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Subject: Daphne Ruby Margaret VAUGHAN / SINGLETON / ROBERTS - school teacher
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 13:43:58 +1000

Hi, I am new to this list. I am wondering if someone can suggest ways that
I could go about tracking down the education and employment details for my
great-grandmother. The three surnames reflect her maiden name (Vaughan),
first married name (Singleton) and second married name (Roberts).

There is always the chance that someone may have been a former student of
hers, in which case I would like to know what she was like as a teacher.
She was a tyrant (to put it mildly) to her own children!

Daphne Ruby Margaret VAUGHAN was born in Tasmania in 1897. There is a
family story that her father, William, wasn't keen on her - the only girl
in the family - acquiring an education beyond the basics (she resorted to
the old reading by candle-light under the bedclothes trick) and was opposed
to Daphne pursuing anything higher. Nevertheless, apparantly Daphne's
mother, Mary, put her foot down, and she did get to go to university in
Melbourne, I understand. Another story suggests she was the first woman to
enter whichever university she went to, but I think that could be a little
more romantic than real.

She started her teaching career before she got married to Allan SINGLETON
in 1921 back in Tasmania. She had four children, all born in that state,
the last one born in the early 1930's I believe. I am guessing that it is
very unlikely that she would have continued working during this time (would
she even have been allowed to?).

Daphne and Allan separated sometime in the 1930's and Daphne moved to NSW
with her children, presumably to be close to her parents and brothers who
had all moved there (Sydney area). I know that Daphne taught in a number of
schools in NSW, urban and rural, and may even have been the Head Mistress
at some of them. I believe that she would still have been known by her
married name of SINGLETON during this time, as her divorce from Allan was
not formalised until November 1949, when Daphne was 52.

At some point, Daphne is married to a Don ROBERTS. Whether or not she was
still teaching under her new name for a period is unknown.

Liz Phillips - Canberra, Australia

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