This is the story of Miss Fanny Dango and her husband Samuel MacKay and the property Melville Park, now called Edrington, in Berwick.
Miss Fanny Dango
State Library of Victoria Image H85.73/6
On November 29, 1910 the actress and comedienne, Miss Fanny Dango, married the Australian 'squatter', Sam MacKay, in London. Samuel Peter MacKay was the owner of Melville Park. (1)
Sam, 45 years old, had recently been divorced from his 43 year old wife, Florence Gertrude (nee Taylor) MacKay. The Age reported on the report case in August 1910 -Samuel Peter Mackay, 45, of Melville Park, Berwick, grazier, petitioned for a divorce from Florence Gertrude Mackay, 43, on the ground of misconduct with H. Mulvey, chauffer, said to reside at Carlingford, Sydney, and Donald S. Bain, of Berwick, estate agent, who were joined as co-respondents.
The parties were married at Guildford, W.A., on 5th July, 1892, and there are two children of the marriage. Mr. Duffy, K.C., and Mr. L. S. Woolf (instructed by Messrs. Blake and Riggall) appeared for petitioner. The other parties were not represented, although Bain had filed an answer denying misconduct. Mr. Duffy said that they did not intend to devote attention to the case of Bain, but had ample, evidence of the alleged misconduct with Mulvey.
Petitioner gave evidence that from Western Australia his wife and he came to Victoria, where he
bought an estate at Berwick. It was customary for him to visit the West on business connected with property there, and on returning to Melbourne in August, 1909, he came into possession of a letter. He took it to his wife, and when he came into the room she said to him, "What are you looking at me like that for?" He answered that he had seen a letter from which he understood that she was intimate with Mulvey, their chauffeur. She made certain admissions. He then told her that he had heard she was corresponding with Bain. She made another admission.
His Honor granted a decree nisi, with coats against co-respondents. (2)
Donald Bain, an estate agent, was the son of Robert and Susan Bain, who owned the Border Inn at Berwick. (3) As Sam married Fanny a few months later in the November, they were clearly acquainted whilst the divorce proceedings were being heard.
Report of the marriage between Sam MacKay and Fanny Dango
The Argus, December 1, 1910 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10481561
As noted in the newspaper report of the divorce, Sam had married Florence Gertrude Taylor in Western Australia in 1892. Florence was from Yangdine, near York in Western Australia. They had three children - Elsie Gertrude (born 1893 in Roebourne, W.A., died in Melbourne in 1963); Marjorie (born and died 1895) and Samuel Keith (1900 - 1924). You can read about the family here, in an article entitled The Tragedies of the MacKays in the Sunday Times, July 27, 1924. Keith had recently died in an aeroplane accident at near Port Headland when the article was written. (4)
Obituary of Keith MacKay
Geraldton Guardian, July 17, 1924 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article67284581
Sam had died a year before his son Keith on May 11, 1923. As noted in his obituary, published in Pastoral Review, June 16 1923 (5) Sam MacKay, was born in 1864 in Mount Gambier. He left school at 13 and did some cattle droving, until he decided to move to northern Western Australia where he worked in the pearling industry. Later on his father and two uncles purchased the one million acre Mundabullangana Station, east of Roebourne. By 1903, when his father died, he bought the Station outright. In 1905, Sam purchased Melville Park at Berwick from James Gibb, who was a Shire of Berwick Councillor for 30 years and the Federal Member for Flinders from 1903 to 1906. His wife, Mary Gibb (nee Paterson) owned the Tulliallan property in Cranbourne from 1904 until 1912 (6) MacKay's obituary concludes with Although the late Mr. Mackay was a well-known pastoralist, he was better known as a breeder and lover of thoroughbred horses, and his colours were a familiar sight on the chief racecourses in Australia. (7)
Samuel MacKay
Melville Park, when purchased by MacKay in March 1905 for the cost of £20,000, was described as being of 830 acres of rich agricultural land on the main Gippsland line, and is considered to be the finest estate within 100 miles of Melbourne. (8) It had a number of outbuildings and a brick cottage said to date from the 1860s, when the property was owned by Captain Robert Gardiner, the original owner. (9).
The 1860s brick cottage at Melville Park/Edrington.
Photographer: John T. Collins, taken in 1985. State Library of Victoria image H2010.1/461.
However, Samuel and and his family did not immediately move to the property. In March 1907 it was reported that -
Messrs. W. S. Keast and Co. report having sold, on account of Mr. Parker, his well-known property, Clover Hills Estate, at Berwick, adjoining the famous Melville Park, and containing 450 acres, with a frontage of 1 mile to the Cardinia Greek, to Mr. Samuel P. Mackay, of Western Australia (the owner of Melville Park), for £5376. It is the intention of Mr. Mackay to unite there two properties and make his home in Victoria. (10) Having increased his land holdings, the next step was to build a house befitting his status and thus around September 1907 he commissioned Architect Rodney Alsop to design a new two-storey brick house for Melville Park. (11)
Tenders called for the construction of Sam MacKay's mansion
The Age, September 24, 1907 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/205000119
The mansion, shown below, is now listed on the Victorian Heritage Register, where it is described as a two-storey red brick example of the English vernacular style with some reference to the Queen Anne style. It has also been described as being in the Arts and Crafts Style. (12) After their marriage, Sam and Fanny lived at Melville Park for a short period, and it was during this time their son Peter Angus MacKay was born on September 12, 1911. (13)
Melville Park (now Edrington) built for Sam MacKay.
Photographer: John T. Collins, taken in May 1985. State Library of Victoria image H2010.1/453.
Melville Park (now Edrington) built for Sam MacKay.
Photographer: John T. Collins, taken in May 1985. State Library of Victoria image H2010.1/455
In December 1911, Sam MacKay purchased Camelot in Alma Road, St Kilda for £7500. This house was built in stages from the 1850s and was a mansion of 18 rooms when Sam purchased the property, who renamed the property, Strathnaver (14)
Camelot/Strathnaver - Sam MacKay's mansion in Alma Road, St Kilda.
Photographer: John T. Collins, taken in February 1964.
State Library of Victoria image H98.251/8
MacKay sold Melville Park, consisting then of 1,267 acres for £45,000 in November 1912 to Andrew Chirnside. (15) Andrew and Winifred (nee Sumner) renamed Melville Park to Edrington, after a family property in Scotland. Andrew and Winifred Chirnside died within three months of each other in 1934, Andrew on April 17 and Winifred on July 13 (16) and
Mrs Chirnside left real estate valued at £17,045 and personal property valued at £38,382 to her nephews, Rupert Ryan and Noel Sumner Nash, and her nieces, Ethel Marion Sumner Casey and Doris Osborne, subject to gifts of £1,000 to her maid, Ethel Jarrett, and of jewellery to her adopted daughter, Mrs. Alec Waugh, formerly Miss Joan Chirnside. (17)
The Edrington Estate, c. 1938 when it was under the owner ship of Colonel Rupert Ryan and his sister, Maie Casey. In the centre of the photo is the 1860s cottage. Many of the trees are extant.
Photographer: Charles Daniel Pratt/Airspy. State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/20235
It appears that Colonel Ryan and his sister, Ethel Marion Sumner Casey, better known as Maie Casey purchased the property from their cousins. Maie married Richard Gavin Gardiner Casey on June 24, 1926; he was a politician and diplomat and received a Life Peerage in January 1960, becoming Lord Casey. Edrington was the Casey's country home. Lord Casey died on June 16, 1976 and Lady Casey on January 20, 1983. Edrington was the sold and is now part of a retirement village. The City of Casey is named after Lord Casey. (18)
Miss Fanny Dango from the programme The Catch of the Season
State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/4220828
Who was exotically named Fanny Dango? Fanny was born on October 20, 1878 as Fanny Rudge, to Henry and Elizabeth Rudge of Birmingham. She had four sisters who also became actresses - Letitia (stage name Letty Lind), Sarah (stage name Millie Hylton), Elizabeth (stage name Adelaide Astor) and Lydia (stage name Lydia Flopp) and two brothers who followed their father's career as a brass founder.
The Association of British Theatre Technicians website had (19) the following information about Fanny and her sisters -
The Rudge sisters, professionally known as Letty Lind (1861-1923), Millie Hylton (1868-1920), Adelaide Astor (1874-1951), Lydia Flopp (1877-1962) and Fanny Dango (1878-1972), all hailing from Birmingham, were primarily dancers but later developed their singing talents, working in pantomime, variety and music hall, musical comedy and burlesque, often at the Gaiety Theatre in the 1880s and 90s. Letty Lind was in the last George Edwardes burlesques (at the Gaiety) and the first George Edwardes musical comedies (at Daly’s); she also had a professional and personal relationship with the dramatic author and entertainer Howard Paul (1830-1905) and was the mother of his illegitimate son, she later had an enduring relationship with the 3rd Earl of Durham (1855-1928) and another son. Millie Hylton had a successful career in variety as a male impersonator and as a principal boy in pantomime, but later appeared in legitimate theatre and was the mother of actress Millie Sim (b.1895). Adelaide Astor was married to George Grossmith, Jnr. and had a son, George Grossmith (manager) and a daughter, Ena Grossmith (b.1896, actress). Lydia Flopp had a briefer career than her sisters and an unhappy marriage. Fanny Dango followed her sisters onto the London stage and ended up a wealthy woman in Australia. The Rudge sisters were cousins of music hall artist, Millie Lindon (1877-1940) who was married at one time to T.E. Dunville (1868-1924), however they divorced long before his sad and dramatic death and she later re-married three times.
There is more information about Fanny in a two-part article by Bob Ferris, Fanny Dango -The Soubrette’s Stage Career in Australia on the Theatre Heritage Australia website (20)
Fanny Dango was a nascent actress and an exceptional dancer with appearances in several pantomimes on the London and Provincial theatre stage. Her catalogue of pantomime performances is impressive from her debut at the Prince of Wales Theatre in her home city of Birmingham in December 1894 (shortly after her 16th birthday) with a small part as ‘Chinese Dolly’ in Dick Whittington. From 1901 to 1905, she appeared in five successive Christmas pantomimes: Gulliver’s Travels at the Avenue Theatre, London, 1901–1902 (as Glumdalclitch); Dick Whittington at the London Hippodrome, 1902–1903 (as Alice, opposite the Dick of Ruth Lytton), Santa Claus Junior at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle, 1903–1904 (as See Mee); in Dick Whittington, Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, 1904–1905 (as Alice, opposite the Dick of Hetty King); and Aladdin, Theatre Royal, Birmingham, 1905–1906 (as Princess So Shi, opposite the Aladdin of Ada Reeve).
Fanny Dango was vivacious and a charismatic young actress and danced exquisitely. J.C. Williamson saw the early promise of her becoming a favourite of Australian theatre patrons and he engaged her in England to play the part of Peggy Sabine in the Royal Comic Opera’s production of The Dairymaids.5 This was some achievement for Fanny to play the part which had previously been performed by Australian-born Carrie Moore with outstanding success in the 1906 Apollo Theatre production.
Fanny sailed to Australia on the P & O RMS Mongolia which left Marseilles on 19 July 1907 and arrived in Melbourne on 26 August, leaving the same day for Sydney to commence rehearsals. She made her Australian debut in The Dairymaids as Peggy Sabine and the chief Sandow girl at Her Majesty’s Theatre Melbourne, on 7 September 1907 and later in Sydney, opening at Her Majesty’s some four months later, on 1 February 1908.
Other shows in Australia in which Fanny performed included The Girls of Gottenberg, The Lady Dandies, The Prince of Pilsen, The Catch of the Season, The Red Mill, The Belle of New York, Jack and Jill and The Duchess of Dantzic. (22) Her farewell performance was on September 15, 1910 and in October she sailed for London (23) where as we saw, on November 29, she married Samuel McKay.
Fanny died July 15, 1972 at the age of 91. She is buried at the Brighton Cemetery, with her husband Sam; her son Peter who died December 12, 1951 and Sam’s daughter, Elsie, who died February 6, 1963, aged 67. (24) Elsie MacKay was an actress, who had married British and Hollywood film star, Lionel Atwill in February 1920. She was his second wife and after their divorce, he married Louise, the divorced wife of General Douglas MacArthur. It appears the reason that Elsie and Lionel divorced in 1925 was due to her 'relationship' with fellow actor, Max Montesole. Elsie and Max had a long marriage (by Hollywood standards) and they were still together in 1942 when he passed away at the age of 52 in Perth. Sam Mackay's first wife, Florence, died in Perth on May 28, 1945 at the age of 80 and she left her estate of £10,640 to Elsie. (25)
Elsie Montesole inherits her mother's estate.
Perth Daily News August 27, 1945 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78775939
Acknowledgement: I am indebted to Bob Flavell of the Edrington Park History Group for telling me about Fanny Dango. This is an expanded version with new material, of a post on Fanny Dango which I wrote and researched in 2018, which appears on my work blog, Casey Cardinia Links to our Past.
Footnotes
(1) The Herald, November 30, 1910, see here; The Argus, December 1, 1910, see here. The birth certificate of their son, Peter, lists their marriage date as November 28, 1910.
(2) The Age, August 9, 1910, see here.
(3) Donald Bain was the son of Robert Hudson Bain, who had established the Berwick Inn/Border Hotel at Berwick in 1857. He married Susan Stewart in 1859 and they had the following children -Catherine (born 1860 - died October 1900 - known as Kate, married John Murray Leggatt in 1878)
Jane Hudson (born 1861 - known as Jean, she is the Mrs W.S Withers listed in the death notice. Jean married Walter Seward Withers in 1886, they are listed in the 1911 English Census, living in the town of Goodworth Clatford, near Andover, in Hampshire and she died in June 1926 at Andover)
Margaret Anne Stewart (born 1863, known as Maggie, married Charles Allen Champion in November 1889 and died in March 1891)
James (born 1865 - died January 1908)
Robert (born 1867 - died January 1902)
Harry Wilson (born 1869 - died April 1902)
George Alexander (born 1871 - ?)
Edwin Clarence (born 1873 - died 1875)
Susan Stewart (born 1875 - died 1876)
McCulloch Stewart (born 1877 - died January 1908)
Donald Stewart (born 1880 - died January 1937).
Margaret Anne Stewart (born 1863, known as Maggie, married Charles Allen Champion in November 1889 and died in March 1891)
James (born 1865 - died January 1908)
Robert (born 1867 - died January 1902)
Harry Wilson (born 1869 - died April 1902)
George Alexander (born 1871 - ?)
Edwin Clarence (born 1873 - died 1875)
Susan Stewart (born 1875 - died 1876)
McCulloch Stewart (born 1877 - died January 1908)
Donald Stewart (born 1880 - died January 1937).
Donald Bain died February 24, 1887 at the age of 56; and Susan on June 26, 1908 at the age of 69. The Hotel was owned by the Bain family until 1909.
(4) Western Australia and Victoria Indexes to the Births, Deaths and Marriages; Perth Sunday Times, July 27, 1924, see here; The Geraldton Guardian, July 17, 1924, see here, had a report of Keith's accident
(5) Obituary republished here https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/mackay-samuel-peter-638
(6) James and Mary Gibb and Tulliallan, I have written about them here https://victoriaspast.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-property-known-as-ravenhurst-then.html Mary Gibb had previously been married to George Brown, of Inveresk, Berwick - I have written about them here https://victoriaspast.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-arthur-streeton-painting-of-brown.html She was the sister of the artist, John Ford Paterson. As a matter of interest, George Brown's first wide was Margaret Stewart, the sister of Susan Bain (footnote 3)
(8) The Age, March 25, 1905, see here.
(9) Victorian Heritage Database - https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/148 and https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/62899
(10) The Leader, March 2, 1907, see here.
(11) The Victorian Heritage Database date the construction as 1906 or 1906-1907, however it must have been 1907-1908 as the tender for the construction was advertised in September 1907, The Age, September 24, 1907, see here. Rodney Alsop - Australian Dictionary of Biography - https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/alsop-rodney-howard-5007
(12) See footnote 9.
(13) Peter's birth certificate. I did wonder if Fanny actually lived at Berwick, however Table Talk of December 21, 1911 - who reported on the social activities of Melbourne 'Society' noted that - Mr. Samuel Mackay, of "Melville Park," Berwick, has purchased "Camelot," Alma-road, East St. Kilda, the beautiful residence of Mr. Ernerst Brookes, who shortly joins Mrs. Brookes and family in England. The purchase money is said to be £7500. Mrs. Mackay will be remembered as Miss Fanny Dango, and, with her husband, has been living at Berwick since her marriage. (Table Talk, December 21, 1911, see here)
(14) Table Talk, December 21, 1911, see here Photos of the interior of Camelot - The Australasian, December 9, 1911, see here. I was unaware that Samuel MacKay purchased Camelot, until I read about in the St Kilda Historical Society newsletter of December 2024, which provided information on the history of the building.
(15) The Age, November 16, 1912, see here; Clearing sale of Melville Park stud Ayrshire cattle - South Bourke & Mornington Journal, November 14, 1912, see here.
(16) Obituary of Andrew Chirnside - The Argus, April 18, 1934, see here; Winifred Chirnside's will - Shepparton Advertiser, October 5, 1934, see here.
(17) Theodatus Sumner, the brother of Winifred Chirnside, was married to Sarah Peers. They had - Mary Maud, married to Albert Nash, of Ballarto, Cranbourne; Annie who was married to James Grice, who was the brother of Richard Grice, land owner in Berwick and Cranbourne, after whom Grice's Road is named and Alice, married Charles Ryan - the parents of Lady Casey and Colonel Ryan. Doris Osborne, listed in the will, is the daughter of Winifred's sister Kate (Mrs James Osborne).
(18) Australian Dictionary of Biography - https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/casey-richard-gavin-gardiner-9706 and https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/casey-lady-ethel-marian-maie-12296
(19) Association of British Theatre Technicians - When I wrote the original post in May 2018 this link to the information about the Rudge sisters was working but when I checked it in May 2021, it was no longer working and still isn't - http://www.abtt.org.uk/event/the-british-music-hall-society-study-group/
(20) Theatre Heritage Australia website https://theatreheritage.org.au/ - Bob Ferris has a two part article on Fanny Dango, Fanny Dango -The Soubrette’s Stage Career in Australia - see footnote 21 for the links
(22) https://theatreheritage.org.au/on-stage-magazine/profiles/item/936-fanny-dango-the-soubrettes-stage-career-in-australia-part-1 and https://theatreheritage.org.au/on-stage-magazine/profiles/item/960-fanny-dango-the-soubrettes-stage-career-in-australia-part-2
(24) Brighton Cemetorians database https://www.brightoncemetorians.org.au/
(25) Short reports of Elsie MacKay's career - Perth Daily News, February 25, 1920, see here and Sydney Sun, June 5, 1921, see here; Marriage of Elsie MacKay to Lionel Atwill, Perth Daily News, February 25, 1920, see here; Lionel Atwill's marriages - Daily Telegraph, April 24, 1946, see here; Atwill/MacKay divorce Sydney Sun, December 18, 1925, see here; Death of Max Montesole The Age, September 19, 1942, see here; Death of Mrs Florence MacKay, Perth Daily News August 27, 1945, see here.
Death notice of Peter MacKay
The Herald, December 14, 1951 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article247846844
Elsie's death notice - no mention of either husband.
The Age, February 8, 1963. p.17 from newspapers.com
