Caroline Aarons

CAROLINE ARKINSATLL (1921 - 2003)

Born on 29 November 1921 and known as Carol, she joined NTL ca 1937 with her older sister Olwyn Arkinstall. Both were in I’d Rather be Left 1941 and Carol was in the chorus of Marx of Time 1942. They had a younger sister Gwenda born 1924. After their father Thomas Arkinstall, a Gallipoli veteran, deserted the family during the Depression the three girls were brought up by their mother Gwen, a pianist who played for silent films and on radio. Good at maths, Carol left school at 15 to become a comptometrist.

In 1943 when living at Coogee she met Laurie Aarons, his then wife Kondelia “Della” Xenodohos/Falconer. After his divorce came through Carol and Laurie married on 3 May 1945. (Della's later partner was Seamen’s Union Eliot Valens Elliott.)

Laurie Aarons was CPA General Secretary 1965-76 and was absent in China 1955 – 1956, leaving Carol and the children at Fairfield to deal with ASIO agents who came to the door. Carol worked as a typist at the Borg Warner factory and was a shop steward for the Federated Clerks’ Union. She and Laurie had three sons (Brian, John and Mark) and a daughter, and at the end of their married life they lived near Bundeena on the Hacking River. A survivor of TB, Carol died on 12 July 2003. Laurie Aarons died in February 2005. Carol’s ASIO file spanned the years 1948-77.