Just after the Great Depression, Annie pulled out her trump card and bought a generous home at 123 Tooronga Road, Malvern. It was paid with the money she had been taking from William all those years. The house was in her name and the family moved in, enjoying the luxury of a large back and front yard.
Every Sunday morning Fay and Lillian would attend Mass with their mother. Harry, of course, was never expected to attend. They became parishioners of St Joseph’s Catholic Church close by. Annie hoped her eldest daughter would meet a nice Catholic boy and settle down. After church one sunny, autumn day in 1932, Fay was introduced to an extremely handsome, dark-haired man with sapphire blue eyes. At thirty-three, Jaime San Miguel was eleven years older than 22-year-old Fay. It was a short but animated conversation, and on the walk back home with her mother and sister, Fay couldn’t stop thinking about him. Although Fay had many ardent admirers seeking her attention, she hadn’t really met anyone who had touched her heart. She was a born flirt with a dynamic personality, and enjoyed the attention she always gained.
The following Sunday, he was there again, and after the service came straight over to Fay. This time they chatted for a good hour, Lillian and their mother hadn’t attended due to both having a nasty cold, so Fay relaxed and listened intently to Jaime’s conversation. She learnt that he had attended Xavier College in Kew, and had been Captain of the school for two years running in 1916 and 1917. She also discovered he worked as a sales representative for the Dunlop Rubber company at 108 Flinders Street in the city centre. Meanwhile, Fay had recently landed a job as private secretary to Roy Rostron, of Rostron and Company Solicitors at Chancery House in Little Collins Street. Jaime suggested as they both worked in the city, they should meet for lunch.
‘Perhaps this Wednesday at 1pm?’ Jaime inquired.
When Fay heartily agreed, he asked if she knew the Teapot Inn, and they made plans to meet there. Jaime offered to drive Fay home, but knowing her mother’s sticky-beak nature, she declined. She did, however, skip all the way home!
Fay decided, for now, not to tell anyone about her invitation. She wanted to know more about this charming stranger before all the questions started from her somewhat interfering parents. At work that week she found it hard to concentrate, and by Wednesday morning she was a nervous wreck in anticipation of the looming lunch.
When she walked into the café a minute after one o’clock, she spotted Jaime at a window table, and made her way through the busy lunchtime crowd. He stood and greeted her warmly as he helped her into a chair. Mixed sandwiches and a large pot of tea were ordered from the plump, cheerful waitress. They talked incessantly for an hour — Fay was intrigued to hear that Jaime’s father was born in Spain and that his mother was English. He spoke of his time at boarding school in Spain as a little boy, and also his passion for sports, especially golf and tennis. The lunch break flew by, and Jaime wrote down Fay’s office phone number, promising to ring her the following morning.
‘Perhaps a drink on Friday evening?’ Jaime suggested.
Fay shook his warm, firm hand as she made a dash back to the office, grinning from ear to ear. Jaime was also smiling as he hurried up Flinders Street. Fay was such a cheerful and animated young woman, something he’d been missing for several years — the problem was, he would have to explain his situation to her very, very soon.
In late August of 1870, 19-year-old Antonio San Miguel, the dark, broad-shouldered, handsome second son of successful Catalan wine grower Cipriano San Miguel and wife Francisca (née Mirambel), of Alella, Spain, set off from his homeland in a spirit of adventure to seek his fortune in Australia. Besides his parents, Antonio left behind his 22-year-old brother, Francisco, and sisters Carmen, twenty-seven, and Maria, twenty-five, who were both married.1 He carried a ‘Passport for Abroad’, an identity card which gave him the right to travel to France and overseas as a Spanish citizen. Close friends of the San Miguels, the Parer family, also from Alella, had arrived in Australia in 1858 and had a number of prosperous restaurants, hotels, and catering establishments. So this optimistic and confident young man was determined to succeed.
Antonio arrived in Paris en route to England shortly after the commencement of the Franco-Prussian War.2 He heard that the Prussian troops were about to cut off each railway line out of the city and realising the danger he was in, made a desperate dash to the Gare du Nord train station where he caught the last train out before the siege of Paris on 19 September. It was a story he often related over the years. He arrived in Calais and boarded a ship bound for Australia, arriving in Sydney late November 1870. He took lodgings at an inner city hotel. With the money he had saved working for his father and the money his family had given him, he would be comfortable for a suitable amount of time. Antonio eventually moved in with a Catalan family, whose son was a good friend of his. He had plans to import his father’s wine products, plus other ideas that came to him as he toured around Sydney. An economic boom was just beginning in Australia and young Antonio was extremely optimistic. He soon had interests in a number of billiard parlours, and began importing and selling Alella wine.
Around 1876 Antonio had become very close friends with two brothers, Andres and Joaquin Mauri who had come from the southern province of Andalusia, Spain, a year before. The brothers had experience in the cork industry and by early 1877 had begun a partnership in Sydney called Mauri Brothers. They traded as cork merchants and importers with their headquarters in Seville. On 12 September 1877, Antonio acquired a Publican’s license for the Australian Hotel in Druitt Street Sydney, taking over from Antonio Plannis. He continued importing wines and later spirits; soon, his hotel (which also had lodgings available for rent) became a very successful establishment. Antonio also took some risks, however, and on a number of occasions was fined for trading on Sundays and other offences against the Publicans Act. In 1882 he transferred his license to Joseph Gilnot and left Australia to visit his family in early 1883. Although Antonio had plenty of pretty girls seeking his attention, he still hadn’t met a potential bride, and wondered whether the girl of his dreams was back home in Alella. He remained in Spain for a number of months before returning to Australia to settle down.
On 20 June 1884, Antonio acquired a large interest and the proprietorship of The Sydney Coffee Palace Hotel Company at 393 George Street, Sydney. His good friend, Martin Arenas became a partner. Martin was a cousin-in-law of the Parers and also a relative of the San Miguels through marriage, and had lent him money back in 1877 to take over the Australian Hotel.3 The Sydney Coffee Palace Hotel had originally opened on the 2 October 1879 as a temperance hotel. The idea was not to serve alcohol and create a sober environment for their uppercrust clients. This movement failed and when Antonio took over, he applied for a Publican’s licence to continue his importation and selling of wines and spirits.
It was a grand building of eight floors, each 18 by 70 feet with a large ground floor frontage on George Street. There was an entrance for carriages to discharge under and the façade had high Victorian architecture. Antonio made plans to do extensive alterations and improvements and obtained a license to sell postage stamps. The building comprised of a basement that housed a very modern kitchen, with a lift to the numerous dining saloons. The ground floor housed an elaborate bar made of oak wood and marble-topped. Bronze statues and decorative busts were in abundance, and immediately in front of the bar, tables and morocco lounges were provided for the patrons’ comfort. On the ground floor was a dining room to accommodate one hundred persons. Each table was marble-topped with ornamental iron stands, and had room for six diners. Large gilt mirrors with one