Maria Tapper Donaldson (nee Tonkin) was born in 1855 in Freo. She went on to become a remarkable woman, working as an assistant school teacher at Fremantle Girls School from 1870 at the age of 14, earning £20 a year! She later held various teaching positions around Perth and was the first teacher at the newly opened Wanneroo School in 1874. After losing her husband in a Cyclone off Cossack, she stayed a single mother to 6 children for 4 years. Family stories say that on the night her husband drowned, Maria heard him whistling up the street as he always did to signal he was home, but when she ran out there was no one there and she knew something horrible had happened to him. Maria married again in 1886, the union producing another 6 children. In the 1890s she owned a shop in Fremantle and ran a night school for boys from the basement of the shop. Her 2nd husband disappears from the scene a few years later and in 1916 Maria becomes a midwife, being so successful that she is headhunted by a Doctor who persuads her to join him working in the operating theatre. She continues her role as midwife up until her early 70s when she retires. Maria lived to a grand old age of 95, and was still known to travel the trams and buses by herself at this age. She passed away in 1950. This photo dates to around the 1880s so she would have been in her early to mid 30s. We can confirm that she did have red hair, just like JFT.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 09:05:39 +0000
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