Tributes paid to former Orange Citizen of the Year Pauline Arnold

Pauline Arnold died on October 25 at the age of 96.

A former Orange Citizen of the Year, Mrs Arnold was a notable presence throughout the Central West during her work with many a community's eisteddfod, to the formation of groups such as the Orange Bach Society (which later became the Orange City Choir) and the teachings she offered on an individual basis.

Mrs Arnold's daughter, Marian Arnold, paid tribute to her mother.

"Her 96th birthday was just a few days before she died and it was a very happy day. She had a long and very wonderful life. She was loved and recognised for her talent and generosity," she said.

"We all knew how talented she was. She was born to do this work and achieved it despite all of the things she went through. I have always been very proud her."

Mrs Arnold was born in Harrow, England in 1926, which is where she would remain until The Blitz in 1939, at which point her family moved to Ashington in Sussex.

But her talent for music came from an unlikely source.

"When she was a little girl, for the first 11 years of her life she suffered with tremendous ear trouble," her daughter said.

"It was so bad that often she was unable to hear the conversations that were being held in her family.

"Therefore she would lock herself in the front room of the house where there was a piano. One day she opened the piano stool and found a Smallwood's Piano Tutor book in the seat. She began to teach herself the piano and that was where it all began. It was her way out of this terrible difficulty she had with her ears."

Soon after that, the ear affliction went away, but the things she had to overcome as a child remained.

"Because she had such ear trouble and was constantly ill, she didn't have much primary school education," Ms Arnold said of her mum.

"When they were in Ashington, her parents had to go out to work and she had to look after her little sister who was nine years younger, so she didn't get any secondary school education. She actually had a really difficult start."

Upon turning 18, Mrs Arnold decided that she wanted to take up a career in nursing, just like her older sister had done.

She moved to Brighton and became a part time steward at arts venue The Dome which was attached to the Royal Pavilion Concert Hall.

"She was allocated work on the balcony keyboard side of the hall, which was important because she loved the piano," Ms Arnold added.

"She met everybody who was anybody at that time because Brighton was the place where all the famous musicians would do their dress rehearsals before performing in London."

Mrs Arnold would then marry her first husband, and father of her children, Chris Arnold.

The couple moved to Hartford, where she would teach her daughters to sing duets from a very early age.

The family would then follow Mrs Arnold's parents to Australia as Ten Pound Poms. They arrived in Australia in May, 1959 where they went straight to Orange.

"They both began to make music and musical friends in Orange," Ms Arnold said of her parents.

"My dad was singing and my mum was playing. She first started playing at Glenroi school which was where we were going to school and then she also started playing for the RAD Ballet School in Orange."

From 1961, Mrs Arnold began playing shows and musicals, first with the Bloomfield Theatrical Society which led to her working as a repeater vocal coach for 25 years. In 1962 she began accompanying local brass bands and that also led to a lifetime of work at contests.

In 1962 she became the accompanist at the Cowra Eisteddfod which she did for 14 years. She was so well received that she also became the accompanist for the Orange Eisteddfod for 33 years. She would also take on that role in Forbes, Parkes and Wellington.

"I can remember times I would go to Orange and she would tell me she had 200 pieces to learn, but it was a joy for her," Ms Arnold said.

"In 1969, she formed the Orange Bach Society and that lasted for 25 years and then in 1994 it became the Orange City Choir.

"Between 1990 and 2015 she also very regularly provided nursing home entertainment, accompanying a group of singers weekly. She did all that just for the love of it."

In 1986, her first husband died and then within the next couple of years she married her second husband, the late musician and bandmaster, Harry Sloggett.

In 1997 she became the local citizen of the year and in 1998 she was on the Queen's Birthday List and got a medal in the Order of Australia.

"Over the years, she taught many children to sing. She constantly had people coming round, just to play music for the pleasure of it," her daughter added.

"Our life was also dominated by music and some of my happiest times growing up was our music-making."

Mrs Arnold had four children - Marian, Christine, Bob and Lois - ten grandchildren and nine great-grand children.

A public memorial to celebrate Mrs Arnold's life will be held at the Orange Uniting Church on Friday, November 25, commencing at 2.30pm.

Asked what it was like to grow up with a mother who was revered by so many sectors of the community, Ms Arnold said she had "always been thrilled by it."

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