James Herbert Wilson

James Herbert Wilson ('Jim' to everyone save his mother; she called him Herbert) was born in 1872 in Collingwood, Melbourne.

The family had land in Kinglake in Murrindindi Shire, and in his early 20s Jim went there to grow potatoes so that he could earn some money to support the family back in Melbourne. While he was living up there in the little shack he built himself, his younger sister Jessie died of TB, and his brother Andrew moved to Perth to practice Architecture.

He married Edith Olive Hall on 30 January 1904 in Perth and they lived in a rented house in Lyall Street, South Perth.

Rae writes: "I think after Jean and Gordon were born, he had a stroke of luck and won £100, whether on a horse or a lottery or a raffle I have no idea, but the result was that he was the owner of two blocks of land west of Subiaco. Andrew designed and supervised the building of the house."