Elizabeth Irene (“Bessie”) Giles was born 17 April 1885 at Evandale near Norwood, SA and she was baptized at St. Batholomew’s Church in Norwood on 14 May 1885. She was one of six children, being the fifth and youngest daughter, of Christopher Giles (1840-1917) and Mary Rea Little (1851-1936). Two of the Giles children (Esther Lois and Christopher Stanley) died young in 1893, aged 10 and 4 years respectively. Christopher Giles, aged 36 years, had married Mary Rea Little, aged 25 years, on 27 March 1876 at St Andrew’s Church in Walkerville, SA where she was the organist.
Elizabeth Irene Giles studied art with James Ashton from a young age and in October 1897, aged just 12 years, achieved a pass in first grade freehand while a student at the Academy of Arts under teacher Mr. James Ashton. At the art examinations held in Adelaide in connection with the Royal Drawing Society of Great Britain and Ireland in September 1898, Elizabeth Giles, aged just 13 years, achieved passes in Division 1 (including memory drawing, judgement at sight, dictated drawing and object drawing) and Division II (including memory drawing, dictated drawing and foreshortened curves). In July 1899, while a student attending Mr James Ashton’s Academy of Arts, she achieved honours in Division 1 and a pass in Division III (object drawing and memory drawing). Among her fellow art students were her sister Rachel Eunice (who died in 1911 at the young age of 32 years) and James Ashton’s son John William (“Will”). Another sister Eleanor Salome (“Ellie”) (1880-1979) studied music from the 1890s and later became a music teacher.
Like her mother and sisters, Elizabeth Irene was broadly “artistic” and she contributed a poem called “By the Sea, Normanville” to The Register newspaper in April 1909 and another called “Evening Primroses” to the Observer and Evening Journal newspapers in October 1909. In 1916 she achieved a pass in pianoforte at the local South Australian examinations for the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music of London, England.
Like two of her sisters, Rachel and Eleanor (“Ellie”), Bessie never married. For thirty-seven years from 1911 she worked and lived in the Aldinga Post Office and Telegraph Station at 17 Old Coach Road in the Aldinga township. First she worked with her father Christopher Giles who became the Postmaster in that year. After his death in 1917, she became the Postmistress and Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages at Aldinga at the age of 32 years where she stayed for thirty years until she retired in March 1947. Her sister Ellie probably also worked in the Aldinga Post Office at least part-time or on a temporary basis.
Elizabeth Irene Giles purchased a small block of land at the corner of Jetty Road and William Street (allotment 26) in Port Willunga on 23 July 1935 and moved with her sister Eleanor Salome to live in Port Willunga after retiring. The property would have had an existing dwelling on it at this time.
Bruce Gordon knew the sisters in the 1970s after they had retired to Port Willunga and in his “Recollections” (2008) he described Bessie as “short, dark and solemn” and Ellie as” fair, slim, giggly and dithery”. On Bessie’s death the property was inherited by her sister Eleanor.
Bessie died, aged 90 years, on 20 Oct 1975. (There are conflicting dates of death – 1958 on the Certificate of Title and 1975 on the headstone). Bessie Giles is buried in St Ann’s Anglican Church, Aldinga with other members of the Giles family.
