18. The Cant Family in Australia : William Augustine (Bill), wife Dorothy and family

William Augustine James "Bill" or "Pop" and Dorothy Isabel née Lutton - grandparents

The first child born to William Cant (14 June, 1867 - 11 Dec, 1940) and his second wife, Sarah Grieve (25  May, 1870 - 21 June 1942) was William Augustine James [Bill], on 29 May, 1897 in Cootamundra.

Tony Butler writes:

“Little is known of his childhood but a picture of him at the age of three shows a lovely child with blond curly hair and clear blue eyes. The family appears to have been settled in Jerilderie at this time, even though William senior may have been moving about with his job on the railways, for the next two children were born there.

William in his army uniform
Photo c/- Tony Butler

William as a young man

“William’s education may have been somewhat haphazard: moving from place to place, lack of attention, who knows? He did go to school, as Gladys’s postcard attests: ‘How are you getting on at school?’ she writes in 1909. She asks in another card ‘How is your arm?’ The arm is a real cause of concern, if the extant postcards are any indication. The time is December 1908; Will’s arm had been broken and badly set, so that it had to be re-broken and re-set. The result was that he was never able to touch his shoulder with that hand. When he came to join the army in 1918 at the age of twenty one – his parents would not give their consent any earlier – he found himself, at the medical check-up, in a queue heading towards a doctor unsympathetic to would-be soldiers with any physical disability. He promptly changed queues for a more sympathetic medico and was passed into the army only to get as far as South Africa when the Armistice was declared.

The Superintendent's Garden at
Kandos Cement Works, tended
by Bill Cant. 

“In 1926, 8 July, Bill married Dorothy Lutton.  (see Lutton chapter). She had been boarding at the Cant household in Brady Street, Granville. They moved immediately to the recently founded Kandos cement works, he as head gardener, a job he held for thirty nine years until he retired in 1965. The gardens were a picture and he worked hard at them, even going so far as to obtain his greenkeeper’s certificate.

Dorothy Lutton, centre

“Service to the community was a feature of Bill and Dot Cant. During the Depression, for example, Bill used to pay the grocery bill for the Huntley family, his father’s sister’s Mary’s family, and give away substantial quantities of vegetables to others. Dorothy was a founding member of the local C.W.A. and served the community in a number of ways. She was a noted speaker and a splendid singer: she had taken singing lessons at the local Good Samaritan convent in Kandos – a Spanish-style building, still to this day one of the feature buildings of the town – in 1929 and 1930. She sang at weddings for no charge and performed regularly at variety concerts."

Dorothy (second from right) in a play at Ettalong

After Bill's retirement, Dorothy and Bill moved to Woy Woy on the NSW Central Coast. Bill died there in November, 1972, Dorothy in 1979.

Dorothy Cant with Michelle Cox, Woy Woy about 1967

Bill and Dorothy Cant at their Woy Woy house

Bill 'Pop' Cant at Woy Woy

Dorothy (second from right) with her CWA Glee Club friends

Glee Club Concert at Ettalong

Dorothy and Bella Waters, CWA Conference, Sydney

CWA ladies Woy Woy - Dorothy front right

Dorothy

CWA Woy Woy

Dorothy at Hillcrest, Ilford

Gwen Cant

Gwen Cant

Gwennyth Dorothy was born 29 May 1930, and Heather Myrtle 3 February 1936. Gwen married Clement Douglas Briggs in 1952. They lived at Ilford, where Clem ran a farm of 1600 acres with Hereford cows and merino sheep. They had two children: Garry John born 8 October 1954, and Lynelle Jann born 23 June 1957. Gwen carried on in her mother’s footsteps as devoted C.W.A. identity and a member of the local Uniting Church.

Clem and Gwen retired to Canberra, where Lynelle lives. Clem died on 22 November 2000 in Canberra, Gwen in 2008.

Baby Gwen

Baby Gwen

Gwen, 1934

Gwen at Kandos

Gwen at The Entrance about 1936-37

Gwen ready for a Ball, 1947

Heather Cant

Bill and Dorothy's second daughter, Heather Meryl, was born in Kandos on 3 February, 1936. 

Dorothy with Heather, 1937

Gwen aged 12, Heather aged 6

Gwen Dorothy, Heather, and Dorothy's mother, Nanna
Lutton at Kandos railway station.

Gwen, Heather and Dorothy on the way to
a pantomime

Gwen, Dorothy, Heather and friend Ella
Grimshaw in Sydney

Cants on holiday, Kings Cross, 1946

Kings Cross 1946, with Den Lutton, Dorothy's
younger brother

Tony Butler writes: 

Heather as a teenager

“Heather at an early age was discovered to be developmentally delayed. She was able to stay in the family until the onset of adolescence, when the little rages brought on by the indiscretions of other children and the dawning realisation that she would never have a normal social life made it difficult to manage her at home. She spent a long time in a government institution at Stockton where she received a sound and appropriate education. There was in Heather a latent charm and talent; she seemed to have musical potential. As a child she used to sit on the office steps at the cement works and entertain the arriving staff with ‘piano’ renditions of the classics which she would sing with some accuracy. ‘One Fine Day’, from Madame Butterfly, was one of her favourites and she would sing, appropriately enough, ‘at office meeting’ instead of Puccini’s words ‘at our first meeting’.

“After a change in government policy she was moved from Stockton to Morriset with less than happy results. She was for some time now at Leura in the Blue Mountains where Gwen could see her regularly: it was a good place and a pleasant little community." [Leura proved unsuitable, and Heather moved to Westhaven in Dubbo, then Lourdes Hospital in Dubbo, and finally to Morley Lodge, Red Hill, where she died on 17 June, 2006.]

Extract from the eulogy at Heather's funeral:

"Unfortunately, Heather was diagnosed as being intellectually disabled when she was a baby. A specialist said that she would never walk or talk, but Heather proved him wrong, because she walked at the age of two and could talk really well at age four.

Heather went to the local primary school, but when she was 12, she had a bad nervous breakdown. Her parents did everything they could for her, but eventually she had to go to Stockton Hospital. Stockton was later closed to older patients and she was moved to

Dorothy, Heather and Gwen at Morisset.

Morisset Hospital and from there to a hostel at Narara.

When her father and mother died, Gwen moved her to a place at Leura which became very bad. Heather then moved to Westhaven, Dubbo and later to Lourdes Hospital, Dubbo.

The next move in 2000 was down to Morling Lodge, so that she could be close to family.

 In earlier days Heather did a lot of craft work, eg cutting out moccasins at Stockton. She went on to do lots of lovely craft and art work.

She was gifted with a wonderful ear for music and liked classical music, musical comedies and ballads most of all. Her mother had a good singing voice and once they sang a duet in a concert in Kandos. Heather was the migrant wanting to learn English and her mother was the teacher. It was a fun song, but Heather ended up saying - “I will my lessons say” - teacher saying “Go away - go away” and Heather ends by saying “Great ‘A’ and Bouncing ‘B’. The audience literally shook the roof with applause!
Heather had a bright and happy nature and she seemed to be liked where ever she went. Someone always seemed to know her when shopping was taking place at Dubbo.

Praise God her physical health was good and when she came to Morling Lodge she was a help with washing and drying up and setting tables etc. One of the sisters on Saturday morning wondered why she hadn’t put the spoons out for breakfast. When she went into Heather she found that she had died very peacefully in her sleep…
Heather had been the angel at the Christmas pageant several times. She had been dressed in white with wings and a halo and she really looked lovely.

Morling Lodge was the very best of places for Heather and her family wish to thank them all for their love, care and support.

Heather’s older sister Gwen Briggs, nephew and niece Garry and Lynelle Briggs and great niece Holly and all her carers and friends are going to miss her very much and will reflect on her life for a long time to come."