Balaclava Cottage

Located at 458 George Street, South Windsor, New South Wales, ‘Balaclava Cottage’ was the home of Arthur John Berckelman, his wife Mary Ann, nee Bressington and a large family of eleven children from the mid 1880s. The cottage had been constructed about 1883 for Eliza Smith Hall and was initially rented and then purchased from Hall in 1888. Arthur Berckelman was born in Ireland in about 1828 and enlisted in the army at the age of 16 years.

He was involved in the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War in 1854 after which he was later to name his home in South Windsor. After arriving in the colony, Berckelman joined the police force and in 1881 was appointed as gaoler at Windsor Gaol. He died in 1904 aged 74 years and was buried in St Matthew’s Church of England Cemetery, Windsor.

Information above from an article published in the Hawkesbury Gazette, 12 December 2018, written by Michelle Nichols, Hawkesbury Family History Group

After the death of Arthur John Berckelman, the property was sold by his son Adolphus to Isaac Rea in March 1914 who renamed the cottage ‘Ethelville’ according to his obituary published in the Windsor and Richmond Gazette on the 1 July 1921.

The property remained in the same ownership until July 1935 when Mary Rea, widow of Isaac conveyed the house and land to Thomas Fleming Campbell who renamed the house ‘Glen Fruin’ after the battle which took place in Scotland on the 7 February 1603 between the Clan Gregor and its allies and the Clan Colquhoun and its supporters. The Campbells were involved in this battle which was won by Clan Gregor.

In July 1974 the house passed from the estate of the late Ada Campbell, widow of Thomas Fleming Campbell to her daughter Lorna.

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