Eileen Woosnam

Today the Otways in southwestern Victoria are a far cry from August 21, 1918, when Eileen Lucas came into her family’s world. She was the sixth child of Charles and Cecilia. A surprise, because Sissie had turned forty that year! “It’s a pity Dad called her Sissie”, muses Eileen. “Cecilia was such a pretty name”. Eileen had two brothers, Jack and Charlie, and three sisters: Mary, Tess and Bess (Beatrice). Closest in age to Eileen, just seven years older, was her brother Charlie. He lived most of his life in the Lucas family home and never married. He would escort his teenage sister to the local dances where he played the piano by ear, never having had formal lessons. Eileen learnt to read music and, like Charlie, she could play and sing all those wonderful tunes of the thirties, forties, and fifties, by ear.