Jacqueline in Lahore in 1944. In 1946 Patrick and Mary ended their marriage.
ed as 1983). Mary El Effendi continued to live in her beloved Pakistan, eventually spending sixty years there, only returning to Perth occasionally to see family and friends. Her life in Pakistan was comfortable with servants looking after her, while she enjoyed entertaining Maharajas and other dignitaries, golf and bridge parties, fishing and camping and the frequent visits of many Australian friends and relatives.
Mary went to England where she married Hissam El Effendi (1913-1985), a Major in the Pakistan Army who was on leave while attending a course at Sandhurst Army Academy in the UK. Known as Brigadier Sardar Hissam Mahmud el-Effendi, he served in Burma 1939-1945, joined the Pakistan Army in 1947 and served in the Indo-Pakistan War (1965) as a special adviser to the GOC 6th Division. He was awarded several British, Indian and Pakistani medals for distinguished military service.
Finally in the 1990s, Mary returned to live in Perth. Despite her failing eyesight, she lived happily to the end, especially enjoying the company of her adored cat, Jo-Jo. She died on 9 September 2014 after a short illness surrounded by all her family – only a few months short of her 100th birthday. She was greatly loved by her extended family which included her nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
When Mary lived in India during her first marriage, the partition of the British Indian Empire was taking place which led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan (later Pakistan and Bangladesh) and the Union of India (later the Republic of India). At the time, the regional divisions of Bengal and the Punjab province also included dividing the British Indian Army, the Indian Civil Service, the railways and the central treasury. Riots and chaos ensued and when Mary and Hissam returned to India by boat from England in 1947, the country was in turmoil. Muslims and Hindus were at war with each other, nearly half a million were killed and 14 million displaced during the retributive genocide. The British viceroy Lord Mountbatten had sent British troops back to England and efforts to keep law and order were in chaos. Mary remembered trainloads of dead people arriving at the station in Lahore, Pakistan.
Information provided by her sister Audrey Horley (Burt), and great-nephew Simon Burt, the Australian Dictionary of Biography (Burt and Forrest), the internet and press articles. Kiera Alison Foletta (Stranaghan) 19 April 1920 – 23 February 2015 Clyde School house and teaching staff 1971-1976 Kiera Alison Stranaghan was born on 19 April 1920, the daughter of Helen Lillian and Andrew Harte Stranaghan. Following the First World War, Kiera’s family moved to Dookie in country Victoria where her father was appointed deputy principal of Dookie Agricultural College. Kiera attended Currawa Primary School, followed by a year of correspondence through Melbourne High School. She completed her secondary schooling at Melbourne Girls’ Grammar (Merton Hall) from 1933-1937, matriculating and qualifying for university entrance.
From 1947, Mary and Hissam El Effendi settled in Pakistan. They had two sons Podger (Azmari Javid Hissam) born in 1948 and Wicky (Azamat Adham Burman) in 1954. The boys went to school in Pakistan and to university in Perth. They became talented international polo players like their father who was president of the Lahore Polo Club. Mary loved watching her sons competing. Over the years they played in many different countries, Wicky also coached polo in Pakistan and Podger taught polo in Iran and Singapore.
In 1938, Kiera enrolled for a Diploma of Physical Education at Melbourne University, graduating in December 1939. An excellent swimmer, Kiera was the 1938-1939 Australian University diving champion, was awarded a Half Blue for diving and won the MacCallum Cup at the MU Women’s Swimming Club championships in May 1939. Through her love of water sports, Kiera met champion swimmer Howard Alan Foletta. In 1940 she moved to Perth WA to teach at St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls in Mosman, but was persuaded back to Victoria to marry Howard.
Mary’s sister Audrey Horley (Burt) went to visit her in Pakistan. Audrey recalls they were taken camping up into the Himalayas. Every convenience was transported up narrow precipitous tracks carved into gigantic rock mountainsides, with vertical walls on one side and a sheer drop to infinity on the other. Definitely not for the faint-hearted! The camp was fully catered with servants doing everything for the sisters. Audrey related that when fishing she caught about eight trout without even touching them. Another relative who went on a similar camping trip with Mary said he had never quite recovered from it.
Howard and Kiera Foletta settled at Acheron Park on the Maroondah Highway, Buxton in northern Victoria. Their family homestead was a gracious original Californian bungalow, set in a parkland of lawns, English oaks, elms, cyprus and a mature garden. Together they developed a substantial pig and dairy farm, one of the largest in Victoria, where Kiera meticulously maintained stud and farm records. Their first three children were born during this time; Hugh, Keren and Geof-
Hissam died at Lahore, Pakistan in 1985 (also report40