Cecil (Jim) Bull Biography - Written by Cecil Jnr

A biography of Cecil (Jim) Bull, written Oct 2018 by his son Cecil Jnr

I Cecil James Bull Jnr being the second born child to Cecil James Bull Snr and Margaret Mary Bull (nee Stevens) of Kenthurst. My father was born on the 29th of May 1909 at Paddington, Sydney Hospital, his mother was Catherine McNamara, she was 22 years old. Dad’s registered name was Cecil James McNamara father (ko unknown). Dad was only 6 days old when his mother handed him over to a Mrs Emilia Bull, Mrs Bull had previously given birth to a baby boy a few months earlier the same YR dad was born, his given name was Cecil C Bull he died in infancy. It is not known if Mrs Bull asked dad’s mother to name him on his birth certificate Cecil, to replace the child she previously lost, his stepmother’s name was Emilia and his stepfather George. #CecilJamesBull

Pictured: Cecil James Bull (Snr).

He was raised on the corner of Raymond Street and Church Street Parramatta, the address was no. 1 Church Street Parramatta. He went to Holy Trinity Catholic School Granville, he never had much schooling. He used to wag school most of the time and got paid six pence a week for looking after racehorses, grazing in the area. He also got paid for being a nipper that is looking out for police for locals playing two – up on the streets. He had a wheelbarrow and used it for going around the streets picking up batteries, scrap metal and beer bottles. He told me he got more beer bottles at the local Catholic priest’s residence in Granville than anywhere else in Granville. He used to make a few bob with his billy cart.

He left school at the age of thirteen. His first job was at Arnott’s Biscuits Homebush. On his first day at Arnott’s Biscuits, he rode his horse to Arnott’s on a gravel dirt road. On his arrival some of Arnott’s working girls grabbed him and dropped his pants and initiated him by dipping a certain part of his anatomy in hot chocolate. He didn’t like it so he jumped back on his horse and rode home. He didn’t last one day at his first job.

His second job still only thirteen years old, was at Merrylands Foundary Goodlet and Smith where they made chimney pots and terracotta earthen ware (pots and pipes etc.) The work was too hard for him so he left, still only thirteen years old his third job was at Fairfield Council. He worked on the road gang as a nipper, they called young working boys in councils nippers as they only did light duties such as boiling the billy for the men on the road, feeding the horse and keeping the horse’s chaff bag full and grooming the horse etc., the year was 1923, their was a photo of all the men taken of the road gang in a park in Fairfield, dad was standing in the back row of the group of men and was one of the tallest in the group. In the background was a steam roller and a horse eating his chaff from his nose bag (dad use to put a hat on the horse’s head), we had that photo at home for years, but dad lent it to a person who was also in the photo and never got it back.

In the depression as a young man he jumped on a train (without paying his fare) and went to Lithgow Railway Station, from there dad met up with a few other men at Lithgow railway station and the station master let him and his mate sleep in the waiting room for a few days in the station. The station master’s wife cooked food for them for three days and finally told them they’ve got to go they can’t stay any longer. From there, he and his mates done a bit of work on farms around the Lithgow area, these men were called hobos as they never got paid money as they worked for food. The only money he did get was two shillings from the Lord Mayor of Lithgow’s residence for gardening. Dad and a couple of his mates worked together on a farm and paid off for a horse and cart which they used to travel around areas like Hill end, Sunny Corner, Salafa etc. and panning for gold to survive. Any gold they found they shared and bought food from the camp store in the goldfield areas, mainly flower which they cooked from dampers on their camp oven.

In the mid 1930’s dad applied for a truck driving job at Annangrove Road, Annangrove. When he applied for a c-class license he drove the truck outside the Parramatta Police Station for his license test, the police sergeant refused to get in the truck with him as the truck was filthy and covered in pigs slop. He told dad to do a U-turn and drive up Marsden Street to the corner of St Patrick’s Cathedral and Victoria Road. The police sergeant stood on the road and watched dad drive off and come back and then granted him his license, the year would’ve been around 1934.

Around that time dad got a job on Billy Beard’s pig farm at 151 Annangrove Road, Annangrove, that’s when he first met mum. Mum was in her early twenties and she was a part-time cook who cooked for the men on the farm. After a short time, a romance developed and they were married on the 27th of February, 1936 at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Granville. Dad later became the manager of the farm and they lived there for two years when they moved to their home they bought at 46 Station Street Harris Park in 1938.

Nelson my older brother was born in 1937 when they were living at Annangrove. Dad use to drive Billy Beard’s 1928 international truck on a daily basis to Camperdown Hospital to pick up a load of pigs food (food scraps) and drive back to Beard’s farm. Many a time dad use to drive mum on the way to Camperdown Hospital and drop her off at Leichardt where she would do window shopping and wait for dad to pick her up on their way home. Early in January in 1938, dad was driving home with a load of pig slops from Camperdown on the old northern road near Glenhaven heading towards the round corner Dural when he was surrounded by bush fire, hearing cries for help. A house on the right hand side of the road was surrounded by a fire, the owners of the house had their bags packed and standing on the front of the veranda and shouting out for help. Dad heard their cries and drove the truck through the front fence and up to the veranda where they were standing still surrounded by smoke and fire. Dad put the man and his wife, who was eight months pregnant in the front seat of the truck and threw their bags in the back of their truck which got covered in pig slops, and drove them out of the fire to safety. Dad never told me that story, years later I visited the Castle Hill and hills districts museum and I was talking to one of the curators of the museum and he asked me what my interest was in the museum, I told him my parents came from Annangrove and Kenthurst, he asked me my name and I said Bull, he told me he knew a Jim Bull from Annangrove and told me in 1938 the house he was living in was surrounded by fire, he and his wife were standing on the front veranda and had nowhere to go, a passer-by on the road heard screams for help and drove through the front fence through fire and smoke and rescued them. I told him that was my father.

L-R Cecil James Bull (Snr), Cecil James Bull (Jnr), Margaret Bull (nee Stevens), Nelson Bull.

Written by Jim Bull’s son – Cecil James Bull