From time to time I take a look in Dad's old photos and try to work out the identity of the subjects. Thankfully Dad labelled his snaps so I knew that these young ladies were Eileen and Pat Redding.
As Dad's family lived in Canowindra I initially concentrated my efforts on finding a Redding family in that area but searches in the usual places bore no fruit.
A search for Eileen Redding on Trove yielded a couple of hits for an Eileen Redding living in Waitara, one of these was a report of her wedding that indicated that the bride's attendants were Patricia and Geraldine, that sounded promising. It was then easy to find her marriage to Adrian Leyden in the NSW BDM indexes.
It struck me that I had been looking at the wrong area. When Dad was in the Army he spent time in Sydney with his aunt and uncle who lived in James Street, Hornsby right next to Waitara so that is where he would have met the girls.
I popped the name Eileen Leyden into Google and found a death notice. The notice was rich in information which confirmed I had the right Eileen, gave the names of Eileen's siblings and I was able to deduce that Eileen was the older of the two girls in the photo.
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Eileen's death notice
Leyden, Eileen Frances.
(Nee Redding)
27/11/1927 - 2/4/2019
Aged 91 years
Loving wife of Adrian (Dec). Beloved mother of Michael, Peter, John, Tracie ,Richard and their families.
Fond sister of Mary, Patricia (Dec), Geraldine, Philip, Kathleen.
Eileen's family and friends are invited to attend her funeral service to be held at St Patrick's Church Asquith , 1 Royston Parade on Monday 8th April at 11am.
Source: https://tributes.smh.com.au/obituaries/5701/eileen-frances-leyden/
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My next task was to find Patricia, the schoolgirl in the photo, who from the above notice learnt that she had passed away before her sister.
Back to Trove I went and searched for "Patricia Ridding". I found more answers with a poem posted in the Children's pages of The Sun newspaper.
1944 'WATER FAIRY', The Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), 17 September, p. 2. (SUPPLEMENT TO THE SUNBEAMS), viewed 15 Aug 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article229276036
Patricia was aged 12 in 1944 so would have been 13 in Dad's photo, that fits. Her address was on the Pacific Highway which is just around the corner from James Street.
Patricia's marriage to Howard Francis Longworth was registered at Hornsby in 1956.
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Patricia's death noticeLONGWORTH,
Patricia Audrey OAM.
25.4.1931 - 17.3.2019
Late of McQuion Park
Beloved wife of Howard (dec), loving mother of Simon, Philip, Matthew, Ann-Mary, Timothy, Stephanie and their families.
Family and friends of Patricia are kindly invited to attend her Funeral service to be held in the Chapel at McQuion Park, 28 McAuley Place, Waitara on Monday 25.03.2019 to commence at 10.00am.
In lieu of flowers, please donate on Patricia's behalf to your favourite charity.
Source: https://tributes.smh.com.au/obituaries/79876/patricia-longworth/
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Hi Jill
ReplyDeleteMy wife was just doing a search on my mother - Patricia Longworth (nee Redding) and your post came up. That is indeed my mother (Pat) and my aunt (Eileen) who lived at 148 Pacific Hwy or Peat's Ferry Road as it was then. The family home was on the corner of James Street so that ties in well. It looks like the photo was taken in the backyard of 148 with the garage in the background. My mother would have been 13 in 1945 and is obviously wearing a school uniform. She was a student at Monte Sant Angelo in North Sydney. She went on to become a teacher and was a recipient of an OAM for her services to families of disabled children. I had not seen that photo before, so thanks for posting and l hope this helps to flesh out your story.