Linda Paddon remembered for determination and energy
Linda Paddon was lucky to be born given her father was scheduled to sail on the Titanic. More than 105 years later she is remembered as ‘a character’ who was full of determination and boundless energy.
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BRISBANE North has lost one of its matriarchs with the passing of Linda Paddon, aged 105.
Linda, who was born on August 4, 1914, died yesterday four months shy of her 106th birthday.
She’s lucky she was even born given her father William Clarke was scheduled to sail on the Titanic’s ill-fated maiden voyage in April 1912 as an engineer.
Fortunately, because he was an international soccer goalie, he stayed behind to play for Ireland against England.
Linda was born in the Queensland town of Surat the same day Great Britain declared war on Germany.
Her father was sent to France with the armed forces in 1916 and her mother Eva took her to England to be close to family.
“I was very sick with gastroenteritis so our departure was delayed,” Mrs Paddon said during an interview in 2018 when she turned 104.
“The ship we were originally booked on was torpedoed and sank with all lives lost. When I recovered we sailed to England on the Iconic.”
The family stayed in London briefly and Mrs Paddon vaguely remembered the sound of air-raid sirens and having to go underground.
They spent a couple years in a small village near Bath in Somerset.
“My father stayed on in France for the clean up. We were one of the last army families to leave after the war (late in 1920),” Mrs Paddon said.
“It took six weeks to come out on the boat.”
The family settled with Linda’s grandparents in Shorncliffe in Brisbane North and she attended Shorncliffe State School Infants and Sandgate State School.
She lived for a time in Buranda and attended Buranda School and then Commercial State High School in George St (now part of QUT).
Most weekends and school holidays were spent with her grandparents in Shorncliffe, where she played tennis, went to the many cinemas operating at the time, and swam in the Sandgate baths at the end of Third Ave.
The family moved back to Sandgate and, when Linda was 17, she attended her first yacht club dance at Sandgate Town Hall, where Albert (Alby) Paddon asked her to dance.
There were engaged on November 11, 1933 (Armistice Day) and married at St Margaret’s Anglican Church, Sandgate on March 3, 1934.
The couple moved to Tewantin and Boonah before returning to Sandgate where Alby took over Ibis Bakery in Deagon from 1937-1960s; his wife did the office accounts.
The couple mere members of the yacht club (Alby used to sail on Miss Sandgate and AJA) and Sandgate Rugby League Club (where Alby played until well into his 50s).
They had four children – Ronald, Joyce, Glennis and Albert (deceased). Alby died in 1996.
Mrs Paddon was a Life Member of Sandgate Bowls Club. She joined in 1976, was treasurer from 1982-85, and was president of the Ladies Club in 1990-91.
She took up indoor bowls about 18 years ago and in 2014, aged 99, was a member of the winning team in the Kedron-Wavell Indoor Bowls Club Triples Championship.
She was also a keen gardener, ballroom dancer and had a particular interest in porcelain dolls and painted porcelain figures.
She joined Sandgate and District Historical Society and Museum in 1996 and was made an Honorary Member in 2011.
Mrs Paddon lived in her own highset house in Deagon until she was 101 (the same house she and her husband built in 1950), before moving to PM Village, a low care aged home in Bald Hills. She never drove a car.
Daughter Glennis Hinton, of Joyner, said her mother had a very healthy and busy life.
“Even a few days before she died she was concerned about whether she could get to craft,” Mrs Hinton said.
“Mum was always in control, and in control until she died.
“She used to give the staff (at PM Village) a hell of a time because she had to have her way, but they loved her.
“Even when she didn’t get her way, she never complained. She was a character.
“When she went into the nursing home it was her choice but she really loved it.
“I found something the other day. Someone had asked her what she was grateful for, and she wrote ‘a loving family and finding this nursing home’.”
Sandgate Historical Society president Pam Verney also said Linda was always in control.
“She was filled with determination,” Ms Verney said.
“She was always positive about life, and she did have a hard life but she managed that and was positive all the time.
“She was also very active. She played beach volleyball and scrabble at the home. She was always cross with other people because they didn’t want to do anything.
“The last time I went to visit her I told the staff ‘I’m here to see Linda’ and their faces lit up. That’s how the staff thought about her; they knew her and loved her.
“She’s somebody to set your standards by.”
Ms Verney interviewed Linda for a Voices From the Past history project, where Linda shared memories of dances and sport in the Sandgate area. That project is expected to be launched at the end of the year.
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Reverend Michael Donaldson, parish priest at St Margaret’s Anglican Church, Sandgate, said Linda was their oldest parishioner.
“You look back over historic records in the parish and her name comes up regularly through various events she was involved in,” he said.
“She was someone who was actively involved in the life of the church and her father before her – he was a verger here many years ago.
“I’ve only known Linda over the last year or two since I became parish priest here. I visited her at PM Village.
“It’s a very special thing when you meet someone who’s over 100 years old. They’ve got a wonderful graciousness about them. They’re past all the airs and graces of earlier years and have a wonderful wisdom.
“It was her wish to have a funeral here at St Margaret’s and I’ll do that on a very reduced scale (due to COVID-19 restrictions limiting numbers at funerals).”
The funeral is expected to be live streamed.
(This article was written with information sourced from Pam Verney at Sandgate Historical Society.)
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