Dorothy Lucy Lockley was born at the end of the First World War in Malta to Frederick Lockley, a serving naval officer and his wife Vincentia Sperandeo. Second child of a family of 7 children, she spent her first 14 years in Valetta and still has contact with her family there. The Lockleys returned to England in 1932, settling in Haslemere in Surrey.
With three brothers and a father in the Navy, in 1942 Dorothy joined the Wrens, trained on board HMS Dolphin in Portsmouth, served on HMS Phoenix in Ismailia and in 1943 was billeted in Bombay on HMS Braganza. Dorothy met Royal Engineer Royston Boulter at Aldershot in 1942, they subsequently married in 1944 when they met again in Bombay.
Royston fell under the spell of Africa when a ship carrying him was bombed in the Med, rescued he was taken to Alexandria, afterwards serving on the railways in Eritrea. At the end of the war Royston returned to Africa, to Tanganyika, at that time a British Territory. Dorothy joined him in 1946 and spent the next years moving around East Africa on various engineering jobs.
Arriving in Portugal they fell in love with the Algarve, so similar to East Africa. They discovered the Solar Penguin run by a British expat Stuart Deas in Praia da Rocha, bought the little hotel and settled in running a pub with full board; a delightful old-fashioned Pensão serving the usual 4 course meals.
A comment from Dorothy’s memoirs at a time when the Beatles were just starting to become famous reads: “Having never run a guest house I was a bit nervous of the idea. However I consoled myself with the thought that having been quite accustomed to catering for a large family of nine it would be a small adjustment to extend those numbers to about twenty; and so I became enthusiastic and we bought the place.”
In the cellar, used for stacking the beach guard equipment in the winter, Royston built the first public bar in Praia da Rocha. Dorothy ran the bar and the 15 room Pension for the next 45 years. In 2007 she retired and settled in Estombar near her daughter BJ.
According to Dorothy’s daughter, BJ Boulter, who herself is a well-known resident, “life in the Algarve has changed a great deal in 55 years, Dorothy goes with the flow, doesn’t let much bother her. She is profoundly deaf, but being quick-witted and humorous, Dorothy overcomes her deafness by offering pen and paper to visitors. She manages all her affairs and household chores.”