Memoirs - Page 9
Andrew, so far as I am aware, left no will and nothing by way of an inheritance (bequest or legacy) for his widow or for the benefit of his three children. He may well, however, have departed this world without leaving her (or them) with any major debts or encumbrance(s). I have no knowledge as to whether or not his parents did the same for him. His father, William DWYER, also died when he (Andrew) was young - about 13 - and his mother (nee MCCRAITH) remarried to become Margaret Constance BEDFORD (see photo - we have not managed to locate this photo referred to by Bill).
I met her, I believe, only once - when she came to Sydney on a visit - and have a quite strong recall of her as being a very imposing, though aged (80+ years), lady and of her giving us a full throated version of the old favoured air "Annie Laurie" in the family room (as it would now be called) in Bridge Road, GLEBE. She had been, I was given to understand, a more than competent singer and theatre performer in Victoria in her younger days and the performance I witnessed may(?) have been a catalyst for my own future interest in music and theatre. I never met her husband (William BEDFORD - also, I expect, dead before I met her) or Andrew's father (long dead) or sister Mary - also departed.
From Ethel's side, I did meet many of the RAMSDALES - including Grandma (nee BOYLE - see photo - we have not managed to locate this photo referred to by Bill) - on the occasion of a holiday visit to MELBOURNE in 1941. This was the year SKIPTON won the Melbourne Cup and I seem to recall standing, in heavy rain, on Scotman's Hill at or near Flemington racecourse as the race was run and won (I, as a little fellow, saw not much more than the jockeys and their caps!!).
The Dwyers travelled little or not at all - air travel was taboo for Ethel though she did indulge in an emergency flight some little time later when her mother died - except within the Sydney area. We rarely had any interstate visitors (I recall, I think, single visits from Mum's eldest sister (Tot) and from junior sisters Flo (who lived in Loxton, South Australia) Nell and Nan - and some of their daughters - but these were few and far between.
Since we had no family, private vehicle any local travel was undertaken in buses or trams (or via shanks' pony) and longer distance travel by train. I might add that the two residences I recall residing in (as above) were far from spacious and not at all conducive to "formal" entertaining in great numbers.