the Elizabethan Trust on a national tour and as Roo in the first commercial production of The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll in Sydney 1956. His film credits include His Majesty O’Keefe, The Shiralee, King of the Coral Sea and Long John Silver. In April 1950, Betty Leggo and Lloyd Berrell starred together in a 3AK radio play called Honeymoon for Three. In the Newcastle Sun newspaper of 1 November 1954 under the heading Husband, Wife are Radio Team, Betty Berrell was quoted: “I’m sure getting married was our lucky decision … We feel we help each other – we are critical and at times perhaps a little unkind, but complete honesty with each other has improved our acting. We are both rather undomesticated, but somehow we muddle through”. Betty said she was not fazed by her husband’s adoring fans. Being a ‘pretty fair-haired girl’ she received many fan letters herself from radio listeners. In 1956 the Berrells worked together in the Australian Radio Productions drama series Life in the Balance, which also starred Ruth Cracknell and June Salter.
ciety then boarded a plane home to the US. The documents gave a series of clues: Betty starred opposite George Fairfax in the comedy Lullaby at St Martin’s Theatre, South Yarra. She lived in Mathoura Road, Toorak and had travelled to Italy. A passport issued in 1976 gave her name as Mrs Ruby Elizabeth J. Berrell nee Leggo. There was a photo of her marriage at GGS Chapel on 8 October 1945 to Flight Lieutenant Roberts Christian Dunstan. An OGG, Dunstan was well known as a one -legged gunner in the RAAF in World War II, was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, became a journalist and film critic for the Herald newspaper and later a Victorian MP and minister. Some database sleuthing by Katie Rafferty of GGS Alumni Relations revealed that Betty Berrell was a Clyde Old Girl and sister of Joan Laidlaw (Leggo). She then tracked down Betty’s nephew Stephen Laidlaw (a GGS parent and son of Joan Laidlaw) who was thrilled to be reunited with Betty’s paintings and documents Although Betty was quite a talented artist, she apparently painted for her own enjoyment and did not exhibit or sell her artwork. Betty died in 1995 (exact date not confirmed). She was a beautiful and charismatic person with a remarkable career and life story.
Tragically, Lloyd Berrell died at sea, aged only 31, on 30 December 1957 while on a trip to Europe with Betty aboard the French liner Caledonien. He died during a flu epidemic on the ship, just after it left Guadeloupe, heading for Madeira off the north-west coast of Africa. Betty was unexpectedly widowed and alone on arrival in Paris. In 1958 newspaper articles indicated that Betty and her sister Joan had sold their company Avlo Australia Pty Ltd (A Victor Leggo Ltd, founded by their father in 1906) to Blythe Chemicals. The company’s managing directors then combined forces and bought A Victor Leggo & Co back under their own control.
Information from the GGS database, the Herald Sun, trove.com for newspaper articles, the internet, the Cluthan 1930-1931, Stephen Laidlaw and the Australian Dictionary of Biography (Leggo). Jillian Elizabeth Boldiston (Meares) 20 August 1950 – 1 November 2014 Clyde 1964-1967
Betty continued her acting career, working alongside many of Australia’s best known actors of the era. As Betty Berrell, she had roles in Armchair Mystery Theatre (1960 TV mystery drama), Night Stop (1963 ABC Melbourne-produced television play set in England), Double Yolk (1963 ABC-produced TV movie combining two short plays By Accident and With Intent), Happily Ever After (1961-1964 UK produced TV series) and The Golden Legion of Cleaning Women (1964 Russell Street Theatre for the Union Theatre Repertory Company). There were numerous other productions.
Jillian Elizabeth Meares was born on 20 August 1950, daughter of Sheila and Bob Meares. She had a brother Robert Meares. She boarded at Clyde from 19641967. With her warm and friendly personality she made lifelong friends. She kept in touch with Rosie Fairbairn-Watt (Fairbairn) and enjoyed the school reunions and lunches which she attended over the years. After leaving school Jillian worked at a pre-school in Armadale with Miss Morris (Morrie) and then for several years at a children’s home in Beaumaris. She married Douglas Boldiston in 1976 and stayed at home to raise three children; Andrew, David and Nicole. The Boldiston family went on many family holidays to Hong Kong, Vanuatu, Fiji, New Zealand, Tasmania and Merimbula and up to the family property in the Riverina.
Most recently Betty came to prominence when the Herald Sun published an article on 20 February 2015 headlined “Who knew of Betty?” A shopping bag filled with personal documents along with 20 paintings triggered a search for family and friends of “glamorous Melbourne actor and painter Betty Berrell”. Two American women had found the items when clearing out the home of a male friend in Melbourne, delivered them all to the Victorian Artists’ So38