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Archive for the ‘Peggy Beatty’ Category

New chapter covering 1935 to 1946

Posted in Archibald Beatty (c1836-1897), Beatty family, Charles Gordon Beatty, Constance Mary Forster, Coutts Family, Enniscrone, Mont Albert, Victoria, Australia, Enniscrone, Thornton, Victoria, Australia, Gwen Littleton, Harold Beatty, James Beveridge Coutts, Peggy Beatty, Sheila Beatty on August 17, 2021| 4 Comments »

I finally got around to writing more of the family saga. Being locked down has advantages. Fittingly it’s Chapter 13 – as everything went wrong for the Beattys of “Enniscrone”, Mont Albert and of Stanhope Grove over this period. Mind you a lot of other people’s lives were stuffed up during WW2 as well. I was going to call it “Camelot unravels” or somesuch, but thought maybe that’s too corny? Anyway, the section on Harold finally gives a point to the name of this website and the photo at the top of it, which is “Enniscrone”, Thornton (taken 1975) from Walker’s property looking across to Mt. Cathedral with Taggerty out of sight to the right.

I have to acknowledge the Diary of Peg Beatty as a really fabulous source. Unlike many diaries it isn’t a sounding board for her feelings and opinions, in fact she so rarely expresses either that it really gets your attention when she does. She just records every move she and members of her household make, including frequent mentions of numerous extended Beatty and Forster family that she sees or exchanges letters with, and she writes every day without fail for 55 years. Maybe I should offer it to the National Library?

I can’t write much further ahead now though I’ll think about it. My policy is the same as most family historians which is that you don’t mention people who are still alive, but you also don’t want to upset anyone – though I try to be very fair. I do have a fair bit of stuff about Harold Forster and Hilda Forster which ought to be up there and so I should get on with that next.

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New chapters of the Beatty family story – the 1930s

Posted in Archibald Beatty (1877-1946), Beatty family, Charles Gordon Beatty, Enniscrone, Mont Albert, Victoria, Australia, Harold Beatty, Littleton family, Peggy Beatty, Victoria, Australia, Winifred Blair, tagged on October 15, 2015| 2 Comments »

“Enniscrone” 12 Trafalgar Street, Mont Albert. Home of Archie and Connie Beatty and family. Front and drive 1932

After wading through hundreds of (mostly unlabelled) photos, several years of Peg’s diary and various letters and other stuff, I’ve added two new chapters of our family story: see the links to them in the right hand column. Chap 11 deals with the family from 1930-1935 and includes the move to “Enniscrone”, Mont Albert. Peg’s diary records many visits to and from other branches of the Beatty and Forster family, and I’ve mentioned many of these. The Littleton family, particularly Ruth, Geoff and Gwen occur in many of the photos.  Chap 12 is mainly about Harold and his friends and their camp at Rye Back Beach on the Mornington Peninsula, which they called McBeatsome Town.

I have to say it’s a lot easier and more rewarding writing about this very well-documented end of the family story. It’ll probably take another visit to Ireland to tease out more about the early 19th century Beattys with no guarantee even then.

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Hilda, house parties and the whole Carron Vale thing

Posted in Archibald Beatty (1877-1946), Beatty family, Carron Vale, Mooroolbark, Victoria, Australia, Constance Mary Forster, Gordon Ewing Forster, Harold Beatty, Hilda Mclean Forster, Peggy Beatty, Stanley Wiseman Forster on June 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Carron Vale, Mooroolbark, about 20 miles from Melbourne near Mount Dandenong, was the country home of Archie, Connie, Harold and Peg Beatty from 1913 until late 1927. Hilda Forster lived with them for most of that time, along with Connie’s  lady companion and various staff.

Verandah with “boy’s rooms” at Carron Vale

It had a golf course and tennis court, and every weekend Stan and Gordon Forster among other friends and relations would congregate there. It sounded like Camelot at Mooroolbark from the stories we heard from Harold, Peg and more recently from their cousin Gwen Taylor (nee Littleton) who, along with her older brother and sister Geoff and Ruth was a frequent visitor.  As with other Camelots there was also the sense that everything was not quite as perfect as it seemed.

It was an exciting place for Harold and Peg to spend their childhood though.

I’m posting this because I’ve written up all of the Carron Vale period into “Our family story” (see the chapters on the side menu), although I might add some more photos as I get around to it.  There are albums full of them!

Next I’ll deal with Harold’s jackarooing period and the 1930s. It might take a while though as there’s a lot of photos and documents to sort before a clear timeline emerges to hang all those stories of his on.

I’d love to hear from anyone with further information about the family at this period, especially corrections to, different versions etc. of this story.

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