I used to feel stupid citing Mr Mann as the author of the early history of Mt Eliza. The author of the heritage study detailed in my REWRITING HISTORY journal probably felt the same and neatly sidestepped the issue thus:

Geologist A.E. Kitson located a granite quarry at Mount Martha and another at Mount Eliza in his geological survey of 1900. Neither of these quarries appears to have been worked extensively, although a Mount Eliza historian suggested that the granite footings of St James the Less Church of England, were found at Mount Eliza. Mount Eliza granite was also said to have been used to construct the bridge over Kackeraboite Creek in 1861 and the Mount Eliza Store built by James Bradbury.

As there is not a street named after John G.Mann's residence, "Harbury", and the report of the fire only vaguely describes its location, I was searching for an advertisement which might provide a more specific location. This advertisement did not do so but shows that John's second given name was not George as I had assumed but GILBERT. It also seems to indicate that the Sir Frederick Wollaston mentioned in relation to the location of another old residence was actually Sir Frederick Wallaston MANN.

JOHN GILBERT MANN late of "Harbury" Frankston In the State of Victoria, Gentleman, deceased. AFTER fourteen clear days SIR FREDERICK WOLLASTON MANN of "Motstone" Walsh Street, South Yarra, in the said State,Knight, the Executor appointed by deceased's Will dated the Twenty-first day of November, One thousand nine hundred and fifty-one will APPLY to the Supreme Court for a GRANT of PROBATE of the said Will. (P.8, The Age, 4-12-1952.)

MANN. — On November 27. In hospital, John Gilbert Mann, of Harbury. Frankston, beloved brother of Frederick Wollaston Mann, of Melbourne, and Charles Russell Mann, of West Australia - Privately cremated.
(P.17, The Age, 29-11-1952.)

MORE ABOUT "MR MANN'S" BROTHER WHO SHARED HIS LOVE OF NATURE.

Mann, Sir Frederick Wollaston (1869–1958)

by Elise B. Histed

This article was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, (MUP), 1986

Sir Frederick Wollaston Mann (1869-1958), chief justice, was born on 2 May 1869 at Mount Gambier, South Australia, son of Gilbert Hill Cheke Mann, chief telegraphist, and his wife Sophia Charlotte, daughter of Rev. John Ramsden Wollaston. Edward Mann was his younger brother. After attending Christ Church Grammar School and the state school at Mount Gambier, Mann studied at home before moving to Melbourne in 1887. That year he worked as a tally clerk and also matriculated to pursue degrees in arts and law at the University of Melbourne. While at the university he worked as a clerk in the Crown Law Department. He graduated B.A. in 1894, M.A., LL.B. in 1896 and LL.M. in 1898 but, although admitted to the Bar in 1896, remained with the department until 1900.

During the South African War Mann was commissioned as lieutenant in the 4th Victorian (Australian Imperial Regiment) Contingent and saw sixteen months active service; he was wounded in the shoulder at Hartbeesfontein on 16 February 1901. He returned to Melbourne on 1 November and, having lost his departmental seniority, next year set up as a barrister in Selborne Chambers.

Mann quickly built up a large practice, undertaking both common law and Equity cases and specializing to some extent in patent law. He became known for his careful cross-examination technique, later likened by (Sir) Robert Menzies to the actions of a man picking his way across a swamp. In these years he was also a well-known yachtsman and an enthusiastic member of the Melbourne Hunt Club. On 8 April 1911 at All Saints Church of England, East St Kilda, he married Adeline Mary Raleigh; they made their home at South Yarra and had five children.

On 22 July 1919 Mann was appointed to the bench of the Victorian Supreme Court. Chairman of the Court of Industrial Appeals in 1931-33, he was knighted in June 1933. On various occasions between 1923 and 1934 he was acting chief justice and when Sir William Irvine retired on 1 October 1935 Mann succeeded him.

Nicknamed the 'Little Gentleman' (he was 5 ft 6 ins (168 cm) tall), Mann was unfailingly courteous in court and helpful to young barristers. He had a reputation for deep learning and was remembered as a patient, careful judge with a strong sense of what the justice of a case required. His pronouncements, always delivered with entire confidence, were invariably clear and precise. On 12 May 1936 he became lieutenant-governor of Victoria, the office imposing a heavy burden of social duties in addition to his legal work. On his appointment the Melbourne Sun described him as 'lucid, fearless, cold, crisp, alert, analytical, unostentatious and retiring … dignified and decorous'. He was appointed K.C.M.G. in 1937.

In 1941 Mann suffered a great personal loss when his elder son, James Gilbert, was killed in action in Crete. Having been chosen as Victorian Rhodes Scholar for 1935, James won brilliant firsts and the Vinerian Scholarship at Oxford, and was regarded as the outstanding young lawyer of his generation. He was a lieutenant in the Royal Australian Artillery when he gave up his life raft to an exhausted man after the ship evacuating his men was bombed. Rather than overload other rafts, he swam out to sea.

Sir Frederick carried on as chief justice until January 1944 when he decided to retire while his faculties were still at their best. At his farewell, tributes were paid by Wilbur Ham, Edmund Piesse and Sir James Macfarlan. He retired as lieutenant-governor in May 1945.

Always a lover of Nature, Mann in his later years found great pleasure in the study of Australian plant and bird life and was a trustee of the Melbourne Botanical Gardens Maud Gibson Trust. With this interest and his attendance at the Melbourne Club, of which he had been president in 1935-36, he spent an otherwise quiet retirement at South Yarra. He died there on 29 May 1958, and was cremated. His wife had died the previous year and he was survived by three daughters and a son. A portrait by Charles Wheeler hangs in the Supreme Court of Victoria.

THE MANN FAMILY BECOMES EVEN LESS ANONYMOUS. EDWARD DIED IN 1951.

Mann, Edward Alexander (1874–1951)

by E. M. Andrews

This article was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, (MUP), 1986

Edward Alexander Mann (1874-1951), chemist, politician and broadcaster, was born on 11 August 1874 at Mount Gambier, South Australia, son of Gilbert Hill Cheke Mann, telegraph stationmaster, and his wife Sophia Charlotte, daughter of Rev. John Ramsden Wollaston. (Sir) Frederick Mann was an elder brother. Edward was educated privately and at the University of Melbourne. In 1890 he was appointed assistant to the chief inspector of explosives, Melbourne, then in 1895 government analyst in Western Australia and, in 1902, agricultural chemist. He was a member of the advisory committee under the Health Act and responsible for setting up the government laboratory in Perth; as chief inspector of explosives he established the magazine depot at Fremantle. A member of royal commissions on the ventilation and sanitation of mines (1904-10) and miner's phthisis (1911), he produced many technical publications that had industrial or agricultural application. He became a fellow of the Institute of Chemistry of Britain and Ireland (1914). On 11 September 1901 he had married Estelle Frances Leonie Hicks at South Yarra, Melbourne.

In 1916 Mann enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force but while in training at an officers' instructional school was asked by the Western Australian government to withdraw in favour of membership of the Commonwealth Advisory Council for Science and Industry (1916-20). When he failed to get larger representation for Western Australia he took little part in the proceedings, partly because of distance. In 1921 he resigned his post as agricultural chemist, technically over its amalgamation with another, but probably because as president of the Civil Service Association he had been prominent in the public service strike of 1920.

In 1922 he was elected Federal member for Perth as a Nationalist. As an advocate of the duty of all members of a democracy to exercise their responsibility to vote, he steered through parliament the Electoral Act (1924) which established compulsory voting. He was temporary chairman of committees in 1925-28. Mann did not fit into the party system: he strongly supported State rights and was a highly efficient member for Perth. He argued for a reduction in tariffs, joining the Town and Country Union for that purpose, and publicly criticized his prime minister Stanley (Viscount) Bruce, even resigning from the party briefly in 1926. In 1929 he joined Billy Hughes in attacking the Bruce-Page government's failure to prosecute coal-owner John Brown. Excluded from party meetings as a consequence, they joined three others and brought down the government when it attempted to abolish the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration. Although Mann failed to gain a seat as an Independent in the 1929 election, he had the satisfaction of seeing Bruce and the Nationalists rejected by the electorate.

After a brief experience in insurance Mann, under the pseudonym of 'The Watchman', became the 'nearest thing Australian radio had in the 1930's to an oracle'. As the Australian Broadcasting Commission's chief commentator, he had a daily news session, 'At home and abroad', and a weekly programme, 'The news behind the news'. His clarity and fluency created interest; some listeners were attracted because he seemed sincere and independent but others objected to his dogmatism and anonymity. A huge popular following helped to preserve his outspokenness. The government of Joe Lyons, offended by his criticism of its trade diversion policy, put pressure on the A.B.C. to muzzle him. His comments on the Spanish civil war and Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy, especially at Munich, also aroused opposition.

From September 1939 Mann was subject to censorship on the orders of the Menzies cabinet. His identity was exposed in parliament late in the year. His services were reduced, and he resigned in October 1940 while contesting Flinders, which he failed to win by a narrow margin, as an Independent. Although he returned to the A.B.C. he resigned bitterly when he was deprived of his regular session. His booming voice was then heard on commercial stations; he still held a following in 1943. In 1944 he published Arrows in the Air: A Selection from Broadcasts by 'The Watchman'.

Mann died on 15 November 1951, on a tram in Melbourne, from a heart attack and was cremated. On 2 August 1949 he had married Gladys Alice Kubale at Melbourne and was survived by her and a son and two daughters of his first marriage.

Notes from John Gilbert Mann's 1926 history of Mt Eliza, concerning family connections and properties which provided street names, will be included in the NANN entry in my subsequent journal:
HOW MT ELIZA STREETS AND PLACES WITHIN MORNINGTON PENINSULA SHIRE, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA, ACQUIRED THEIR NAMES.

Assumptions sometimes have to be made and my assumption that Frank Stephen had built Cassiobury has been confirmed. The name of Thomas Watt's property is given, as is the fact that Freeman had built the homestead for him circa 1878, leading to Freeman's purchase (in 1883 if I remember correctly) of 13 acres nearby. Names of people and properties will be given in upper case for quick reference.

MANN entry!

CORRECTION. In comment 2, I stated that Sir Frederick Wollaston (actually Sir Frederick Wollaston Mann)was mentioned in relation to the location of an old Mt Eliza property but it was probably Sir Harry Wollaston, who like John Gilbert Mann's two brothers is the subject of an Australian Dictionary of Biography entry. Sir Harry was probably related to the Mann family and Lady Wollaston was a Frankston (Mt Eliza) resident before her departure for London where she died. Their daughter, Susannah, lived for many years in Daveys Bay Rd. I wonder if "Trescott" is still standing. It was probably named after the Trescott Estate in Malvern where Sir Harry lived and died after being hit by a tram.

OBITUARY
—0—
MISS S. R. WOLLASTON
Miss Susannah Ramsden Wollaston, 65, who died at her home in Frankston on Monday, was the daughter of the late Sir Harry Wollaston, former Comptroller-General of Customs. Miss Wollaston, who was well known among the older residents of Frankston and Mt. Eliza, resided for many years at "Trescott," Davey's Bay Rd. In her early life she was an ardent worker for charity particularly during the last war, but for the past three years she had been an invalid and had lived with her only surviving sister. She is survived also by a brother, a solicitor, practising in Melbourne. Miss Wollaston was privately buried on Tuesday. (P.4, Standard, 30-1-1942.)

At the time that I wrote the recent comments, Victorian BDM was offline for scheduled maintenance. This is John Gilbert Mann's death record.

EventDeath Event registration number23159 Registration year1952
Personal information
Family nameMANN Given namesJohn Gilbert SexMale Father's nameMANN Gilbert Cheke Mother's nameSophia Charlotte (Wallaston) Place of birthADELAIDE SOUTH AUSTRALIA Place of deathFRANKSTON Age86

John's death record, death notice and the application for probate of his will do not indicate whether he was married or had children but there are many references on trove to Mrs Mann of Harbury, Frankston.

Before moving to Mount Eliza, John appeared to have lived in New South Wales. He'd apparently returned to Melbourne, or maybe settled at Mt Eliza by 1910.

Mr. John Gilbert Mann, of Melbourne, has been appointed to the Commission of the Peace for New South Wales.(P.2, Evening News, Sydney, 24-5-1902.)

OFF THE J.P. LIST.
Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931) Thursday 31 March 1910 p 7 Article

THIS IS WHY THERE WAS NO MARRIAGE RECORD ON VICTORIAN BDM.
Marriage.
MANN—SMITH.—On the 26th December,at St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, by the Rev. Father Gorman, John Gilbert Mann, of Melbourne, to Mary Morris Smith, only daughter of Mrs. L. Quirk, of Moonebah.
The Macleay Chronicle (Kempsey, NSW) Wednesday 6 January 1915 p 5

This seems to confirm that Mrs Mary Morris Mann (nee Smith) was indeed the Mrs Mann of Harbury. She was probably meeting her mother and childhood friends. No death record for her has been found on Victorian BDM so she might have died in N.S.W. If she had outlived John, surely she would have been mentioned in his death notice.
Mrs. J. G. Mann, of Frankston, is spending a holiday in Sydney.
(P.2, Frankston and Somerville Standard,18-4-1923.)

Given that John was born in about 1862, he would have been about 53 at the time of this marriage.

Although neither of the Mann obituaries in above comments mention the native place of their father, there is much evidence on genealogy websites that the Mann surname was associated with Harbury[/b}, Warwickshire.

A J.Mann was a draper at Harbury Warwickshire in 1810, Basil Mann of Greenmount in Western Australia in 1923 called his house Harbury and Alan Mann, chief Justice of Papua-New Guines had Harbury as a second given name.
Sir Alan's biographical details show a Wollaston connection.
SIR ALAN HARBURY MANN