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.