Page 42 - Luce 2021

Obituaries

Elizabeth Irma Sevior (Creswell 1948) Beginning from seed, tens of thousands Valerie Constance Yule OAM (East 1946)
8 April 1931 – 25 September 2021 of native plants must have passed 2 January 1929 – 28 January 2021
through her hands over decades, as
she regenerated land as a volunteer
My mother throughout the Yarra Parks. In a Valerie Yule was
was born in newsletter published by the Friends of the first of three
Melbourne on the Warrandyte State Park in 1994, she daughters born
8 April 1931 to said her favourite shape was ‘the shape to Constance
Irma (Dearden) of a mature Red Box eucalypt’ and her (Keil) East and
and Edmund favourite sound was ‘the sound of a Lewis Ronald
Creswell. beautiful eastern gong reverberating with East.
lots of overtones and undertones’.
Her father Val and her
Edmund Elizabeth made life-long friends at JCH. sisters went to
had survived Gallipoli, thence sent to They were her bridesmaids, her post- MLC, where Val matriculated in 1945 as
Bullecourt France where he was shot retirement trekking companions in Nepal Dux of her year, winning a scholarship
in battle. He lived the rest of his life on and her guests at her 90th birthday to Janet Clarke Hall. She began an Arts
one lung. His twin brother, Randolph, celebration in 2021. In later years, she course soon after turning 17, completing
was killed in battle in Africa in 1917. His thrived at JCH cultural and academic an honours degree majoring in History
younger brother rests in a submarine, events, passing on all she learnt to and English. At university she was an
sunk by friendly fire in 1917. His younger her family. active participant in the Labour Club
sister died in 1913. Elizabeth was his first and the Student Christian Movement,
born, a welcome flaxen haired salve to She was a life member of the and developed an abiding passion for
his deep grief after so many tragic losses. University’s Graduate Union Women’s literacy, spoken and written. She also
Forum and stood up at many corporate met George Yule, an historian and
In 1933 her family moved to Ararat in shareholder meetings to ask why there Presbyterian minister, whom she married
country Victoria following her father’s weren’t more women on their Boards. at the then Methodist Church in Auburn
new job as a chief engineer. Her life in December 1948.
there was idyllic. Elizabeth was a volunteer tour guide
at the Shrine of Remembrance and Early in 1950, Val and George went to
Elizabeth attended Ararat Grammar attended numerous Royal Australian South Korea to teach at the Christian
School, and then boarded at Clyde Navy events throughout her life, University in Pusan, but the North Korean
School for Girls in Woodend. She honouring the memory of the Navy’s invasion forced them to flee to Japan
studied at the Conservatory of Music, founding father and her grandfather, Sir soon after their arrival. They stayed in
residing at Janet Clarke Hall from William Rooke Creswell. Japan for three months, with Val working
1948-1952. at the Australian Mission
She held in high value the arts, in Tokyo.
In 1953 Elizabeth travelled to South environment, academia, education
Africa, meeting her cousin Randolph and human rights, and was a strong With the Korean War dragging on,
Vigne who later founded the African and creative force for nature. She lived Val and George returned to Australia
Resistance Movement. She wrote simply, lovingly tended her native where George resumed his career as an
hundreds of letters seeking freedom for garden, welcomed birds and possums, historian at Melbourne University and
political prisoners. and made many donations. their first child, Esther, was born in 1951.
Following a year at Oxford University in
After travel she settled into Castlemaine She never refused my calls for help 1953, George was appointed Presbyterian
as a primary school music teacher, when I was a new mother, and as a minister in the then heavily industrial,
falling in love with fellow teacher 90-year-old her hands were warm and working class suburb of Abbotsford and
Maurice Sevior. They married in 1956 crackling with life and love. he and Val and their young daughter,
and raised four children. In 1966, after Esther, moved into the manse, with their
nine years at home, she returned to I have an enduring memory – a tiny son Peter being born soon after. Another
work before it was fashionable. She said woman in black, her arm supported by son, Patrick, born in December 1955,
Maurice was very good about it, saying a robust man in Navy whites, walking tragically died of cot death aged three
he didn’t mind, so long as she could her away from me down a grey gravel months. A daughter Catherine was
keep up with the housework! path, to where lines of sailors in white born in 1957, coinciding with George’s
waited for her at the resting place of her appointment as Professor of Church
Maurice was an energetic force, actively grandfather. History at Ormond College.
engaged in almost everything and
Elizabeth was his joy. But quietly, along I miss her very much. They moved into a house in the
with full time teaching, the incidental college grounds and Val returned to
raising of children and a little housework Madeleine Love (Sevior) work, teaching English at Merton Hall
– accompanied by interesting music and undertaking post-graduate study,
of the world – she began her greatest obtaining her Master’s in Psychology
creative work with nature. and a Diploma of Education. For
several years she taught psychology at
42 LUCE Number 20 2021