Trove Tuesday – Continuing with Uncle Rue

I wrote about Uncle Rue’s (Rupert Alfred FITTS) time in the Navy in my last blog.

I made a reference to the rumours about the ship he was on, the HMAS Australia being sunk and lives being lost. 

What a worry a rumour like this must have been to those back home in such an early stage of the war.

Here are a couple of articles about that: 

one disclosing the rumour, and 

one refuting it and claiming triumph in the sinking of a German ship.

Another article gives some details of Uncle Rue’s life after the war, with the Victorian Broadcasting Network, working his way up to become General Manager. 

He worked in various parts of Victoria, including Hamilton, Swan Hill and Sale.

This article also mentions Frank S CHAMBERLAIN who became his son-in-law, marrying Uncle Rue’s eldest daughter Marjorie FITTS.

Another marriage to come out of his employment with the radio network was that of his sister, Dorothy Louise FITTS. Auntie Doff was unmarried and moved to live with Rue and his family in Hamilton. 

As Margot, she had a children’s show on the radio. 

She would have been perfect for this as she was such a sweet lady, and right up until the day she died she had a wonderful sing-song voice. 

It was while living there she met the larrikin ex-soldier, Laurence Alexander HENDERSON who became my Uncle Hendy.