Personal Life
John married Sarah Clark Redgate on 15 April 1875 at the Congregational Church at Caterham, Surrey. He had designed the church where they married, and theirs was the first wedding held there. They had three children, a son Arthur (1882–1971) and daughters Florence E. (1876–1965) and Edith (1877–1907)
They moved to Sydney, Australia on account of his wife's tuberculosis. They arrived on 13 August 1885 and settled at Parramatta, where his wife died on 31 December 1888.
His parents John (senior) and Martha moved into Addiscombe at Lane Cove Rd. in Turramurra.
He married again, to Annie Elizabeth Masefield (a relative of John Masefield) at St Luke's Anglican Church, Burwood, on 27 April 1893. His health broke down in 1896, prompting a trip to Europe. When they returned, he turned the cottage he had originally intended for his parents at Boomerang St. Turramurra into their family home Ingleholme, which developed into a "rambling complex of gables, bays, turrets and chimneys".
Children by this second marriage were Geoffrey and Thomas Noel ("Tom", or "Tommy"). Geoffrey enlisted in England and joined the Royal Flying Corps. He died aged 23 in 1917, in a flying accident over England, prior to being qualified for combat duties. Thomas became a racing car driver, and developed the Sulman Singer, and Sulman Park in Bathurst is named after him. He was still racing in 1954. He died in 1970, aged 70.
In 1913 John Sulman purchased the magnificent property "Kihilla" at Lawson in the Blue Mountains as a second home; it remained in the family until 1953.
Mrs Sulman was socially active, being a prominent member of such organisations as the Leura and Lawson branches of the Red Cross Society. Florence, usually referred to as "Miss Sulman" was active in the Society of Arts and Crafts of NSW, where she was president 1928–35 and 1951–56) as well as hospital and kindergarten charities. Florence was author of the two-volume (1913, 1914) Wildflowers of New South Wales.
He retired in 1928 but remained a highly visible presence in civic, art and architectural circles, taking a proominent role in many public debates. He died in Sydney aged 85 years.
Most of the family mentioned here are interred or memorialized at Gore Hill cemetery.
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