A.M.Suzanne De Brath

1930, aged 16, Suzanne graduated from the Dominican Convent in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) and left at 16 to do a secretarial course and go and work in an office.

1934 Summer - her parents were in Rhodesia. Brother Peter (Denis) De Brath, cousins Joan and Pat McSwiney and entire Tuite-Dalton family on holiday in Borth-y-Gest, nr. Portmadoc, South Wales, UK.

(Source: Pat McSwiney "A Family History") - does not mention if Suzanne was there too.

1942 Her husband was Flying Officer John Evans of the Rhodesian Air Force - see early picture of them both in uniform (wartime regulations) on their wedding day. Suzanne's daughter, Di Kilpert, reports that her parents married in what was then Salisbury, Rhodesia.

They built a house on a small holding next to Harold and Gwyneth (her parents) at Athelney, Ruwa, S. Rhodesia and made a living "market gardening".

1949 November 30 - daughter born in Athelney, Ruwa, S Rhodesia [Andrews Newspaper Collection. Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies, Canterbury, Kent, England]

Next they moved to Salisbury (now Harare), where Suzanne worked as a conveyancing clerk, first with a firm of architects and next with the Land Bank.

Suzanne came from a well known UK line of marine artists on her mother's side - see Thomas Hemy. She illustrated the following book with her mother:

"Thanks to You from the R.A.F." (Produced in 1944 in S. Rhodesia. Book on Poetry by a RAF corporal to say "Thankyou" to Rhodesians, who have shown kindness to visiting airmen. Proceeds to Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund. Book Description: Published by Cpl. Robert Smalley, Norton, S. Rhodesia, 1944. Suzanne De Brath (illustrator). 1st Edition. 5 x 7 1/2 Inches Approx.. Many B & W illustrations to accompany the poems (some by Suzanne's mother as well)

Bookseller: Coney-Collectibles, Gillingham, KEN, United Kingdom

As conditions deteriorated in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) Suzanne and John decided to leave and move to South Africa, near their daughter and her husband.