FatherWilliam Henry Lee b. 1888
MotherBeatrice Maud Steer b. 12 Jul 1893, d. 1982
Pedigree

Birth, Death, Marriage

Margaret Shirley Lee married William John Sellwood on 20 December 1952.1 

Family

William John Sellwood
ChartsSteer, Edward, descendant chart

Story

Margaret Shirley was born in Lake Boga, Victoria in the early 1930s. She was the 6th and youngest child of William and Beatrice.2
 
Margaret Sellwood (Lee) remembers Tom & Sis Phillips visiting Beatrice and the family in a big flash American car (the Studebaker) when they lived in Lake Boga. She was about five years old and commented that 'It was like they were from another world'.3
 
When Frank was about eight and Margaret about six, their parents separated and they moved with their mother from Lake Boga to Mooroopna.4
 
Life at the Cricketer's Arms Hotel
Beatrice's niece Bub Williams had the Cricketer's Arms Hotel in Mooroopna and lived there with her son Graeme and mother Alice. Beatrice, Frank and Margaret also lived at the hotel.5,6,4
 
Bub had Alice help run the hotel, and Beatrice became one of two cooks, the other being Ma Hawking.

Beatrice enjoyed the peacefulness of a room with her two children.

Frank, Margaret and Graeme started school in Mooroopna. Graeme attended the Mooroopna State school.7,8,9,4
 
Beatrice saved enough through her work at the hotel to buy a house in Elizabeth St in Mooroopna, and later moved there with Frank and Margaret.9
 
Dancing 
Margaret loved her dancing.

I started to learn dancing from Hazel King. We learnt tap, ballet, toe and national dancing (Scottish, English and Irish). We danced at the airforce camp at the Shepparton Showgrounds during the war years to entertain the forces. We did national dancing competitions at sports meetings and got money prizes for winning medals. I used that money to pay for my dance lessons. The Moyle family lived two doors down from us and Joyce Moyle and I used to practice tap dancing on the back of an old truck after school. [Margaret Sellwood]4

 
In about 1944, Margaret went to Cobram for some highland dancing. Her brother Bill (Philip) drove. Whilst there with her mum Beatrice, they visited 'an elderly aunt'. This was 'Auntie Lottie', Charlotte Steer. Beat visited while Margaret was doing her dancing.10,11
 
Mooroopna Base Hospital
Beatrice and Margaret both worked for a time at the Mooroopna Base Hospital.

Mum worked at the Mooroopna Base Hospital as a cook. Each night she would prepare the porridge for breakfast the next day. One day the porridge exploded and Mum was badly burnt. She spent a long time in hospital and had really nasty scars for the rest of her life. Of course she couldn't work for several months after that. Matron said Mum would have to get someone to work in her place to save her job. I had just finished school and got my Merit Certificate so I took Mum's place but I wasn't allowed in the kitchen. I worked in the laundry. That was my first job. [Margaret Sellwood]4

 
Margaret later took on a four-year apprenticeship as a ladies' hairdresser with her cousin Nene Courtie's daughter, Pauline Leskie.4
 
Margaret met her future husband throught her brother Frank.

My brother Frank played footy for Mooroopna and one night he brought John Sellwood home for tea and that was it. We were married in 1952 and lived in Undera for the next 52 years. [Margaret Sellwood]4

 
Marriage and Family
Margaret Shirley Lee and John William Sellwood wer married on 20 December 1952. They had four children.4,1
 
Writing
Like her mother Beatrice and sister Effie, Margaret was a prolific writer. They wrote stories of their personal lives, most unpublished. Margaret compiled her mother's. A story of Margaret's life can be found in Salt of the Earth (2016).4,9
 

Citations

  1. [S51] Margaret Sellwood, personal communication, 6 April 1996.
  2. [S380] Margaret Shirley Lee, birth registration no. 20077, unknown date.
  3. [S51] Margaret Sellwood, personal communication, 3 March 2012.
  4. [S563] Salt of the Earth: Inspirational stories of Mooroopna & Ardmona women, Mooroopna Education & Activity Centre, 2016, pp. 51-54.
  5. [S376] From the Memories of the Life of Beatrice Lee, unpublished, 1987, p. 11.
  6. [S58] Violet 'Bub' Williams, personal communication, 28 September 1996.
  7. [S265] Graeme Williams, personal communication, 31 January 2013.
  8. [S58] Violet 'Bub' Williams, personal communication, 7 July 1996.
  9. [S376] From the Memories of the Life of Beatrice Lee, unpublished, 1987.
  10. [S51] Margaret Sellwood, personal communication, 8 July 2014.
  11. [S51] Margaret Sellwood, personal communication, 27 December 2019.