“Rollo” Chayter was the father of Marcia Chayter, father-in-law of Jack Harrison and grandfather of Jody Harrison.
CHAYTER
from Cater = English – occupational name for the buyer of provisions for a large household from the Anglo Norman French acatour from the Late Latin acceptator, to accept, to receive.
Henry William Chayter’s father, RICHARD HENRY CHAYTER was born in Brisbane and married MARY ADAMS, who was reputedly an excellent artist, particularly with oil painting. Richard first commenced work with Queensland Agency (a wholesale grocer) and later formed the firm of Denham and Chayter (wholesale grocers), Brisbane. In 1932 he joined the staff of R.M. Gow. He was active in retirement (1948) and attended to office work at Monument Motors Tingalpa. Richard was a keen follower of Rugby League and cricket and was a life member of Brisbane Cricket Club. He resided on The Esplanade, Manly for 40 years.
Mary died in 1944 and Richard in 1959 aged 79 after a short illness (he suffered from Asthma).
The four children of Richard Chayter and Mary:
Marie (m Edmund Burkitt)
Jean (m. Arlie Raymond)
Raymond Adams (lieutenant in the R.A.Navy)
HENRY WILLIAM (married NORMA HELENA EMILY HENLEY)
HENRY WILLIAM CHAYTER was born on 7.10.1907 in Brisbane Queensland.
He was confirmed on 19.9.1923 at St Peter’s.
He lived in Manly and attended Church of England Grammar School.
Henry was a mad keen cricket player (wicketkeeper), was on the athletic, tennis and football teams and earned the nickname “Rollo”, named after a rotund draft horse which rolled the cricket pitch.
Rollo played state grade cricket for Brisbane.
Henry passed his Junior in 1924 (English, Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry and Chemistry) and was then apprenticed in 1926 to pharmacist John Richardson of South Brisbane for three years (earning 15 shillings the first year, 20 the second and 25 the third).
Rollo became a Chemist, graduating from the Pharmacy Board of Queensland in November 1930.
Rollo met Norma Henley at a tennis club.
Rollo was married to NORMA HELENA EMILY HENLEY on 28.11.32 in the Chapel at Church of England Grammar School by Canon Morris.
Canon Morris gave them a bible as their wedding present. The wedding car was the Chayter’s huge Graham-Page with flowers in the vases on each side of the cabin. The reception was at 45 Graceville Avenue (“Euroka”) where apparently all the kids got drunk on claret cup!
For their honeymoon Norma and Rollo went to “Ashmount”. Rollo was not a bush boy and Norma broke him in picnicking, swimming, fishing, shooting and teaching him to ride.
They had a daughter MARCIA on 18.1.1934.
With jobs scarce due to the Depression, her Rollo now a fully qualified chemist, accepted the prize offer of managership of the Felton, Grimwade and Bickford chemical factory (which had amalgamated with The Drug Houses of Australia) in Perth. The laboratory and works section manufactured drugs, galenicals, pharmaceutical and proprietary products in Charles Street.
During its long history in Western Australia, the laboratory and works section was managed by Mr R. Chayter (1935 – 1953).
A History of Pharmacy in W.A.” by Alan McWhinney.
In March 1937, their Brisbane belongings, Beale upright piano and all, were duly secured with them on a ship called the “Duntroon”.
Marcia and Norma were so ill that they were taken off the boat in Adelaide and completed the rest of the journey by train.
When they first arrived they rented a house in 28 Woodroyd Street, Mt Lawley and Norma was terribly homesick and lonely.
The Chayter family befriended the neighbours – the Holberts directly over the road and the McHarrie family next door. Had it not been for the benevolence of Ethel and Andy McHarrie, Marcia wondered if Norma would have survived. (Marcia’s guinea pigs didn’t survive as the McHarrie’s cat ate them.)
The McHarries had four surviving children (Joan had died aged 6 in 1928 of diptheria) Ken, Dawn, Adele and Judy (Judy McHarrie married Peter Stafford).
Mrs McHarrie was later to become the Godmother of Nerida, their second daughter. On the rare occasions that Gran and Rollo indulged in a little nightlife, Marcia stayed the night at the McHarrie’s.
Rollo joined the West Perth Cricket Club as a wicketkeeper and had matches on the weekend.
CRICKET TEAMS
W.A.C.A. teams for matches beginning tomorrow are: —
West Perth. — Second grade: Baker, Chayter, Jones, Chandler, Annesley, Berry, Lockwood, Grimbley, Parry, McGill, Waldock. The Daily News Friday 19 January 1940 page 16
On May 17th 1941 Norma and Rollo had another daughter, Nerida. She was a large baby over 9 pounds. Many doctors had joined the war effort and Norma had a difficult time. Norma’s recovery was slow and Marcia can remember having to battle with the washing and hanging the water laden towels on the line. Rollo’s brother Ray came for a visit.
Around 1944, the Chayter family had moved to 31 Longroyd Street, Mt Lawley, a house owned by Marion and Gordon Campbell who lived around the corner in Braeside Road.
Apart from work, produce production was Rollo’s forte, coming in the form of eggs, their backyard being large enough to accommodate fowls of all shapes and sizes. These pampered pets – Horry Loo Loo and Maisie to just name two, were aware of their privileged position, strutting proudly in and out of the creeper which grew in s Sleeping Beauty castle like manner over their coop. Norma did not share Rollo’s feathered enthusiasm, which is not surprising, as they often had ailing chicks, huddling together in a shoe box being warmed in the oven, or a chicken with a match stick splint on one leg, found limping around the laundry.
Household stress levels didn’t improve in February 1942 when Norma faced Rollo going to war.
Rollo enlisted and was accepted into the Australian Military Forces Western Command, but shortly after, was given an exemption from overseas service in order to stay in Perth in the Citizen Forces as Laboratory Manager to continue manufacturing much needed pharmaceuticals.
As a result, he received white feathers in the mail (a sign of cowardice) and the family was regularly abused by grieving peers judging him for not fighting for his country.
Each year the Chayters had a two weeks holiday at Waterman’s Bay at the Sandy Croft guesthouse. When this place closed down they spent one holiday in a friends shack at Trigg Island. At that stage they had no car and were deposited in this place by one of their neighbours.
Every Saturday, Rollo and Norma would go to the horse races.
The Perth Cup horse racing carnival was held each year on New Year’s Day Norma and Rollo loved to go. They bought tickets for their children to attend a pantomime at the Tivoli Theatre (near His Majesty’s Theatre) and would drop them there and they would catch a train home.
Around 1946, Rollo was seriously ill for some time with Brill’s Disease, a highly infectious form of recurring typhus caused by a bacterium transmitted by vermin, otherwise known as the plague. The illness itself is debilitating and may occur years after the initial sickness.
About 1946, Rollo bought their first car – a Vauxhall Tourer – which had been part of the traveller fleet at Felton’s. Rollo permitting, the car meant the family could go down to Scarborough or Trigg beach for a swim on a Sunday and an added treat was a chocolate ice cream from a shop in Scarborough, the only place in Perth where they could be purchased. Anne Jennings (neighbour) sometimes came with them.
Rollo continued to play cricket for West Perth. He was the wicked keeper and every weekend mum and Marcia would go reluctantly to watch him play. Mum took scones for afternoon tea on one occasion roll Rollo was at death’s door with Brills disease – the plague – but he still played cricket.
LOWER. GRADES.
Teams for the B and C Grade finals are as follows: B Grade.
West Perth: Berry. Chayter, Turson (2) Bridges, Grigg. POX. Grimbley. Waldock, Steel, Hawthorn, and Guy (12)
The West Australian Thursday 18 April 1946 page 5
In December 1946 and January 1947, Rollo’s brother Ray came to visit. Marcia remembered them getting a real Christmas tree and showing him the Perth sights in their car, including Kings Park and City Beach. They went on a picnic and Nerida remembered Ray being bitten by bull ants.
At the end of 1948 the Chayter family returned to Queensland for a holiday. It was 11 years since Norma had seen her sister and brothers and her mother had died while we were in Perth. They stayed with Auntie Elsie O’Sullivan and visited Auntie Lillian Horn who lived in the same street. Lillian’s daughter was a fabulous dressmaker and made Nerida a little blue and white gingham dress which she had a perky little straw hat to go with. Marcia remembers her cousins Brian O’Sullivan, Dot and Allan Dollar all going to Cloudland’s Ballroom. Marcia remembers one of the first places she checked was the bedroom in her grandfather’s house to see if his vast bed still remained. The golden bedspread had long gone, but the layout of the room was as she remembered it as a three year old and the sleepout where her Uncle Ray and Auntie Jean had sung and laughed was still untouched. This vision of gaiety and slumber was all Mum’s memory held for her first years in Brisbane.
Rollo stopped over in Sydney on business on the way back to Perth.
In the early 1950’s the Chayter family moved to 38 Dumbarton Crescent, Menora (which had a tennis court). Rollo kept chooks at this house which continued to be his pride and joy!
Marcia left to be married from this house.
Marcia was married to JACK HARRISON in 1953.
After a staffing reshuffle at D.H.A. Rollo worked for a short while with Rosen’s Pharmacy in Perth but then opened his own pharmacy on the corner of Coode Street and South Terrace in Como. At this time, in order to be closer to their new pharmacy, the Chayters moved to a housing commission house in Manning Park which they rented for 18 months with an option to buy.
Rollo was obviously a clever chemist. Years down the track he made an ointment consisting of cod liver oil and sulfanilamide which, being a horse racing betting man, he named “Moral Ointment” because he felt it was a “moral” to heal – meaning absolute certain – which it did. Unfortunately, he didn’t patent it and apparently a rival firm Fauldings cashed in on his invention.
They purchased a holiday house in Safety Bay in the 1950s. Rollo loved nothing more than fishing.
In 1959 they went for a holiday back to Brisbane.
In 1961, his daughter Nerida married Charles Michael “Chilla” Porter in Brisbane.
In about 1955, the Chayter’s bought their first house at 44 Edna Street, South Perth from Mr Gordon (who owned Gordon Cycles). Apparently it had been unoccupied for some time and still had black house paint on all the windows from WWII which Norma scraped off with a razor blade!
In March 1955 their first grandchild Jay was born. Jay called Rollo “Bee Bo” and the name stuck, Rollo for ever more being called “Bee”.
The Chayter’s house on Safety Bay road hosted many family holidays and all the families converged for fabulous beach and fishing holidays.
In September 1963, Rollo and Norma had their first granddaughter, Jody.
Rollo played poker and apparently had a Friday poker night every so often during which, his largely jewish friends, smoked smelly cigars which drove Norma mad!
He attended the trots and races is entire life.
He played piano and was a keen gardener, especially proud of his sweet peas.
He was a perpetual member of the South Perth Community Centre.
He enjoyed eating lollies and always had a full jar of lollies in his sleepout!
Rollo died at the age of 64 of bowel and liver cancer on 9.7.1972 and was buried on 11.7.1972 at Karrakatta Cemetery (C of E). His headstone was half empty for 25 until Norma passed away in 1997.
Norma was a widow at the age of 61 and sold 44 Edna Street and built a Granny Flat at the back of her daughter Marcia’s property at 11 Dodonia Gardens City Beach and lived with them for 21 years until 1993.