Elena Birkbeck

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Maria Colletta Elena Birkbeck (b. 6 March 1840 - d. 19 December 1897), was the first wife of William Knox D'Arcy of Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia.

Elena was born in Mexico in 1840, the only daughter of Samual and Damiana Birkbeck. Samual was a mining engineer from Illinois in the United States. He was descended from the English Birkbecks, a Quaker family with an interest in education (George Birkbeck, founder of the London Mechanics' Institute was a family member). He met his wife, Damiana de Barre Valdez, whilst working in Mexico, managing a silver mine.

In 1861, the Birkbeck's left Mexico and took up the "Glenmore" run at Parkhurst, to the north of Rockhampton. The Birkbecks, of mixed English and Spanish descent and Catholic, were an exotic addition to the frontier township of Rockhampton in the 1860s.

Elena married William Knox D'Arcy (b. 1849 d. 1917) at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Sydney on 23rd October, 1872. D'Arcy was already a successful business man and land speculator, but later became extremely wealthy after 1882 when he became a founding partner in the Mount Morgan Mine syndicate.

Elena and D'Arcy lived first at Ellen Vanin, in Kingel Street, Wandal, Rockhampton, where they had a family of two sons and three daughters (Frank, Elena, Lionel, Violet and Ethel. In 1889 D'Arcy and Elena moved to England with their family, living at Stanmore Hall and Bylaugh Park and also keeping a house in Grosvenor Square, London.

On her arrival in England, Elena was presented at Court, and the D'Arcys kept up a fast-paced and luxurious lifestyle.

Elena died in England in December, 1897.

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