By Louise Bathersby
Smack bang in the middle of a cold Stanthorpe winter, on 7 August 1938, Michael Conquest Bathersby was born. Mike was the middle child and second son of five children born to Jack and Grace Bathersby. A sibling to Carmel, John, Sue, and Anne. “Conquest” being Mike’s mother, Grace’s, maiden name, was a middle name he hated as a child, but grew to love and be so proud of. In the 1930s, the Bathersby family lived at the top of Folkestone Street, Stanthorpe, across the road from their cousins, the Hiltons, and lifelong friends, the Reeves family, and across the railway line from their cousins, the Danahers.
For Jack and Grace, the values of truth and honesty and the practice of their Catholic Faith, especially attendance at Mass, were essential. This may sound strange when we are talking about an illegal SP Bookmaker and his wife, but they loved their Catholic Faith, and truth and honesty is what mattered most in life.
The family lived a rather humble and modest lifestyle, where playing around the creek and playing cricket on the gravel road was the order of the day. Cricket was played in Trennant’s paddock, also in front of the Danaher’s house, or outside Maddens Mill on the way to the Red Bridge. But the greatest love for the kids was the Red Bridge and Quart Pot Creek, where they would swim or catch carp or slitheries in the pool at the foot of the Bridge.
Mike went to primary school at St Joseph’s and was an altar boy, along with his brother, John, and older cousins.
But perhaps one of the high points of Mike’s childhood was when he joined the Royn Gang, a gang set up by his older cousin, Peter Hilton, who wrote the rules which demanded that they say their prayers each day and above all, obey their parents!
At the age of 14, Mike went to Boarding School in Brisbane at Nudgee College, where he completed Senior in 1956 and was College Vice-Captain that year. Mike held the friendships and comradery of his Nudgee Alumni close to his heart. At Nudgee, Mike was strong academically and good at debating and public speaking. Perhaps not surprisingly, at the Annual Oratory Contest in his Senior year, Mike spoke on “The Church and Politics”. He was a good footballer, playing in the forwards for Nudgee’s First XV in Sub-Senior and, due to injury, he played in the Seconds in Senior.
After Senior, Mike spent 12 months in the seminary at Banyo, before deciding it wasn’t for him and left to work for the Queensland Housing Commission in Brisbane. Whilst working for the Housing Commission, in April 1958, Mike came across the beautiful Mary King. Mary remembers being smitten by this tall, good-looking fellow, with a crew cut, coming into work. Being an Ashgrove girl, Mike would visit Mary and have dinner with her family at their home on Stewart Road and then walk, late at night, the 8km home to Dutton Park, taking a shortcut through Musgrave Park. It must have been love! In fact, it was true love, and they married three years later at St Finnbar’s Church, Ashgrove, on the 3rd of April 1961. Mike and Mary enjoyed 61 years of married life.
In 1963, with one and two-thirds children, that being Damian as a young baby and Mary pregnant with Brendan at the time, Mike and Mary moved from the city life they knew to country life in Stanthorpe. As an Articled Law Clerk, times were tough. To start with, they lived with Jack and Grace, who helped them a lot, and a short time later bought the Hilton house on Short Street. This home is where the seven Bathersby children: Damian, Brendan, Christopher, Mary-Anne, Dominic, Patricia and myself, were all raised, and it remains our family home today.
As an Article Clerk, working for local Stanthorpe solicitor, Neil Sullivan, with a young family and at the same time doing his studies in Law, Mike would wave goodbye to the family in the morning and head off to work, down the back steps, walking around the house, up the front steps and onto the front veranda, where he would lock himself away studying for the day. Mike was admitted as a Solicitor in 1968 and went into partnership with Neil Sullivan that same year, forming the firm, Neil Sullivan & Bathersby. Neil’s son, Steve, later joined the firm and he and Mike were partners until Mike’s retirement in 2006. Mike practised Law for 38 years.
Outside of the professional help Mike gave to his clients, he was an active member of the St Joseph’s church and the local community here in Stanthorpe. He was a member of the St Joseph’s Parish Council and P&F for many years, served as a member of the Stanthorpe Lions Club for 48 years, was a member, and the incumbent Treasurer, of the St. Vincent de Paul Stanthorpe Conference, an elected councillor of the Stanthorpe Shire Council serving two terms, chaired the Salvation Army’s Red Shield Appeal for many years and was a patron and committee member of local organisations too numerous to mention individually.
For a short time, Mike flirted with politics and stood as the ALP Candidate for Warwick and Maranoa in three elections. It takes a brave man to stand for the ALP in what is probably regarded as the National Party’s safest seat in Queensland and Australia. But that didn’t stop him! Although for Mary and some family members, who were sent out campaigning, we all breathed a sigh of relief when he gave up his political ambitions!
Mike had a great circle of friends from all different stages and areas of his life that he loved to keep in contact with. He loved a game of poker and was a terrible punter, but despite this, the annual trip to the Grafton Races with close friends, Peter Reeves, Keith Kay, Maurie Hines, Dick Mahoney and Peter Hilton, was an occasion that he always looked forward to.
My siblings and I were truly blessed with wonderful parents. We as a family will miss Dad greatly, but we are rightly proud of the great life he lived and the people he helped along the way. Dad fought the good fight and has now finished the race.
May Mike now rest in peace forever.
