Marjorie (Ridley) Clapp (1918 - 1980)

Born 19 Feb 1918 in Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Ancestors

Daughter of Amed George Ridley and Elizabeth Emma (Kempton) Ridley

Wife of Donald Keith Clapp — married 15 Jun 1941 in Victoria Park, Western Australia, Australia

Descendants

Died 24 Feb 1980 at age 62 in Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Mark Dorney [send private message]

Biography

The master version of this biography, which includes images, is maintained at http://www.dorneyfamilyhistory.net/famtree_web/History_maternal.pdf

Marjorie was born on 19 February 1918 in Perth, Western Australia to a farmer named Amed Ridley and Elizabeth Emma Kempton. Her eldest sister Dorothy was working at the hospital when she was born.

Marjorie had dark brown hair and blue eyes, and was five foot four (163 cm) as an adult. Her family lived at Coomberdale, near Moora, some 200 kilometres north of Perth. She was the youngest of twelve siblings. She was fond of all her brothers and sisters, but was closest to Dorothy.

Marjorie lived at Coomberdale for the first six years of her life.

By early 1925 her parents had sold their farm and shifted to a smaller property at Mundaring, named Bramcote, 35 kilometres east of Perth, where they operated a poultry farm and guest house.

In August 1928, a Miss Ridley, possibly Marjorie but also possibly an older sister, sent a specimen to the Perth Museum of Hydromogus Fuliginosus1, a native water rat with partially webbed feet with bodies up to 37cm in length.

In December of the same year the Mundaring State School held a concert. The major portion of the programme consisted in a reproduction of the operetta "Pearl the Fishermaiden”. Marjorie played one of the dancing mermaids.

Marjorie, like her sisters before her, wrote to “Aunt Mary” in the newspaper. The first letter I’ve found was in February 1929.

Her parents sold their property a few months later and moved to Perth, to 48 Sussex Street in Victoria Park.

Marjorie was not the only Marjorie Ridley writing in to the newspapers, which does make for some confusion.

The Daily News had a Sunshiners Club for children, and a friend that Marjorie had made at Mundaring, who had boarded there for a week with her family, Joyce Anderson, mentioned her in a letter to the Club in July 1929. Joyce was also living in Victoria Park. Marjorie always had to wear second hand shoes as a child and would later in life blame this as the reason her feet gave her trouble.

She wore long plaits and when she was about twelve years old she wanted short hair. Marjorie cut one of her plaits off, but her mother caught her before she cut the second one off and stopped her.

From 1929 to until her engagement notice in July 1938 Marjorie’s name does not appear again in the newspaper record.

After completing her schooling Marjorie trained as a dressmaker, and worked in that field until her marriage. When she had a family she would make all of her children’s clothes, at least until they were twelve or so and no longer wanted home made clothes. Her niece Maggie (her sister Maud’s daughter) was a very good dressmaker and did wedding dresses. When Maggie was especially busy Marjorie would catch the bus to her place and help her with handsewing.

Marjorie married Keith Clapp on 15 June 1940 at St Peter’s church in Victoria Park, located nearby to where they both lived. The witnesses were R Ridley and E W Grimey.

They had three daughters together, Lesley Maxine (1943), Susan Patricia (1947) and Pamela Ann (1950).

During the war Marjorie and Keith lived at her parents house at 79 Leonard Street, Victoria Park, but by 1947 they had moved to 2 Susan Street, Kensington. While in a different suburb, this was only a block away from her parents.

Her parents celebrated their golden wedding anniversary at her home in September 1947. Her mother died in 1953 and her daughter Susan remembers her as being extremely upset when her mother died.

In common with many other women at the time Marjorie never learnt to drive a car and would ride her bike to go shopping, hanging the shopping bags from her handlebars. She was very friendly and was popular with the shopkeepers. Every time she went to the hairdressers she would bring a sponge cake she had baked for the girls there.

Marjorie was a good cook who liked gardening, reading light fiction and keeping a welcoming house. She owned two Australian Terrier dogs, Tiny and Gretchen. Marjorie was not a religious person.

When the weather was cold she always made sure to have a hot water bottle wrapped in pyjamas placed in each of her daughter’s beds.

Sometimes she would short sheet her children’s beds and put rice bubbles in there. One time while having a water fight with her kids in the yard with a hose she put her left arm through the window next to the back door while trying to get away. There was lots of blood but no major damage. Despite all the blood all involved found it hilarious.

During the school holidays she would go with her daughters to visit her sister Evelyn who lived on small farm near Bunbury.

When her children were at Kent Street High School she would volunteer in the canteen. Marjorie was a kind, thoughtful, helpful and caring person, who did her best under sometimes difficult family circumstances.

As was common practice for the era, the children were bathed and fed before Keith came home. This was of greater importance in their household as Keith would usually go to the pub after work (for both networking and alcoholism reasons) and could often be quite difficult when he came home.

Each Friday the kids would get one cherry ripe and one violet crumble to share. Her husband Keith began his own stationery business in 1951, sharing an office in the basement of Yorkshire House, at 194 St George’s Terrace. The business sold stationery and office equipment to other businesses.

Marjorie was in generally good health throughout her life but fell ill with bladder cancer in her early 60s. She was in and out of hospital for a number of months with treatment and got on well with the hospital staff. There were many people at her funeral, including a number of doctor and nurses from the hospital where she had been treated. Keith visited one time while Marjorie was dying, but, according to his daughter Susan, just talked about himself. When asked why she put up with him Marjorie said she “felt sorry for the poor old bugger”.

I remember visiting Marjorie and I remember living with her. I know I liked her but have few clear memories. I remember my Mum joking with her about going swimming with her plastic bladder bag floating in the water, and I remember making a grocery store (I don’t recall all the details but it did involve screwed up newspaper for potatoes) and wanting Marjorie (Granny) to come and shop at the store. It felt like I had to wait a long time but she eventually came and bought some groceries and I was very pleased.

Browse newspaper articles about Marjorie at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?l-publictag=Marjorie+Clapp+nee+Ridley&q=

DNA Confirmation

• Paternal and maternal relationship is confirmed by an AncestryDNA test match between Marjorie's daughter Susan Clapp and Marjorie's niece Geoffrey Sales. Geoffrey is the son of Marjorie's sister Evelyn Ridley. Susan and Geoffrey share share 898 cM across 32 segments.

Sources

• Birth: Registry Index 1918/438
• Death: Close family members