Connecting Dot: - A Life in the 20th Century
28 January 2026
I wrote briefly about my mother in the story of my Nana's life My mother Dorothy Gertrude Butler was born 100 years ago this month on the 21st of January 1926 in her family's solid brick house in South Melbourne opposite the Eastern Road primary school where 3 generations of my family learned to read and write. My Nana, my mother, myself and my younger brother all attended the school in the years between 1907 and 1962. South Melbourne in those days was more like a village than the trendy inner suburb that it later became. Neighbours supported each other through the tough times like the first World War and the depression of the 1930s, as well as the everyday tragedies that occurred in many families in those times when there was no access to the modern medical services that we take for granted now. When my Nana gave birth to her 2 baby boys in 1929 and 1930 neither of them survived their first week of life. The first baby, Arthur George, died from pneumonia caused by Whooping Cough infection. With no vaccines or antibiotics like we have now this was an accepted risk of life in those times. The second one, Ronald, was born prematurely and suffered from a heart problem and with no humidi-cribs or the kind of advanced care we have available he died at just a few hours old. One of Mum's earliest memories is of being taken into the front room by her dad to be shown the little white coffin while he explained that her baby brother had gone to heaven. I suspect this would have been baby Ronald as she would only have been 3 and a half when baby Arthur died and would probably not have retained that memory.
Many families formed friendships that spanned generations and often evolved from friends to relatives by marriage. In 1938 Mum moved on from the primary school to the JH Boyd Domestic College (later known as South Melbourne Girls School) to study the subjects that most appealed to her. Cooking, some of which she had already learned from her Nana Wilson who was a great cook, sewing which led her to make most of her own clothes as well as to a career in dressmaking, working in Melbourne's well known fashion area Flinder's Lane from the time she left school at 15 until she married my Dad at the age of 23. Mum's best friend at JH Boyd was Muriel Muirhead. As they got older Muriel took my Mum to dances at the Soccer Club where her brothers played. That is where Muriel (known in her family as Bobbie) had met her future husband Richard Fox and Mum met William Guy (known to all his friends as Bill) who became her fiance.
Dot and Bill married at St Luke's Presbyterian church on 5th of November 1949. She was given away by her father Arthur Butler. Bill's Best man was Davey Dickinson partnered by Bill's cousin Christine and his Groomsman was his brother James Guy who was accompanied by Dorothy's friend and workmate Joyce.
Richie and Bobbie married in the October of that year so with the 2 weddings so close together neither girl was able to be her best friend's bridesmaid. The two families remained friends over the years and my brother and I grew up in the company of "Uncle Richie" and "Auntie Muriel" and their 2 daughters, Sandra and Robyn. We occasionally met some of Sandra and Robyn's many cousins and eventually in 1970 I met their cousin Ray who I married in 1972, thus cementing a friendship that was "like family" into a real family relationship. I had to learn to call Muriel auntie Bobbie so as not to confuse all her family and friends who only new her by her nickname. In 1980 after my daughter was born Bobbie confided that she thought she had done the wrong thing by her best friend Dot when she introduced me to "the black sheep" of the family but she was happy it had all turned out for the best. The marriage is still going strong after almost 54 years, and has led to the creation of this web site for our grandchildren Josh and Ella.
After their marriage Dot and Bill continued to live in South Melbourne around the corner from her parents for the next 15 years. Their life followed the traditional pattern of many families in Australia in the years after the Second World War. Dad going out to work as a plumber to support the family and Mum staying home to manage the housework and raise their two children. She was very involved with our school and eventually became the president of the Mother's Club. As we children got older she did some part time work sewing at home to supplement the family income and add to their savings.
Dad had left the Harbour Trust (The Authority responsible for running and maintaining the Port of Melbourne), where he had worked since finishing his apprenticeship, and begun his own plumbing business. A friend who worked as a subcontractor for a builder in the new suburbs that began to sprawl out to the North of the city in the 1950s and '60s suggested that Bill contact the builder, Alan French, about work as Alan was looking for a reliable plumber to work on the new houses that he was building in the Greensborough area at that time. Dad always said this was the most fortunate opportunity that ever happened in his life. Alan was a great employer to work for as he treated his contractors with respect and fairness and when he discovered that Dad liked to play golf he recommended him to join the Heidelberg Golf Club where Alan played every Wednesday in the men's competition and soon Bill was not only joining Alan for golf games but also arranging to purchase one of Alan's houses in the new suburb of Watsonia.
In 1965 we moved to Watsonia and despite Mum's original reservations about leaving the place where she had grown up surrounded by her family and friends she very soon made new friends, joining the mother's club of the Greensborough Technical School where my brother was enrolled. GTS was a boys only school specialising in teaching trades like wood and metal work and automotive skill which were considered "Male" jobs back then. Many years later it became the Co-educational Greensborough Secondary College where my grandson Josh is now about to enter his second year, and where all students can now select from not only the traditional trade skills but also the type of subjects which were once considered "Female" jobs like cooking and sewing, but have now transformed into Food and Textile Technologies, as well as Music and the more academic subjects.
Mum also joined the Golf Club as a non-playing social member where she made even more new friends at social events and was eventually persuaded to take golf lessons and join some of the other women in the ladies competition where she did quite well and won a collection of trophies over the next 40 years. As they got older Mum & Dad both joined the assocated Lawn Bowls teams. Dad continued to play golf as well until his memory began to fail and he became worried when he started forgetting his score that other members might think he was trying to cheat, although I am sure none of the people who had known him all that time would have thought any such thing. He was always concerend with doing the right thing and his philosophy throughout his working life had been if you are going to do a job do it to the best of your abitlity.
Dot's life was not marked by fame or great financial wealth. It was the sort of ordinary life that depended on family and friendships. In spite of making many new friends over the years both she and Bill maintained the the close friendships they had formed with classmates from primary school, and the friends Dad had played soccer and cricket with. Her greatest joy was probably watching her children grow up and create families of our own and her 5 grandchildren and the 3 great-grandchildren she lived to see and she would have been just as proud of her youngest Great grandchild who sadly wasn't born until after Dot's death in 2020.
