Recently, Joan Dwyer donated some items from the estate of Jessie Katterns (1920-2011) to the Young Historical Museum. Amongst the items were a hat made by Vera Sharoff and three paper bags from her millinery shop at 162 Boorowa Street, Young. A newspaper advertisement on 4 May 1964 stated that her shop had ‘a large and very smart range of hats’ and ‘a completely new range of handbags’, gloves and hosiery in the lead up to Mother’s Day. Vera Iosifeovni Sharoff was born on 29 September 1911 at Harbin in northern China to Russian parents. She arrived in Sydney with her husband Peter Sharoff and their son Vladimir (Walter) Peter Sharoff, on 26 or 27 August 1938, on the ship Nellore. Within a year of their arrival, they settled at Young and registered as Alien Residents in the Commonwealth of Australia. Peter Leontievich Sharoff was born in Tashkent (Russian Turkestan) on 14 January 1898. When the Russian Revolution broke out in 1917, he was at a cavalry cadet school in Tashkent. He had just arrived home on leave when his father, who was wealthy, heard about the Revolution. His father sent him to a Caucasian State about 1000 miles away where Peter joined with White Russians who opposed the Bolsheviks. He was wounded in the leg and cheek in the fighting. By 1920 when the Japanese arrived, he was in Vladivostok and he was shot in the back of the head. He eventually made his way to Shanghai, China, where he set up as a hairdresser, as he had received training in Moscow. He served four years with the Shanghai Volunteer Corps with other White Russians and then opened a large beauty salon at Hangkow (Hangzhou) with Vera. They counted Mrs Garrett, wife of the Governor of the Shanghai Bank, the British and foreign ambassadors’ wives as customers and were even visited by Madame Chang Kai-Shek. The Sharoff’s had a son, Vladimir (known as Walter) in 1934. It was from Hangzhou that the family applied for and received permission to migrate to Australia. The family were naturalised as British subjects in 1945. Peter ran the Continental Beauty Salon from 1940. By 1953, he was also selling ‘model hats and handbags’ most likely made by Vera. By the next year, Vera was advertising in her own right as Mrs Peter Sharoff. The hairdressing salon was in the back of the shop, while Vera’s millinery was in the front of the shop. Walter married Elaine Rosemary Goodsell at Glenn Innes in 1956. Peter died in April 1979 and Vera died in June 1995 and both are buried in the Young Lawn Cemetery. Karen Schamberger – Young Historical Society
