Hi Lindsay,
Can't help you with the family clock but my grandmother's maiden name was Thitchener. She's related to Henry James Thitchener, who started the Australasian Type Foundry in Australia. First in Victoria, then in Sydney. Henry Arthur Thitchener, his son, ran it for some years in Sydney before his passing in about 1935.
I live in St Ives and have some of the family history. Have just today received death certificates for Henry James Thitchener and his wife Rosina Matilda Thitchener (nee Hayward). She died in Emerald Hill, Victoria; he died in Sydney. If I can help in any way unravel a family connection, I am only too happy to help. We may well be related through my great-grandfather and his brother Alfred. It can't be a coincidence that your father's middle name is Hayward as that was my great-grandfather's mother's maiden name. If Alfred was born in England, he would have been about 9 when he came to Australia.
Henry James and Rosina had at least six children in 1911, when Henry died. They were Rosina (named for her mother) 42; Louisa A 39, Henry A 37 (my great-grandfather), Alfred 35, Florence A 31 and one female (possibly two) deceased. At the time of the mother's death (at the age of 31, three weeks after giving birth to a female child), there was a child called Alice (deceased). This may or may not be the three week old child.
My interest in the Thitcheners is not just purely genealogical in that I've recently been diagnosed with a particular medical condition that has appeared in four generations, in at least six members of the family. I have been able to trace it back to Henry Arthur Thitchener. Happy to discuss with you privately as you may be able to add information.
Would be happy to catch up with you and share whatever certificates and things I have that might help with your family history. Wouldn't it be great if there was a link?!
Kind regards,
Gillian Hamilton
PS I'll be out of action for a few weeks but happy to respond to messages.