Maudie Ray

Born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, the eldest child of Edwin and Jane Jones (nee Jane leach). Both her parents were Music Hall artists and their stage names were Harry Calpin and Minnie Sterling. Jane died of cervical cancer at the age of 29 and Maudie went to live with her aunt Ada James – Ada Ray in Bury, Lancs.
She was put on the stage by her aunt as Maudie Ray and acted until her marriage on December 13, 1915 to Frederic C.R. Jaques who was with the Westminster Dragoons Cavalry, later an officer in the Royal Flying Corps. After WW1 they operated a wine importing business but in February, 1924 they immigrated to Australia under the Homesteading scheme to farm, accompanied by their three children, John, Denise and Frederic. Capt. Jaques gave up the farming and obtained a job flying and eventually started up Jaques Flying Services in Adelaide. He lost everything in the crash of 1930 and the family, now included another daughter, Ray, returned to England in 1932.
In 1947, after WW2, with their eldest son John and his wife and their youngest daughter Ray, they returned to Australia where they opened a business manufacturing and supplying oxygen tents and baby incubators to hospitals and doctors. Their daughter Denise had married a Canadian during the war while she was serving as a nurse in the Middle East. Their younger son was in the RAF and had gone to the USA for his flying training. He also married a Canadian girl while over there. Maudie’s husband died from a brain tumor in 1951 and she tried to continue the business but it failed. She died from a heart attack in 1968.