Ursula Edith Saunders

(1948-1993)

Ursula Edith Saunders was the only child of Arthur Alexander and Edith (nee Packer) Price.  Her parents were immigrants from Wales and Somerset in 1911. (They are registered on the Welcome Walls at Fremantle Harbour.)

Arthur Price was a railway worker (Station Staff) and began his career in Western Australia as a porter at Fremantle Station. That led to a number of appointments and promotions on the line serving isolated early wheat belt areas between Mullewa and Northam where he, his wife and daughter lived quite lonely lives.  They finally settled, when Ursula was 12 years old, in Armadale where Arthur spent 19 years as Assistant Station Master.  His final position before retirement, taken up in 1946, was Station Master at Mosman Park.

Ursula was born in Cottesloe while her father was stationed briefly at Tammin. For her 10th birthday - when the little family was stationed at Toodyay – she was given a Wertheim piano.  This instrument became one of the most important things in her life and stayed with her until the end.

At 12 years old, when the family moved to Armadale, Ursula began formal piano lessons with the local Headmaster’s daughter, gaining good marks in the AMEB examinations held at the University of Western Australia.  At about 17 years of age she moved on to learn greater skills from Miss Ida Roberts – a professional teacher in Perth.  Because of her proficiency in playing the piano she was in great demand for playing the piano for concerts and community celebrations.  She even transferred her skills to playing the organ for the Armadale Congregational Church.

In 1936 Ursula married Kenneth ‘Ken’ Stanley Saunders, the fourth son and sixth child of Percy and Maude Saunders, bakers, of 58 Duke Street, East Fremantle.  Ken learned the baking side of the business under his father’s tutelage and was also a self-taught motor mechanic. When the business acquired three motorised Bedford delivery vans in the mid to late 1930s it became his job to manage repairs and servicing.

Ken took up a garage business next to the Kelmscott Hotel on Albany Highway. With neither of them having had much business experience, the venture was not a success so they moved to South Perth and Ken worked for the Main Roads Department on the bitumen surfacing of Stirling Highway.

1938 saw the arrival of their daughter, Josephine (known as Jodie).  By the time she was three and a half years old, they were living in a caravan on a vacant block next to the home of her Uncle Ted (Ken’s brother) in Holland Street, Fremantle East.

Ken began working in his father’s bakery, and the family moved to 75 Duke Street, East Fremantle – the ‘house”’being a single-roomed cottage with few amenities but somewhere they could call home!

By this time Australia was into the third year of World War II so Ken tried to enlist in the Army. He was initially rejected because he was in a “reserved occupation”- working in the bakehouse. He tried again to enlist – but this time in the Air Force, emphasising his experiences and capabilities with engines and vehicles.  He was accepted and there is a handwritten comment on his enlistment papers stating: “We need this man!”

So, in 1942 – a couple of months before his second daughter, Lynette, was born and after moving Ursula and Jodie into a very basic cottage perched on the limestone ridge further down the street (53 Duke Street) and opposite his parents’ home, Ken departed for training near Melbourne in Victoria.

Although Ursula must have been happy that, at last, she was able to have her piano with her again she probably felt rather daunted with the prospect of having a four-year-old and a new baby to cope with while she was alone. Ken had some leave after completing his training so was home for a short period before he was sent to New Guinea - where he was stationed until the War ended in 1945. 

It was early 1946 before the family was finally reunited and joined the great demand for housing.  Ursula and Ken had a head start because of their ownership of 75 Duke Street and they were able to have a simple weatherboard and asbestos-clad house with a tiled  roof built on the property. They worked on developing the garden areas and were living happily until Easter 1947 when Ken developed Appendicitis and an infection which caused his death in Fremantle Hospital.

1947 Death on April 13, at Fremantle, Kenneth Stanley Saunders, dearly beloved husband of Ursula Edith Saunders, of 75 Duke-street, East Fremantle, and loving father of Josephine and Lynette; aged 35 years. (reference)

At that time the Civilian Widows Pension was a very meagre sum so Ursula searched for ways to supplement her income while managing to care for her children and new home. She had done part of the Teacher Training Course in the late 1930s so tried to get a position in the Education Department. Probably because of the number of returned Servicemen who were looking for teaching jobs (and they had priority!) the only job on offer was a one-teacher school somewhere in the Wheatbelt!  Next, she took on playing the piano for local dances and parties but that was not  very successful because it meant mostly working at night and having to find care for the girls. 

Finally she decided to stay in her home and teach other people’s children to play the piano.  This became a very organised routine with two lessons given before school started each morning and four or five lessons after school each week day. Ursula always insisted that her pupils undertook the Australian Music Examination Board (AMEB) exams, as she herself had done, and she worked hard to maintain a high standard in her teaching. She continued to do that for the next 30 years!

When the America’s Cup arrived in Fremantle in 1983 and real estate was in demand, Ursula took the opportunity to downsize her home. She sold 75 Duke Street and moved to a Retirement Village in Northlake Road in Melville.  A few years later she moved to Dianella to be close to her daughter, Lynette.  She always had her piano with her and, despite a little dementia, was able to keep playing until her death at 97.

Written by Ursula’s daughter Jo Lupton, 2024