Merric

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William Merric, born 24 July, 1888 and died 9 September 1959. He was known for most of his life by his middle name Merric.

He married 12 October, 1915, Doris Lucy Bloomfield, daughter of Lieutenant Thomas Bunbury Gough, RN who commaded HMS Cerberus, at one time the sole defence of Port Phillip Bay and Evelyn Rigg newspaper publisher and penal reformer. Doris died 12/13 June, 1960 (sometime during the night).

Merric and Doris's children were:

  1. Lucy Gough
  2. Arthur Merric Bloomfield
  3. Guy Martin a'Beckett (my father)
  4. David Fielding Gough
  5. Mary Elizabeth a'Beckett
Educated at Haileybury in Brighton and then at Dookie Agricultural College, Arthur and Minnie bought a dairy farm of 143 acres at Yarra Glen, about 30 miles from Melbourne with the idea that Merric could work it but Merric decided that farming was not for him and left Dookie in 1907. He then enrolled in 1909 at St John's Theological College in St. Kilda to pursue a religious vocation but this also did not last and 1910 he was back at Tralee.

Merric

Merric Boyd in his pottery at Open Country in 1914

doris

Doris Boyd at Open Country c. 1920

At 22 years old he settled on a vocation as a potter and modeller of clay.

He served with the Australian forces in the War of 1914-18, enlisting in the Australian Flying Corps on 2` May, 1917 and embarked on 28 August. At this point he was leaving a wife and his twelve month old first child, Lucy behind. He was also leaving behind his studio pottery in Murrumbeena where he produced both sculpture and pottery (he is known as the 'Father of Studio Pottery' in Australia).

Merric was late to join in the war due to his pacifist views. His wife Doris and mother-in-law Evelyn Gough were committed Christian Scientists and were pacifists. When Merric enlisted, he joined the newly formed Australian Flying Corps, but spent 1918 in routine tasks in England, and was discharged without having been in action.

While in London he managed to study pottery at Wedgwood Potteries at Stoke-on-Trent in one of the post-war rehabilitation schemes for servicemen where he acquired new ideas and techniques in ceramics and on the voyage home in 1919 he gave pottery classes to fellow soldiers on HMAT Euripides.

Merric's parents built a house next to his own 'Open Country' in Wahroongaa Crescent, Murrumbeena. His mother-in-law also came to Murrumbeena and stayed in 'Granny Gough's Cottage' built for her in the garden.

For more information on Merric:
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/jpcaine/

For more information on Doris:
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/scai1/dorisboyd/