On the first floor were a gentlemen’s dining hall and a ladies dining saloon, the latter admitting gentlemen if accompanied by a lady. The men’s reading room contained large comfy armchairs and the lavatories all over the establishment were marble-topped. Close to the ladies dining area was a reading room where ladies arranged their toilet, read, wrote or gossiped in large, light and airy conditions.
The second floor contained a billiard room with oak ornamentation and Australian landscape scenery. Vienna billiard seats surrounded the tables. Adjoining the billiards room was a charming and comfortable smoking room where men could relax with a brandy, pipe or cigar. Gas lights and electric service bells were on every floor, and the fifty bedrooms on the remaining floors provided accommodation for both single guests and married couples. The Coffee Palace soon became a booming, busy and profitable establishment, attracting the aristocracy of Sydney.
Antonio regularly dined in the ground floor saloon and one evening in 1885 he noticed a large family enjoying the cuisine. His gaze fell on one of the daughters, 20-year-old Rebecca (Birdie) Albon. Glistening fair hair, azure blue eyes and an English rose complexion, Antonio was mesmerized by her beauty. He made his way over to their table to make his acquaintance and inquire if everything was to their satisfaction. 20-year-old Birdie, as she was affectionately called, blushed when her eyes met the striking Spaniard. At the table that night, Antonio met her parents, James and Rebecca Albon (née Poulter), and her siblings: 22-year-old Grace, teenagers Jesse, Annie, and Maud, and little 9-year-old Geseyne.
Originally from Bedfordshire, England, and having lived at Lambeth and Surrey, the family and their 18-year-old servant girl, Harriet, had arrived from Plymouth, England on the ship the Pericles, on 5 December 1877. Birdie’s father James Albon was a successful builder, plumber and home decorator, skills he had learned from his own father. Birdie’s other brother James Jr, had returned to England after a short stay in Australia.4 John, the first born son, had died at around nine years of age. The remaining children, Jane (known as Jenny) and Thomas, had both recently married and remained in England.5 The youngest, Geseyne, was not blood related, and had been adopted as an infant when her birth parents, friends of the Albons, tragically died. They now lived at Glebe Point, Sydney, where James Albon carried on his profitable business.
Birdie’s older sister, Jenny, often wrote to the family of her life in England.
29 May 1878
Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire
Beloved Mother and Father,
For these last two months I have anxiously been looking out for letters from you. The last I received was 20 March, and the last I sent out to you was on 12 April. I hope, dear Mother, that you have received all my letters. I feel I want another letter from my precious mother. I find it is very trying to my health when I am expecting news and hear of the mails coming in and then to be bitterly disappointed. But I am trying to learn the lesson of patience, and I bless God I have again experienced the faithfulness of His precious promises to His tried ones has thy day thy strength shall be. I hope, darling Mother, that this will find you with dear Father quite well, also James Jr, Birdie, Jesse, Annie, Big Babe [Maud] and the dear precious Little Baby [Geseyne]. Give my fondest love to them all, kiss each dear one for their sister Jenny [Jane], not forgetting you and my dear Father. How I long to see you all once again, will it ever be? Do you know, loved Mother, now that I am absent from you I often find myself thinking of the many ways in which I could have contributed to your comfort and happiness while I had you with me? I often feel that it is but few returns I have made you for the unearned love and kindness you have ever shown me.
I have very little news to give you this time. Of course, you may have heard about dear Grandfather who is still alive. I think you may be prepared for what I am about to tell you since I wrote this letter a telegram from Shillington on Monday that dear Grandfather has gone home to God. He passed away ten minutes to six that evening. I can’t give particulars at present. Do not fret of his great happiness, for some of us will see him again. God bless you and comfort you with His abiding love. I do not forget to pray, so does my dear husband.
I must tell you, we had Daisy Browning here for a week at Easter and she is coming again a week next Friday 7 June and will stay with us another week. She likes to be here at Bushey and she is very fond of my dear husband. Daisy sends much love to you all. We often talk together about you. Poor girl, she is not very strong; she tells me one of her lungs is gone and the other she feels is going but she is under a good doctor and does not want for anything. I try to persuade her to give up school life but she does not seem as though she would. On Easter Tuesday I had Martha and her mother to see me, and also Mrs. Thorogood — she has sold her business and says she would like to live in the country. She wishes she could get a shop near us. She wants to have a week in Bushey and thinks it would do her good, but Uncle Tom hardly knows how to spare her.6 They have got a very nice shop and I think will do well. A week last Friday I had Sarah Ann for a few days. She returned the following Tuesday.
I have had Miss Hills here — poor girl, she has been very ill and has had to go under a most painful operation. The doctors spent two hours taking a cancer out of her right side. What they took from her weighed 3 lbs! They had to strap her down as they would not give her ether or anything to make her insensible to the pain, poor thing. Her sufferings have been something fearful and she is only twenty years old. She sends love to you, Mother.
And now I must say goodbye. I don’t have anything more to say. I hope you get this letter safe with fondest love and kisses.
Ever your loving daughter,
Jenny
PS I forgot to tell you: Jenny Moss sends love to you all. She and Mr Moss send much love to you with kisses to all the dear children and both temporal and spiritual love. 7
A year later after the birth of her son, Jenny wrote again to her parents in Australia.
22 April 1879
Beloved Mother and Father,
Ere this reaches you, I hope you have received my dear husband’s letter telling of the arrival of our little son. I am very thankful to tell you I am getting on very nicely; in fact, I feel there is nothing the matter with me which is all God’s goodness and loving kindness towards me. We never thought we should have a living child for it went hard with me — 24-and-a-half hours of hard labour — but my Heavenly Father brought me safely through nature’s trial and my beloved Husband did not cease praying for me. My doctor was with me all the time and he was very patient with me and helped me all he could. I have a good nurse who looks after me so I am sure I ought to do well, don’t you think so? And best of all I have a lovely baby. Nurse says she believes he weighs from 12 to 14 pounds so you may know he is a fine boy and he is so healthy. How I should love you to see our jewel. He has got such a lot of hair on his pretty little head, I will enclose you a piece and I know you will prize it.
Oh, Mother, my very heart seems to swell out in love and gratitude to God for giving me such a precious, precious gift. To feel myself a mother seems almost too much and sometimes too good to be really true, Mother, you must still pray for me for I feel I need great wisdom to help train our child for Heaven. Sweet Mother, you know how to pray and the value of prayer, so then unite your prayers with ours that my precious Boy may be one of the Lord’s fold.
I feel more than ever the desire to come out to you but we must be patient and it will all come right. I am not going to write much this time but I know you would like me to tell you in my own hand-writing how I am getting on. Yesterday I received a letter from Miss Mascall with kind congratulations and the promise of a pair of shoes for the baby. Last Friday I received a beautiful white robe for him from Polly which she made herself. Sarah Ann is making him a hood like the one little Babe had and I am to be kept supplied with shoes from