Remembering Felix Patrick Dempsey

Part 1

Felix Patrick Dempsey was born on 5 June 1894 in Port Pirie, South Australia. His parents were Michael Andrew Dempsey and Rose Ann McGinnity. He died in Brisbane on 9 November 1942, aged 48. Those are the bare facts of his life.

He was not a close relative of mine. I have more than 150 Dempsey names in my family history database. So what brought me to examine the life of this distant cousin and decide that his story was worth telling and remembering?

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The Australian Remembrance Army, founded in Brisbane in 2020, is a group of volunteers dedicated to ensuring that the service and contribution of men and women who left Australia to serve overseas and who did return, should not be forgotten.¹ Katrina Trevethan is one of the Co-Founders of the Australian Remembrance Army. For five years, she and her fellow researcher Cate Walker have been voluntarily researching war veterans buried in unmarked graves at Brisbane’s heritage-listed cemeteries. To date, they have identified over 800 Great War (WWI) veterans in unmarked graves at Lutwyche Cemetery.

A couple of months ago I received a surprise message on the Ancestry website from Katrina. She had found a returned serviceman named Felix Patrick Dempsey on my Family Tree and wondered how I was related to him. In part her message said:

We’re now focusing on Toowong Cemetery, where over 600 WWI veterans lie in unmarked graves. I have submitted 200+ applications to the Repatriation Commission to be assessed to determine if the veteran is eligible for official commemoration, including one for FELIX. His application was approved, and his grave will soon be marked by the Office of Australian War Graves (OAWG), which will be cared for by them in perpetuity.

As part of the process, OAWG requests contact with a descendant before proceeding. If you are related to FELIX PATRICK DEMPSEY, I would greatly appreciate your assistance. There is NO COST involved—just your consent and contact details (email is fine) to share with OAWG so they can extend a formal offer of official commemoration to the descendant.

I confirmed that Felix Patrick Dempsey was a distant cousin of mine. His grandfather, Felix Dempsey and my 2X great grandfather John Dempsey were brothers. The Dempsey family were from County Cavan, Ireland and emigrated to South Australia in several family groups between 1849 and 1854. I said that I was grateful that my relative Felix Patrick Dempsey would be commemorated in the Toowong Cemetery.

I have since received an offer of official commemoration of Felix Patrick Dempsey from the Office of Australian War Graves, Department of Veterans’ Affairs. I felt privileged to be asked to complete and return the application form which will ensure that his grave will be formally marked at his actual burial location in Brisbane’s Toowong Cemetery: Section 10, Row 69, Grave No 25.

Family background of Felix Patrick Dempsey

Felix Patrick Dempsey’s grandfather, Felix Dempsey, was born in Cootehill, County Cavan, Ireland in 1825. He arrived in South Australia on the Joseph Rowan on 16 June 1854. He was accompanied by his parents, Thomas and Mary Dempsey, sisters Catherine and Mary and brother Thomas. Their arrival was the last of a pattern of chain migration of the Dempsey family to South Australia.

In 1858 John Dempsey (my 2X great-grandfather) and his younger brother Felix bought Section No. 36 in the Hundred of Upper Wakefield in their joint names. The section was of 224 acres and divided in half along east-west lines, with John and Felix each having 112 acres. It was located between Mintaro and Auburn. This was where they began their lives as farmers in South Australia.

Felix married Elizabeth Tully on 30 July 1863 at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Mintaro. This Church is significant in the Dempsey family history. The Dempseys were struggling early settlers battling to carve out a life for themselves in the new colony. Along with other pioneering Catholic families from the district around Mintaro they contributed to the cost of building this church which opened in 1856. It was served by the Jesuit priests from Sevenhill Parish. My 3X great grandparents, Thomas Dempsey (1792–1870) and Mary Tully (1794–1869) lie buried in the cemetery next to the church.²

There is a plaque on the wall celebrating a Dempsey family reunion which took place in Mintaro in 1967.

Felix and Elizabeth had four sons and three daughters during their 11-year marriage. The youngest son died aged one month in 1873. Elizabeth died on 16 June 1874 leaving Felix with six children aged between ten and two years old. She was buried in the graveyard of the Mintaro church. When I visited this church and graveyard some years ago, I was touched by the inscription on her tombstone, even though at the time I did not know her story. I could sense Felix’ grief at the loss of his young wife.

To the memory of

Elizabeth Dempsey

the beloved wife of Felix Dempsey

Native of County Cavan, Isle of Saints

who departed this life

June 16, 1874 aged 38 years

Come all you people who pass by,

And on this Headstone cast an eye,

Repent in time, make no delay

For no one knows their dying day.

All you who pass will you kindly pray

For one whom you will meet on Judgement Day.³

Snatched from this dreary life,

In the twinkling of an eye,

My own dear loving wife

Will you look on me from high.

In one long night, she slept the sleep of death.

How lowly thou art laid,

My own dear loving wife

But I will meet again with thee

In that bright land above.

Felix never re-married. Somehow, he brought up his young family on his own, with the help of nearby relatives. The eldest child Mary probably devoted her youth to looking after her young siblings. She married at the age of 43 and never had a family of her own. Felix Patrick Dempsey’s father, Michael Andrew Dempsey (1868-1925) was four years old when his mother died.

Felix was a hardworking and enterprising farmer who purchased more sections in the Hundred of Upper Wakefield. These sections raised his holding to 511 acres. All these sections were contiguous and were separated from Section 36 only by a road. In 1874 Felix bought sections 342 and 343 containing 117 acres adjoining Mintaro township. He bought this property with the intention of living ther while still retaining oversight of his other properties so that his young children could be within easy reach of the Mintaro school run by the Sisters of Saint Joseph. In April 1884 my 2X great-grandfather John Dempsey disposed of his half interest in Section 36 to Felix for £5 10/- per acre. Felix was left as the sole owner of the original Dempsey homestead section.

When age began to take its toll, Felix retired from farming. His great-nephew Joe Dempsey wrote the following about Felix in 1933:

He removed to Port Pirie where his second son, Michael, had settled and remained under the shelter of his roof until death claimed him, a sturdy and hardened example of pioneering fortitude, a venerable as well as venerated stalwart of the Faith, in 1912 at the advanced age of 87 years. His remains were conveyed to Mintaro and laid to rest amid relatives in the cemetery there.³

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My next post will be about the service of Felix Patrick Dempsey in World War I.

1. https://www.australianremembrancearmy.com/ ↩︎
2. The Dempsey family is one of the families featured in this book. Lally, Gerald, A landmark of faith: Church of the Immaculate Conception Mintaro and its parishioners 1856-2006, Gerald A. Lally, Clare, S.Aust, 2006 ↩︎
3. This is a traditional and powerful memento mori (a reminder of mortality) commonly found on 18th and 19th-century tombstones in English-speaking countries. ↩︎
4. Joseph Dempsey, A Tribute to our Pioneer Ancestors: The Dempsey Family in South Australia, self-published, November 1933. Family collection. This book is also deposited in the National Library of Ireland and the GenealogySA Library. ↩︎