REGINALD PAGRAM

1907/2002

His Mum and Dad were Walter and Harriet Pagram. Walter was one of Martin’s Sons.

When Reg's parents first married, they lived in Hawthorn, Victoria and then they moved to 117 Brougham Street, Kew. They stayed there all their lives. In fact all Reg's Aunts and Uncles lived in the suburbs of Kew and Hawthorn and rarely moved away – like the Pagrams in Essex who are still to this day solidly based in that County and the Counties nearby.

Kew was very much a suburb of the rich in the mid to late 1800’s.

The wide streets were planned with one acre blocks in a grid pattern with narrower streets between them for tradesmen, merchants and day staff to enter the homes from the rear. One wide street then one narrow street.  Many of those old stately homes still exist today but most of the land has been re-subdivided. All the streets were named after Ex British Prime Ministers – Brougham being one of them – this was one of the intermediate streets that were re-subdivided. Many of the houses in the narrow streets where built in the style of ‘Californian Bungalow’. Larth and plaster walls inside. Outside, a combination of brick veneer and speckled rendering on the front elevation with large front porches. His Dad worked as a Head Gardener at one of these wealthy

When Reg first met his future wife Gracie Steven , he was living at home in Brougham Street in a tent in the backyard – one of the difficulties of being part a big family. Twelve brothers and Sisters.

He served his apprenticeship as a Bootmaker in Fitzroy and remained in the trade all of his working life. He was a foreman in a shoe factory in Collingwood when he retired at 65. As his Company manufactured Boots for the Army, he was exempted from “call-up” during the second world war. He also specialized in surgical footware as an income producing home hobby. He also made our sandals and shoes when we were toddlers from the offcuts of leather he got from his work. His younger brother Harold was killed in France during the war.