Agnes Breuer was born in 1913, the daughter of a naturalised German father and an English–Australian mother. Her parents had married in Victoria in 1901, but the family moved north and Agnes, the only daughter after two sons, was born in Brisbane. In 1924, the family moved from Brisbane to Townsville, where her father, Adolf, an electrical engineer, took up a position as a teacher at the Townsville Technical College. Agnes was well educated and bright, and is remembered by her family as strong and stubborn; in the early 1930s, when she met her future husband, William Lum Mow, she was a lean, blonde teenager, a young woman with a talent for dancing and fond of dressing herself in the fashions of the day.[22]
William Lum Mow had arrived in Townsville in 1921 under the name of Lum Wie.[23] He had come to Australia on a Chinese student passport to live with his merchant father and attend school.[24] He was fifteen years old at the time and the eldest of four sons. In the following years, William attended Townsville’s public school and the local Christian Brothers College. His school reports noted that he was a good student, his head teacher commenting in 1924 that he ‘is really a splendid scholar; clean in his dress, thoroughly well behaved, and good at his work’.[25] In 1925, William enrolled in night courses at the technical college (where Adolf Breuer taught) and about the same time took over control of the family business when his ailing father returned to China for medical treatment. The family business, a successful fruit merchants and general importers in Stokes Street, Townsville, was established by William’s father. It was one of about 50–60 Chinese stores in the town during the 1920s.[26]
Courtesy: Liz McNamee
At the age of twenty-two, William returned to China for nine months—from February to November 1928—and there he married a woman of his family’s choosing, Li Yunying. His new wife remained in China and lived as a member of the Lum family in their home.[27] It seems that William disregarded this marriage after he arrived back in Australia, as he returned to the Australian life he was growing increasingly accustomed to. His father remained in China, and William had control of the family business and care of his younger brothers: Norman, who came to Townsville in 1924, and Thomas, who arrived in 1930.
It is not clear exactly when William and Agnes began their relationship. An annotation in William’s hand on the back of a photograph of himself, given to Agnes as a token, reads ‘To Miss Agness [sic], Remembrance of Happy Days’ and is dated 8 August 1931. Certainly, by late 1931, Agnes and William were planning to be married and William was also beginning to make arrangements for someone to manage the store while he returned to China for ‘personal and business reasons’ in early 1932—honeymoon plans, perhaps. Photos taken about this time (it seems William was a keen amateur photographer) show the couple carefree and relaxed, playing tennis, picnicking with friends in the countryside, posing in the office at the back of the family store—a young couple clearly much in love.
Courtesy: Liz McNamee
[22] Sources for the family of Agnes Breuer include the remaining papers and photographs belonging to Agnes Breuer held by her family (hereafter Agnes Breuer Papers); other information supplied by the Breuer family; and NAA, A435, 1946/4/3678, and A435, 1947/4/3233.
[23] See NAA, A433, 1942/2/3297. This large Department of the Interior file documents William Lum Mow’s time in Australia between 1921 and 1932, as well as later correspondence between Agnes Breuer and the Australian Government. Much of the biographical information about William Lum Mow in this article comes from this file, together with information supplied by Lum Mow family members.
[24] On the admittance of Chinese students to Australia on exemption, see Yarwood, A. T. 1967, Asian Migration to Australia: The background to exclusion 1896–1923, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, especially Chapter 6; Palfreeman, A. C. 1967, The Administration of the White Australia Policy, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, especially Chapter 4.
[25] School report on Lum Wie by E. J. Moorhouse, Head Teacher, Central State School, Townsville, 18 March 1924, NAA, A433, 1942/2/3297.
[26] Harvey, Thomas 2001, Missing persons: the Chinese in Townsville, 1864–1940, BSS Honours, James Cook University, pp. 80, 83. In 1929, Lum Mow was the sole proprietor of his business, employing four staff, and the turnover of the business was valued at £15,000 per annum; Minute paper, Sub-Collector of Customs, Townsville to Collector of Customs, Brisbane, 15 March 1929, NAA, A433, 1949/2/7501.
[27] NAA, J2773, 172/1928; Telegraph, 4 October 1932.