Chapter Six
Family
A Quite Wonderful Day · Pat · Ian · Nicole · Five Grandchildren
At the centre of everything Alec MacKelden did was his family. He wrote his memoirs not for any public audience but for his children, grandchildren, and perhaps their children — "to establish a link with the past." The title he chose for those memoirs says everything: "A Quite Wonderful Day."
Patricia Snowdon — "Mummy"
Alec met Patricia ('Pat') Snowdon of Redcar, Yorkshire at a Town Hall dance in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire in the late summer of 1941. She was a corporal in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), stationed at Hemswell Bomber Station. He recalled the moment with characteristic romance: "It really was a case of 'you may see a stranger across a crowded room' — we simultaneously caught each other's eye, smiled and within minutes were dancing together." They became engaged in October 1941, were married on 20 June 1942 at St. Peter's Church, Redcar — the same day Tobruk fell to Rommel — and remained married for over 50 years.
Ian and Nicole
Their son Ian was born on 9 January 1944 while Alec was overseas on embarkation leave — they had just days together before he sailed for Italy. "I received a very welcome telegram informing me of the birth of our little son, Ian. I was understandably both delighted and relieved." Their daughter Nicole (Niki) was born in April 1947 in Cheltenham. Both children were educated at leading Australian private schools — Ian at Haileybury College and Nicole at Presbyterian Ladies College — a priority Alec pursued from the moment he could afford it.
Five Grandchildren
Alec was devoted to his five grandchildren: Toby, Matthew, Claire, Edward, and Alexander. He dedicated his memoirs to his eldest grandson: "To my beloved first Grandson, Toby — and perhaps even a future generation of MacKeldens! With love." He wrote: "I would like to be around when you, my grandchildren, of whom I am very proud, grow to adulthood... In you! as long as memory lingers, I shall still live!"
The Homes They Made
From a modest terrace in Cheltenham to a waterfront home on the Gold Coast, the MacKeldens made a life together across three countries and six decades.
Cheltenham, England (rented)
212 Prior's Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
"Our very own first home, a brand new council house at 28 shillings a week. We were in paradise. Three bedrooms, a sitting room, a kitchen — and an additional loo and bicycle shed outside. Twenty-six years old and it was all ours."
Cheltenham, Melbourne (owned)
56 Centre Dandenong Road, Cheltenham, Victoria
"Purchased for £5,900. Our first owned home in Australia. We were 35 years old, had been in the country just over a year, and had arrived with about £800."
Burwood
No. 3 Yeovil Road
"An acre of land with two 'en tout cas' tennis courts and a house built around 1930 that had served as a private tennis club. We replaced the nearest tennis court with a swimming pool, Grecian columns, a pergola and new gardens of Pine, Silver Birch and Poplar."
Beaumaris
'Trade Winds', No. 381 Beach Road
"Right on the beachfront. The views over Port Phillip Bay were unsurpassed. It even had an inside elevator to the top floor. The first celebration there was Ian's 21st birthday party."
Sydney
1 Anatol Place, Gordon
"Six bedrooms, three-and-a-half bathrooms, a 40-foot swimming pool and a 3-car garage. We had an English-style pub, 'The Pub', built in the basement for entertaining."
Double Bay
39 Ocean Avenue, Double Bay
"A three-bedroom apartment with a long balcony overlooking well-maintained gardens and the swimming pool. 'Apartment life — no gardening or other similar chores to worry about!'"
Pymble
'Amber Cottage', 56A Telegraph Road
"Three-quarters of an acre among trees, two hundred metres back from the road. Like something out of a children's story book. Mummy installed her Baby Grand Piano in 'The Music Room'."
Darling Point
13 Sutherland Crescent, Darling Point
"A large old waterside home, circa 1890, jointly purchased with Ian and Niki's families and divided into two spacious apartments. Twelve months of renovation before occupation."
Broadbeach
'The Breakers', Broadbeach, Gold Coast
"Their retirement apartment, a former holiday home they had long known, where they moved on leaving Sydney in 1987."
Runaway Bay
Bayview Tower, Bayview Harbour, Runaway Bay
"Part of an exclusive Gold Coast complex. 'Life in retirement has been kind to us, and now free of all commercial and charitable responsibilities, we are thoroughly relishing each and every moment of the time that remains to us.'"
"A Quite Wonderful Day"
In 1987, at the suggestion of his son Ian, Alec sat down to write his memoirs. He typed them himself, completing the main text at the end of 1987, with an epilogue added in 1996. They were privately printed by Bob E. Collins Hand Binder on the Gold Coast.
"All I hope — and pray, for each of you is that you may grow and mature and live in a civilised world where people and nations are finally at peace with one another, and that universal education has erased ignorance, poverty, disease and want from the face of the Earth. My blessings upon each of you — for in you! as long as memory lingers, I shall still live."— Alec MacKelden, from his memoirs, 1987
A Letter to Toby
Bayview Tower, Runaway Bay · 21 June 1999
In June 1999, nine years before his death and following a trip to Europe with his eldest grandson Toby, Alec sat down at his desk at Bayview Tower and wrote Toby a letter. He was 76 years old. It is, in many ways, the most personal document in this archive — a grandfather writing to his grandson not about the past, but about the future; not about what he had done, but about what he hoped they would do.
43 Bayview Tower · 21 Bayview Street, Runaway Bay, Queensland · 21 June 1999
My Dearest Toby,
I write simply to confirm a verbal request I made of you at sometime during our recent tour of Europe together. Without wishing to appear morbid, I am becoming increasingly aware of our limited tenure on life — and what will happen to my family when that tenure expires.
It has taken Nanny and I a lifetime of economising — spurning little luxuries we could have probably afforded for ourselves, to slowly accumulate what we plan to leave — because we wanted to provide our offspring with a financial 'leg up' in life that we didn't receive. So Toby, I come to our grandchildren — of which you are the eldest — and probably most influential! Nanny and I would be bitterly disappointed if the legacies to our treasured grandchildren were to be squandered on meaningless trivial possessions, when what we really intended was to give them a modest start in life.
We both feel that in your capacity as No. 1 grandson, we would like you to personally pass the message on to your brothers — and even your cousins.
Finally, when we leave, don't mourn for us — for as long as you remember us with love — we shall still live in your heart. God bless you — and may your life be as long, as happy and as wonderfully fulfilling as ours have been.
With all my love,
Poppi
This letter was written by Alec MacKelden to his eldest grandson Toby in June 1999. He was 76 years old. He died nine years later, on 21 October 2008.
"Don't mourn for us — for as long as you remember us with love — we shall still live in your heart."— Alec MacKelden, in a letter to his grandson Toby, June 1999
A Quite Wonderful Day
"It is said that it is not until the evening has finally descended upon us, that we begin to appreciate how truly splendid the day has been. Looking back, I can only say that for Mummy and I, it really has been 'A Quite Wonderful Day'."— Alec MacKelden, epilogue to his memoirs, 1996
End of Chapter Six
A Quite Wonderful Day
1922 — 2008