People Australia

Deborah (Dora) Ellis (1880-1959) trained as a nurse in Western Australia, then as a midwife, working at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne. While in Western Australia she met a Canadian goldminer, Neil East, whom she married in 1912. They lived in Alberta, Canada, and had two children, a son Ellis and a daughter Nell.

In 1944, Nell married Don Charlwood from Melbourne, who had trained as a navigator in Edmonton during World War II. Don and Nell lived in Melbourne for 68 years. Dora returned to Melbourne in 1947, having lived in Canada since her marriage.

Dora East died at sea in 1959 on a return voyage to Canada.

Don Charlwood became a well-known Australian writer, mentored by Nell’s Melbourne cousin Arthur Angel Phillips, son of one of Dora’s sisters.