#402, Eva Agnes BRUTNALL

EVA AGNES BRUTNALL
1915 to 2009

Mother of three, grandmother of eight and great grandmother of eleven, Eva ( Nana) was born on 26 March 1915 . Her home address was given as 9 Manners Road, Leicester, Leicestershire. Her parents moved to Queensland in 1924 leaving her in the care of her maternal grandmother, Agnes Sawyer, until her eventual move to Queensland to be reunited with her parents in about 1929.At some stage she was employed as an untrained nurse.
Her father, Roland James Brutnall, born 10 October 1889 died 17 August 1978, was a private in the Royal Field Artillery during WW1 and in Australia his occupation was given as “timber selector”. He married Marie Agnes Fewell (born 1893, died 1989 aged 96) on 2 June 1914.
Eva’s brother: Harry Roland Brutnall
Eva married Sterling Neville Cobbold DSC RN RAN in 1939.
Their children:
Neville Townshend Cobbold born 1939
Michael Rowland Cobbold born 1940
Primrose Ann Cobbold born 1944
She lived all her married life in Brisbane as a wife and mother and was proud to list her occupation as “ home duties”. Her main interests in life were home, garden and family.
She endured two years in Brisbane with two very young children during WW2 when her husband, who, after volunteering for the Naval Reserve a few days after war was declared,was posted to Darwin some 3,500 Km away. Heavy government censoroship
at the time concealed the full devestation of the numerous Japanese air raids on Darwin resulting in heavy military and civilian casualties.She was on her own with the two children living with the widespread belief of a possible Japanese military invasion.
Following the death of her husband on 18 August 1975, she spent fifteen years in the Forest Place Retirement Village in Brisbane. At the present time she resides in a Brisbane nursing home.

Neville Cobbold 2008

Eva Agnes Brutnall died peacefully on 14th January 2009