OBITUARY
PROMINENT Mount Gambier citizen Evelyn Arthur died peacefully on March 30, a few weeks short of her 97th birthday.
Born on May 5, 1925, in the locality of Blackbank on the England/Scotland border, not far from Gretna Green, Evelyn attended Carlisle and County High School and then moved to Edinburgh where she qualified as a dietician.
She had a sliding door moment in Carlisle in 1945 when a grumpy bus driver caused her to miss her bus back to Blackbank and, to pass the time while waiting for the next bus, she went to visit the Browns, a family she knew.
It was there that she first met Eric (Ric) Arthur from Mount Gambier.
Ric was stationed in the UK with the RAAF in Bomber Command and was being billeted by the Browns on R&R leave from his squadron.
When they met their lives changed in an instant.
A few years later, after working in London for a while, at Ric’s request she bravely took a boat and came out to Australia to visit him in Mount Gambier, and to see whether she would like to stay in Australia and marry him.
Mount Gambier was a long way from the sophistication of London and Edinburgh and, as Ric drove Evelyn into town for the first time, she said she half expected to see tumble weeds rolling down the main street and horses tied up at hitching rails.
To Ric’s great delight, and Mount Gambier’s good fortune, she decided to stay and never regretted it.
Together with Ric, she threw herself into the local community, built an architecturally unique home on Bay Road, raised four children, made lifelong friends and became one of Mount Gambier’s most avid supporters.
Initially she worked at the Arthur Studio photographic business, where she hand coloured wedding and portrait photographs with oil paints in the 1950s and 60s before colour photography became affordable. Many of the photos she hand coloured found prized and valued positions on the walls and mantelpieces in homes across the South East and Western Districts.
In the 1970s she started working at Reidy Park Primary School. As one of the first teacher aides in South Australia, she bucked the trend of teaching using the “whole language method” that was in vogue at the time, instead using phonics to teach two generations of children to read, and thereby leaving an indelible mark on these children, now adults with children of their own.
After retiring she continued to volunteer at Reidy Park, assisting children with reading difficulties, well into her 80s. Her final few years were spent at St. Mary’s Boandik, where she enjoyed the caring community and made the most of the many social activities on offer.
An annual book prize in Evelyn’s name, for the most improved reader in Years 1 and 2, has been established at Reidy Park Primary School.
Evelyn’s funeral was held last week at Carinya Gardens Cemetery.
She leaves four children, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
