The last surviving grandhild of H.E.A. Wells, an auctioneer, hotel owner and entrepreneur of Mudgee’s early days, revisited the town on Anzac Day to pay tribute to her family’s long association with the district.
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Laura McMillan (nee Wells) was born on November 10, 1922 to Percy George and Elsie Wells. One of many Wells children who was born at the family home “Lauralla” in Lewis Street, she was named after the house.
Percy George Wells was the son of H.E.A. Wells of Mudgee, a local auctioneer and business man who was well known around town in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Mrs McMillan lived in Mudgee until she was 16, when she moved to Sydney to live with one of her aunts.
She married at 21 and moved to Melbourne with her husband, Cyril James McMillan, and today makes her home in Cranbourne East in Melbourne.
Mrs McMillan made the trip from Melbourne to Mudgee for Anzac Day with her son Stuart and her daughter Kirsteen in what she said might be her last trip back to her home town.
“I’m the only one left of my immediate family. It brings back a lot of sad memories,” she said.
“I used to often bring the children back to Mudgee to visit and we’d stay with relatives, and I’ll be visiting all of my family while I’m here.”
Mrs McMillan said she used to come back and see her sister Edith, to whom she was very close despite a five- year age difference.
“She’s who I miss the most,” she said.
Mrs McMillan said it was “handy” that Anzac Day fell in the time she chose to come back to Mudgee because it meant she could attend the service to remember her siblings who served their country.
“Several of my brothers were in the Army and Airforce,” she said.
“The Anzac service brings back a lot of memories of people who have died over the years,” she said.
“I wanted to attend to help remember everyone in my family.
“Everything’s just caught up to me.”
Mrs McMillan and her children spent Thursday afternoon at the Mudgee Museum learning about her family history.
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