D is for Divorce

When I was a child I was told my grandfather Walter Sydney Hall died when my mother

Myrtle aged 25

was eight.  This wasn’t true as my grandmother left Walter and took her only child with her to Sydney.  Interestingly this event coincides with the death of Myrtle’s mother Christina.  I am unable at this stage to find any records of a divorce although I was later told this took place.

Myrtle with her first husband and my grandfather Walter Sydney Hall

As a trained dressmaker Myrtle was able to support herself and her daughter but I am guessing when the Depression arrived around 1928 the demand for bespoke gowns declined considerably.  Myrtle next appears in Queensland at my mother’s wedding in 1936 but now her name is Dighton.  Walter Hall died in 1933 so whether she married after she became a widow is unknown. Like my other grandmother she worked on properties as a housekeeper so probably met her second husband in that capacity.

Frederick George Dighton was an overseer and in 1943 they were living at Gidyea Plains, Charleville.  The rare times his name was mentioned he was not remembered fondly.  Sometime between 1946 and 1953 Myrtle married George Muir in Sydney, NSW, changed her name to Kay and opened a “Frock Shop”. I remember the apartment upstairs with its modern kitchen and bathroom, the dress shop  below and the large workroom behind with long cutting tables and sewing machines.

The love of Kay’s life was also called George but she never married him.

George, the man Kay should have married

She used to frequent fortune tellers and was told by one she would marry a man called George.  She happily replied that she was planning to marry a George.  The fortune teller warned that the man she was to marry she hadn’t yet met.  Did she marry George Muir for the prospect of being able to build and open her own dress shop?  It was an unhappy marriage.  As a small child I remember the tension in the air when I visited.  When Kay Muir Frocks was sold in 1963 my grandmother left her last marriage and men behind forever.

She avoided her last husband by living quietly at Bonnie Vale Beach near Bundeena, south of Sydney and later bought a unit on the beach at Cronulla.

I can’t find any records of the divorces.  I would like to know why she left the men she married.  She had such a charming, outgoing personality but seemed unable to find and keep a soul mate.