Vasilios and Agnes Tambakis - a turbulent marriage
- Amalia Samios
- Jun 18
- 7 min read
Vasilios Tambakis was born on 23 October 1889 in Areoi, the youngest of the three children of Panagiotis Tambakis and Eleni Karidi. He was 5’6” with brown hair, brown eyes and a scar on the front of his neck and a vaccination scar on each arm. He could speak and understand English very well.
He arrived in Sydney on 5 August 1907 on an Orient Line ship. He was now known as William or Bill Tambakis. Upon his arrival he lived in Peak Hill 1907-1909, Temora 1910-1911, Fremantle 1912-1913, Wagga 1914-1918, Wyalong 1919-1922, Cowra 1924, and Grong Grong 1925-1927.
While living in Australia he had two overseas holidays. The first was to America from November 1910 to February 1911 and then Greece 13 March 1911 to June 1911.
On 11 November 1915 he married Agnes Lowden. She was only 17 and Vasilios 27. They had only known each other for eight months before they married. They had five children; Peter, born just seven months after they were married, Elaine, John, George, Olga and Maria who passed away aged only five months.
On 24 November 1915 Agnes embarked the Indarra at Fremantle heading for Melbourne. Vasilios was not on board with her. It is unknown why she was travelling alone to Melbourne.
On 21 December 1915 two 14-year-old boys were swimming in the Murrumbidgee River near Wagga Wagga. One of the boys got into difficulty and the other boy tried as hard as he could to save him. He was eventually forced to swim to the bank, exhausted. William and Agnes were visiting Vasilios’ cousin John Tambakis (also known as Jack) in Wagga Wagga and they witnessed the boys struggling. Agnes went into the river and pulled the exhausted boy out but Vasilios, being a weak swimmer, concluded the river was flowing too quickly for him and he would be no help to the other boy in the water but he did his best to help him from the bank. Jack could not swim but he contacted the police for help. Two other men present also did their best to save the drowning boy but it was no use. The coroner found that it was “most unfortunate that none of the adults present were in a position to render such assistance as may have resulted in saving deceased’s life.”
Not long after this, Vasilios and Agnes moved to Wagga Wagga to work. Vasilios stayed with his cousin John and worked for him for three years. He then moved to Sydney for a while and worked at the Marathon Cafe. Meanwhile, Vasilios’ cousin Jack had bought a café at West Wyalong and Vasilios went to work for him there.
Later, Vasilios and his family moved to West Wyalong and Vasilios worked as a fruiter, again for his cousin Jack Tambakis.
On 15 June 1921 William sold all his furniture and home wares from his home in Maitland Street, near the fire station, as he was leaving the district. The auction included items such as an 8-piece oak dining suite, leather dining suite, sewing machine, mats, linoleum, double bedstead and wire mattress with bedding, curtains, mats, pot plants etc.
In August 1924 Vasilios left West Wyalong.
Agnes and four of her children, excluding Peter, landed in Fremantle on 6 March 1925 on the Moreton Bay from Pireaus via Egypt after a trip to Greece. Their address on arrival is listed as c/o J Nielsen Cootamundra.
After her trip to Greece, Vasilios “had a great deal of trouble with his wife and he suspected her of infidelity”. Agnes went on a short trip to Sydney and Vasilios followed her there. When he confronted her, she confessed to two affairs, one with John (Jack) Theodore Tambakis, Vasilios’ cousin. Vasilios worked for him, between September 1919 and September 1935 both in West Wyalong and the Burlington Hotel, Sydney. The other with Kiriakos Cominos between November and December 1926 at Elizabeth Street Sydney.
It is possible that Agnes did not live with Vasilios from the time Vasilios moved to Wagga Wagga as it was reported that Vasilios went to Sydney and found Agnes living in a Salvation Army Hostel. This is where she confessed to the affairs.
In October 1928 Vasilios petitioned for a dissolution of his marriage to Agnes on the grounds of her adultery with Jack and Kiriakos Cominos.
During the court case, a lot was mentioned and reported in the local newspapers. Agnes claimed that Vasilios “worked like a slave” for Jack, 8am to midnight and later most days. Wages were always owing and at one period over £200 was owed to Vasilios.
Agnes complained that Vasilios was always working and never spent time with her or took her out anywhere. Jack would be the one who would sit by the fire with her and play cards.
She also told Vasilios that her youngest child Maria was Jack’s, not his. She told Vasilios that she was afraid to tell him this as she thought he might kill her. Vasilios replied that he could kill her if wished.
Vasilios took Agnes to a solicitor where she signed a full confession.
Vasilios also had other witnesses. A policeman said he would often see Jack about Agnes’ house and he had seen them kiss by the gate and put his arm around her. Also, the neighbour had seen Jack in Agnes’ house late at night. Another neighbour had bumped into Agnes in Wagga Wagga. Agnes took her to a café and told her that only the eldest children belonged to Vasilios. And yet another neighbour claimed that Agnes told her she was in love with Jack and he was a better man that Vasilios and that Jack was the father of Maria. Another employee of Jacks, Jerry Veneris, had seen Jack and Agnes kissing in the ice cream room. There were other people who had witnessed them kissing.
Kiriakos and Agnes did not attend the divorce hearing, but Jack did. He denied all allegations, but the judge found in favour of Vasilios with Jack Tambakis and Kiriakos Cominos to pay costs.
On 21 May 1927 his divorce was granted. Vasilios was given sole custody of Peter, Elaine, John and George with Agnes given custody of Olga. Vasilios had to pay 5 shillings a week support from 20 May 1926. Vasilios also had to pay £2/10 court costs.
Agnes’ affidavit dated 13 April 1926 states the following:
· She was living at 40 Elizabeth Street Redfern.
· Her and Vasilios moved to Wagga Wagga together but they did not live together. Vasilios would visit her on occasion.
· She confessed to both affairs and that she confessed these affairs to Vasilios in February 1926.
· Vasilios refused to live with her or support her from that date
· She was working in Louden’s boot Factory in Elizabeth Street.
· She denied she gave a man a price for prostitution. He had wanted to go with her but she sent him away.
· After Agnes confessed to Vasilios, he wanted to take the four eldest children and not the youngest.
· With Vasilios’ consent she sent the children to the Salvation Army to look after them.
· She visited the children from time to time, but had only seen them once in three months. She did not think Vasilios had visited them since February.
· The Salvation Army asked her to pay to help with the children, but she would not so she was forced to go back to work. She was a housemaid and Vasilios was out of work.
· They both had venereal disease.
· Jack was the father of both her youngest children, Olga and Maria.
In July 1931, Agnes asked for a copy of her divorce as she was “in a certain way” and would like to marry as soon as possible.
After her divorce, Agnes married Oscar Falk in 1931. Oscar fell down a mine on 21 June 1934 and sustained compression fractures to two vertebrae in his back and neck and fractured a rib and was unable to work for 12 months. He died in August 1935.
Agnes married again, this time to Philip Douglas in 1936.
Agnes died 28 November 1965 in Campbelltown, Sydney. She was 67.
During the divorce, on 14 June 1926 Vasilios opened a shop in Grong Grong. He remained in this shop until he sold it to Jack Marcellos.
Vasilios applied for naturalisation on 7 September 1929 and it was granted on 27 March 1930. He was living in Culcairn and he was a fruiter. He said he was in Culcairn staying with friends for a “short stay”. On his application, he stated he wished to “settle down and build a home in this country and live with his four childrend (sic).” Interestingly, Vasilios and Stratee Notara (see his blog here) wrote a joint letter asking for naturalisation applications to be sent to them.
He returned to Greece in 1931, taking his sons Peter and George and leaving the other two children behind. On 10 March 1932, Vasilios married Stamatoula Levtheri of Ioanni. He was 42 and she was 40. It is believed they had a son in Kythera.
Vasilios returned to Australia, probably in 1934, leaving his sons in Kythera with their new stepmother.
It seems the Australian Government did not know he returned to Australia as they wrote to him in Greece about revoking his naturalisation because he had been away for more than seven years. Vasilios did not respond to any of these letters, obviously he was in Australia and not Greece and never received them, so his naturalisation was revoked on 28 August 1939.
Little is known about Vasilios in his later years. On the 1943 electoral roll he was living at 301 Crown Street East Sydney and was working as a useful. A newspaper article in 1943 said he was in Portland.
In 1954 Vasilios was living at 31 Phillip Street Auburn and was retired.
Before 1958 he moved to Temora. In 1958 he lived at 112 Jellicoe Street, and in 1963 he lived at 105 Aurora Street.
Before 1968 he moved to Mt. St. Joseph’s Home in Young.
Interestingly, Vasilios and Agnes’ son John changed his name from Tambakis to Douglas, his stepfather’s name. This indicates the children had good contact with their mother.
Bibliography
Australian Library, Trove
National Archives of Australia
Registry of Births, Deaths and Mariages Western Australia
State Archives of NSW
Church of Latter Day Saints, Familiysearch.org
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