News from Australia.....

March 2015 – news from Jenny Gray-Winkless
"When Christine Tew (Selwyn 1960 - 64) long-standing Secretary and Treasurer of the SEOGG (St Elphin's Old Girls' Guild), contacted me some months ago to let me know she was coming to Perth, Australia in February I was more than happy to organise a get together to welcome her here. We ended up having not one but two fabulous meet ups.

The first one was with Pam Scott-Gale, Fiona Cooper Smyth and myself. We met Chris in the city and had a lovely chat over lunch at The Greenhouse. Fiona already knew Chris from her association with SEOGG, and her sister Rachel Cooper (who unfortunately couldn't make it) was at school with Christine's daughter Katrina Codling."

Below: LtoR: Jenny Gray-Winkless, Chris Tew, Pam Scott-Gale, Fiona Cooper Smyth

"The second one was arranged to include Jennifer Kerr-Walker (Junior School and Gresford 1961- 63), who had been in the same class with Christine in the 1960's and Ali Gracie who had been away for the first meet up. We met in Kings Park Botanical Café and shared lots of stories and laughter. Jennifer brought along a list of names of girls from school that she remembered and she and Chris enjoyed reminiscing about their school days, over 50 years ago! Jennifer had left school to move to Australia with her family in December 1963."

Below: LtoR: Ali Gracie-Biddiscombe, Chris Tew & Jennifer Walker-Kerr

"Jennifer discovered that Fiona, who sang at her friend's 70th recently, was an ex-St Elphin's girl and Christine bought a lovely photo of recently visited Margaret River from the gift shop, taken by Fiona's photographer husband, Richard Smyth.

Maybe a few more friendships will be rekindled from this reunion?"

Jenny Gray-Winkless

Click on the images below to see a few more images of this fantastic reunion.....

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February 2014
LtoR: Sue Green-Aylmer, Jenny Gray-Winkless (1971-1975, Wilson) and Paula Evans-Terry-Lancaster (1968-1973, Selwyn [3 years], then Pigot [2 years]).

February 2014
Three Little Maids From School
LtoR: Jenny Gray-Winkless, Ali Gracie-Biddiscombe and Fiona Smyth in Ali's garden

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June 2013

A chance meeting and another St Elphin's girl is located in Western Australia!
The Australian/New Zealand contingency of former St Elphin’s girls continues to grow and the Western Australians would like to introduce member 18 and welcome Jennifer Walker-Kerr who was at St Elphin’s from approximately 1960 to 1963 (Gresford House) and now lives in Perth, Western Australia.

Jennifer was attending a workshop on social media at Murdoch University in April with friends in a community group. Ali Gracie-Biddiscombe is a lecturer there and had been asked to help run the workshop that day. During the session on Facebook Ali decided, on the spur of the moment, to tell the story of why she joined Facebook for the 2008 reunion. She told the group about school friends she had been reunited with linking Western Australia to a small village in Derbyshire, bridging a gap of over 35 years and what a wonderful part Facebook had played in these reunions. At the end of the session Jennifer came up and the conversation went something like … ‘you know that small village in Derbyshire you mentioned? Was the school St Elphin’s?’ Ali and Jennifer spent the next few minutes going through the website and Jennifer is learning to use her Facebook page too! Jennifer was sad to hear the school had closed and said she is keen to locate other girls who were at school in the early 1960’s.

Last month Jenny met Jennifer for lunch and last night (June 9th 2013) by sheer coincidence we knew that four of us would be attending a very special Evensong with music by Jenny and Pam’s choir leader to honour locals with Order of Australia Medal – one of whom is Jennifer’s husband! So there we were all together afterwards and the occasion was duly photographed as we shared stories and some time together.  It was only the second time Ali had met Jennifer since the workshop and the first time Jennifer had met Pam. Jennifer and Ali were chatting and both agreed that their own experiences of chapel and singing there (Jennifer was an alto in the choir) had been a good part of school and fostered a love of choral music.

Above: Left to Right: Ali Gracie-Biddiscombe, Pam Scott-Gale, Jennifer Walker-Kerr and Jenny Gray-Winkless after a very special Evensong at St George’s Cathedral, Perth, Western Australia. June 9th 2013. [Please click on photo for larger version]

January 2013
Ali Gracie-Biddiscombe and Jenny Gray-Winkless decided it was time to make another visit to the east coast. Imagine their surprise when they found out they had booked on Liz Herridge's 50th birthday weekend. Liz was so excited she invited them to her holiday house in Maaroom to party! Seven Old Elphinians arrived including Sandra Carter-Winkworth from Mt Coolum QLD, Sarah Renshaw-Smith from the Gold Coast QLD, Sue Green-Aylmer from Sydney NSW, Sally Edeson-Campbell from Byron Bay NSW and or course the birthday girl Liz Herridge-Burmeister who drove most of them up there from Brisbane. Jenny says, "We had a fabulous time and all got on famously – it was as though we had all been best buddies at school! We certainly are now!"

Above: Back row LtoR: Sarah Renshaw-Smith, Liz Herridge-Burmeister, Sally Edeson-Campbell, Sue Green-Aylmer. Front row LtoR: Ali Gracie-Biddiscombe, Sam Carter-Winkworth and Jenny Gray-Winkless

Above: Back row LtoR: Sarah Renshaw-Smith, Liz Herridge-Burmeister, Sally Edeson-Campbell, Sue Green-Aylmer. Front row LtoR: Ali Gracie-Biddiscombe, Sam Carter-Winkworth and Jenny Gray-Winkless

Above: Back row LtoR: Jenny Gray-Winkless, Sam Carter-Winkworth, Liz Herridge-Burmeister, Ali Gracie-Biddiscombe, Sarah-Renshaw Smith, Sally Edeson-Campbell. Front: Sue Alymer-Green
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The West Australian and New South Wales Branch of the St Elphin's Sisterhood Reunion!

June 2012: Left to right: Sue Orme-Fell, Paula Evans-Terry-Lancaster, Sue Green-Alymer, Jenny Gray-Winkless and Ali Gracie-Biddiscombe Paula married Martin in Canada earlier in the month and then went to Sydney where Martin lives and works to celebrate. Jenny and Ali flew over for a weekend to be part of their Aussie Wedding Dinner and celebrations on the Saturday and stayed with Paula and Martin - Reunion Number 1! Reunion Number 2: The next day they caught up with the two Sue's who they knew lived in Sydney. It was 39 years since they were all together at St Elphin's (Paula, Ali and Sue Green had a mini Pigot reunion too, of course, with tales of Rotherwood a plenty!). It was such a wonderful celebratory day and they met at The Rocks in Sydney for lunch, then had a yummy afternoon cuppa/wine at the Park Hyatt Hotel. They are now planning a trip to Queensland to meet up with the girls over there!

December 2010 Pam Scott-Gale makes it 7 ex-St Elphin's girls in West Australia! Ali Gracie-Biddiscombe), Jenny Gray- Winkless and Pam celebrate Pam's arrival in West Australia and Jen's birthday.

June 1010 – West Australia Reunion LtoR: Seated: Suzanne Keyer, Janis McLaren. Standing: Fiona Smyth, Ali Gracie-Biddiscombe, Jenny Gray- Winkless, Rachel Parnaby.

June 2010 Everyone with St Elphin's 'T' shirts ('T' shirts from the November 2008 reunion)

2010 Rachel Cooper-Parnaby, Fiona Cooper-Smyth, Jenny Gray-Winkless and Ali Gracie-Biddiscombe). This was the first time Jenny and Ali met Rachel.

June 2009 Queensland VP tour and Reunion - Ali Gracie-Biddiscombe and Sandra Carter-Winkworth of St Elphin's.

June 2009 Pam Scott-Gale & Ali Gracie-Biddiscombe at Perth Airport

November 2008 Ali Gracie-Biddiscombe), Janis McLaren and Jenny Gray-Winkless) in Perth, Western Australia, 'Skypeing' with Pam Scott-Gale in Blenheim, New Zealand and Sandra Carter-Winkworth in Brisbane. They also chatted on-line to Kay Bibby in the USA and some of the 50 girls who gathered for the UK 2008 Reunion

October 2008 Ali Gracie-Biddiscombe and Jenny Gray-Winkless were the first two ex-St Elphin's girls to meet up in Australia – two weeks before the November UK/Australia reunion!

October 2008 Sandra Carter-Winkworth) and Jenny Gray-Winkless) in Brisbane.

Jenny Gray-Winkless in St Elphin's tennis gear! Jen took the tennis whites with her to Australia when she emigrated in 1980! It is to be used by Ali Gracie- Biddiscombe for the making of a memorial quilt in Australia and will be displayed at the next big UK Reunion in 2013.

Ali Gracie-Biddiscombe) in Carrie Wareham's Sunday Silk! Carrie sent the silk from Dubai to Ali in Australia. It is to be used by Ali for the making of a memorial quilt in Australia and will be displayed in the next big UK Reunion in 2013.

As far as we are aware there are currently (May 2011) 15 St Elphin's girls living in Australia/New Zealand:

7 in Perth, Western Australia [(Ali Gracie-Biddiscombe, Jenny Gray-Winkless, Janis Mitchell-McLaren, Fiona Cooper-Smyth, Rachel Cooper-Parnaby, Suzanne Hope-Keye), Pam Scott-Gale]

4 in Brisbane, Queensland [Sandra Carter-Winkworth, Beverly Whelpton-Neate, Liz Herridge-Burmeister, Sarah Renshaw-Smith]

2 in Sydney, New South Wales [Sue Orme-Fell, Sue Green-Aylmer]

1 in Byron Bay, New South Wales [Sally Edeson-Campbell]

1 in Auckland, New Zealand [Ruth Davys-Aubrey]

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