Annie Reay

Wendy Matson was the only Australian grandchild who saw Annie Reay McLaren in 1956 when she joined Annie McLaren Matson, her mother, in England. She lived in a tiny cramped house in Gateshead that still used gas lamps and was a shorter version of her daughter.

Jenni Matson Boyle and Wendy went to Gateshead in 2005 to research some family history and found many of the Reay graves. The area where Annie Matson had grown up was long razed and Gateshead presented a shining face to the world.