Vera Margaret (Castle) Hilton (abt. 1919 - abt. 2011)

Born about 4 Jan 1919 in Henley Beach, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia [uncertain]

Ancestors

Wife of Keith Denyer Hilton — married 30 Mar 1940 in Glenelg, South Australia

Died about 2011 at about age 91 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Biography

Vera attended the Grange Primary School and the Croydon Technical School. Her original ambition was to be a nurse and for a while she stayed home to help her mother.
As she had been good at mathematics at school, she eventually took a job with Burroughs, a firm which sold calculating machines. At stocktaking time each year, Vera was sent to various business firms to instruct them in the use of these calculating machines.
She was nicknamed “Ready Reckoner”. Perhaps her employers knew that Vera’s mother’s name had been Rechner! A good pun.
Vera’s next employment was as a clerk in the Government Auditor’s Office, where she was given further training in the use of calculating machines, becoming a fully qualified comptometrist.
It was here that she met Keith Denyer Hilton, who was working in the Police Court and studying law part time at the Adelaide University. He had been educated at Pulteney Grammar School in Adelaide.
Vera and Keith were married in 1940 at St Peter’s Church of England at Glenelg, a seaside suburb of Adelaide.
In 1942 Keith joined the 2nd A.I.F. and, as SX16183, he served as Lance Bombardier in the 108 Anti-tank Division. After nearly three years’ service he was discharged from the Army and returned to his law studies. He specialised in Company Law.
In 1947 he was appointed Registrar of the Companies’ Department, and in 1950 he became Senior Industrial Officer in the Department of Industry. He was a member of the Advisory Committee in Accountancy and the South Australian Institute of Technology. He was appointed Chairman of the Special Board of References.
In 1970 Keith became the first Industrial Magistrate of South Australia, a position he held for four years. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Accountants. He was also Registrar of the State Industrial Court and a Member of the Industrial Commission in Appeals Session. In retirement, Keith acts as a Justice of the Peace when called upon and still serves in this capacity at the age of 90.
Vera and Keith have two sons – Roger who is an Anglican priest, and Trevor who lectures at the T.A.F.E. College (Technical and Further Education) at Murray Bridge. Vera and Keith enjoy visits from their sons and grandchildren, and keep in touch with Vera’s older sister, Dorothea who lives nearby.

This is a works in progress and any assistance with information or source details would be very much appreciated.

Sources

• Information taken from the Weidenhofer Database compiled from family input and research for the book “A History of the Weidenhofer Families in Australia 1846 – 2004© ”.
  
• Reproduced with permission of Stewart Allen, Barry Malcolm and Carlien Melrose.
  

Further research is required to locate primary documents to satisfy Wikitree source standards.