Claire was born in Newtown, Hobart, the second daughter of Hector and Doris Harrison.
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When she was one, the family moved to Claremont in Perth and when four Claire started school at PLC Cottesloe.
Hector was called to St Andrews, Canberra, and Claire continued her education at Telopea Park Primary School, and Canberra High School for three years, before going to PLC Melbourne as a boarder.
Canberra was then not much more than a large town and, in a period where most people were churchgoers, practically everyone knew Claire and her siblings, Pat, Ian and Margaret.as children of the Manse and behaved to them accordingly.
Claire enjoyed her childhood in Canberra and attributes the fact she grew up to be a non-racist and a socialist to the influence of her father, the church and Canberra generally.
She decided on her preference for the Labor Party when 12 or 13 through her many visits to the sittings of the House of Representatives. This was because she thought Labor cared more for the poor and the deprived than the Liberals.
She didn't join the Party until the 1960s and remained a stalwart for the rest of her life. Although she strongly disagreed with many decisions, particularly the economic rationalism during the Hawke/Keating era and the asylum seekers' policies during the Beasley, Rudd and Gillard leadership, she decided that you could do more to change ideas if you're within the movement and not moaning about it outside.
On leaving school, Claire joined the public service and worked in Canberra and Melbourne.
In Melbourne she studied for a Bachelor of Commerce at Melbourne University and had two other jobs, working at a chemist at the weekends and indexing a magazine.
With hard saving she managed to scrape together the fare to London and travelled there with three friends arriving in England with just seven pounds in her purse.
In her two years in Europe she worked as an Australian Sunshine Girl for Australia House and a temporary typist.
She made two hitchhiking trips, one to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Austria, the second to Scotland and Ireland.
She also travelled the continent by car - France, Germany, Austria, Italy and finally Spain where the car crashed.
After two years based in London she sailed for Canada and settled in Toronto working there for CBC television as a film researcher.
Returning to Australia she was employed by the ABC in its news department at Gore Hill, Sydney.
She was responsible for all news films coming in and out from overseas, interstate and NSW.
When she asked if she could become a cadet journalist, the head of ABC news told her that was a terrible job for a girl making them tough and hard, and her request was refused.
To placate her he said she could go out with the camera crews at weekends and write down the journalist's questions for the reverses (the shots taken of the journalist once the interviewee had left the scene). While waiting for the VIPs to arrive the camera crew filled in time by teaching Claire how to work the camera.
Eventually she was proficient enough to apply for a test for cameramen. The powers that be freaked. There were at least some women journalists at the ABC but absolutely no camerawomen.
Her camerawork test was at Warwick Park for Formula One cars. Claire would pass the test if some of her footage was good enough to be included in that night's coverage.
When she was barred from going to the enclosure used by all the cameramen and photographers (because no females were allowed) she was forced to virtually lie on the track and focus on the wheels of the cars and shoot the dust thrown up as they started. This ended up being the shot used by the editors for part of their coverage, so Claire passed the test.
She had already applied to a job in the ABC's office in Port Moresby and when she got that the news department got itself out of a fix by letting her be stringer for Papua/New Guinea.
There she met and married David Lupton, an announcer with the ABC. This also meant she had to leave her full-time job at the station because that was the way it was in the Commonwealth Public Service at the time, although she was still the film stringer.
Claire worked at a bookshop in Moresby until she and David went on a deferred honeymoon to the Philippines, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
A few weeks after she returned she gave birth to twins, Deborah and Amanda.
The Luptons stayed another year and a half in Papua/New Guinea when Claire broadcast travel talks, book reviews and wrote educational programs for the ABC.
David was appointed as deputy manager to the 2CO in Albury. There Claire was again a camera stringer, this time sending her work to the ABC in Melbourne.
She became very involved in amateur theatre as stage manager, assistant director and then director with Coronet Playhouse and the Albury Music Theatre.
Rebecca was born in Albury. David was then promoted to be manager of the ABC in Bega. Timothy was born at the Bega District Hospital.
Claire was stringer for not only the ABC but WIN TV in Bega. She took up theatre work again directing plays with the Bega Dramatic Society and the later the Bega Harmony Group.
Claire was also studying a librarian's course and completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of New England by correspondence.
Other interests were the P&C, both Bega Primary and Bega High and she was chairman of the BUG house committee.
When Tim started school Claire let it be known she was ready and willing to work, and John Leach of the Bega District News offered her a job as journalist.
Not long after, David was diagnosed with lymphosarcoma and was given four or five years to live.
Always a do-it-yourself person he planned to build the home for the family. He bought the land in Newtown Road, doing the conveyancing himself and had completed the plans for the building when he died after only nine months of the five years promised.
After David died, Claire followed his plans and had the house built.
She became even more involved in the P&C movement, joining the state body and, was, for a time, on its executive and editor of the P&C Journal.
She also became chairman of the Bega Community Contact and Resource Centre until its demise, then became chairman of the Far South Coast Family Support Group which was one of the Centre's initiatives.
Coming to the Bega Valley, Claire had been fascinated by the Tathra Wharf, so when it was threatened with demolition she attended the first protest meeting and was elected chairman of the Tathra Wharf Action Movement, a position she held until the wharf was saved and restored.
Although she was head of the body she freely admitted that most of the lobbying and success of the movement was due to the enormous efforts of Daisy and Ray Bearlin.
After Malcolm Holt died, Claire was president of the Bega Valley Shire Bicentennial Committee.
Because her children and their friends were interested in theatre, Claire encouraged them to form the Endeavour Theatre Company, a youth group that presented one production a year over the Christmas holidays.
The young people did all the work involved with the theatrical production with Claire only as director and mentor.
The Endeavour Theatre thrived until Tim left school and moved to Canberra, and Jamie and Rebecca moved to Melbourne.
The Arts Council was another of Claire's interests. David and she had joined when they came to Bega and after his death Claire continued to work with the Arts Council bringing shows to Bega and she was a prominent member of the Bega Valley Arts Council until it was dissolved.
Being a cinema buff all her life, and very keen on there being a place in Bega where teenagers could "hang out", Claire became a member of the Kings Theatre community committee.
She was also a trustee of the Old Bega Hospital, chair of the On Track committee for a youth and community centre at the old Bega racecourse; a member of the Bega Valley Advocates for Timor-Leste, CDAT, Friends of the Old Bega Hospital Inc and the Bega Valley Historical Society.
In 2010 Claire researched and wrote a history of Bega Primary School for its 150th a anniversary.
She wasn't in Bega for its launch as she was seriously ill in Canberra.
Claire had gone to have a fairly simple operation for an abdominal aneurism at John James Hospital but the day after the operation she suffered another aneurism and the hasty operation that followed led to septicaemia.
After four or so weeks in Canberra she was transferred to Bega Hospital where she recovered enough to be sent home a week or so before Christmas.
Because she was told she wouldn't recover for eight months or so, she retired from her position at the Bega District News, but bored with retirement she offered to write the Foureyes and Looking Back columns, and took on casual work.
Rebecca and her partner Jamie had moved to the Valley a year before and it was Rebecca who nursed Claire back to health once she'd left hospital.
Although she had many interests, her children were the most important people in Claire's life.
She is survived by her children, Deborah and her husband Gamini (Canberra), Mandy (Maleny, QLD), Rebecca and her partner Jamie (Bega), Tim (Melbourne), her granddaughters Phoebe, Miranda and Stella, her sister Pat Ellis (Adelaide) and her brother Ian Harrison (Melbourne).
- the above was written by Claire in 2014.
Since this was written Claire increased her activity with the Friends of Old Bega Hospital and has written a history of the hospital. It was finished in 2023 and hoped to be published soon.