Connection over distance

My neighbour Mrs Best

Donated by Susan Muller 

In memory of Marjorie Thalia Best 
11 October 1910 – 20 April 2011 

This Royal Albert Old English Rose bone china teacup, saucer and plate are donated in memory of my neighbour Mrs Best. Her family gave me this teacup when she moved into care. 

Mrs Best lived next door to me for almost 40 years, but it was only later in her life that we spent more time together. I was concerned about her living by herself and would frequently pop in to see her. 

Invariably, I would be offered tea and we would sit together in her kitchen drinking from this cup or another from her Royal Albert collection. It was at this time that Mrs Best would tell me about her remarkable life. 

As a young girl, she had a beautiful voice and after leaving Toorak College, attended the Melbourne Conservatorium. Mrs Best told me how Dame Nellie Melba came to hear her class sing and disagreed with some aspect of Mrs Best's voice training. Upon hearing this, her father decided that she should leave the conservatorium! 

With her lovely voice and clear diction, she then became “Tilly” on Radio 3DB. She loved radio and enjoyed her night shifts there. It was through a co-announcer at 3DB that she met and married her first husband Bill Brogan, an industrial chemist who had come to Melbourne to set up a factory for ICI.  

As war loomed, Bill was recalled to Manchester to take charge of the munitions factory there. During the war years, she constantly worried about the factory being an enemy target but despite some close shaves, it was never bombed.  

Soon after the war started, Mrs Best trained to become a Red Cross nurse. She often spoke about going to her First Aid Post in all weathers. When she talked about this, she would cast an eye at the framed photograph of her in uniform. As her family said in her eulogy, apart from becoming a mother and grandmother, she considered this her proudest achievement. 

After the war, the couple returned to Australia with their baby son. Her first husband died in 1958. She remarried and moved to Brisbane in 1963 and came to live next door. Her second husband Wally Best managed Dunlop and had been a prisoner in Changi. He was a great philanthropist and through him, she met the Queen at the time of the Commonwealth Games and when he received the CBE for his services to charity. 

Mr Best died in 1994. Mrs Best continued to live in Bardon surrounded by her beloved garden, feeding the birds at her kitchen window. In 2006, she moved to care and celebrated her 100th birthday with a small bottle of the best champagne. Marjory Best died at peace on 20 April 2011. It was a privilege to know her. 

Aunt Ruby's cup

Donated by Glynne Liddy 

All my life I have coveted this cup! It belonged to my Aunty Ruby, my mother's older sister. 

In 1932, Mummy (Olga) and Dad got married and went to live in Singapore. Every second year they came home to Brisbane to visit their family, and – of course – they brought gifts. This cup was one of them. 

It was so fine and pretty that Ruby never could bring herself to use it, so it was always kept for ‘good’, standing sadly on the sideboard. 

My lusting for it began in the 1940s when Mummy and I came home to Brisbane after Singapore fell; as Dad died in Changi, we never left. 

Although Ruby never actually drank tea from her cup, she used it as her ‘drink of water cup’ on her bedside table at night with (for heaven's sake!) the saucer on top, in case an errant moth or something flew into it. 

I always wanted that cup and saucer and thought I would use it all the time. I have owned it since 1965 and do you know ... I've never used it for a cup of tea either. 

My favourite teacup 

Donated by Helen Gregory 

My favourite teacup belonged to my grandfather. He was an avid reader who was devoted to libraries, where he nourished his love of literature and expanded his knowledge.  

He was also a wonderful storyteller. As we sat on his front verandah with our tea – milk with a mere dash of tea in my case – I was encouraged to devise stories about the people on the Royal Doulton Coaching Days cup.  

His questions fleshed out my stories: 

‘If they are leaving York and going to London, are they going north or south?’ 

‘Why are the goose and rabbit hanging on the back of the coach?’ 

‘What sort of dangers might they encounter on the journey?’ 

‘Could one set of horses take them all the way?’ 

These sessions and this cup gave me three wonderful gifts: interest in countries far away; an insight into the lives of people in times past; and an insatiable curiosity. 

Jersey Cup 

Donated by Margie Mander 

This cup, saucer and plate were given to me by an English friend of mine who was born and raised on the island of Jersey. An aunt of my friend Ellen was given them as a young lady and they were hand-painted by someone on Jersey. Ellen's aunt would be 120 years old had she lived.