400. Eva Isabel Marian Bruce D.B.E.,J.P.
Eva Isabel Marian Bruce (1892-1987) D.B.E., J.P., Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, married first, Algenon Henry Strutt, 3rd Baron Belper (1883-1956), and one of their daughters, Lavinia Mary (1916-1995) became the wife of Bernard Marmaduke Fitzalan-Howard, 16th Duke of Norfolk (1908-1975). Eva later married the 6th Earl of Rosebery, becoming the Countess of Rosebery.
3rd Baron Belper
401. Constance Pamela Alice Bruce O.B.E.,J.P.
Constance Pamela Alice Bruce O.B.E., J.P. (1895-1978) married Col. Edward Kenelm, 11th Baron Digby K.G., D.S.O., M.C. (1894-1964) Their daughter, Pamela Beryl (1920-1997) led a colourful life, marrying in turn Randolph Frederick Edward Spencer Churchill M.B.E. (son of Sir Winston Spencer Churchill), Leland Hayward (1902-1971), literary and theatrical agent, and Averell Harriman (1891-1986) (ambassador to USSR and Britain and Governor of New York). She was a socialite and turned diplomat after her marriage to Harriman when work for the Democratic Party culminated in her being appointed Ambassador to France in 1993. She had already taken American citizenship. Though deemed frivolous and lacking in education, she was a competent diplomat and was awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour by the President of France. Pamela’s public and colourful private life is described in ‘Life of the Party: the Autobiography of Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman’ by Christopher Ogden, published in 1994.
Edward Kenelm K.G.,D.S.O.,M.C.
11th Baron Digby
Marie Louise Kleber was the descendant of a Barbados Austin who settled in Canada in the early nineteenth century. She was married to an American army officer, Victor Kleber. On his retirement they took up genealogical research into their respective families as their hobby. She got in touch with relatives in Barbados and an interesting correspondence ensued, each being able to supply the other with new material, but, unfortunately, too late to give pleasure to D.H.A.
With great perseverance Marie made an Austin lineage of nineteen pages and generously supplied photostat copies of this to anyone interested. Without this clear presentation it would have been very much more difficult for the present writers to untangle the lines of descent and set the story down in any sort of sequence and order.
He was born in Geelong, near Melbourne, and educated at King’s School, Adelaide, the Ararat Church of England Grammar School and Melbourne Church of England Grammar School. Like his father and grandfather, he rowed for his school, and in 1927 for Victoria. In 1914, he enlisted in the armed forces and participated in the landing at Gallipoli. He returned to Australia in 1919, with the rank of Second Lieutenant. With his brother John Piercy, he took up a soldier’s settlement property near Sale in Victoria, but the property could not support two families after the brothers had married. William Piercy married Gertrude Elizabeth Hogg (1897-1984) from Daylesford, Victoria, in 1923, at Melbourne and they lived first on an orchard property near Melbourne, where their two children were born. The family later moved to Griffith, New South Wales where William Piercy worked as an engineer for the Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission. William Piercy enlisted in 1940 in the Second AIF. He landed in Singapore in 1941 and was taken prisoner by the Japanese in 1942 and interned in Changi jail. Later, he worked on the infamous Burma railway line. He survived this, returned to Australia in late 1945 and worked for some years before retiring in 1950. He died in Melbourne.
She was the second daughter of Campbell Hogg b.1866 and Edel Mina Lawson.
Educated at C.of E. Girls School in Melbourne
615. Dr. William Piercy Austin
He was born in Oakleigh, Victoria and was educated in Yoogalie Public School, Leelou Intermediate High School and Melbourne Church of England Grammar School from 1939 to 1942. He enlisted in the RAAF in 1943 and was in New Guinea. He was demobilised in 1946. In 1947 he enrolled as a medical student in Melbourne University from where he graduated in 1952. He was resident at the Royal Melbourne Hospital during 1953-54. He left for England in 1954 where he worked as a doctor in the RAF base at Lyneham, Wiltshire. He then served in Germany with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He returned to Australia in 1957 and established a medical practice in Middle Park, Victoria, retiring in 1986. He died two years later, a bachelor.
616. Stella Elizabeth Piercy Austin
She was also born in Oakleigh, Victoria and received her early education at Yoogalie Public School, New South Wales. In 1941 she enrolled at St Michael’s College, St Kilda. In 1948, she began a career in nursing at a children’s hospital in Melbourne and graduated as a nurse in 1951. She worked at various hospitals in Australia, and spent time at St George’s Hospital in Kew, Melbourne, where she obtained a certificate to practice as a midwife. She retired in 1984 and lives at the former home of her parents in Croydon, Victoria. She has remained single. As the surviving descendant of Bishop William Piercy Austin’s eldest son, she has possession of the miniature portrait of Thomas Austin (the portrait is reproduced in this book).
430. John Piercy Austin
He was commissioned as a Lieutenant into the Australian Field Artillery and, like his brother, saw service in Gallipoli during World War I, and was gassed. After the war, he went with his brother to a soldier’s settlement property near Sale in Victoria. When he married Myrtle Rebecca Chilvers, there was not enough room for them on the property and he moved to Melbourne where they had two children. He enlisted for military service in World War II, but on account of being gassed in World War I, he served in Army Headquarters in Australia. He lived latterly in Melbourne, where he died
618. Joan Piercy Austin
She was born in Stockdale, Victoria. In 1946 she married an American, Clayton Walker, in Melbourne. He was in the US navy and they went to live in the USA where Clayton eventually became an admiral. They had no children of their own, but adopted two who both have very good jobs and live in Canada. After gaining a business diploma in New York, Joan worked as a business consultant for Macy’s in that city. She divorced her husband and returned to Australia, and remarried a Mr. Howling. Joan was living in Queensland when she died.