30. Three Score Years and Ten

Bert turned 70 in 1961, the year before Doll's visit. On 2nd June, 1962,  while Doll was staying with them, Bert, Nell and Doll went out to lunch with Albert. After they got home, Bert, still the fixer and maintainer, climbed on to the roof of the house to do some repair work. This time, however, like his father before him, Bert suffered a heart attack and fell - from the roof. He was dead when he hit the ground.

Doll and Nell managed to summon help. Telephones were not common in every house in Australia in 1962. Albert had one for his business, but no other family members had a telephone until later in the 60s. News of a death was delivered by the police going to the homes of next of kin and passing on the news.

Albert arranged the funeral and cremation at Woronora Cemetery. Sylvia and Grace's children were deemed too young to attend a funeral and were not allowed to go. Irene and Ray went.

Sylvia was rocked by her father's death and took some time to come to terms with it.

Bert's ashes were scattered in a rose garden at Woronora. When Nell died, many years later, Sylvia's children had memorials for both of them installed in the rose garden where Nell's ashes are buried, at Woronora.


In his lifetime he had done his best with the hand dealt to him, worked hard, served his country, reached out to new things, seized the opportunities that came along and provided for his family no matter what. Although he placed no importance on education, he was enterprising and prepared to take risks. He built a better future for his descendants.

Doll stayed on for a few weeks after Bert's funeral, then flew home to New Zealand. During the flight, somewhere over the Tasman Sea, Doll also suffered a heart attack. She died on the plane. She was 69.

Fred 1962

Fred lived another three years, but on 24th September 1965, he too died of a heart attack. He was 64.












Syd visited Australia and New Zealand later in the 1960s and died of a heart attack in 1972, aged 76.

May, Fred, four grandchildren, Barbara and Ian c. 1981

Les lived until 1985. He saw his daughter married in England and return to New Zealand.  He visited Australia again in the 60s. He had four grandchildren, including twins, when he died, aged 82.

29. Retirement

Nell (right) and friend at Heathcote house

In 1956 Bert retired and he and Nell drew the Australian aged pension. They had been planning and saving. Just before his retirement, with some help from Albert, they bought a house at Heathcote, then a small town on the rail line beyond Sutherland, south of Sydney, now a Sydney suburb.

There was a shed for Bert and the house was comfortable. It was not connected to the mains sewer and had an outside toilet, with a weekly collection service by the local council.

Bert's Holden looked like this

They established a garden and grew their own vegetables. Bert also bought a new car prior to retirement  - a green Holden.
They were closer to Fred and Clare's than they had been in Botany and it was an easy drive to visit Albert at Banksia. They could go for their drives to the bush without going through the Sydney traffic - now becoming busier and slower. None of Bert's children had cars or drove in his lifetime.

Fred, Clare & Nell on excursion

Sylvia, Len and their children visited on Sundays about once a month, catching the train from Sydney's Central Station to Sutherland, then changing to the small motor rail that went down the coast to Waterfall.

                                                                                           

Irene with her father

Beryl, Bert and Nell at Irene's wedding.

When Bert's eldest grandchild, Irene, married Ray Baker in 1961, Bert enjoyed attending the wedding and looked forward to great-grandchildren.

Albert's photography business was successful, and Albert enjoyed his work. Irene had worked colouring photos in the business but wanted to phase out as she had children and as colour photography took over.

Syd and Grace took advantage of the expansion of Sydney's power stations in the Lake Macquarie area, north of Sydney to buy land and build a house at Toukely, north of Sydney. With the opening of the Wangi and Munmorah Power Stations in 1958, Syd was able to transfer from the Bunnerong Power Station on Botany Bay  where he had worked since the war.

Sylvia had taken a part-time job at Qantas to help out with uniforms and books when her elder child began high school in 1959. She took advantage of staff travel concessions to visit New Zealand in 1961 and catch up with both Les and Doll and their families.

Nell, Clare, Bert, Doll and Fred in Australia 1962

In 1962, Doll made the trip by plane from New Zealand to Australia to visit her brothers, Bert and Fred. It was a very happy reunion. Doll met all the family and stayed with Bert and Nell.

It was to be their last time together, and the last photo taken of both Bert and Doll.

22. Fred and Les Ray in 1930s and 1940s.

Fred and Les, Bert Ray's two single brothers who got Bert and his family to Australia, took what work they could during the Great Depression.


In 1930 Les was living at 61 Roby St., Mascot and gave his occupation as labourer. In 1933 he was living at 136 Sutherland St., where Bert and his family had also lived. He saw a lot of Nell, Bert and their children. Sylvia, in particular, loved Les, his stories and the time he had for children.

In 1934 Les married Ida Fenton, a local girl. The two were wrapped in each other. Both families thought it a great match. In 1935 Ida died in childbirth, along with the child she carried. Les was distraught. Early in 1936 Les left Sydney on the Orsova, arriving in London on 20 May and giving his address as 60 Bath Rd., Hounslow, an address also used by his mother.

Les Ray and Perce Keen

He spend time with his cousins, brothers, sister and his mother.

In 1938 he married Christine May Kilby (known as May) in Rochford, Essex. Barbara, their only child, was born in 1942.

Les worked for some time, and throughout WWII, as the second cook on merchant ships around the coast of Britain and across to North America.

May had family in New Zealand, and in 1946 May and Barbara migrated to New Zealand, with Les following early in December 1946, working his way as second cook on the TEV Hinemoa, new ship for the Union Steamship Co for ferry service between north and south islands of NZ. the Hinemoa left the UK on 21 Dec 1946, called at Fremantle for few hours, and arrived in Wellington on 26 Jan 1947.

Fred & Clare Ray with John, Ann, Dawn, Rex and Sylvia c. 1945

Fred stayed in Miranda, in the vicinity of the
nursery that gave him his initial work in Australia, although that work was not reliable after 1929. He turned his hand to anything, including it seems, a crematorium. In 1935 he married Clarice Amy Davies, known as Clare, the daughter of a Miranda poultry farmer. Like Fred, Clare was up for adventure. By 1939 they had four children. The fifth was born in 1943. They travelled to Adelaide with a circus in the late 1930's and spent several years in Adelaide.

Before 1949 Fred and his family were back in Jannali, near Miranda, where Fred got a job as a postman - work he continued for the rest of his life.



When Fred and his family were in Sydney, he and Bert were in touch and visited each other regularly. Clare got on well with Nell and visited her by train during the week.

Fred and Les also remained in touch.