History

Dressmaker THE

REMINISCENT OF DELIA FALCONER’S POIGNANT NOVEL, THE SERVICE OF CLOUDS, THE STORY OF MISS PAGE –DRESSMAKER TO THE BLUE MOUNTAINS – IS ONE OF UNREQUITED LOVE AND DUTY, PLAYED OUT ON THE PRE- AND POST-WAR STREETS OF KATOOMBA.

In 2010, all that remained of the life and work of Violet Florence Page was contained in a couple of battered old cardboard suitcases destined for the tip. Inside were crumpled handmade frocks and paper patterns from the 1920s to 1950s, personal papers, a faded photograph of Violet and letters written to a young soldier apparently lost during World War II.

Peter Staton of Hazelbrook Cottage Antiques had purchased the cases as part of a deceased estate and, knowing of her work as a local seamstress and her love of vintage and local history, gave them to Lorna McKenzie of The Tailor’s Apprentice. Thrilled by the fortuitous fi nd, Lorna curated the contents of the cases, creating the Miss Page Collection of dress patterns and piecing together Violet’s story.

ESTELLE WEDDING GOWN FROM THE MISS PAGE COLLECTION, AVAILABLE ON ETSY FROM THE TAILOR’S APPRENTICE. MODEL: LILLIAN STARR.

Born in Sydney’s Rockdale back in 1910, Violet moved to the Blue Mountains in the 1940s and lived in Katoomba with her beloved dad, Fred Page. She worked as a waitress at the Paragon Café, where pay was a pittance. She hated the job, fi nding “needed laughter” with her fellow waitresses Iris and Thelma, with whom she formed lifelong friendships.

To supplement her wages, Violet turned her creative hobbies of sewing and painting into a successful dressmaking business, designing and handcrafting ball and tea gowns, and dresses for brides, housewives and babies.

But it is through Violet’s funny and frank letters, written every Thursday night to Private Kenneth James Grimison – her young soldier, who had been sent to fi ght in Malaya – that Lorna learned of the outcome of their doomed relationship. Dear Violet, I expect you gave up hope of ever hearing of me again. I received one letter from you after the capitulation, written June 1942. Being cut off from the outside world for over three-and-a-half years, all we know as yet [is] the war is over and freedom has come to us at last. I have lost a lot of weight, three stone in two months. The Thailand-Burma railway was a bad show. Feeling okay apart from a touch of beriberi. Malaria I had 29 times. We expect to be sailing home very soon. PS. You’ve probably forgotten who I am by now. Ken

Most of Violet’s letters, signed “lots of love”, were returned to sender by the Australian Defence Force. Private Grimison had been captured by the Japanese with the ill-fated 2/29th battalion Australian 8th Division, upon the fall of Singapore on February 15, 1942.

As a prisoner of war, Ken was sent to Changi Jail for more than three-and-a-half “hell” years of torture and deprivation then worked on the infamous Thai-Burma railway, before being returned to Changi. Violet received this last letter from him, scribbled in pencil and dated Changi Jail, September 18, 1945. Ken returned to his hometown of Deniliquin, in the Riverina region of New South Wales, where he eventually married and built a transport business. When Lorna tracked down his sister, Molly McDonnell, who turned 92 when this story came to light, she said Ken had hoped to marry a girl from Katoomba on his return from the war, but that she wasn’t at the dockside when he arrived. He believed she had married someone else and was heartbroken.

It is unknown if Violet ever waited at the docks for Ken. She continued her dressmaking in the mountains, sewing many bridal gowns but never her own. BML