Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

In memory of my father Keith Daubert Anderson (1916-1975)
 
My father was born during the First World War. His grandparents were European risk takers who had emigrated to Australia in the Gold Rush of the1850’s. The Andersons were proud of their Shetland origins. Their lives illustrated the maxim that if you were born in the Shetlands, you either went to sea or stayed at home and starved. My grandfather, Arthur John Anderson 1885-19670, was a shipbuilder, the son of Andrew Anderson (1857-1934), a mariner, who was born in the Shetlands, at Trondavoe, Delting, the first of his family to emigrate to Melbourne.
 
The parents of my father’s mother, Annie Elizabeth Susannah Daubert (1880-1975) were Irish and German. Keith’s middle name was that of his maternal grandfather, Charles Jacob Daubert, who was born in Hanau. Daubert died in 1935 aged 83. Melbourne directories from 1890 to 1911 indicate that Daubert practised as a jeweller/watchmaker in South Melbourne, first at 102 Coventry Street, then at 84 Coventry Street (on the Moray Street corner) and 15 Park Street.
 
Scotch College was his school where he excelled. Upon leaving his mother tried to force him to become an accountant, but he rebelled and followed his passion, medicine. He earnt his living playing the violin in an orchestra at night while he studied medicine at Melbourne University.  Keith graduated on 21 December 1939 with a Bachelor of Surgery and of Medicine, from the University of Melbourne.
 
Keith met the love of his life, Belle Bonnie Surridge at the tennis club of St. John’s Anglican Church, Camberwell. Bonnie was a pupil of the Melbourne Conservatorium, a flautist, pianist and singer. They graduated in the same year and married in the middle of the Second World War on 24 January 1942, St John’s Church.
 
After the war my father set up his practice at 33 Chape Street, St. Kilda, where he remained until his death. St Kilda was a suburb with many Jewish immigrants who had suffered in camps in Germany and Poland. General Practice was much more hands on, and the family lived above the shop. Among his patients was Sidney Nolan and his family. In 1947 Keith saved Sidney’s life, when the artist was working late at night in his parents’ garage and almost asphyxiated himself working with strong solvents.
 
My father was extremely generous and loved travelling, at first on road trips in Australia. He then took his family abroad on two occasions. The first was a voyage on the P and O Liner, SS Orsova. The second was a longer voyage to Europe from November 1959 to February1960. These experiences made me the art historian that I am, by introducing me to other cultures. As a child he gave me some pocket money but allowed me to buy as many books as I wanted with an account at Angus and Robertson. My mother was a radio-pianist and never allowed television. As a consequence, I write books.
 
Jaynie Anderson