BRADDOCK, Gwenith Adele

Gwen was born at Nurse Hayden's Private Hospital in Mill Street Ballart in 1919.  She was the middle child of five children, having one brother and three sisters.  As a child, Gwen lived at 607 Macarthur Street and attended Macarthur Street State School then Ballarat High School to Form 4 level before she went to work for her father at 44 Lydiard Street North, next to the Art Gallery.  Her father had the JC Rowe tailor and mercery business and traveled to the Wimmera and Mallee for trade.

One of her brothers joined him in the business and purchased one of the first dry-cleaning machines in Ballarat.  He later left the business for New Guinea leaving her father with the new dry-cleaning machine and from there grew a great business.  Gwen's sister Dulcie joined the business followed by Gwen in 1934 at the age of fifteen.  The depression meant that their father had to continually chase people for payment of their accounts and he declared that business had three 'worries', the worry of getting the business, the worry of pleasing the client, and the worry of getting paid.

The business progressed until the years of the Second World War but problems arose when staff enlisted and her father had to work very hard.  During the war, the business was basically taken over by work for the American Servicemen and their military-pleated uniforms to the degree that they only took in civilian work on Mondays.  Gwen recalls when the Americans were pulling out of Ballarat in the early hours of the morning and wanted their clothing from the business they sent a jeep for her father at 2.00 a.m.

Gwen has fond memories of the boys marching up Lydiard Street to the Railway Station on their way to the war and everybody rushing out into the street to wave to them, whether they knew them or not.  Gwen recalls that unlike today nobody had a car at eighteen, so they all rode bicycles.

Gwen married George, a Queenslander, and left the business in 1943.  After the war, her father suggested her husband join the business which suited Gwen as she did not wish to move north.  George stayed with the business until it was sold in about 1979.  

Gwen passed away on the 25th March 2003 age 83.  Her ashes are located in Wall J Row 7 Niche 36 with George Braddock.