Sunday, March 22, 2015

PERCY ROCKLIFF (his last letter to his daughter in WA)

Although I do have this letter in my possession it is not suitable to photograph so I have scanned it from my mother's book "Clock of Time" (she had typed it out to be readable).  Unfortunately it does not bear a date but as P.R. died in the latter part of 1958 I would imagine he wrote this letter several months prior to his demise.  This is probably a little out of chronological order but so is much of mum's story as she switches back and forth over the years.  I can imagine grandfather siting a his desk writing this letter to his daughter (my mum).  Bear in mind PR was born in 1869 and mum in 1897:



I do remember mum saying at one time P.R., when writing, had said he was paying 19/6d in the pound tax and was of course quite dissatisfied with the government of that time.  As you can see from the above letter he is certainly losing a lot of his hard earned money to the government coffers.

I was fascinated when he told mum (his daughter) never to return to the old country and when P.R.'s widow Mary (his second wife),  journeyed to Australia in the 1960s she told Phil to same thing.  She said "remember it as it was, and don't think about going back".   We never did (couldn't afford it anyway) but there have been no regrets on Phil's part although, of course, I would loved to have seen the places where my folks had once lived (both my adopted folks and my birth father were born in London).

P.R., in his letter, called mum "Gertie" so this must have been his name for her when she was young.  It was a name she disliked because when at kindergarten the children found it difficult to say and would actually call her "Dirty".  In her later years she was known as Win or Gwin (a combination of Gertrude Winifred).  I always rather liked the name Gwin as it was somewhat different and it suited her very well.  If I remember correctly, I think dad still called her Gert.

8 comments:

  1. Hari OM
    Oh my....

    As one who has recently 'gone back' after a quarter century, I have an idea of what PR (and Mary) may have meant. Visiting the old country is one thing; but to reintegrate is quite another. Australia may have its faults, but compared to much of the world, it does a pretty good impression of Utopia. Sadly, there is much which is a total shambles here and the 'nanny state' is now reaping some of her 'karma'... but it seems that even early last century, things were shaky.

    I had said it earlier and now PR confirms it... your mother was a chip off the old block! YAM xx

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    1. Firstly, yes I am sure mum was definitely a chip of the old block and she continued throughout her life to show her father that she could do as well as the son he would have liked her to be.
      From what you have said I do think it perhaps that neither mum nor Phil ever ventured to return 'home'. Maybe as well that neither could really afford to do so. I too think Oz not a bad place to live. xx

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  2. His letter makes him sound a dear old man.

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    1. Delores, he did a lot of good for many people but underneath I think he was a bit of a snob and rather fancied himself with the ladies.
      I never met him and can only go by his record as a husband and father as far as mum was concerned. He turfed them out as they didn't suit his lifestyle which I think rather sad.

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  3. Neither of my parents ever went back either (to England for her, to Germany for him). Both said that they wanted to remember the good times.
    I am so very glad that he reached out to her finally.
    And to think people say our taxes are too high now!

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    1. PR did keep in touch with us over the years and (if you remember from an earlier post) when I was young he used to send me an English pound note each Christmas. I would go into the big Commonwealth Bank in Perth to cash it and would get about twenty five Australian shillings. Exchange rate back then was rather different to that of today.

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  4. 19 shillings and 6 pence in tax?? That's horrendous! That leaves only 6d per pound for him to live on. 400 pounds a year is about 7 1/2 pounds per week. I hope he didn't have to pay rent as well as food out of that.
    It's nice that he wrote to her and lucky for you the letter was kept to be included in the book.

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    1. That is what he said in one of his letters so one must believe it to be true. Shows how much money had must have had (none of which ever came to us unfortunately as he remarried after his first wife died). He did live in a large two storey home so did rather well for himself.
      I may have a couple of his letters among mum's things. Perhaps time to dig them out if I can. Not sure how many mum would have stored away. Not many I think.

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