A war bride’s story
Speech delivered at the Australia Day 2013 School Assembly Ms J Colwill, Creative Arts Faculty The tradition of noting the 26th of January began early in the nineteenth century and refers to The First Landing Day or Foundation Day. This was the day in 1788 when Captain Arthur Phillip arrived at Sydney Cove to raise the Union Jack as a symbol of the British occupation of the eastern half of the continent. Prosperous immigrants in Sydney, especially those who had been convicts or the sons of convicts, began marking the colony’s beginnings with an anniversary dinner to celebrate their love of the land that they lived in. People have continued to migrate to Australia ever since. This is the story of one of them. Beryl was born in London on 29th April 1926. World War II started in 1939 when Beryl was 13 years old. As you can imagine, this was a time of great anxiety…