Arlette Calver

Story

Arlette Kate Patterson was born into an upper class expatriate British family living in Cairo, Egypt, on 22 January 1922. Known as Kay, she was the second of three children born to William Joseph Patterson and Beatrice Eugenia Della Torre, also descended from expat families.

The Pattersons were English by birth, Scottish by name and Irish by descent, as William would say. His father Henry had come out from Norfolk in the 1880s and married Maria Allich, an Istrian or Dalmatian Catholic. Their marriage lasted only four years Ð she died following the birth of their third child in 1890.

William followed his father into the British administration, eventually rising to the important position of Comptroller of Stores. During WW1, he met his future wife Beatrice, an Italian Catholic, and they were married a month before the end of the war in 1918.

Beatrice was a delicate woman whose line ran back to a mix of Italian Catholics and Jews. Her father Leone was a businessman, antiques dealer and outfitter of royal palaces, wealthy and with excellent connections. The family home, which Beatrice eventually inherited, was filled with exquisite art works, some of which had graced the court of Napoleon. Surprisingly, she spoke hardly any English and generally conversed in Italian around the home, a mansion in a well-to-do area of Cairo. Servants, antiques, a regular routine and a high standard of living were hallmarks of life when the children were growing up Ð a way of life which they fully expected to inherit.

Kay and her sister Lilian, British by birth, attended boarding school in England during the 1930s. By the time they returned to Cairo, William had resigned his post and was contemplating moving to Australia where his brother had already started a new life as a farmer. The arrival of WW2 cemented William\’s view that there was no longer a future for the British in Egypt and in 1940 he left for Tasmania where he grew apples, never to be seen again by his family.

When the war started, Kay joined the NAAFI Ð the entertainment and catering arm of the British military. Most likely it was there that she met her future husband, Warrant Sergeant John Calver. John was with the tank corps and had served in Cyrenaica, Syria, Cyprus and Palestine. Kay and John were married in Cairo on 15 September 1945, the reception being held in the luxurious Villa Shams in Heliopolis. John\’s army pals gave the newlyweds the arch of swords salute.

Although John had survived active service, a freak occurrence in a hotel afterwards almost cost him his life. He was shot while trying to stop a robbery but fortunately survived and recovered.

Whatever the couple\’s plans for the future, they were rudely upset in 1948 when the Egyptians kicked the British out of the country. The Patterson family, with roots going back 60 years on the paternal side and even further on the Della Torre side, suddenly found itself dispossessed. Forced to flee within 48 hours, the family lost everything including the mansion, antiques, servants and even their personal valuables, seized by officials. It must have been a terrible shock, made worse by the stark realization that their privileged life was over and that life in general was going to become much more difficult.

John and Kay were flown on a military transport to South Africa where they started again as best they could but John\’s only qualifications Ð military service Ð counted for little in a world focused on rebuilding, not fighting. He teamed up with a businessman in the building trade but the man was a crook and John and Kay lost most of their savings. They struggled on but things were never going to get better so they resolved to make a fresh start, this time on their own terms. Kay had met an Australian woman working on exchange with NestlŽ and she persuaded the Calvers to come out to Australia.

They boarded the SS Hector in Cape Town, bound for Fremantle, but the journey was such an ordeal that John and Kay swore they would never try anything like it again. When Hector docked on 11 September 1952, the seasick passengers remained true to their vow. They settled in Perth where John found work as a concreting contractor. Kay began working with NestlŽ as a secretary, eventually taking up other secretarial jobs following the birth of their two children, Richard and Michael, in 1955 and 1957. She continued working until pensionable age, never making much money but mostly enough to keep the family budget ticking over through lean times.

Kay eventually took up Australian citizenship, although John never did. He died in 2004, not quite 89, and Kay followed in 2006, aged 82. Their ashes were interred in Fremantle cemetery overlooking the harbour where they had arrived more than 50 years before.

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