Wedding dress : Mrs Audrey Norton (nee Horn)

Floor length unlined damask weave silk wedding dress with train. The fabric is woven through with a pattern of stylised fern leaves. The neckline, designed to fall in loose pleats below the throat, is cut high across the throat and has a self fabric facing. At the back neckline is a 10 cm opening secured by three press studs, and a row of 30 self fabric covered buttons sewn down the centre of the back. The front bodice is gathered on either side of the neck and into the curved empire waist line at the front and dropped waist line at the back. There is an opening at the left waist secured by four press studs. The head of each sleeve is shaped by three darts and held out with a semicircular buckram shoulder pad. The full length sleeves finish to a point and have a vertical slit at the cuffs secured by three press studs. The skirt is cut in three panels with two A shaped panels at the lower back to form the train.

This wedding dress was worn by Audrey Beatrice Ida Horn on her marriage to official war artist, Frank Norton, on 30 November 1940. It was made by a dressmaker in Bunbury, Western Australia. Audrey Horn was born on 17 May 1914 in Bunbury. She studied art, focusing on painting Western Australian wildflowers. Audrey and Frank met during a Fijian cruise in 1934. With Audrey residing in Bunbury and Frank in Sydney they pursued a long distance courtship for several years before announcing their engagement in November 1938. During their courtship, Frank, who had developed a reputation for producing naval artwork of a very high standard, was appointed guest artist aboard a number of Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ships. In mid 1939, with the outbreak of war pending, he travelled to England to further his artistic career. Frank returned in July 1940 and the pair were married on 30 November at the Church of Christ in Bunbury. Their honeymoon was a cruise from Fremantle to Sydney but the wartime conditions meant that the ship was in 'blackout' to avoid enemy attacks. They also encountered the threat of sea mines en route to Sydney which forced the ship to turn back to Melbourne. Frank was appointed an official war artist in 1941 and served aboard various ships, in the Middle East and the Pacific. He was later commissioned by the Australian War Memorial to cover the activities of the RAN during the Korean War. Audrey and Frank had three children and Frank often wrote and drew cards for his young family while he was serving overseas. Frank died in 1983, and Audrey in 2007 aged 93.