MY MOTHER'S BIRTHDAY - 28th May, 1905 : 106 YEARS AGO

Baby Elsie Georgina Beckmann looks out on the world.

 This little baby, the first Australian born Beckmann, was to grow up through World War I in which she would be reviled by fellow schoolchildren as "a German ",and into the jazz age 1920's .

In 1927 Miss Elsie Georgina Beckmann
had this Portrait taken as a gift for her
Husband- to- be Jack Dixon.

Soon after her marriage to Jack Dixon and the birth of the first child Patrick, they were overwhelmed by the Great Depression, throughout which Elsie was able to get work in Vicars Woollen Mills at North Parramatta, whilst Jack could not obtain work.

He did obtain work in the construction of the huge Captain Cook Graving Dock at Garden Island Sydney in the run up to World War II and, in 1940 they had their second child Anthony , born on the day Hitler's Nazis invaded Norway.

She had a hard life , always selflessly and frugally lived, setting others first, always a peacemaker and sadly abused for it on occasions. Illness plagued her, and inappropriate medical attention for some years increased the distress of it.The last years of her life were less stressed perhaps, and she had the joy of seeing her first grandchild born, Marianne Elizabeth. But the years had taken their toll, and at age 66 she suffered a fatal heart attack.

She lives on in Heaven I am sure , and lives  in my heart in great love and gratitude forever.


.TONY DIXON