Lester Dudley - An Introduction

Early Years in Tallygaroopna

Lester Dudley as a young man. Probably photographed soon after he began work for Meat Control during WW2.

Lester's much-loved cat, Smog.

Lester's mother Elizabeth Dudley nee Canet. She was always known as Lily. Lily worked as a dressmaker and made her wedding dress.

Lester's father William Dudley, who was always known as Charles.

Lester's sister, Daisy. Lester spent many happy hours with her sons, Maurice and Sid.

Lester's brother, Ulva who vanished over the Celebes during WW2. Ulva was a fighter pilot.

Lester's sister, Merlyn. Her wartime occupation was as a tram conductress.

Lester's sister, Valerie who served with the WRAAF during WW2.

Lester's friend, Hugh Iskov. They spent years together in the same hospitals.

Merlyn at Eurobin where she met her future husband, Tom Mann. Both Merlyn and Tom were lifelong teetotallers so it is ironic they met when picking hops which are used to make beer.

Merl and Tom's holiday house at Clematis where Lester climbed up and down the hills on his crutches. He had frequent falls which never deterred him.

About the Diaries

Lester in Shepparton

Lester in Melbourne

Lester After WW2

A Potted Life History

Lester Dudley, whose parents gave him the unusual middle name of Zane, was born on 9 June, 1921, into a poor family which became even poorer as the years went by. He was the sixth and last child born to William and Elizabeth Dudley who lived in the small Victorian country town of Tallygaroopna.

Lester’s brother-in-law, Tom Mann, often laughingly referred to the ‘damn Dudleys’ all of whom were gifted with a lively intelligence and an often peculiar sense of humour. Lester’s father William, who was called Charlie, and his mother, Elizabeth nee Canet, who was called Lily, were an oddly matched couple. Charlie had an ugly temper but he was a hard worker, a contractor, who tried his hand at a variety of jobs from roadworks with the council, to labouring on local farms. Charlie played football and cricket for Tallygaroopna and was active in town organisations including the Hall Committee. Lily was simply always odd. Wearing a mob cap at a time when such items had long been out of fashion, she thought nothing of walking miles through the paddocks. This was useful in the days when the family had no money for regular transport, but when she began to suffer from the family curse of senile dementia, it meant she could be miles away before any one realised she had wandered off. Return to top

Lester's mother, Lily Canet, far left, with cousins. Many thanks to cousin, Nina Brown, for this photograph

The Siblings

Lester had four older siblings, Valerie, Daisy, Merlyn (whose twin had been stillborn), and Ulva. The Dudleys were descended from Methodist and Presbyterian stock and were strict teetotallers. It was therefore ironic that Lily, in chosing a name for her first born son, should see it on a glass and, not knowing the letters stood for United Licensed Victuallers Association, would call him Ulva. In later years, when the truth became apparent, the story was changed and it was said she chose the name from the poem by Sir Walter Scott.

Both sides of Lester’s family were poor. Lily’s father, Robert Canet arrived in Australia as a crewman on the Camperdown. He deserted when it docked in Melbourne on 4 April 1863, just 19 days before his 18th birthday. The following fifteen years of his life are lost but it is believed he was on the goldfields and was known, at some point, as Robert O’Brien. Robert, who had been a sailor since he was 15, had lived with his family in London where the Canets had, at one time, imported linen from Portugal. The Canet family spent some time in Portugal and Lester remembered Robert speaking the occasional phrase in Portugese. Robert once more appeared on records when he was listed as a shopkeeper in Tallygaroopna from 1907 to 1913 while his daughter, Lily, was shown as a dressmaker tenant in premises owned by William Charles Dudley from 1907 to 1910. Charlie and Lily married late in life, Charlie being 34 and his wife just three years younger and three months pregnant.

Charlies father, William who was actually called William, arrived in Australia on the Shackamaxon together with his wife, Hannah nee Green, and brothers Samuel, and Richard, and their wives. Another brother Joseph, had arrived in Melbourne four years before leaving only one brother, Thomas, living in Ridgmont, Bedfordshire. The parents, George and Elizabeth, had died some years before and although there had been three daughters, they all died young. Return to top

The Epidemic

At the age of six Lester became a pupil at the Tallygaroopna Primary School. He enjoyed school but within eighteen months his life changed forever. A polio epidemic, which swept Australia, added Lester and two of his cousins to the toll, one of whom died. On the night of July 15 1928 Lester, a previously active youngster, fell ill at night and remained bedridden until nine months later when, on March 8, 1929, he was taken by his parents on the long trip to Melbourne and became a patient at the Children’s Hospital. This date was imprinted on his memory, fifty years later he commented on it in his diary.

He was to spend three lonely years in Melbourne. Apart from the Children’s Hospital he was also a patient at the Austin Hospital and Yooralla Crippled Children’s Home. He rarely saw any members of his family who did not have the financial resources for regular 300 kilometre train trips to the capital.

The child at far left, Hugh Iskov, was friends with Lester in hospital. This wonderful photograph of the Ikin family was passed on to me by Robert Iskov.

When Lester, aged around 11, went home to Tallygaroopna, he was on crutches, one leg was badly wasted and the other leg was useless. He returned to regular schooling at Tallygaroopna State School which was across the road from his home. In line with his siblings he left school at 14 but, unlike his brother and sisters, he continued his education by correspondence with the Napier Street Fitzroy School. He passed the Intermediate Examination in 1937 and his Leaving Pass the following year. Return to top

Lonely

As a teenager he led an isolated existence and, according to his writings, he was very lonely. For a time he worked as a weighbridge keeper during the wheat season but he had to be helped by relatives and soon had to give up the job.

Lester was a serious young man with an odd sense of humour who was, according to later diary entries, ‘addicted to morbid spasms’. He wanted to be in love and often was but his hyper sensitivity regarding the ‘correct’ way to act meant his interractions with the opposite sex never went further than conversation.

Lifetime Diary Keeper

Lester kept a diary, on and off, for 56 years. Earlier fragments exist from 1938 when he was 17, and from 1940. He began daily diary entries in 1943 when he was 23 and living in a boarding house in Shepparton, Victoria. He worked at nearby Maroopna at the Ardmona canning factory and studied accountancy by correspondence. A large body of work, hundreds of essays, short stories, and verse exists which he wrote between the ages of 16 and 23, and in amongst all these pages is the occasional diary fragment. The early fragments of diary entries are very serious, one feels he may have had an eye on posterity, but as he grew older he relaxed and they became more conversational often showing flashes of his sometimes black wit. Return to Top

The wedding of Lester's sister, Merlyn, to Tom Mann. Sister Daisy is the matron of honour on the left.

His life was filled with study and writing and in April 1941 he sat for the first night of his Intermediate accountancy exam, and recollected it to the day when in Antwerp 38 years later. During the same month he took third place in both the accountancy and law exams run by the Australian Association of Accountants.

Lester boarded in Shepparton in order to be close to his place of work but he returned home to Tallygaroopna every weekend, taking the train, to stay with his parents and to catch up with whomever of his siblings were at home. With the advent of fulltime work Lester began to financially support his parents which continued for the remainder of their lives. Return to top

Work at the Ardmona Cannery

Through the week Lester worked at the Ardmona Cannery at Mooroopna, ‘did the books’ on Saturdays for Cec Thompson’s, a timber business in Shepparton, and studied accountancy at night. His social life, apart from time with his family in Tallygaroopna, was non existent.

The Ardmona Canning Factory at Mooroopna where Lester worked

The great delights of his life were his two nephews, Maurice and Sidney Roughsedge, who, with their mother Daisy, lived in Tallygaroopna and later at nearby Wunghnu. The boys were 12 and 13 years younger than Lester but he happily took part in their games and, despite the impediment of the crutches and his wasted legs, went with them on their walks through the pathless paddocks.

The Move to Melbourne

At the end of 1943 he moved to Melbourne to stay with his maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Canet, and her three daughters who cared for their demented mother. After searching for some weeks he found a job in the Public Service and moved, as a boarder, to Kambrook Road, Caulfield. The household included Mrs Agnes Niddrie and her daughter Leslie. At times Agnes’ son Ian, who had joined the army, was also in residence.

Lester and the Niddries became very close, he often went to the films with Agnes and, at one time, it is understood he was engaged to Leslie. In the mid fifties, when Lester bought a house in Chadstone, Agnes Niddrie, and also Ian, went to live with Lester. Lester helped care for Agnes until she died.

The house at Kambrook Road was close to Lester’s uncle and aunt, Charlie and Katherine Canet and it was Charlie who arrived in January 1945 to give Lester the news that Ulva was missing in action, his plane having been shot down over the Celebes. Lester had the task of telling his parents and Merlyn wrote to Ulva’s fiance Cynthia. In October the previous year Lester had been involved in buying an engagement ring for Cynthia. Ulva had chosen it during his leave but it had had to be altered and Lester was the one who dealt with Dunklings and who arranged for it to be sent to Cynthia who lived in South Australia. Return to top

Life in the Public Service

Lester worked as an accountant, initially with the Meat Control accounts section and later with the Repatriation Department. He ended his working life as internal auditor for the Department of Veteran’s Affairs in Melbourne. In August 1945, the same month peace was declared, his sister Merlyn, her husband Tom, and their daughter, moved from a boarding house to their new home at 4 Flowers Street, South Caulfield. Lester, who lived only a mile or so away, visited them twice a week. Every Thursday he went by tram directly from work, enjoyed a meal and then played cards for fun until it was time for a final cup of tea and the walk to the tram stop. Every Sunday after his lunch he went to Flowers Street again and played classical records on his Phillips radiogram before having a meal and once more joining Merl, Tom, and Tom’s brother-in-law, Vic Giacometti, for a hand of crib or five hundred. Apart from holidays, which Lester spent initially with his parents at Tallygaroopna, and later with Daisy in Wunghnu, Lester continued his visits to Flowers Street for 44 years. They only ceased after Tom Mann died and Merl began to follow her mother, grandmother, and great grandmother into the lost world of dementia..

From the time he began work, Lester divided his pay into sections, for living expenses, recreation, charity, and for his parents. He was very exact about his finances and became upset if he went over the limit in any area. He donated to charities all his life and sent money overseas for numerous foster children with whom he communicated on a regular basis.

Amnesty

He was emotionally and financially involved with Amnesty and although he wrote numerous letters to leaders of countries which were illegally imprisoning people, and although he sent a cheque to the organisation every year, when the annual ‘doorknock’ was held he wanted to participate in this and took the train, never an easy experience for a man on crutches with one leg, from Chadstone into the city in order to physically put some money into a collection tin. Return to Top

He hated to cause anyone embarassment or discomfort and went to extreme lengths to avoid this. If he thought he had caused anyone distress, it would worry him for days. He loved all animals and would do anything to look after spiders which wandered into his home. He had a delightful sense of humour, often at his own expense, and he made fun of himself in his diary entries. He went to great pains when thinking of others and often put himself in awkward situations in order not to cause others bother or distress

His mother, Lily Dudley, who was eccentric at the best of times and almost a hermit, became slowly demented after the death of her husband in 1950. After Charlie’s death, Lester bought the family home, which his mother continued to occupy. It was sold to the Shire of Shepparton in 1956 and later used for the pre school. Lester, the proud owner of a specially adapted car, moved his mother approximately every three weeks between the homes of his sisters, Merlyn (in Melbourne), Valerie (in Shepparton), and Daisy (in Wunghnu).

Lily is Killed

On 8 July 1955, when Lester was 34, he was taking his mother from Merl’s to the country, and had picked up a hitchhiker, when he was involved in an accident which took the life of his mother. He was hospitalised for many months, one of his wasted legs was amputated, and he later recuperated with Merl. His first action after the accident was to return his driver’s license to the relevant government department. Return to top

Lester remained a bachelor but had a special relationship with his two nieces and five nephews. He never forgot anyone’s birthday and as great nieces and nephews were born, 21 in all, he added them to his present giving roster for birthdays and Christmas. He was always close to his sisters and, quite apart from his regular visits to Merlyn, he rang Daisy weekly, and corresponded regularly with Valerie.

He was not only respected, but loved, by his staff in the Audit Department of the Repatriation Department, and many of them remained in touch with him to the end of his life. Lester was called The Boss, an amusing epithet for a gentleman, as he was described over and over. He acted in the correct manner at all times yet had a delightful sense of humour and his dry wit shines throughout the pages of the diaries which encompass approximately 6000 pages (which were written on both sides, thereby doubling the total) of both bound books and loose leaves,

Retirement

He enjoyed 17 years of retirement, packed with concerts, adult education lectures, gardening, visiting family, and caring for his pernicketty cat, Smog.

Lester died at Epworth Hospital in Melbourne on June 3, 2000, just six days before his 79th birthday. Return to Top

Found amongst his belongings, and dated 29 April 1985, was the following:

O Lord how easily
could I slip away
if I left not behind me
such a horde
of words?
How will they
unsay
after me
what I have said?
How will they
lay
my ghost that is my mind?
How will someone find
within the desert made
something to repay
all they have read?
O Lord let me tidy things up
before I’m dead.

He never did get things tidied up but left huge quantities of papers, diaries, poems, plays, criticisms and other writings. If you would like to read some early fragments from his diaries click here for the pdf. The next section, Shepparton, tells of the years when he boarded and worked as a young man and began his daily diary keeping. Return to Top