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Chapter 9
Test and Evaluation Deputy Director 1982
to 1989
In January 1982, Ellen received a wedding invitation for
her to come to Australia in March. Ellen's sister Norah had
emigrated to Australia in 1952, a few months after Ellen
and I were married on December 27, 1951. Norah had
gone to London to inquire about a possible job in Southern
Rhodesia in Africa (currently named Zimbabwe.) There was
an organization named something like "Organization for
Employment of British Women Overseas." Norah had two
friends who had emigrated to Southern Rhodesia and wrote
Norah glowing tales of how wonderful it was there. Anyhow,
when Norah got to the London offi ce and began asking about
possible jobs overseas, a lady principal from Australia who
was there recruiting teachers persuaded her that she should
come to Australia and teach at the Methodist Ladies College
near Melbourne.
Norah went to Australia fairly soon after that and had
an interesting year at this College. However, it had one big
disadvantage. It was not really that close to Melbourne or
convenient to get to, and Norah felt that she had too many
assignments to stay at the college all weekend to supervise
the students who lived in dormitories.
Norah then resigned. She soon saw an ad inviting women
to join the Australian Army and become an offi cer after a year's
training course. Norah thrived on the training course and was
looking forward to becoming an offi cer on graduation day.
However, just before graduation when they were making
arrangements for leave after they became offi cers, Norah was
told that since she was from England, she would only get a
transportation allowance of bus fare into the nearest city. All
the other women would get transportation allowances back to
their homes, so the woman from Perth in Western Australia