Photograph of the late Mrs. Alex Gaydon unveiled

During the tea interval at the Toowoomba Croquet Club Courts yesterday afternoon the president, Mrs. Oswald Booth, unveiled, in the pavilion, a photograph of the late Mrs. Alex Gaydon, former vice-captain of the club, and a committee member for a number of years, who died on Christmas Eve, 1931.

The pavilion had been decorated with bowls of dark and pale blue delphiniums and asters (the Club’s colours), and the photograph was veiled in georgette in the same shades. In unveiling the photograph, Mrs. Booth said: “When about two years ago, out of great respect, we unveiled photographs of two of our late captains, we little dreamed that within such a short space of time a similar ceremony would need to be performed and, strangely enough, this time in connection with one who had acted as vice-captain for such a length of time. Mrs. Alex Gaydon will always be remembered by us all, and our thoughts of her must be the most affectionate. Particularly will we remember her as an outstanding helper where the entertainment of our visiting friends was concerned, and one sometimes wonders how she always thought of something new for the comfort and pleasure of our visitors and members alike. We will not count her dead—for ‘to live in the hearts of those we leave behind is not to die’ and she will ever be with us in thought. Neither will she grow old,—and nothing more fitting could be said or written to-day than those beautiful lines known and cherished by us all:—

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,

We will remember them.

“In loving remembrance of Mrs. Alex Gaydon—one who has served this club—and in the name of the Club I unveil her photograph, and pay my respects to her memory.”

The article as it was printed in The Toowoomba Chronicle, 23 February 1933. Scan from Trove, National Library of Australia. (Trove, National Library of Australia)