide natural history interests, and was such a fine scientific draughtsman and water colorist that his services were always in demand when accurate, delicate and tasteful scientific illustrations were required. - C. Morrison, Wild Life, 1945.

As a token of appreciation for his friend, the senior C. French, first Government Entomologist and founder of this Club, Brittlebank prepared a large series of water-colour drawings featuring every beetle that had been scientifically named after French. These framed drawings, which cover seven large sheets of drawing paper, came into the possession of C. French junior, who had succeeded his father as Entomologist, and who later succeeded his friend Brittlebank as Biologist. Mr French recently presented these beautiful illustrations to the National Museum where they will be exhibited as a permanent memorial to both men. - EE Prescott, Victorian Naturalist, 1946.