Technically accomplished amateur furniture maker, woodcarver and embroiderer. He exhibited at international exhibitions such as the Indian and Colonial Exhibition of 1886 in London where he exhibited three carved photograph stands. He received a medal for woodcarving – possibly for the work in this exhibition.
Passmore was born at Raleigh, Barnstaple, England on the 22 February 1840 and died 6 March,1920 in North Fremantle, Western Australia. He married Mary Sarah Ellis (1838-1877) about 1860. He was Anglican, the literate son of a lacemaker, himself the son of woolmaker. Passmore however became a midshipman in the Royal Navy serving on HMS Ceasor in the Baltic and Crimea from 1854-1862. He then saw Imperial Service at Dartmoor Prison arriving in Western Australia aboard the Racehorse on August 15 1865 as warder in charge of convicts. Passmore joined the Public Works Department in Western Australia when there were only five officers and was in charge of convict public works, roads, bridges, river dredging among other duties. He also took up land on the Upper Swan, working it between 1866-8 while supervising the building of roads and other infrastructure in the area. In the 1870s he lived in Perth where the Supreme Court Gardens are now. In 1872 he was in charge of the dredging of the Swan River. One of his embroideries shows the dredge Black Swan working opposite where he later had his house in North Fremantle. Embroidery, like painting, was one of the pastimes that naval officers used to fill relaxation time on their long voyages and it is probable that he took it up when at sea.
In 1881 Passmore was an exhibitor in the Perth International Exhibition staged by Joubert and Twopenny on the Esplanade. The critics considered that some of the woolwork exhibited was an example of misapplied industry. This was the work of Henry Passmore. He used stitchery in wool to realise the panorama viewed from where he would later build his John Street, North Fremantle home across the river to the Fremantle township and Arthur’s Head. There is a certain naivet_ in the use of the high perspective. He also embroidered the representation of a cricket match on the Perth Foreshore. This he reputedly embroidered whilst working on the Black Swan dredging Perth Water. As this took place in the 1870s it is probable that both pictures were exhibited in the 1881 exhibition.
When his wife died in 1877 leaving him with seven young children, Passmore 'married’ his housekeeper. It is probable that it was about this time he commenced his furniture making and woodcarving. He exhibited his intricately carved objects in the 1886 exhibition in London. Later the furniture Passmore made was on show in Sandovers shop window in Perth once a year with the sign “Henry Passmore’s Suite”. He also exhibited in an exhibition held in the Congregational Hall in 1903 or 1908.
At some stage he married a much younger Marion Dibb. This was possibly about 1891 when he bought lots 47,48, 36 and in 1895 lot 35 of Fremantle Suburban lot 25, North Fremantle. This area was between Harvest Road and John Street and he developed a small village there. He built a home for each of his children, although not all took up residence. There were six wooden cottages and a random rubble limestone cottage all built between 1892 and 1910. Gardens fronted John Street. Raleigh Avenue had arches across it. The seven houses fronted this narrow street and on the rear of the blocks were stables, orchards, windmill, vines, and a fowl yard.
Passmore retired in 1899 to be followed by C. Y. O’Connor. He was a member of the North Fremantle Council and a Justice of the Peace. A newspaper tribute to him, written in 1900 following his retirement, stated the following:
“In his comfortable residence at Raleigh Avenue is to be found a perfect museum of highly artistic carvings and other articles for beautifying the home all showing wonderful skill and possession of extraordinary patience. Bookcases, sideboards, chairs and occasional tables have all been made during spare hours and then decorated with carvings executed in a style worthy of any art school. Mr Passmore is entirely self taught, but some of his carvings in high relief, as well as others on the flat, are really works of art and clearly show that if he had devoted the whole of his time to this particular branch of industry he would have had a distinguished career” (The Umpire)
He died at eighty years of age in 1920 at his residence in Raleigh Avenue (now Passmore Avenue), North Fremantle and was buried with full military honours. When the second Mrs Passmore died his son Harry collected the furniture and parcelled it out among the family. Each of his children received a piece of intricately carved furniture.
I am indebted to descendent Kate McGurk for much of the information on Passmore.
- Writers:
- Dr Dorothy Erickson
- Date written:
- 2010
- Last updated:
- 2011
