An event of note and one that had a significant impact on his future occurred in 1916.
On February 5, Hargrave married 19-year-old Doris Eileen Ross.
Doris was born in Brisbane and was the daughter of May I. Kay and Alexander Ross, a soap maker.
The Reverend Richard Twitchell Matthews, the Vicar of Suva, solemnised the marriage in the Holy Trinity church.
The records list the two witnesses to the union as Charles F and Alexander Ross.
When World War I broke out, Hargrave volunteered for active service by enlisting as one of the twenty men of the 2nd Fiji Reinforcement on June 27, 1917.
The group left Suva on July 13, 1917, sailing via Canada, and arrived in England on August 10.
He enlisted in the 3rd King’s Royal Rifle Corps on August 12 as rifleman R40207 and served on the Western Front in France.
Most of the young soldiers in the unit, including Hargrave, were gassed during the war.
He was repatriated on 16 May 1919, arriving in Auckland per Prinzessin on 30 May.
Hargrave was discharged from the army on July 26 and returned to Sydney.
However, his doctor, who thought the salubrious climate of the islands would help him heal, ordered him to Suva.
Hargrave returned to Suva in 1920, and because his shop near the Triangle was not available, he found a new place further along Victoria Pde (34 Victoria Pde), opposite the Fire Station.
The Garrick Estate owned the building that housed the shop.
The business also had a new telephone number — 347.
The advertisements in The Fiji Times of the 1920s placed the location of his shop between two popular Suva hotels, Mac’s (McDonald’s Hotel) and The Club.
Hargrave also went into partnership with Charles Davidson who had won many accolades at the Glasgow College of Hairdressing.
While things were looking up on the business front, his personal life was in crisis, and he returned to Sydney in November 1924. Hargrave had grown increasingly worried about his health, and domestic affairs. His marriage had been falling apart, and the Divorce Court later annulled it.
The records show that his wife, Doris Eileen Rose was adjudged to be the guilty party.
Hargrave fell into a severe bout of depression.
It is possible that he had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after coming back from the war.
The Fiji Times of Saturday, November 1, 1924, announced that Hargrave had left Fiji on the vessel Suva for Sydney that morning on vacation.
It said that he had been “suffering from a nervous breakdown that required some rest from business.” The newspaper hoped “to see ‘Joe’ return to Suva quite recovered and full of his old geniality.”
Unfortunately, that was not to be. David Edward Limburg found Vivian Sidney Hargrave with a gunshot wound to his head in the bushes near Forty Baskets Beach, Manly on January 25, 1925. Hargrave was only 35.
The City Coroner Mr J Jamieson declared the cause of death to be suicide. He said that it seemed the body had been lying in the scrub for several days.
Hargrave had been reported missing from his Wood Street home in Manly since January 20.
His father revealed that he had attempted to take his life once previously, in Suva in October 1924.
However, he added that his son looked well upon his return to Sydney and that there was no indication that he would try to retake his life.
The newspapers in Fiji and Australia carried news of his tragic death, including the Sydney-based Labor Daily that ran a story headlined “Barber’s Sad End” in its Thursday, February 12 issue.
The Fiji Times of Tuesday, January 27, 1925, reported the general shock and regret felt by the residents of Suva upon hearing the news of the tragedy.
In an obituary of Hargrave, The Fiji Times of Thursday, January 29, spoke of him as a “thoughtful, studious man who read a good deal.” The writer also said that he was very fond of swimming and “his invariable courtesy made him many friends.”
Hargrave keenly took part in civic affairs and was registered as a voter in 1913 and 1914.
He was also an active member of the Fiji Society and the Freemasons fraternity.
He became a member of the Lodge of Fiji in 1920 and an Officer of the Lodge in 1921, a position he remained in until November 1924.
His name appears in the minute book of the Lodge of Fiji for the last time in February 1925 when the Master at that time asked everyone present to “join in a hymn then silence while suitable music was played by the organist in memory of our deceased friend and Brother, Vincent Sidney Hargrave.”
Although the Master misquoted his name, the grief felt by the fraternity over Hargrave’s untimely passing was real.
The Fiji Times also expressed its deepest sympathy for Charlie Davidson, Hargrave’s business partner, who was “prostrated by
the suddenness of the message.”
He took time out to heal but eventually had to attend to the business.
In a notice in The Fiji Times of Wednesday, March 25, 1925, Davidson announced that he had secured the services of Mr Brewster “a fi rst-class hairdresser” and “late manager of Tattersall’s Toilet Club, Sydney” and that they were in a position “to give their customers a quick and efficient service.”
Unfortunately, it seems that even in death misfortune somehow found Hargrave.
At 3am on March 3, 1931, a fire started in the shop quickly threatening to spread to the neighbouring establishments.
The shops in the block stretching from Gordon Street to Pratt Street were old and wooden and hence vulnerable to fire.
It was fortunate that the fire station was just opposite the building housing the shop and according to the offi cer-incharge, Mr J Mote, “a 200 feet delivery hose was run out and connected with the hydrant opposite the fire.”
The firemen fought hard in the blowing gale and heavy rain and brought the blaze under control within 15 minutes.
They managed to stop the fire from spreading to the other shops, but unfortunately, could not save “Hargrave.”
The Fiji Times of March 3 announced that FE Riemenschneider would auction “the building of Hargrave and Co. as it now stands” on Thursday, March 5.
Two days later, the newspaper reported, “after some competition the building was knocked down to an Indian named Sanusahai
for £22/10/-” and that “the condition of the sale is that the material be removed within 14 days.”
The next day, Davidson put out an ad in The Fiji Times announcing that “Hargrave” had moved temporarily to the McDonald’s Hotel
building, next to Millington’s and that it was “business as usual.”
He continued the business of “Hargrave & Coy” well into the 1930s in memory of his friend.
- Dr Anurag Subramani has taught English Literature, History and Creative Writing at USP. He is currently an independent researcher and writer working on “A People’s History Project”. The author would like to thank the staff of the National Archives of Fiji Library and the Fiji Museum Library as well as Christine Liava’a for their assistance.Please email the author on anuragsub121@
gmail.com for feedback.
