Judith’s expanding horizons in the 1950s

Judith received her “Leaving Certificate” at the end of 5^th Form (year 11) in 1951 from Camperdown High School in country Victoria, Australia.[i] 

After graduating, Judith got a job at one of the five banks in town. She swapped her school uniform for a bank uniform and began to ride her bicycle to work rather than school.

Photographer unknown, National Bank Employees Standing in front of the National Bank Camperdown, circa 1852, Victoria, Australia [T375]

Her evenings and weekends were a whirlwind of social activity. She attended local dances, including two debutant balls with her high school sweetheart, Patrick Mitchell. The first debutantes’ ball was the “High School Ex-Students Ball”, in August 1951, where Judith was one of sixteen debutantes.[ii] Propriety dictated that the girls were to be modest and have their shoulders covered, Judith, wondering where she would ever wear such a dress again, chose a shoestring strap gown that was more versatile  The gown was described in the papers as having a “Fitted bodice of broderie anglaise, with appliqued skirt, and appliqued shoulder cape of matching tulle”. The translucent cape enabled her to meet the requirement of covering her shoulders, even if it was a bit daring.

Photographer Frank Rhodes, Group photo of attendees at the Camperdown High School Ex-Students’ Association Debutante Ball Dress, Monday 9 August 1951, Theatre Royal, Camperdown, Victoria, Australia. (Judith is first on the right in the second row, her half-sister is the young girl in the front [T377]

Then came the Cobden Ball in September 1951, where she became the second runner up in the “Western district Belle of Debutantes”, from a field of 36 Debutants.[iii] She also played tennis at the St Andrew’s Church local Tennis club and rode horses as often as time would allow.

In a small country town, everyone knew your business. Not only were the dances reported in the newspapers but also her holidays:

“Miss Judith Todman, of the National Bank staff, Camperdown, is at present on annual leave.”[iv]

Then Judith’s stepfather, Stuart (Pop), passed away suddenly with no warning on 13 July 1952, just like her father had done when she was three. Pop was really the only father that she could remember and now he was gone. Once again everything changed as her brother was recalled from University, to which he would never return, to help his mother manage the farm.

After two years working at the bank, Judith wanted to see the wider world and so decided, almost a year after Pop’s passing, that nursing was the escape she was looking for. Judith moved to Melbourne in the middle of 1953 and began her nurse training, while living at the “Melbourne School of Nursing Student’s Hostel”, with other country and interstate nurse trainees.[v]

Photographer unknown, Graduating from Nurses School, 1956, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia [T348] From left: Wendy Dolling, June Mark, Barbara Lancomb, Phyllis Walker, Judith Todman, Louise Hamilton.

Halfway through 1956, Judith graduated from Nursing and immediately moved on to the midwifery course, which she completed during the following year. Her friend bought a Vesper Scooter. Judith was fascinated and went out and bought her own. They realised the freedom that the Vespers gave them to travel and the idea of an adventure was formed. Having received her double certificate, she returned home to work at Camperdown District Hospital in 1958. It was during this return to her childhood home that she decided to go through with her plans to travel to New Zealand, even though her original fellow travellers had dropped out. With replacement travelling companions found, Judith saved earnestly and after four months back in Camperdown was ready to launch off on her new adventure.

Judith and her two new girlfriends rode their Vesper motorbikes from Melbourne to Sydney and caught a ship to New Zealand, taking their bikes with them.  In between earning money as a lab technician, Judith and her friends toured around New Zealand for eight months. They arrived in New Zealand on January 28^th 1959 with 390 other passengers on the SS Monawarri. Much had happened in the 4-day journey across the Tasman. Judith had met John, eleven years her senior, an engineer and crew member. He had been so charming and attentive, so unlike the boys back home, debonair in his uniform.

Photographer Unknown, Judith and friend travel via Vespers from to Sydney via New South Wales, 1857, Australia Sandra Williamson’s private photograph collection [T337] [Judith of the right]

After returning from New Zealand Judith got a position at the Freemason’s Hospital, where she worked for six months, living in a flat near the hospital. But by June 1959 she was feeling restless again. There hadn’t been the camaraderie that she experienced during her training and being back in a uniform on the bottom rung again wasn’t much fun. 

Unhappy at work Judith dreamt of alternative futures: of working on the snowfields, getting a job as an air hostess or maybe even running away with John and starting a new life.  She returned briefly to Camperdown to attend her brother’s wedding. He was marrying one of her nursing girlfriends she had introduced him to. This was her third stint as a bridesmaid in Camperdown as more of her friends were settling down and getting married, staying and living in the place where they had grown up, but Judith realized she was not part of this world anymore.

On 23 July 1959 Judith finished up at the Freemason’s and used all her savings to buy a caravan and together she and John took off on their new adventure to look for work and a place to live.

They drove to the Grampians and lived in a caravan park. John managed to get some casual jobs close by in Stawell as a mechanic and some contract work in Mount Gambier.  Finally, he managed to secure a permanent position working for Frost Engineering in Hamilton, with a house as part of the employment contract.

Judith also managed to secure a position at the local Hamilton Hospital, however the job wasn’t the right fit for her and it didn’t work out. She then began working for a local photographer performing administrative support.

Photographer unknown, Judith Todman & John Williamson, 1959, Stawell, Victoria, Australia[T373]

John continued to look for better-paying work with a good house attached. Then, all of a sudden in the middle of 1960, he got an offer to work in Benalla and so they were on the move again.

Inspiration

This post was written in response to the writing prompt at Back to the 1950s  for more detail - see Elizabeth Swanay O'Neal, "The Genealogy Blog Party: Back to the 1950s," Heart of the Family™ (https://www.thefamilyheart.com/genealogy-blog-party-1950s/ : accessed April 28, 2022).

The story told here is but a partial telling of a much larger story as remembered by Judith herself and understood by her daughter Sandra and is based on continuing conversations that began a long time ago.

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Author 2022, Sandra Williamson

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Sources

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[i] 1950 'HIGH SCHOOL SCHOLARSHIP AND EXAMINATION RESULTS', Camperdown Chronicle (Vic. : 1877 - 1954), 10 March, p. 4. , viewed 28 Apr 2022, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23573857

[ii] 1951 'SIXTEEN DEBUTANTES AT H.S. EX-STUDENTS' BALL', Camperdown Chronicle (Vic. : 1877 - 1954), 17 August, p. 1. , viewed 28 Apr 2022, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28331337

[iii] 1951 'VICTORIAN DIARY Women lawyers have meeting', The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), 26 September, p. 9. , viewed 28 Apr 2022, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23082188

[iv] 1952 'PERSONAL', Camperdown Chronicle (Vic. : 1877 - 1954), 5 February, p. 2. , viewed 28 Apr 2022, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article24001922

[v] 1953 'PERSONAL', Camperdown Chronicle (Vic. : 1877 - 1954), 5 June, p. 4. , viewed 28 Apr 2022, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25114579