Bridge party raises funds for club fencing

From The Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette, Saturday 25 September 1937, page 5, in the column "The Social Round". Found on Trove, National Library of Australia.

Mrs. A. Austin (President of the Queensland Croquet Association), Miss Ena Hetherington (secretary), Mrs. Pitter (manageress of the recent inter-State croquet tournament in Brisbane), and twenty other members of metropolitan croquet clubs will arrive in Toowoomba on Monday. They will be entertained by the two Toowoomba croquet clubs during their visit.

Beautiful blossoms of many varieties and colours made the reception rooms at "Fernside," the home of Mrs. Gerard Boyce, the Range, an attractive setting for the bridge party which was given by Mrs. Boyce yesterday afternoon. The hostess wore a moulded gown of cloque, which was patterned in biscuit tonings on a black background and fashioned with long full sleeves and a round neckline finished with cut-work. The proceeds are in aid of the fencing fund of the Toowoomba Croquet Club, of which Mrs. Boyce is president.

The bridge players included Mesdames R. G. Wonderley, Spencer Roberts, J. Lang (Cloncurry), R. Dawes, Alex Horn, E. K. Bedwell, G. Wagner, J.A.C. Wilson, S. Feuerman (Brisbane), N. G. Hatton, A. C. Burness, B. L. Pumfrey, Colin Boyce, Mervyn Dines, S. Wilcox, Carrel, Glen Hickey, C. Fortescue, E. Annand, David Cullen, Julius Cohen, R. Phelps, Stanley Hobson, G. Kirk, T. H. J. Davies, G. Leichney, H. Knapp, J. Lee, K. Jefferies, Duncan Thompson, N. McDonald, J. Krimmer, Frank Hodgson, R. S. Gibson, T. P. Connolly, Talbot Stanley, A. W. Hale, W. I. Garde, H. R. Dale, E. F. O'Brien, Rogers, A. R. Godsall, A. Lamb, Hewlett, N. Fox, H. Goodrich, Atherton Griffiths, H. Stark, Misses Keene Cullen, Clarice Hooper and K. Knapp.

Fernside still stands at 4-6 Fernside Street, East Toowoomba. It was built about 1876 for John Alexander Boyce, Toowoomba's Clerk of Petty Sessions. Sir Arthur Kennedy, Governor of Queensland from 1877 to 1883, used it as his summer home. Annie married Gerard Boyce, the son of John Boyce, in 1896. She owned Fernside until she died in 1969, aged 100. The low brick house has verandahs on two sides and a garden with a carriage drive. It is on the Queensland Heritage Register. Read about Fernside on Wikipedia.

Fernside from the carriage drive in January 2015, with the front steps, the verandah and the tall old conifers. Photo by Kirstentydings97, shared on Wikimedia Commons under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. (Kirstentydings97, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The article as it was printed in The Toowoomba Chronicle, 25 September 1937. Scan from Trove, National Library of Australia. (Trove, National Library of Australia)