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| nora_m-p [2025/10/11 13:14] – [Widowhood, Travel and Old Age] judith | nora_m-p [2025/10/11 15:18] (current) – [Widowhood, Travel and Old Age] judith |
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| The purported aim of the trip was to give the children experience of European culture and to learn French and other languages. They arrived in Malta in early February 1885; six weeks later they were at Pozzuoli near Naples. They slowly moved north through Italy to Switzerland. By October 1885, they were in Lausanne, where Nora and her children would spent three years. The older children honed their social and recreational skills with tennis and dancing and gymnastic lessons - with Nora keeping a stern eye on her daughters' deportment. The younger children spoke basically in French. A highlight for Nora was reconnecting with Rosa Praed, now a well-known author of 10 books who moved in gentry and literary circles in England. As Patricia Clarke points out, the two friends had not met for nearly 12 years and, of her step-siblings, Rosa had only met Meta, the last time when Meta was two years old. Their lives had dramatically diverged: Nora's 'world was dominated by domestic troubles, sometimes problems with governesses, more often the incessant demands of jam-making and sewing ... She complained of deteriorating eyesight from constant sewing, reading and writing'; a suspected cancerous lump proved to be 'caused by constant working of her treadle sewing machine'. Her only break from Brisbane had been visits to her mother in Sydney, and a trip in 1880 to the Melbourne Exhibition. Nora and Rosa met at Châlet Patience Chapelay at Champêry, a 'summer holiday village in the Swiss mountains.'((Patricia Clarke, //Rosa! Rosa! A Life of Rosa Praed, novelist and spiritualist//, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1999, pp.104-05.)) \\ | The purported aim of the trip was to give the children experience of European culture and to learn French and other languages. They arrived in Malta in early February 1885; six weeks later they were at Pozzuoli near Naples. They slowly moved north through Italy to Switzerland. By October 1885, they were in Lausanne, where Nora and her children would spent three years. The older children honed their social and recreational skills with tennis and dancing and gymnastic lessons - with Nora keeping a stern eye on her daughters' deportment. The younger children spoke basically in French. A highlight for Nora was reconnecting with Rosa Praed, now a well-known author of 10 books who moved in gentry and literary circles in England. As Patricia Clarke points out, the two friends had not met for nearly 12 years and, of her step-siblings, Rosa had only met Meta, the last time when Meta was two years old. Their lives had dramatically diverged: Nora's 'world was dominated by domestic troubles, sometimes problems with governesses, more often the incessant demands of jam-making and sewing ... She complained of deteriorating eyesight from constant sewing, reading and writing'; a suspected cancerous lump proved to be 'caused by constant working of her treadle sewing machine'. Her only break from Brisbane had been visits to her mother in Sydney, and a trip in 1880 to the Melbourne Exhibition. Nora and Rosa met at Châlet Patience Chapelay at Champêry, a 'summer holiday village in the Swiss mountains.'((Patricia Clarke, //Rosa! Rosa! A Life of Rosa Praed, novelist and spiritualist//, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1999, pp.104-05.)) \\ |
| The following three Swiss scenes were likely to have been bought as souvenirs when Nora lived in Switzerland. The first is of a famous waterfall seen on the way to Jungfrau.((Provenance: Glenn M-P and A. Federer))\\ | \\ |
| | The following three Swiss scenes were likely to have been bought as souvenirs when Nora lived in Switzerland. The first is of a famous waterfall seen on the way to Jungfrau.((Provenance: ESM-P to Glenn M-P and A. Federer, Switzerland))\\ |
| {{:watefall_on_way_up_to_jungfrau.jpg?300|}} {{:dscn3776.jpg?300|}} {{:dscn3783.jpg?300|}}\\ | {{:watefall_on_way_up_to_jungfrau.jpg?300|}} {{:dscn3776.jpg?300|}} {{:dscn3783.jpg?300|}}\\ |
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| Under the terms of her husband's will and codicil, Nora could remain in their Brisbane home Whytecliffe and also a recently furnished cottage in Sandgate, a coastal suburb of Brisbane. She was to have at least £500 p.a. to meet the cost of any of her under-age children living with her.((TLM-P, Last will and testament, 1892, copy belonging to J. Godden)) In 1904 her trustees wrote to her that her income from TLM-P's estate had declined by 20 per cent, so that she received £123.12.0 [presumably a month, but possibly a quarter?] (in 2017 values around $18,719)((M-P papers, NLA MS 7801, 12/94.)) \\ | Under the terms of her husband's will and codicil, Nora could remain in their Brisbane home Whytecliffe and also a recently furnished cottage in Sandgate, a coastal suburb of Brisbane. She was to have at least £500 p.a. to meet the cost of any of her under-age children living with her.((TLM-P, Last will and testament, 1892, copy belonging to J. Godden)) In 1904 her trustees wrote to her that her income from TLM-P's estate had declined by 20 per cent, so that she received £123.12.0 [presumably a month, but possibly a quarter?] (in 2017 values around $18,719)((M-P papers, NLA MS 7801, 12/94.)) \\ |
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| Despite the provision in her husband's will that she could stay in their Queensland homes, Nora moved to Sydney. Perhaps she wanted to be closer to her mother and other family; perhaps Whytecliff with its 22 rooms was too big for her.((F.Lord in //The Queenslander//, 11 September 1930, p.7.)) Nora's two single daughters, Dorothy and Ruth, and younger sons Robert and Julius, went with her. They returned to the Gladesville area, close to where Nora's widowed mother Emily Mary Barton lived.((Judith Godden, The matriarch of //Rockend//: Emily Mary Barton, more than Banjo Paterson's grandmother, Sydney: Ryde District Historical Society, 2020.)) Nora and her daughters were close, and Nora was an explicitly loving mother. A letter to her 'dearest daughters', for example, ended with 'dear love to you both, I am ever darlings, Your loving Mother Nora C. Murray-Prior.'((M-P papers, NLA, MS 7801, Box 4?, folder 23.)) From at least November 1900 to 1904, Nora, her two single daughters Dorothy and Ruth, and her son Julius, lived at 'Karlite' (also spelt Karlyte), a house on what is now Victoria Road, Gladesville. It is possible that she was renting from Gerald Herring who at one stage owned 'Karlite'.((Paul Davies P/L, //The Gladesville Shops. Heritage Assessment and Conservation Guidelines//, Draft, 2004, Appendix A)) Four years later, her second youngest son Robert married Gerald's daughter. From 'Karlite', by June 1904 Nora and her daughters rented a beautiful, sprawling sandstone home,'Oatlands' at 10 Ferry Street, Hunters Hill.((M-P papers, NLA, MS 7801, Box 7, folders 42, 23 and 12/94; Hunters Hill Trust, //A Glimpse of Hunters Hill// at [[http://huntershilltrust.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Glimpse-of-HH-32-items-Woolwich-Rd-Wybalena-Rd-Ferry-St.pdf]].)){{:20230611_154421.jpg?300|}} {{:20230611_155436.jpg?300|Oatlands in June 2023}} 'Oatlands' in June 2023\\ | Despite the provision in her husband's will that she could stay in their Queensland homes, Nora moved to Sydney. Perhaps she wanted to be closer to her mother and other family; perhaps Whytecliff with its 22 rooms was too big for her.((F.Lord in //The Queenslander//, 11 September 1930, p.7.)) Nora's two single daughters, Dorothy and Ruth, and younger sons Robert and Julius, went with her. They returned to the Gladesville area, close to where Nora's widowed mother Emily Mary Barton lived.((Judith Godden, The matriarch of //Rockend//: Emily Mary Barton, more than Banjo Paterson's grandmother, Sydney: Ryde District Historical Society, 2020.)) Nora and her daughters were close, and Nora was an explicitly loving mother. A letter to her 'dearest daughters', for example, ended with 'dear love to you both, I am ever darlings, Your loving Mother Nora C. Murray-Prior.'((M-P papers, NLA, MS 7801, Box 4?, folder 23.)) From at least November 1900 to 1904, Nora, her two single daughters Dorothy and Ruth, and her son Julius, lived at 'Karlite' (also spelt Karlyte), a house on what is now Victoria Road, Gladesville. It is possible that she was renting from Gerald Herring who at one stage owned 'Karlite'.((Paul Davies P/L, //The Gladesville Shops. Heritage Assessment and Conservation Guidelines//, Draft, 2004, Appendix A)) Four years later, her second youngest son Robert married Gerald's daughter. From 'Karlite', by June 1904 Nora and her daughters rented a beautiful, sprawling sandstone home,'Oatlands' at 10 Ferry Street, Hunters Hill.((M-P papers, NLA, MS 7801, Box 7, folders 42, 23 and 12/94; Hunters Hill Trust, //A Glimpse of Hunters Hill// at [[http://huntershilltrust.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Glimpse-of-HH-32-items-Woolwich-Rd-Wybalena-Rd-Ferry-St.pdf]].)){{:20230611_154421.jpg?300|}} {{:20230611_155436.jpg?300|Oatlands in June 2023}} 'Oatlands' in June 2023\\ |
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| One of Nora's health problems was her eyes. As far back as 1884, she wrote to Rosa that her eyesight was rapidly deteriorating.((Nora to Rosa, 15 June [1884])) By 1915, she had been blind in one eye for a long time. Ruth explained that Nora's doctor was urging her to consent to him operating on her eye 'again', hoping that would secure the sight in her good eye. The operation involved having her eye removed and replaced with an artificial eye, an idea that Nora understandably found repugnant.((M-P papers, NLA MS 7801, Box 4, folder 25.)) Nora had the operation and put on a brave front. Her nephew Max Barton wrote to his mother in 1915 that 'Aunt Nora looked splendid and was in great form, you could not tell the glass eye at all unless you were in the know' and 'Aunt Nora is ever so much better since her return from Hospital and has quite got back all her old wit.' (([[https://maxandtonybartonww1lettershome.wordpress.com/page/13/|letter 6 October & 25 July 1915]])) Despite the operation, Nora had constant problems with her remaining eye. Her sight faded, so that by October 1922, she was blind. Rosa Praed wrote of her admiration at the fortitude which Nora met adversity.((M-P papers, NLA MS 7801, Box 1, folder 3.)) It was perhaps some comfort to Nora that her niece Emily Paterson, who was blind from a young age, had forged a successful life for herself, initially from Nora's old home of //Rockend// at Gladesville. Emily Paterson's key achievement was founding Australia's longest-serving mental health service, [[https://www.aftercare.com.au/aftercares-history/|Aftercare]], now called Stride.\\ | One of Nora's health problems was her eyes. As far back as 1884, she wrote to Rosa that her eyesight was rapidly deteriorating.((Nora to Rosa, 15 June [1884])) By 1915, she had been blind in one eye for a long time. Ruth explained that Nora's doctor was urging her to consent to him operating on her eye 'again', hoping that would secure the sight in her good eye. The operation involved having her eye removed and replaced with an artificial eye, an idea that Nora understandably found repugnant.((M-P papers, NLA MS 7801, Box 4, folder 25.)) Nora had the operation and put on a brave front. Her nephew Max Barton wrote to his mother in 1915 that 'Aunt Nora looked splendid and was in great form, you could not tell the glass eye at all unless you were in the know' and 'Aunt Nora is ever so much better since her return from Hospital and has quite got back all her old wit.' (([[https://maxandtonybartonww1lettershome.wordpress.com/page/13/|letter 6 October & 25 July 1915]])) Despite the operation, Nora had constant problems with her remaining eye. Her sight faded, so that by October 1922, she was blind. Rosa Praed wrote of her admiration at the fortitude which Nora met adversity.((M-P papers, NLA MS 7801, Box 1, folder 3.)) It was perhaps some comfort to Nora that her niece Emily Paterson, who was blind from a young age, had forged a successful life for herself, initially from Nora's old home of //Rockend// at Gladesville. Emily Paterson's key achievement was founding Australia's longest-serving mental health service, [[https://www.aftercare.com.au/aftercares-history/|Aftercare]], now called Stride.\\ |
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| The following sketches are of Nora in 1929 when she was 83 years old; they are by her great-niece Isabel Huntley. When Nora died at home two years later, her grieving daughters found consolation in her having been released from years of suffering.((M-P papers, NLA MS 7801, Box 1, folder 11.))\\ | The following sketches are of Nora in 1929 when she was 83 years old; they are by her great-niece Isabel Huntley. That she is shown kitting is a comment on Nora's spirit as she had been blind for years by then. When Nora died at home two years later, her grieving daughters found consolation in her release from years of suffering.((M-P papers, NLA MS 7801, Box 1, folder 11.))\\ |
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| {{:nora_in_old_age.jpg?300|}}{{:scan_20171228_5_nora_old_age.jpg?300|}} ((Provenance: photo from Nora M-P album, now with J. Godden; copies of these drawings are also with F. & E. Cullen-Ward.)) \\ | {{:nora_in_old_age.jpg?300|}}{{:scan_20171228_5_nora_old_age.jpg?300|}} ((Provenance: photo from Nora M-P album, now with J. Godden; copies of these drawings are also with F. & E. Cullen-Ward.)) \\ |
| \\Nora, Dorothy and Ruth lived in a terrace house at 3 Gresley Road, Islington.((//Townsville Daily Bulletin//, 7 July 1931, p.9 gave her address as Highgate, the adjoining suburb)) In 2025, real estate agents list No 3 as a freehold property with a long, narrow plot size of 151 square metres. Gresley Road is now in the Whitehall Park Conservation Area designated by Islington Council to preserve the character of the area. The architecture of the area is varied but includes late-Victorian houses and "high quality 1920’s semi-detached family dwellings".(([[https://www.islington.gov.uk/-/media/sharepoint-lists/public-records/planningandbuildingcontrol/information/adviceandguidance/20192020/20190911ca07whitehallpark.pdf]])) | |
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| They lived there at least from 1921, probably around the time they resigned themselves to Nora not being well enough to travel back to Australia.((England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 for Nora C Murray-Prior, 1931 Q2-Apr-May-June; 1921 census; Electoral Registers, 1929, p.447 for Nora, Ruth and Dorothea "Murry-Prior" and electoral register 1930, Islington, p.456.)) Ruth and Dorothy were listed as qualifying to vote by having occupations (the abbreviation Ow) but what occupations is not stated. Nora only qualified on the basis of residence (abbreviation Rw).// | |
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| No. 3 Gresley Road had been divided into two separate residences with the same address. Each residence comprised a ground floor living area and first floor bedrooms. The electoral roll indicates that, from at least 1929, Alice Louisa and John Henry Longman lived in the other part. In the 1921 census he is listed as a 37-year-old employed making pianos, while the 35-year-old Alice was occupied with Home Duties including looking after 7 year old daughter Edna and 1 year old son Frederick (known as Stanley).((1921 England Census for John Henry and Alice Louisa Longman)) From subsequent censuses, it appears that the Longmans stayed while another family moved in to the residence Nora and her daughters had occupied.((e.g. Electoral Register, islington, 1947, p.9)) Unfortunately (as at October 2025) the section is missing from Google streetview; Apple maps does have photos of the street but it is unclear exactly which one is no 3. I do not know if the houses there now existed in the interwar period when Nora and her daughters lived there.\\ | |
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| The AI summary of Islington in the 1920s-30s is: "In the 1920s and 1930s, Islington was a London borough experiencing both rapid growth and social change, with key developments in its film industry, technological innovation, and urban life. The area was home to the Gainsborough Studios, where many early British films were produced, and the site where Cossor built the world's first commercial television set. Socially, it was a busy working-class area with a vibrant market and a developing streetscape, though it was also transitioning from the stricter social norms of the pre-war period." Their Islington home was a far cry from Nora's Australian homes. It does seem more suited to Ruth than her mother and sister, but perhaps it was an area where one or both sisters found employment.\\ | === Islington === |
| | From at least 1921, Nora, Dorothy and Ruth lived in a terrace house at 3 Gresley Road, Islington.((//Townsville Daily Bulletin//, 7 July 1931, p.9 gave her address as Highgate, the adjoining suburb)) They probably moved there when they resigned themselves to Nora not being well enough to travel back to Australia.((England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 for Nora C Murray-Prior, 1931 Q2-Apr-May-June; 1921 census; Electoral Registers, 1929, p.447 for Nora, Ruth and Dorothea "Murry-Prior" and electoral register 1930, Islington, p.456.)) Ruth and Dorothy were listed as qualifying to vote by having occupations (the abbreviation Ow) but what occupations is not stated. Nora only qualified on the basis of residence (abbreviation Rw). |
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| | A section of Gresley Road today.{{:gresley_road_44861_cre230040_img_00_0000.jpeg?300|}}(([[https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/details/28e18499-0fa8-4500-9312-77b6909e9c9a?v=media&id=media23&ref=photoCollage]])) |
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| | Their Islington home was a far cry from their Australian homes. In 2025, real estate agents list No 3 as a freehold property with a long plot of 151 square metres. Gresley Road is a short road which is now part of Islington Council's Whitehall Park Conservation Area where 'most of the area' was laid out as a late Victorian residential estate.(([[https://www.whpara.org.uk/area/]];[[https://www.islington.gov.uk/-/media/sharepoint-lists/public-records/planningandbuildingcontrol/information/adviceandguidance/20192020/20190911ca07whitehallpark.pdf]])) Gresley Road was added to the conservation area to preserve its character of predominantly "smaller scale late Victorian terraces, some with bays, gables and double entrance porches and interestingly varied decorative plaster details."(([[www.whpara.org.uk/resources/Documents/Conservation/CA07-Whitehall-Park-Leaflet.pdf]])) Unfortunately, as at October 2025, that part of the street is missing from Google streetview; Apple maps does have photos of the street but it is unclear exactly which one is no 3 and how much it has been altered since the 1930s.\\ |
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| | When Nora and her daughters lived there, No. 3 Gresley Road was divided into two separate residences. The electoral roll indicates that, from at least 1929, the Longman family lived in the other part. In the 1921 census John Henry Longman was 37-years old and employed making pianos; his 35-year-old wife Alice Louisa was occupied with home duties including looking after 7 year old daughter Edna and 1 year old son Frederick (known as Stanley).((1921 England Census for John Henry and Alice Louisa Longman)) From subsequent censuses, it appears that the Longmans stayed while another family moved in to the residence Nora and her daughters had occupied.((e.g. Electoral Register, islington, 1947, p.9)) \\ |
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| | Islington in the 1920s-30s experienced rapid growth and social change. The area was home to the Gainsborough Studios, where many early British films were produced, and the site where Cossor built the world's first commercial television set. The location does seem more suited to Ruth than her mother and sister, but perhaps it was an area where one or both sisters found employment or found otherwise convenient for all their needs. A smaller home also reflected the post-war reality that labour-saving devices increasingly replaced live-in domestic servants.\\ |
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