Ruby Davy : South Australian Icons

Ruby Claudia Emily Davy

Ruby Claudia Emily Davy was born on the 22^nd of November 1883, in Salisbury. Her father, William Davy was a local shoemaker, and her mother, Louisa, a singer and music teacher. Ruby grew up in a home full of music, not only was her mother an accomplished singer, but her father was an excellent brass instrument player. Their house was full of instruments, and young Ruby was encouraged to play them all.

By the age of 5, Ruby was improvising, and composing on the family piano. By the age of 13, Ruby was teaching 27 students at the Salisbury School of Music. By the age of 20, Ruby had begun studying at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, and also earned an Associate of Music.

 Ruby graduated in 1907, at the age of 24 with a Bachelor of Music, she still taught music in Salisbury, was now also teaching at Allen’s Music shop in Rundle Street, Adelaide.

•        Ruby Davy was the first Australian woman to receive a doctorate in music from The Adelaide University, one of many firsts, which also included:

•  First woman to receive a doctorate in faculty at the University of Adelaide.
•  The first person in Australia to become a Licentiate of the London College of Music (1913).
• First Australian woman to become a fellow of Trinity College of Music, London (1921), the first to be awarded outside England.

Ruby’s outstanding achievements also included earning a Diploma in Elocution from the

London College of Music, and an Honorary Fellowship of the Victorian College of Music (the first person to be awarded this honour outside of England)

Ruby’s life changed dramatically in 1929, first, her mother Louisa died in April, aged 78, and only a month later her father, William died aged 82. Ruby, an only child, fell into a deep depression, which led to a nervous breakdown, and the closing of her music school at Prospect.

 It took four years to recover from the blow of losing her parents, but with support from Pastor John Hewitt, Ruby returned to her first love in 1993, and by 1934 she had returned to performing music in public.

 Ruby soon found herself giving performances on radio, and through 1934 to 1938 found herself touring through Victoria.

In 1939, Ruby toured England and select parts of Europe, Canada and the United States giving lectures and recitals.
In 1941, she founded the Society of Women Musicians of Australia, which she presided over until 1949.

Ruby was described as a frail woman with haunting dark eyes, she usually wore long black dresses and black clothing, probably in mourning for her beloved parents. 

In 1947, Ruby suffered a tragedy she would never recover from. Diagnosed with breast cancer, she was given a full mastectomy, which negatively impacted her playing. Ruby fell into another deep depression and never recovered, she died on the 12^th of July 1949.
 Her body was returned to Adelaide, and she was buried in the West Terrace Cemetery

.

Ruby Davy collection held at the University of Adelaide:
https://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/special/mss/davy/

The Dr Ruby Davy Prize for Composition: https://arts.adelaide.edu.au/scholarships/prizes/ruby_davey_prize_composition.html

Memorabilia for Ruby Davy can be found in the local history room of the Len Beadell Library in Salisbury, South Australia.
 

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2017

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Bibliography. 

1929 'MUSICIAN AND ATHLETE', News (Adelaide, SA: 1923 - 1954), 17 May, p. 15. (HOME EDITION), viewed 26 Sep 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129141051

Joyce Gibberd and Silvia O'Toole, 'Davy, Ruby Claudia (1883–1949)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/davy-ruby-claudia-5918/text10081, published first in hardcopy 1981, accessed online 26 September 2017

1934 'Dr. Ruby Davy's Concert', The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA: 1931 - 1954), 14 March, p. 18. , viewed 26 Sep 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74082657

1949 'DR. RUBY DAVY DEAD', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW: 1842 - 1954), 13 July, p. 3. , viewed 26 Sep 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18122279

1940 'DR. RUBY DAVY', News (Adelaide, SA: 1923 - 1954), 25 July, p. 9. , viewed 26 Sep 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131420359

Trading in Sorrow – Criminal Clairvoyants

Trading in Sorrow – Criminal Clairvoyants 

In a move they didn’t see coming a number of self-proclaimed psychics, clairvoyants, palm readers and other meta-physicists were rounded up by South Australia police, and charged with “Trading in sorrow”

The year was 1917, and Australia was well and truly entrenched in the Great War (WWI). Australian women, often with husbands or sons fighting overseas, were anxious about the fate of their loved ones, and were particularly susceptible to psychic’s who traded upon that vulnerability.
Psychics, claiming to possess the occult powers that could tell their clients the where abouts, or upcoming movements of their loved ones, was a regular occurrence. The newspapers at the time stated that women of the era were “interested in the war, such haphazard guesses (by psychics) were apt to be singularly appropriate.”

 The meaning of this statement is quite clear. The authorities of the time were worried that these self-proclaimed psychics were keeping up to date with war news via the newspapers, and when a client came asking about their significant loved one at war, the psychic would make an educated guess as to where the loved one might be; thus the client would believe the psychic was really getting these messages from spirit, and would return to spend more money…and on the cycle goes.

 The first psychic to face the courts was Madam Fitzsimmons, who was accused of working her charms on a lady named Maude Wilcher.
This psychic had claimed that Maude’s husband was alive and well, and she would see him very soon. She claimed the husband was in Egypt, not France, and fighting among the Turks. She also claimed the couple would have, that another baby.

 Prosecutor Shierlaw laid the information through section 67 of the Police Act 1916. The Act proclaimed that rogues and vagabonds are liable to imprisonment with hard labour, for a period not exceeding three months, such people as pretended to tell fortunes, practice palmistry etc, in order to deceive the public.

 This act was handed down to South Australian War from our English ancestry. It came directly from the English Vagrant Act of 1824 (George IV), which put in place protections against fortune tellers.
In basic terms, the act made it illegal to practice in connection to a craft, means or device beyond physical dexterity, to employ some invisible agency to deceive and impose upon others. Fortune telling could only be sold as an amusement, not as a truthful piece of information.

As it turned out, Maude Wilcher’s husband had already departed, she was a widow, and her visit was part of a small sting operation by the Women’s Police Department. Fitzsimmons was found guilty and fined 10 pounds. (About $1000 in today’s money).

Other psychics found guilty in the trial included Madame Amalia, madam Phyllis, Madam Rosa, Mrs Vear, Madam Mora, Charabella Fisher, Mrs Hamilton, Mrs Glennie and Mrs Loftus – all of whom were find 9 pounds.

 The following psychics all pleaded not guilty, and went to further trial: Madam Luna, Professor Mernox, Madam Illah, Mrs Kennedy, Mrs Barr, Madam Zillah, Miss Melrose, Madam Thelma, and Mrs Duguett. (At this point I do not know the outcomes of their trials, perhaps that will be another blog.

In South Australia, the current laws still take into account fraudulent psychics claims. 

Section 40 Part 8 of the South Australian Police Act (https://www.legislation.sa.gov.au/LZ/C/A/SUMMARY%20OFFENCES%20ACT%201953/CURRENT/1953.55.UN.PDF)

40—Acting as a spiritualist, medium etc with intent to defraud A person who, with intent to defraud, purports to act as a spiritualist or medium, or to exercise powers of telepathy or clairvoyance or other similar powers, is guilty of an offence.

Maximum penalty: $10 000 or imprisonment for 2 years.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller ©2017

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1917 'CLAIRVOYANTS IN COURT.', The Register (Adelaide, SA : 1901 - 1929), 23 June, p. 10. , viewed 18 Sep 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59147540

1917 'FORTUNE TELLING AND CRYSTAL GAZING', Daily Herald (Adelaide, SA : 1910 - 1924), 23 June, p. 6. , viewed 18 Sep 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article105413057

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in Adelaide Part II - How to Talk to the Dead

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in Adelaide Part II - 

How to Talk to the Dead 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a tenacious champion of the spiritualist movement, after first discovering it in 1886. He devoured as many texts about the subject as he could, and became involved in seances and table tipping, as well as frequently visiting psychics.

Conan Doyle lost his first wife, Norma in 1906, and it is believed that the depression he felt after her death, may have triggered him to bury himself further in the occult and spiritualism.
He truly believed that his own son, Kingsley, who died in 1918, had contacted him from beyond the grave, talking through a medium. He stated that Kingsley had also touched him on his head during the séance.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle arrived in Australia at Fremantle on board the R.M.S. Naldera on the 17^th of September 1920. He then, on the same ship, arrived in, Outer Harbour, Adelaide on Tuesday the 21^st of September, before making his way to Gibson’s Grand Central Hotel, where he based himself for the duration of his time in Adelaide.

Conan Doyle’s tour of Australia, titles “Death and the Hereafter” began in Adelaide: 

On Saturday the 25^th of September, Conan Doyle delivered his first lecture in the Adelaide Town Hall, titled “The Human Argument”, to an estimated audience of 2000 people. It was noted by journalists of the time that many in the audience were well educated business people of Adelaide.
 During this talk, Conan Doyle outlined what led him to his belief in spiritualism, and what he called “the hard facts” about the movement. He also detailed the history of spiritualism around the world up until that point.

On Monday the 27^th of September 1920, Conan Doyle delivered his second speech, this time titled “The Religious Argument”. During this lecture Conan Doyle explained that spiritualism was not separate from the Churches beliefs, but that they were intertwined, and that one proves the other.[1]

On Tuesday the 28^th, Conan Doyle delivered the final lecture to Adelaide audiences, titled “Pictures of Psychic Phenomena”. During this lecture, Conan Doyle had many of his photos that were taking during seances, projected onto a screen for the audience. Within the photos were alleged apparition photos of his son Kingsley, and of mediums producing “ecto-plasm”.[2]

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle then took his tour around Australia and New Zealand to sold out venues. 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle went on to write twenty books about spiritualism, they are:

The New Revelation (1918),

Life After Death (1918),

The Vital Message (1919),

Spiritualism and Rationalism (1920),

The Wanderings of a Spiritualist (1921),

The Coming of the Fairies (1922),

The Case for Spirit Photography (1922),

Our American Adventure (1923),

Our Second American Adventure (1924),

Spiritualist's Reader (1924),

Memories and Adventures (1924),

The Early Christian Church and Modern Spiritualism (1925),

The Land of Mist (1926, fiction),

The History of Spiritualism, in two volumes (1926),

Pheneas Speaks. Direct Spirit Communication in the Family Circle (1927),

Our African Winter (1929), The Edge of the Unknown (1930).

A small plaque on the Corner of Rundle Street and Pulteney Street (near Hungry Jacks), Adelaide, Australia unveiled in 1995 marks his stay in the City of Churches.

 

 

© 2017 - Allen Tiller = The Haunts of Adelaide: History, Mystery and the Paranormal

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[1] 1920 'THE RELIGIOUS ARGUMENT', The Northern Champion (Taree, NSW : 1913 - 1954), 27 November, p. 8. , viewed 15 Jul 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article158367509

[2] 1920 'THE CONAN DOYLE LECTURES', The Register (Adelaide, SA : 1901 - 1929), 24 September, p. 8. , viewed 15 Jul 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article57921970