SOUVENIR CUP 1954 ROYAL VISIT

This souvenir cup of the visit to Australia by Queen Elizabeth II in 1954 was either collected by or owned by Mrs Lois Turner who was a member of the Armadale Kelmscott Historical Society and collected and donated a large amount of 'olden days' objects for the museum in the year before it opened in 1976. Some of those items were owned by her or her family when they first lived in Armadale and later on farms near Brookton. in 1954 Lois was living near Brookton which is 65km south of York.
Lois's father, William Tidbury Mills came to Western Australia in the 1890s to try his luck on the recently discovered Goldfields. In c1905 William returned to South Australia and married Victoria Maria Mason. The newly married couple then returned to Western Australia and settled in Armadale where they started their family. Their first child, George Hartly was born in Armadale in 1906. Lois was delivered by local midwife Mrs Bodicoat in 1908 at the family property on the corner of Eleventh Avenue and Gull Street. Lois would have spent her first few years of schooling attending the Armadale State School. While in Armadale the family had four other children, Avon William in 1909, Hartly Mason in 1911, Sydney Eric in 1913 and Victor Glenn in 1914
In 1915 the Mills family moved to Brookton. That same year Hilda Victoria was born and in 1918 Fred Mason was born. The family lived on a farm which they called 'Masonville' to the east of the Brookton
In 1932 Lois married Sidney John Turner a local farmer and lived in the district for the next thirty years. In 1961 Sidney passed away and Lois moved back to the district, moving into a house on Valentine Road, Kelmscott. Lois would later join the Armadale Kelmscott Historical Society. In 1975 as the AKHS prepared to open History House Lois donated a large number of items from her family.
Lois passed away in Armadale in 1988.
On 3 February 1954 Elizabeth II became the first reigning monarch of Australia to visit Australia when she arrived in Sydney for a two month tour. During the tour Elizabeth II visited every Australian capital except Darwin and 40 country towns. An estimated 75% of the Australian population attended an event or parade where they saw the Queen during the tour. Western Australia was the final leg of their tour, arriving in Perth on 26 March, having travelled there by plain from Adelaide with a stop at Kalgoorlie. The Western Australian leg included a number of events in Perth and visits to Busselton, Albany, Northam and York. While in Western Australia the Queen attended nine civic receptions, two official dinners, a official welcome and fair well, a wreath laying at the State War Memorial, a parade of ex-service personnel, a garden party at Government House, a procession of youth organisations at Government House, a night watching trotting races at Gloucester Park, The Perth Lord Mayor's Ball, a luncheon at the Northam town hall, a tree planting at Kings Park, a visit to Hollywood hospital and attended a children's review at the Claremont Showgrounds. The Queen and her husband did get Sunday the 28th off with their only public event, attending a church service at St George's Cathedral. The tour ended on 1 April 1954.