Geelong Lawyers' Collection: Vautin Hilary AndrewsVautin Andrews was a member of an early
Geelong family. His paternal
grandfather, Charles Andrews, was one of 203 migrants from United Kingdom on the
barque ‘Aurora’ which left Plymouth on 17th August 1848 and
arrived at Point Henry, Corio Bay on 7th December that year.
His maternal grandfather J.W.Higgans arrived at Point Henry on the ship,
‘Labuan’ just over two months later, the 13th February 1849.
Higgans later became chairman of the Koh-i-nor Gold mining Company at
Ballarat. These were still early
days in the settlement. There were 257 houses and a population of 1,307, (782 males
and 588 females) in Geelong in 1848. Probably
a significant number were transient as Geelong was the setting off point for the
western portion of Port Phillip District. A
pencil and watercolour sketch of Geelong town in 1847 by F.G. Simkinson de
Wesselow held by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery shows houses in several
clusters hugging the foreshore of Corio Bay, most of them in the vicinity of
what has become known as the Waterfront between Moorabool and Yarra streets. Charles Andrews was a tradesman,
a bricklayer and rangesetter. There
were opportunities for his trade. Cooking
stoves were imported from England and his skills were needed to set them in
place. In time he became an
inventor of an improved stove and of a tyring furnace used for heating iron
tyres for fitting on cartwheels. His stoves were the first freestanding stoves
and therefore popular. His tyre furnace assisted coach and cart builders.
After Charles’ death in 1910 Vautin’s father, Arthur Tremayne
Andrews and uncle, Joseph, established a foundry in Spring Street Geelong.
The business remained there until 1955.
A.T. Andrews was more than a manufacturer of stoves.
He had attended Melbourne University, graduating as Master of
Engineering, was the Borough surveyor at Geelong West municipality and a member
of a surveyors partnership. In time
the foundry took all his attention. As his father had done, Vautin
attended Geelong College. His
father died in 1932, a time of severe economic depression, when many workers
were dismissed and businesses were failing.
In Victoria unemployment reached its highest number in the second quarter
of 1932 when the official figures of workers unemployed was 27.7 per cent and
actual figures nearer to 38 per cent. Vautin
was able to obtain Articles of Clerkship with the Geelong firm of Whyte Just and
Moore. He was following a Geelong
tradition by qualifying as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of
Victoria by serving Articles and studying the prescribed university subjects by
correspondence. Notes were received
from the Law Faculty of Melbourne University and study took place after a
day’s work as an articled clerk. According
to his law partner, John Backhouse, who describes him as an intellectual, Vautin
Andrews regretted he was not able to attend full time at a university and obtain
a degree. In 1939 he set up his own practice in part of his family’s Non-Pariel Stove Company premises at 47 Gheringhap Street Geelong. His wife, Constance Ruth Lavers, had worked with him at Whyte Just and Moore as the secretary of one of the partners, Frank Just. He adopted their office system in his practice. He always continued a good relationship with the firm. He built up a practice based on property, business, probate and finance matters, drawing mainly from Geelong middle class. With accountant, R. G. Farrow, he helped to establish a substantial number of Co-Operative Housing Societies, a scheme whereby the members of the societies borrowed money from banks for housing and any profit after all loans were repaid and the society terminated was distributed between the members. Subject to conditions imposed by legislation, the societies’ borrowings were backed by government guarantee. The scheme, emerging after the end of the Second World War, was designed to provide housing finance at a reasonable rate. Members took little interest in the societies except for repayment and generally left responsibility to the managers, in these instances, R.G. Farrow. Andrews acted for the societies as lenders and, one would suppose, often also for the members as borrowers and purchasers of houses. Because Geelong’s population grew from 41,000 in 1945 to 115,000 by 1971, the availability of such housing finance after the Second World War was of considerable benefit to new arrivals in Geelong following the establishment there of new industries and expansion of existing ones. Andrews had expanded his office space after the war by acquiring an adjoining shop to make an office of 4 rooms. In 1952 he took on a partner, John Backhouse*, a former radio navigator in the RAAF, and by then a recently admitted solicitor. This step was a good one for both men. Vautin Andrews gained a partner who, with considerable flair, legal knowledge and forensic skill, developed substantial common law and matrimonial law areas of practice. As was fairly common among Geelong solicitors who achieved qualifications by being articled to solicitors who, themselves, did not appear in court, Vautin Andrews had not developed these areas of practice. John Backhouse gained a partner who treated him generously in his agreement to enter the practice and adopted an avuncular approach to his wellbeing and professional life. Respecting his integrity and business acumen Vautin Andrews’s partner was prepared to leave to him most of the business side of the practice, a type of arrangement which commonly leads to harmony in legal partnerships as it did in this case. Andrews and Backhouse attracted more business and moved from 47 Gheringhap Street Geelong to the Hibernian Society Building 76 Ryrie Street and with further growth to premises on the corner of Myers and Fenwick Streets in 1973. Apart from the growth in the litigation areas the property section had grown after Vautin Andrews and R.G. Farrow established the Pyramid Permanent Building Society in 1959. The concept of establishing the Society and providing more money for the housing needs in Geelong arose from discussions between Farrow and Andrews at Torquay where both families had a holiday home. As a young man Farrow had been employed by Hendy Leary and Co, a very old Geelong business. Managing the Geelong Permanent Building Society, established in 1867 was part of that business. Building Societies began in England in about 1775. They were an aspect of John Wesley’s evangelical revival movement where compassion for the wretched was allied to the principle of mutual self-help. Members of Building Societies all agreed to put in regular weekly or fortnightly contributions. When sufficient funds were so raised the society bought land and built houses for the members with priority of ownership determined by ballot. When all were housed the society terminated. By the 1836 Building Societies Act it became legally possible for such societies to change from terminating ones to become permanent building societies and to accept funds for investment. Members would then receive dividends. Farrow and Andrews held a meeting on 7/9/1959 with 7 others. They were financiers, a builder and a supplier of building materials Those present at the meeting agreed to establish a permanent building society. The new society was registered under the Friendly Societies Act on 13/10/1959. Vautin Andrews had drawn up proposed rules, suggested the name and was elected chairman. Bearing in mind the origin of building societies it is interesting to note that Farrow and other directors attended Wesley Church in Yarra Street Geelong. Although the Geelong Permanent Building Society had survived the 1890s depression, Vautin Andrews was well aware many financial institutions had not. Under his chairmanship there was a cautious approach to lending. By 1963, new legislation made it possible for the society to accept deposits in a way similar to banking operation. Later the Commonwealth Parliament set up the Australian Mortgage Insurance Corporation Ltd where insurance could be taken out against the possibility of borrowers failing to pay back the loan. When he thought the economic conditions in 1974/75 were uncertain Andrews made sure the total amount normally lent by the society was reduced and reserves enlarged. The society grew rapidly and became a substantial lender in Geelong. Between 1969 and 1976 its assets grew from $1.2m to$20.37m. Acting for the Pyramid Building Society became a significant part of Andrews and Backhouse legal practice but Vautin Andrews warned his partners that they should never let it exceed more than 50% of the work. After his death the society crashed in 1990 just as similar institutions had crashed the 1890s. In 1971 Vautin’s son Kenneth
Tremayne Andrews was admitted as a partner, an event giving pride and pleasure
to his father. John Backhouse characterises Vautin Andrews as a person with a great love of the law, describing how he would take home a bagful of old law conveyancing deeds, cheerfully enjoying the work of detailed examination to see if all legal requirements of a good title under the Property Law Act had been met. If he found any weakness in the chain of title he would insist that the vendor remedy that defect, sometimes to the irritation of less careful conveyancers. He served a term as president of the Geelong Law Association. Following the traditions of earlier Geelong lawyers Vautin Andrews took an active interest in public affairs. In religion, his father and other earlier men of the Andrews family had been British (or Christian) Israelites. This was a sect which claimed that the British and American people were the 10 lost tribes of Israel. Adherents wore their hair and beards untrimmed, addressed each other as “thee and thou’ and kept the Jewish Sabbath. They sought converts by public preaching, convinced that by a literal fulfilment of Biblical prophesies Anglo people were to rule the world in preparation for the Millennium when Christ will come again. They held services at premises in Spring Street. Because of their flowing beards and public speaking they were subject to derision and abuse. When numbers in Geelong diminished Vautin’s father attended meetings in Melbourne. He was named after two members his father met there. There was some dietary restrictions in the household because of his father’s religion. Shellfish or pig meat such as bacon or pork never featured. Vautin’s mother was not
a member of the Christian Israelite sect. She
was a parishioner of the nearby St Paul’s Anglican church. Vautin Andrews attended that church and became a convinced
Anglican. He told his law partner,
also an Anglican and the son of an Anglican priest, that if unification of
Christian churches meant he could no longer be an Anglican, he would have
nothing to do with it. He served
his parish church, St Paul’s, Latrobe Terrace Geelong in varying capacities
over many years; acted as the Vicar’s Warden and a member of the vestry for 39
years and secretary for 17 years. In a recorded interview in 1974 Vautin Andrews nominated two men who had a strong influence on him in his formative years. They were Francis Rolland (1878-1965), his headmaster at Geelong College, where he attended almost all of his schooling and Joseph J. Booth (1886-1965) vicar of St Paul’s Geelong, 1924-32, Coadjutor Bishop of Melbourne and Bishop of Geelong 1932-41 and Archbishop of Melbourne 1942-1956. Both had served as chaplain to soldiers of the A.I.F in the frontline in France during the worst of the fighting in the First World War. In their careers both took a practical approach to their duties and both were natural leaders. Apex is a service club established in Geelong during the Depression of the 1930s. It spread Australia wide. Apart from giving service to others its members shared fellowship and had the opportunity for self-improvement from debating instructions, practice and competitions. Vautin Andrews joined the club and became a prominent leader of it. Later on he became an active member of Rotary. From 1942 he was a member of the Geelong and District Ambulance Society and from 1964 its president. He was also president of the Ambulance Services’ Association of Victoria. His interests were centred on Geelong. A keen supporter of the Geelong Football Club he was delighted when his son Gareth became a regular member of the team. He was a member of the Council of the Hermitage Anglican School in Geelong for 23 years, a member of the Old Geelong Collegians and its vice president from 1966 to1969, chairman of Geelong Regional Library, a politically active local member of the Liberal Party. Vautin Andrews’ greatest public contribution to Geelong was as a councillor of Geelong City Council. Elected to the Villamanta Ward in 1945 he remained a councillor until his death in 1976. His debating skills enlivened council meetings. He was on numerous committees and sub-committees and represented Geelong City on the important Regional Planning Authority from its commencement in 1969. Mayor of Geelong for two terms in 1959 and 1960 he did his best to promote Geelong at every opportunity. He walked about his ward, rather than use a motor vehicle so that he could see if any area needed Council’s attention. He took pride in arranging for a derelict area at the corner of Little Myers Street and Latrobe Terrace, where trains emerged from a tunnel, to be converted into a garden. In manner he was pleasant but formal and enjoyed a friendly joke. He admired things English. He always dressed in a dark suit and never missed wearing a flower in the buttonhole. In this he followed his father who had always worn a flower in his bottonhole. John Backhouse tells the story of Vautin walking down a Geelong street with a visiting Supreme Court judge, the judge in a fairly modest clothing and Vautin in his well presented suit and rosebud in the buttonhole so that, to the casual observer, Andrews appeared to be the judge and the judge the provincial solicitor. His contributions to Geelong citizens’ welfare were recognised by an award of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.). He had a very happy marriage and family life. Vautin Andrews’ identification with and pride in Geelong is not surprising when one considers his family’s association with the city from early days of its settlement. The author Alan Scott in his book ‘ Men Money and Houses’ sums him up “ What in a lesser man would have been small town parochialism was transmuted by Andrews into civic pride of a practical type. If someone had the good fortune to be born in Geelong, or had the common sense to remedy the defect of being born elsewhere by moving to Geelong, Andrews was his to command.” Vautin Andrews’ death at 61
came as a shock to many Geelong citizens. He
seemed to be an integral part of the fabric of Geelong.
Apart from those having direct dealings with him as solicitor, councillor
and in his public activities many Geelong citizens felt they knew him as his
name and, especially when he was mayor, his photograph was often in the local
newspaper. He was survived by his
two sisters, his wife, three sons and a daughter. Where
the symbol * appears it means that there is or is likely to be a separate
archive box in the Geelong Lawyers Collection relating to that person. References: Shipping
Arrivals and Departures Victorian Ports
M.A.Syme Roebuck 1984 Copyright
Vivian Hill 2055 Portarlington Rd Drysdale 3222
August 2001
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