Hamilton

My maternal grandmother, Dorothy Flyght, was born to William Alfred Flyght and Emily Butler on July 8th 1912.

William Flyght was born in Brooklyn New York in 1883 to Hannah Matilda Johnson and Hugo Flyght. Hannah and Hugo were born and married in Orebro, Sweden, and emigrated to America in 1883. Hannah was the daughter of a Baptist Minister in Sweden. Orebro in Sweden is famous for it’s shoe making industry. When Hannah and Hugo arrived in America and settled in New York Hugo made his living as a shoe maker.

To put things in their correct order my great grandfather was actually born Alfred William Flyght but for reasons I will outline later he changed the order of his names.

His siblings were: (apart from Mary who was born in Sweden, all the children were born in Brooklyn, New York).

Mary, John, Erik, Axel, Annie, Gus, George, Anna (Hannah), Sarah (Sadie), Emeline, Russell, Irene, Mabel and Ellen.

My great grandfather William signed up with the US Navy at the age of 16. He would not have been accepted so he raised his age to 18. He arrived in Sydney Australia on his ship as part of the US Navy’s ‘Goodwill’ Fleet voyage around the Pacific of 1907. Like several of his fleetmates he went AWOL in Sydney and never returned to either his ship, or the US. It was on this visit to Sydney that he met my great grandmother, Emily Butler, and she was obviously his reason to stay in Sydney. He and Emily married in Sydney in 1908. To avoid capture by the authorities, and deportation as well as court martial, he changed his first name from ‘Alfred’ to ‘William’. Thereafter he lived the rest of his life as ‘William Alfred Flyght’.

William and Emily settled in Willoughby, a suburb north of Sydney. They had four children:

Dorothy - my grandmother (died April 1978 in Manly); Clarence (Clarrie - died 1979); Alfred (Alfie - died 1972); Madeline (Madge - died 1995 at Tweed Heads).

William spent the rest of his life in Australia as a gardener/handyman. Sadly, he spent his entire adult life in Australia constantly ‘looking over his shoulder’ for fear of being caught and deported for his going AWOL in 1907. He never registered his name on the electoral roll for this reason.

He died at his home in Willoughby in 1963 and is buried at Northern Suburbs Cemetery in North Ryde.

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My grandfather Allan Hopkins married Dorothy Flyght in Willoughby 1929, he was a postal worker and she was a pastry cook. In June 1929 my mother June was born followed by:

Lois - November 1930
Doreen - September 1933
Robyn - September 1947 - died August 2002

They lived in High Street Willoughby until Allan’s death in 1972. Dorothy continued to live in the same house until 1975, she died in Manly 1978.

Allan was born in February 1912 at Main Arm Mullumbimby. At the time of his birth his parents Mildred and Patrick were living in the area, Patrick worked in the timber cutting industry and they moved around the region of northern NSW taking employment wherever possible.

Siblings were :

Margaret Spouse: Kenneth Harris (Bunny)
James (Jimmy) Spouse: Nell (deceased)
Gwen (Gwennie) Spouse: 1) Alwyn Moore 2) Gordon Greentree (both deceased)

Mum cannot tell me where Pop went to school as a child, but chances are high he started school around Mullumbimby and also would have attended school in the town of Berry, NSW, where the family lived before settling in Willoughby.

Dorothy Flyght was born in Chatswood, July 1912 where she grew up. She worked as a pastry cook in the local bakery and also worked in a pub called ‘The Greengate’ at Killara during WWII. She was renowned as a great cook. Nan was also a skilled ‘fisherman’ and it remained her big passion during her life, she was also a fond cricket player and I have a photo of her swinging the bat when she was only 16. Nan was the only person who had the courage to stand up to her husband’s mother, Mildred, and Mum tells me the two women never got along. Nan being Church of England and her mother-in-law being a ‘heathen hating’ RC.

Nan also was part of a long running feud between herself and the local Catholic priest from Willoughby - Father Darby. The two despised each other. Darby was a known drinker and not the most christian of people despite being a priest. The feud stemmed from an incident when Nan took her seriously ill and dying baby niece down to the presbytery one night to have the child baptised and Father Darby, intoxicated, refused to see the child.

Dorothy died in April 1978 from Pemphygus. Allan died in October 1972 from a coronary. They are buried together at Northern Suburbs Cemetery, North Ryde Sydney.
In September 2002 their daughter Robyn was interred with them after her death in Mossman, North Queensland.

Allan Hamilton Augustus Hopkins and Dorothy (Flyght) Hopkins: Sydney 1967.

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