A generous, independent lass

Lillias ‘Bunty’ Littleson

Born: 4 November 1917

Died: 19 August 2003

When Graham Moffat penned his immensely popular play Bunty Pulls the Strings early last century, he created the character of an attractive Scottish lass ‘with more than an ordinary amount of shrewd common sense’. He also inspired a young father to ‘re-name’ his daughter. Coalminer James Littleson watched his second wee bairn growing up in Lesmahagow, Scotland, in the 1920s. The River Nethan meandered aimlessly through the village but the little maid seemed to have purpose in every step. Her father must have perceived a passionately free-spirited woman in the making and sensed that her chosen name, Lillias, would not suffice. Prophetically, the canny Scot decided that Lillias would instead be called Bunty, after the Moffat play’s eponymous heroine. The Littleson bloodline had been very pragmatic with names before. Originally known as MacFiggan, of Argyll, the family name was Anglicised to Littleson by Bunty’s blacksmith grandfather, Duncan, in an attempt to assimilate into the English economy of the 1880s. But, as the best laid schemes often go awry, or as Robert Burns put it, ‘gang aft a-gley’, the Littleson diaspora continued. In 1929, aged 11, Bunty strode up the gangplank of the Aberdeen liner Demosthenes, bound for Melbourne with her parents, two sisters and two brothers. In Australia, Bunty’s moniker protected her in the schoolyard from the rude mispronunciation of Lillias (Lilly-arse). And, Bunty thought, her broad accent had to go. Within months of setting foot on Station Pier, Bunty had purged her Scots brogue and developed her own style of diction that would have confounded Henry Higgins himself! Bunty became a hairdresser and a Melbourne institution managing the Stephanie Deste Beauty Lodge in Elizabeth Street and later her own salon at Chadstone. Her busy life was filled with an extended family and a prodigious appetite for literature, ballet, and music. Bunty’s Scottish heritage shone through with her choice of sporting endeavour. Forgoing the heather and whins of St Andrews, Bunty found her place among the wattles and gums of the Huntingdale Golf Club where she proudly hit a hole-in-one, and made some treasured friends. Bunty’s favorite writers were Robert Burns, Ogden Nash and Edward Lear. Comic verse fed her wickedly dry sense of humour but what nourished Bunty’s soul was a dose of ‘Rabbie’ Burns. And occasionally ‘a drop of the doings’ – whisky. With no children of her own, Bunty generously gave her affection to nieces and nephews, endowing them with a sense of tradition, cultural education, witticisms – and free hair cuts! The next generation of grandnieces and nephews were also to enjoy Bunty’s mellowing bounty. Never married, she leaves her younger sister, cousin, friends, nieces, nephews and their families, somehow with a sense that Bunty still pulls the strings. Rus Littleson
		Bunty Pulls the Strings: The synopsis from the 1911 play by Graham Moffat. (With thanks to Rob Wilton Theatricalia)