PHOTORIA

The Enigma of Dorothy Welding

By Sally Jackson

Eveline Jacqueline O’Brien, Gladys Jessie O’Brien, Gladys Jacqueline O’Brien, Gladys Jacqueline Merchant and Dorothy Welding are all names belonging to the woman who owned the Dorothy Welding Studio in Sydney between 1931 and 1954. In order of appearance, they are her birth name, two names she wanted to be known by, her married name and her professional name.

Dorothy Welding was born Eveline Jacqueline O’Brien[1] on 9 November 1894 to Louise McEwan (1854-1922) and John Horace O’Brien (1855-1894) at 56 Highbury Grove in the Melbourne suburb of Prahran. She was born a little more than three months after the sudden death of her father[2] from a stroke on 27 July 1894.

Family history 1880 – 1922

Louise and John had married in New Zealand on 30 January 1880[3], and Eveline was the youngest of their seven children. According to his death certificate[4], John Horace was born in Ireland around 1855, and Louise, alternatively referred to as Louisa, also of Irish descent, was born in Victoria some time in 1854.[5]

After the birth of their first two children, Reginald Horace (1880-1948)[6] and Alice Grace (1883-1972)[7] in New Zealand, the O’Briens returned to Australia in 1884 or ’85 and settled in Melbourne.[8] Between 1885 and 1894 the couple had five other children: Olive Kate (1885-1952)[9], Louie Irene (1888- ?)[10], Daisy Evelyn Ida (1890-1981)[11], Ruby Constance (1892-1948)[12] and Eveline Jacqueline (1894-1954). The family moved from suburb to suburb as John pursued his career as a mechanic and engineer. In the 1890s he applied for patents to a range of improvements to existing products such as window and verandah shades, mitres for cutting doors and door frames and other inventions.[13]

There is no indication of his success in these endeavours, except that around the time of his death the Magic Washing Machine Company was formed to develop and manufacture a washing machine for which he had applied and was granted a patent.[14] Ownership of the patent was transferred to Louise upon her husband’s death,[15] but this was small consolation for she was left with debts and seven children for whom to provide. It’s thus of little surprise that 18 months after her husband’s death Louise married Frederick Christopher Parker O’Brien (1841-1902)[16], a draper based in the regional town of Beechworth in Victoria’s north-east.

Louise and her children relocated to Beechworth where, even after her second husband’s death in 1902[17], the O’Brien family lived for almost 20 years—though it’s likely several of her eldest children would have married and moved away during this time. Around 1913, Louise and those children still living at home moved back to Melbourne. Her second husband’s death had left the O’Brien family financially secure[18], and they took up residence at 124 Williams Road in Prahran.[19] Sometime before 1919 they then moved to a large home of 14 rooms and extensive grounds. The property, which they named “Inchiquin” for their Irish heritage[20], was at 183 Alma Road, on the corner of Alexandra Road in East St Kilda.[21] In 1922, the year of her death, Louise lived at “Inchiquin” with three of her daughters—37 year-old Olive Kate, 30 year-old Ruby Constance and 28 year-old Eveline Jacqueline, now known as Gladys Jacqueline O’Brien.[22] At that time Louise was in charge of running the household, and although it’s not known in what kind businesses the sisters worked Olive was a receptionist, Ruby a clerk and Gladys worked in sales.

Studio employee or burgeoning photographer?

The first we know of Gladys’ career in photography is from the inquest[23] into her mother’s death. On 12 October 1922, Louise O’Brien was hit by a car when she had gone out to buy the evening paper. She died at the Alfred Hospital in the early hours of the following morning from undiagnosed complications. Gladys revealed in her statement that she was a “studio employee” who worked in the city of Melbourne. She did not give any further details, but, as her later career was in photography, the assumption is that the studio was a photographic studio.

With the exception of Ruby, Olive and Gladys, all of Louise’s other children were married[24] at the time of her death. After her estate[25] was disposed of, the three sisters seemed to have gone their separate ways and relocated to new homes in different suburbs. Olive moved to Punt Road, Prahran[26], and Ruby to Albert Park[27], only Gladys’ new residence remains a mystery. It would not have been unusual for Gladys to have moved in with another family member, but whether it was with Olive, Ruby or any one of her other siblings is not known.

What is known is that by 1930 she was living in the Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst and working as a receptionist.[28] Her elder sister Louie Irene O’Brien, known as Rene, had moved to Sydney in 1920 and lived in the leafy suburb of Lane Cove with her husband Stanley Alan Bailey. Bailey was an accountant of some celebrity[29], the consul for Ecuador in Sydney and the company secretary for the Millions Club. Rene and Stan moved in high social circles[30] and were regularly mentioned in the finance and social pages of Australian newspapers and journals. It cannot be determined when Gladys had moved to Sydney, why she did so, and if she had lived with Rene and Stan prior to 1930.

The Dorothy Welding Studio

Whatever the case may be, the move to Sydney marks a new chapter in Gladys’ life, for on 25 November 1931, and now known as Miss Jacqueline O’Brien, she opened the Dorothy Welding Studio. Her studio was on the 7^th Floor of Boomerang House at 139 King Street in the centre of Sydney.[31] Photographers occupied these premises, the most notable being portrait photographer May Moore, who had the 6^th and 7^th floors from 1920 until 1928[32] when she was forced into retirement due to illness. The Walker Studio and The Australian Fine Art Gallery moved in, respectively, on the 6^th and the 7^th floors in 1928.[33]

How Gladys Jacqueline O’Brien became the owner of a photographic studio can only be speculated. Had her work in Melbourne been as a studio employee in Mina Moore’s Collins Street studio giving Gladys an entrée to work for May? Or, she may have started working for the Walker Studio, which had advertised for a receptionist in May 1931.[34] By that time the Walker Studio was in financial trouble, and one of the contributing factors was that its most high-profile photographer, Catherine Ainsworth (1910-1988), a protégé of May Moore, left for England on 21 March 1931.[35] Liquidation of the Walker Studio’s assets was made final on 23 December 1932.[36] That Moore was forced into retirement or that the Walker Studio was financially unstable, may have urged Gladys to consider having her own business.

The welding of identities

Between 1931 and 1954 the Dorothy Welding Studio was a magnet for Sydney’s high society seeking a photographic portrait. Other than the noteworthy street address, it’s plausible that sister Rene assisted by recommending her social circle to her sister’s studio. But of greater significance was the studio’s name—Dorothy Welding Studio was a shameless, and successful, play at capitalising on the name of the great contemporary English photographer Dorothy Wilding.

The resemblance of the two names was no accident. Dorothy Wilding’s studio in London was the height of style, fashion and excellence in photography. Wilding photographed not only high society, but also members of the Royal family. She was considered a brilliant photographer then and remains so today. Not only did O’Brien imitate Wilding’s name, her photographic style, though inferior, the style of her signature is identical to Wilding’s. O’Brien also adopted the same logo on the reverse of the photographs, moderately adapting its style and changing only the address and the “i” in Wilding to an “e”.

Portraits by Wilding (left) and Welding (right).

The difference between the two portraits and photographic styles is demonstrated by the overall depth and clarity of the sitter’s facial features in the Wilding photograph and the accentuation of the cheeks. The shadowing of the sitter’s face is subtle and does not obscure or detract from any feature. The sitter’s face is the focus of the photograph. Welding on the other hand has softened the whole portrait flattening any level of detail. The shadowing over the sitter’s left side of her face overwhelms the portrait. With no point of focus the portrait is dull and unremarkable.

The respective logos from the back of photographs by each studio.

Wildly confusing

In an oral-history interview, Perth photographer Susan Watkins, a student and later a valued employee of Wilding, tells about the confusion of Australians who visited Dorothy Wilding’s London studio and believed the two photographers were connected:

“People coming into the studio have often said to me, “Oh yes, my cousin was photographed by Dorothy Wilding in the Eastern States.” And I said, “No that is not Dorothy Wilding, that’s Dorothy Welding and there’s no connection whatsoever.” [37]

Dorothy Wilding was well aware of the Dorothy Welding Studio, and though she never challenged O’Brien on her blatant infringement of copyright, she was deeply concerned over its existence. Watkins also relates in interview what her former teacher and employer thought about Welding:

“Oh well, when Dorothy Wilding knew that I was returning to Australia she said she would be very anxious to hear anything I could tell her about Dorothy Welding. She was so upset to hear that her signature had been copied, except for the dot on the e. It had caused a lot of confusion. At this time many Australians who came over to be presented at court (which was the thing to do in the thirties and forties) thought that Dorothy Welding’s studio was some branch of Dorothy Wilding in London. The idea appalled Miss Wilding because Dorothy Welding’s reputation was not a very attractive one. She was often involved in all sorts of law cases I believe. The story I was told…was that she used to come down to meet the overseas ships and get a list of the passengers and interview the VIPs and offer them free sittings, which was not really quite the thing to do. They’d come into the studio and have photographs taken and sign something which they thought was receipt for the proofs, to find that they had undertaken to order something that they didn’t expect to. I was told that she herself didn’t take the photographs, that she had several people working for her. Whether that was true or not I don’t know, but I know her reputation was not very good and Miss Wilding was terribly upset that this confusion should have arisen.” [38]

Courtroom dramas

Although Watkins’s assertion that O’Brien engaged in fraudulent business tactics was based on hearsay (“the story I was told”), there was a good degree of truth to her statement. The first indication was in October 1933 when O’Brien sued a client for money owed. [39] She claimed that the 2KY radio star and singer, Barbara Wentworth[40], had ordered prints from proofs produced after a complimentary sitting. Wentworth denied she had made any order whatsoever, as she did not like the photographs. The judge found in favour of O’Brien. But the judge’s decision was likely swayed by the fact that upwards of 880 Welding portraits had been published on the social pages of Sydney newspapers and high-profile journals[41], and that to date there was no legal complaint by any other customer on record.

Press reports of the lawsuit appear not to have had unfavourable repercussions on the studio’s popularity.[42]  The influential Australian quarterly journal, The Home, continued its semi-regular feature of Welding photographs, which began on 1 August 1932 and ran until 2 October 1934. It was called alternatively “Dorothy Welding Studies” and “Dorothy Welding Presents” and featured portraits of the notable social stars of the month.

The next milestone for O’Brien was to secure ownership of the studio in her name, which happened on 20 January 1934.[43] But with that debt finally paid and the studio doing well, it is surprising that O’Brien again pulled the same stunt as she had on Barbara Wentworth. In April 1935, Welding sued three women for failure to pay their account. [44] At the hearing in the Small Claims Court, magistrate Mr Stevenson S.M. found in favour of O’Brien in the first case, in the second he found for the defendant and the third was settled out of court with the customer paying for the photographs.

The studio must have maintained its successful status quo despite any adverse publicity from the hearing, as O’Brien applied for a 60-day visa, which she received on 27 March 1936.[45] Travelling in a first class cabin, she left Australia on 1 April 1936 and visited America, England and Canada, and returned home on 13 July 1936. O’Brien had also travelled under her professional name, Dorothy Welding, and gave her occupation as both artist and photographer. But there is no indication for the purpose of her trip, whether it was for business, pleasure or a combination of both. While abroad, her studio continued to do business, which indicates that O’Brien had another photographer working for her.

O’Brien was again in court in 1937, but in a twist of fate it was she who was being sued—and not by customers, but by her landlord. [46] Although O’Brien gave her legal address as being in Darlinghurst, for some reason she had rented a flat in the newest luxury development in Sydney: Dorchester House at 149 Macquarie Street. The building was completed in 1936 while she was overseas and it appears that she moved in sometime in October-November that same year. O’Brien’s tenancy in this building became public knowledge when Mrs Frances Berry, the building’s owner, sued O’Brien for, according to one press report, having relinquished the flat in a filthy state. She denied the accusation but the judge found in favour of Berry requiring O’Brien to pay a fine of £27.[47]

World War II

In 1938 and ’39 the Dorothy Welding Studio had a total of 133 portraits published across Sydney newspapers, but throughout the 1940s only 288 were published. It is important to add that other high-profile studios such as Dayne, Monte Luke and Falk, who had shared the social pages with Dorothy Welding, experienced a similar downturn. With the start of World War II in 1939 there was a decline in reporting social gossip and the focus shifted to wartime activities such as fundraising. Similarly photographic studios directed their lens at taking photographs of loved ones as they headed off to war. This was something O’Brien capitalised on.

An advertisement from The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 November 1939.

Marriage

On 29 March 1943, Gladys Jacqueline O’Brien married Douglas Gordon Merchant at St Johns Church in Darlinghurst.[48] Merchant, who was born in the Victorian town of Maryborough in 1905, had been married before. In 1929 he had married Doris Evelyn Winter,[49] who died from a stroke in May 1942. A little over two months later he enlisted in the Royal Australia Navy Volunteer Regiment (RANVR) and became proficient in bomb disposal and as a diver in the deployment of mines.[50] Merchant was a Lieutenant at the time of his wedding to O’Brien, and in early 1944 was assigned to Special Branch and sent overseas. After he was discharged on 27 September 1944, he and Gladys lived in her Darlinghurst flat and he remade himself into a successful real estate agent[51] based nearby.

Illness and death

In March 1953, the couple travelled first class to London for a holiday.[52] They planned to stay at the high-end Rembrandt Hotel on Cromwell Road, situated between Kensington and Knightsbridge and opposite the Victoria and Albert Museum. However, misfortune struck when O’Brien suffered a brain haemorrhage[53] on board the ship. The Merchants abandoned their plan to stay at the Rembrandt and instead took up residence at 63 Wimpole Street, behind the University College Hospital where O’Brien may have undergone her treatment and rehabilitation. Around four months later, her body half paralysed and her ability to speak severely compromised, she was well enough to travel and the couple arrived home in Sydney on the RMS Orontes on 22 August 1953.[54]

On 9 February 1954, at approximately 5.30 am, Gladys Jacqueline Merchant was found dead on the street outside the apartment block where she and her husband lived. [55] It appeared she had fallen from a window of their ninth-floor apartment. Every bone in her body was broken.

Her death attracted newspaper headlines of a sensational nature including “Rich Woman in DEATH DROP: 150ft fall from luxury flat”.[56] Newspaper reports also revealed that Alma Collie, an employee of the Dorothy Welding Studio, was suing O’Brien for unpaid wages and leave entitlements totalling £114/0/7.[57] The legal proceedings ceased upon O’Brien’s death.

The inquest into her death opened on 26 March 1954[58] and the outcome was inconclusive. There was no evidence to fully support either an accidental death or suicide. The judge declared the former as most probable as it had been recorded that Gladys had sat at the window, which had a 6-inch (15cm) window sill, on previous occasions without incident.

Gladys Jacqueline Merchant was buried at the Church of England Cemetery in Botany on 19 February 1954.[59] The Dorothy Welding Studio was put out to Tender in November 1954.[60] It was advertised as a going concern, and continued to be listed in the Sydney telephone directory until 1956.[61]

An enigma to the end

Despite the popularity of the Dorothy Welding Studio, and that her legal actions against her clients appeared in the press, O’Brien was a very private person. She didn’t otherwise appear in the press or advertise her personal life through the social pages. She made no public announcements, including that of her marriage, and there is little indication of her social affiliations despite her sister Rene’s social connections. Moreover, O’Brien’s role in her own studio is not clear other than she owned and successfully managed the business. Whether she was the photographer or had another active role in the production of her studio’s work is a mystery. The lack of information about her leads one to suppose that O’Brien deliberately camouflaged her life to maintain the charade of an association with Dorothy Wilding.

Endnotes:

[1] Birth Certificate. Eveline Jacqueline O’Brien. No 25930/1894, Births in the District of Armadale, in the Colony of Victoria.

[2] Death Certificate. John Horace O’Brien. No 8105/1894, Deaths in the District of Armadale, in the Colony of Victoria.

[3] Marriage Certificate. Louisa McEwan and John Horace O’Brien. Registration No 180003035, 1880, Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Auckland, New Zealand.

[4] Death Certificate. John Horace O’Brien, op.cit.

[5] Birth Certificate. Mary Ann McKeun. No 10126/1856, Births in the Central District of Sandhurst in the Colony of Victoria. To date Louise’s birth certificate has not been located. However, she is listed as the first child born and 2 years old on her sister’s, Mary Ann, birth certificate.

[6] ‘Births’, New Zealand Herald, 16 December 1880, pg 4.

[7] ‘Births’, New Zealand Herald, 3 February 1883, pg 4.

[8] No indication of why they travelled to New Zealand or their reason for returning to Australia has been found to date.

[9] Birth Certificate. Clairette Kate O’Brien. No 1157/1885. Births in the District of Melbourne in the Colony of Victoria

[10] Birth Certificate. Louie Irene O’Brien. No 13246/1888. Births in the District of East Melbourne in the Colony

[11] Birth Certificate. Eveline Ida O’Brien. No 23856/1890, Births in the District of Hawthorn in the Colony of Victoria.

[12] Birth Certificate. Ruby Constance. No 27689/1892, Births in the District of St Kilda in the Colony of Victoria.

[13] Examples include: NAA A13151 /8138/1890/9177115. Application for registration of provisional patent by John Horace O’Brien and Benjamin Cockshutt Fryer titled – Improvements in window and verandah shades; NAA A13115/8139/1890/9177116. Application for registration of provisional patent by John Horace O’Brien and Benjamin Cockshutt Fryer titled – An improved machine for cutting mitres in mouldings for doors and framing; NAA A13151/1841/1890/9177117. Application for registration of provisional patent by John Horace O’Brien and Benjamin Cockshutt Fryer titled – Improvements in lock couplings; NAA A13150/9108/1891/ 7568615. Application for registration of patent by John Horace O’Brien titled – Improvements in advertising match stands; NAA 13150 A20060/1892/ 7578248. Application for registration of patent by John Horace O’Brien and Lewis Henry Nelson titled – An improved lock-nut and bolt; NAA A1315/10258/1893/ 9177862. Application for registration of provisional patent by John Horace O’Brien and Benjamin Cockshutt Fryer titled – An improved appliance for testing the proportion of cream in milk.

[14] NAA A12572/2595/1894/7666296. Application for Letters Patent by John Horace O’Brien titled – An improvement in clothes washing boards and machines; NAA A13128/A3397/1895/ 9014893. Specification for registration of patent by John Horace O’Brien titled – An improvement in clothes washing boards and machines – Registered as Patent 2642.

[15] NAA A13127/2595/1894/764668. Specifications for registration of patent by John Horace O’Brien [to Louisa O’Brien – widow – in 1894 – transferred in 1894 to The Magic Washer Company Limited] titled – An improvement in clothes washing boards and machines – Patent not registered

[16] Marriage Certificate. Louisa McEwan and Frederick Christopher O’Brien. No 5603/1895,  Marriages in the District of [Prahran], in the Colony of Victoria. To date there appears to be no obvious familial link between John Horace O’Brien and Frederick Christopher O’Brien.

[17] Death Certificate. Frederick Christopher O’Brien. No 493/1902, Deaths in the District of Beechworth in the State of Victoria.

[18] PROV, VPRS 28/P0000, 83/091 Frederick C OBrien: Grant of Probate; PROV VPRS 28/P0002, 83/091 Frederick C Obrien: Grant of Probate.

[19] “Alphabetical”, Sands Directory, 1913 pg 1978

[20] The Barony of Inchiquin was gazetted in 1845 and is in County Clare and the Castle Inchiquin, now in ruins. The castle, which is an ancestral home for O’Briens, likely provided the inspiration for the name of their home.  However, no confirmation of any direct link between this family and the O’Briens of 1845. Clare Library, Ireland

[21] ‘Advertising’, The Age, 4 January 1919, pg 2. An advert for the sale of the property further describes it as having a tennis court and a croquet lawn as well as three bathrooms.

[22] PROV, VPRS 24/P0000, 1922/941, Louisa O’Brien: Inquest

[23] Ibid, pg 5

[24] Marriage Certificate. Reginald Horace O’Brien and Ada Brazier. 1882/1905, Marriages in the District of Bourke in the State of Victoria; Marriage Certificate. Horace Samuel Kent and Alice Grace O’Brien. 311/1909, Marriages in the District of Beechworth in the State of Victoria; Marriage Certificate. Stanley Alan Bailey and Louie Irene O’Brien. 6447/1913, Marriages in the District of [Balwyn] in the State of [Victoria]; Marriage Certificate. Wilfred Madden and Daisy Evelyn Ida O’Brien. 10193/1915, Marriage in the District of South Yarra (Grammar School) in the State of Victoria;

[25] Louisa O’Brien died intestate and documentation of the division of her estate is yet to be located.

[26] Australian Electoral Commission. [Electoral roll]. Commonwealth, Fawkner State, Prahran, Subdivision of Prahran 1924, No 7068, pg 119. Ancestry.com. Australia, Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Accessed 25 October 2022.

[27] Australian Electoral Commission. [Electoral roll]. Commonwealth, Fawkner State, Albert Park, Subdivision of Queen’s 1924, No 1129, pg 20. Ancestry.com. Australia, Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Accessed 25 October 2022.

[28] Australian Electoral Commission. [Electoral roll]. Commonwealth, East Sydney, State, Woollahra, Subdivision of Darlinghurst 1930, No 6619, pg 111. Ancestry.com. Australia, Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Accessed 14 September 2022.

[29] “Personal”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 January 1922, pg 10.

[30] “Argentine Consular Reception”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 26 May 1922, pg 10.

[31] “Women’s World”, The Sydney Mail, 25 November 1931, pg 20.

[32] Sands’ Sydney, Suburban and Country Directory, 1920. Johns Sands Ltd., Printers, Sydney, pg 80; “Business Changes”, Dun’s Gazette for New South Wales, 10 December 1928, pg 488.

[33] Sands’ New South Wales Directory, 1930. Johns Sands Ltd., Printers, Sydney, pg 69

[34] “Positions Vacant”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 May 1931, pg 22

[35] “Shipping. Projected Departures”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 March 1931, pg 17; “Shipping. Departures-March 21”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 March 1931, pg 11;  Shipping Record. 7 May 1931, Arrival of s.s. Balranald at the Port of London. Ancestry.com. UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Accessed 29 October 2022

[36] “Winding Up of Public Companies”, Dun’s Gazette, 23 Hanuary 1933, pg 55.

[37] Transcript of an interview with Susan (Edith) Watkins 1912-2006. Photography from 1935, pg 59. Criena Fitzgerald, State Library of Western Australia, Oral History Collection. 1995. pg59

[38] Interview by Criena Fitzgerald, Edith Beryl Watkins (now Hughes), page 58 of transcript, State Library of Western Australia, J.S. Battye Library of West Australian History, 1995.

[39] “Photo Debt : Verdict Against Radio Artist”, The Sun (Syd), 26 October 1933, pg 31.

[40] April 1 1933 The Labor Daily pg 6, Today’s Broadcast, accessed 11.09am, 12 November 2022.

[41] A count of her work available on TROVE which was published in newspapers and magazines indicates at least 880 portraits were published. This was predominantly in The Sun and in high-profile journals such as The Bulletin and The Home.

[42] A count of the Dorothy Welding portraits published in the press to approximately four months between Oct 1933 and February 1934 is upwards of 500.

[43] “Satisfaction of Registered Securities”, Dun’s Gazette for New South Wales, 19 February 1934, p.163

[44] “Claims for Photos: Society Women in Court”, Truth, 21 April 1935, pg 21

[45] List of Manifest of Alien Passengers for the United States Immigration Officer at Port of Arrival, Los Angeles, California April 10 1936.

[46] “Dorothy Welding’s Flat : Landlord Gets £27 Damages”, Truth, 5 December 1937, pg 21

[47] According to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Inflation Calculator, the amount would be $2,629.29 at the end of 2021.

[48] Marriage Certificate. Douglas Gordon Merchant and Gladys Jacqueline O’Brien. No. 7386/1943. Marriages [in the district of Darlinghurst, in the State of New South Wales]

[49] Death Certificate.Doris Evelyn Merchant. No 4789/1942. Deaths in the District of Melbourne in Victoria.

[50] NAA A6769, Merchant D G.

[51] “Business for Sale or Wanted. Doug Merchant”. The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 March 1948, pg 9.

[52] The Merchants arrived in London on 24 March 1953. Names and Descriptions of British Passengers Arrived at the Port of Tilbury, London, R.M.S. Orontes. Ancestry.com. UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.

[53] “Rich Woman in Death Drop, 150ft fall from luxury flat”, The Sun (Syd), 9 February 1954, pg 7

[54] The Merchants left London on 17 July 1953. “Names and Descriptions of British Passengers Embarked at the Port of London”, R.M.S. Orontes, 17 July 1953 for Australia. First Class Passengers, Lt. D.G. Merchant and Mrs G J Merchant, Ticket No. 10270. Ancestry.com. UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960 [database on-line], 2012; They arrived in Sydney on 22 August 1953. “Shipping, Sydney Arrivals”, Daily Commerical News and Shipping List, 24 August 1953, pg 4.

[55] “Rich Woman in Death Drop, 150ft fall from luxury flat”, The Sun (Syd), 9 February 1954, pg 7

[56] Ibid.

[57] Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). Based on calendar year rates £114/0/7 would, at the end of 2021, be equal to $4,190.13. As per RBA Inflation Calculator accessed 27 December 2022.

[58] Museums of History New South Wales – State Archives Collection: Inquest Cards Index; NRS-345[13/8281] Merchant Gladys Jacqueline, File No 760, 26-03-1954. The original inquest papers no longer exist; “In the Courts, Coroner’s Doubt on Death Fall”, Daily Telegraph, 22 April 1954, pg28; “Finding on Death of Dorothy Welding”, Sydney Morning Herald, 22 April 1954, pg 7

[59] Death Certificate. Gladys Jacqueline Merchant. 241/1954. Deaths in the District of Sydney in the State of New South Wales.

[60] “Tenders, Photography Business For Sale Tenders are Invited”, Sydney Morning Herald, 06 Nov 1954, pg 35

[61] “Photographers, Portrait” Sydney Classified Telephone Directory, 1956, pg 374.