Thomas, Mary
Family background
Mary Thomas, born c1878, was one of six children to Daniel and Mary Ann Thomas. Her father, a Welsh coal miner, was working in Pennsylvania, USA, when he married her mother, after which they moved to Australia, settling in Wallsend near Newcastle.
Pupil Teacher: Lambton Public School
Mary commenced as Pupil Teacher at Lambton, a Newcastle suburb, in January 1892, just before her fourteenth birthday, reportedly 'the youngest pupil teacher ever admitted', ['Evening Star' (Boulder, WA), 26 April 1904, p. 3]. She was initially assigned to the Girls Department where an attendance of 120 was managed by a Mistress, Assistant Teacher and two Pupil Teachers. After three months, her appointment was confirmed, her supervising teacher noting, 'Miss Thomas is quite young but with time will become efficient and useful'. In July Mary was moved to the Infants Department where she progressed over the next three years, maintaining good health and passing annual examinations. By early 1895 she had reached the rank of Pupil Teacher Class I, entitling her to an annual salary of £46. Towards the end of that year she required three weeks leave for 'epidemic influenza'. Shortly after returning to duty, and perhaps still recovering, she was unsuccessful in gaining admission to the Sydney Training School so continued service at Lambton, now recognised as an Ex-Pupil Teacher.
Plattsburg Public School
In early 1896 Mary, now 18 years old, was transferred to Plattsburg, less than a mile from her family home in Wallsend, where she remained for two-and-a-half years. During this time, she passed a classification examination which raised her income and her employment options.
Woodfield Provisional School
In August 1898 Mary was appointed to Woodfield (Amungula), on the Sutton/Queanbeyan Road, which had been without a teacher for about two months. After less than a year she asked to be moved closer to her parents at Wallsend, and this request was granted at the end of 1899.
Hanbury & Wallsend Public Schools
Mary's next appointment, at Hanbury (now Waratah), 4 miles east of Wallsend, as well as being more convenient to her home, was a promotion to Assistant Teacher. After a year she was appointed Assistant at Wallsend where she remained until March 1904, her salary rising over time to £104 p.a., then resigned, having fulfilled 12 years' service.
Later life
A month after resigning, Mary married William J T Morgan in Perth. Her new husband who was born in Wallsend but then living in the Western Australian goldfields, was a champion boxer, competing under the name of 'Paddy King'. They settled in Kalgoorlie where they had two children and her husband, a devout churchgoer and lifelong abstainer from alcohol, became a hotel keeper. By 1930 the family had moved to Sydney and Mary's husband held a position on the NSW Industrial Commission before returning to hotel keeping, managing premises in Camden, Narrandera, Lithgow and Riverstone in turn. Eventually Mary and her husband retired to Marks Point on Lake Macquarie, near Newcastle, where Mary died in 1955 in her late seventies.
[Biography prepared by Joanne Toohey, 2025. Sources include NSW school teachers' rolls 1868-1908, NSW school and related records 1876-1979, historic newspapers and magazines, NSW births, deaths and marriages index, and 'Early Education and Schools in the Canberra Region', (1999) by Lyall Gillespie.]
Schools
- Amungula
08/1898 - 12/1899