Phyllis WINTER. Forever young.

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Ursula ‘Phyllis’ WINTER was my Auntie, my mother’s sister. She died in 1955 at the age of 47.

I didn’t know her as she died the year before I was born, but I heard about her as I was growing up. She was always spoken of with great affection and regard by Mum and her relatives.

‘charming’, ‘beautiful’, a great nurse’, ‘gifted’.

All agreed her shortened life was a tragedy; a great loss to the family and to nursing.

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My first ‘memory’ of Auntie Phyllis was her ever present photo atop our piano. Her glamorous portrait sat in its silver frame alongside the ‘Dante books’- family heirlooms from my dad’s side of the family. I figured Auntie Phyllis was special as those books were special; they were not to be touched by young fingers without the supervision of an adult.

Auntie Phyllis watched over me as I fumbled my way through my scales, arpeggios and exam pieces and she watched over us all as we celebrated 21st birthdays, Easters and Christmases. Her pearly whites, coiffured hair and corsage certainly gave our dining room a touch of class.

I never thought to ask why she was all dressed up or where she was going, she was just there, in her frame, always smiling.

Now, I want to know more. What was her story?

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The Early Years

Ursula ‘Phyllis’ WINTER was born in Sunbury, Victoria on 11 November 1907. She was the second daughter and the fourth child of an eventual 11 children, born to William Thomas Rupert (WTR) WINTER and Catherine Mary SELLARS.

WTR WINTER’s mother, Mary Ann WILLIAMS (m.n. MILLETT) was the publican of the Royal Hotel, Sunbury at the time of Phyllis’ birth.

The MILLETT and WINTER families were early pioneers of the district.

Below is a family portrait of the WINTER family in 1926. Phyllis is no. 4, and my mum (Teresa ‘Bernadette’ WINTER) is no. 9. The family portrait was taken in Cora Lynn, West Gippsland, Victoria on the family farm.

In the same year this photo was taken, Leo, Phyllis’ brother (no. 3), died of tuberculosis. He was 21 years old.

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Schooling

Phyllis is documented as attending the state school in Sunbury in 1915.¹ The Register states her ‘guardian’ was her father’s sister ‘Miss Susan WINTER, hotelkeeper’. It was not uncommon in those times for children from large families to be spread out amongst relatives. Perhaps Phyllis stayed with her aunts until the the family was established in Gippsland.

I suspect this was the case as she appears in a photo (below) of a group of children at St Joseph’s Catholic school Iona, West Gippsland including three of her siblings taken in the same year, 1915.

The four members of the WINTER family are highlighted by yellow circles in the photo below on the right: Top to bottom, left to right – Bill, Leo, Irene and Phyllis.

WTR Winter, Phyllis’ father, had a bit of the wanderlust about him. He was born in Sunbury in 1875, married Catherine Mary SELLARS in Bendigo in 1900 and then proceeded to move around country Victoria. The birthplaces of their children attest to this:

Irene b. Elmore; William b. Castlemaine; Leo b. Kilmore; Phyllis b. Sunbury; Ted and Dudley b. Warragul; Doreen and Roy b. Garfield; Berna b. Fairfield; Joyce and May b. Bunyip.

So, schooling for the children was definitely not limited to one place in Victoria.

Phyllis’ father had a go at a few things – cordial making, butchering and hotelkeeping – before settling down to farming in West Gippsland.

The family continued to move backwards and forwards from Gippsland to Sunbury to visit relatives.

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Growing up

Phyllis grew up in Cora Lynn/Iona, West Gippsland. She left the family farm in about 1928 and moved to Melbourne to pursue her nursing training at St Vincent’s Hospital.

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Nursing in Melbourne

St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne

Phyllis graduated as a Registered Nurse from St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne in 1931. ²

…on completing her training (she) was appointed to staff duty, filling a number of responsible positions with distinction. ³

From student nurse to ‘SRN’ (State Registered Nurse):

Women’s Hospital, Melbourne

At some stage in the 1930s, Phyllis left St Vincent’s and joined the nursing staff at the Women’s Hospital…

…where she was Night Sister in Charge of the operating theatre and surgical wards for a number of years. She was later on the staff of the Melbourne School of Nursing.⁴

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Social Life

At the Women’s Hospital, Phyllis was especially involved in social events for nurses ‘who come to the big city hospitals from the country and other states’. Having moved from the country to the city herself, it’s not surprising Phyllis was concerned for their welfare:

Phyllis loved playing tennis. She had plenty of practice as there was a tennis court on the family farm. Mum told me that Phyllis used to ‘bring home’ doctors and nurses from the hospital ‘to let them experience some country life’. They played social tennis and enjoyed a hearty meal cooked by her mother.

Phyllis also visited relatives in Sunbury, namely her father’s sisters, Susan WINTER and Irene HILTON. Susan and Irene took over the running of the Royal Hotel after their mother Mary Ann WILLIAMS (formerly WINTER, nee MILLETT) died in 1920. Below is a photo taken outside the hotel. Phyllis is in her nursing uniform, standing at the back, and her sister, Dorrie is seated on the right. Her auntie, Irene HILTON, is seated on the left. I believe the men are Sunbury identities (as described in the caption).

Electoral rolls courtesy of Ancestry.com show Phyllis living at the following addresses during her nursing career in Melbourne:

1931 St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne; 1943 Women’s Hospital, Melbourne; 1946 and 1949 153 Hoddle St, Richmond.

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Wedding of Bill WINTER and Sybil KUCHS

In 1933, Phyllis was bridesmaid at her brother Bill’s wedding. Bill married a St Vincent’s trained nurse, Sybil KUCHS.

Bill and Sybil’s wedding was written up in the social pages of the Melbourne newspapers:

…(the bridesmaids) dressed alike in gowns of pastel-shaded crinkled organdie muslin. One maid was dressed in blue, another in pink, another in buttercup yellow, and the fourth in green and they each wore picture hats to match their frocks.⁶

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Venturing abroad

On 3 February 1949, just prior to embarking on a trip to England, Phyllis announced her engagement to Horace ‘Ray’ EDWARDS.

According to Mum, Ray was a fellow amateur actor. He worked as an ‘insurance executive’ during the day.

On 4 February 1949, Phyllis set sail for London on the ship ‘Orcades’. My parents, my two older brothers and extended family went down to Port Melbourne to ‘see her off’. They have great memories of the experience. It was the maiden voyage of the new ‘Orcades’.

Below are photos onboard the ship prior to sailing:

Click here for a YouTube clip of the ORCADES’ maiden voyage, arriving in Sydney from England on 3 February 1949.

Starting in Sydney, the ship sailed to Melbourne to pick up passengers and then sailed on to Fremantle, Colombo, Port Said, arriving at Southampton, England on 1 March 1949.

Mum had a vague memory of Phyllis being employed as a nanny to a young girl, possibly Prue Acton, the Australian fashion designer on this voyage or perhaps another one. According to Wikipedia Prue Acton would have been 5 or 6 years old in 1949 so it is possible. I have learned to never dismiss a family anecdote, but I haven’t found any evidence to support this claim…as yet!

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Wedding of Phyllis WINTER and Ray EDWARDS

A few months after Phyllis arrived in London, Ray joined her and they married in a Registry office in London on the 12 August 1949.

The witnesses to the wedding are unknown: ‘a couple of actor friends from Melbourne’, according to Mum.

The newly married couple settled themselves into living in London at ’46 Lancaster Gate W2′. ⁷

Below is part of the 19th century building known as Lancaster Gate, London.

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Nursing in London

Phyllis registered as a trained nurse in London on 22 April 1949:

…(she) followed the nursing profession at St Mary’s Hospital, London and at the London Clinic. She also did private nursing in England, and whilst nursing Mr Lewis Douglas – at that time American Ambassador – she had the honour to be presented to Queen Elizabeth, now the Queen Mother.⁸

I was a little intrigued by Phyllis’ ‘private nursing’ of the Ambassador, so I did a bit of a search for Mr Lewis Douglas in the London newspapers of 1949/1950.

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Lewis Williams Douglas

Lewis Williams Douglas (July 2, 1894 – March 7, 1974) was an American politician, diplomat, businessman and academic. Wikipedia

He held the position of American Ambassador to England from 1947 to 1950.

Searching through the London newspapers revealed that Mr Douglas was involved in a rather nasty fly fishing accident.

On 5 April 1949, a fishing hook landed in his left eye.

See the articles below:

The ‘King’s oculist’ (who knew there was such a thing?) assessed the eye and concluded that it could be saved.

Mr Douglas and the London Clinic

In May, Mr Douglas underwent an operation on his injured eye at the London Clinic:

Aha! The London Clinic is the common denominator between Phyllis and Mr Douglas. 
Did she meet him there? Was this how she secured the private nursing appointment? To attend to his eye perhaps? 

It is certainly possible and highly probable! Phyllis had registered as a trained nurse just a few weeks before.
The timing is certainly right.

Reports state his recovery from this injury was slow. He resigned from the office of ambassador and headed back to the USA, to his ranch in Tucson, Arizona, in November 1950.

He wore a leather eye patch over his left eye for the rest of his life.

For anyone interested, click here to hear his farewell speech to England and here for photos of Lewis Douglas and his family in London.

Another interesting tidbit is his daughter, Sharman, became a close friend of Princess Margaret and she visited the Douglas’ in Arizona in the ’60s. Apparently the visit is covered in The Crown Season 3.

Further to the mention of Phyllis being presented to Queen Elizabeth (who became the Queen Mother), a notice in the social pages of the Melbourne newspaper, Herald, confirms that her presentation to the Queen was for her nursing care of the American ambassador.

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Illness

Unfortunately, whilst in London, Phyllis found a lump in her breast. She curtailed any further nursing in London and returned to Melbourne with her husband Ray to undergo care and treatment at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne.

The couple sailed out of London on 1 February 1950 and arrived in Melbourne in March 1950.

Phyllis was back where she started from a year ago. I can only imagine how disappointing this must have been for her, especially if her intention was to further her nursing career in London.

…on her return to Australia (she) retired from her profession to live privately in East St. Kilda. Her wide interests, sterling character and great personal charm won her many friends.

During her illness she suffered with courage and fortitude. Her cheerfulness of spirit was a source of inspiration to all near her.⁹

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Death

Phyllis died in St Vincent’s Private Hospital, Melbourne on 11 August 1955, six years after her initial diagnosis of breast cancer.

On a visit to Phyllis in St Vincent’s Private as she was deteriorating, she told Mum: ‘don’t come in tomorrow’. And she died the next day. One can speculate Phyllis sensed her time was near as I’ve seen so many people do in my work as a palliative care nurse.

A large number of relatives and friends attended the Requiem Mass at St Mary’s Church, East St Kilda and the funeral to Box Hill Cemetery. They mourned the passing of one whose life had been lived in the true spirit of Christianity – service to mankind.

Pall bearers were her husband (Mr. Ray Edwards), and Messrs. W., E. and D. Winter, J. Coghlan and W. B. Hearne.

Present at the obsequies were Sister Mary Anthony and Sister Mary Berenice, of St Vincent’s Hospital, and Sister Mary Patricia (a niece), of Convent of Mercy, Rosanna; Miss Ida O’Dwyer and Miss May Duggan, representing St Vincent’s Past Nurses’ Association; Very Rev. Father E. Dwyer, CSsR; Very Rev. Father J. Green, CSsR; and Father P. Fitzpatrick.

The Mass was offered and the last prayers said by Father A. R. Winter, (CSsR) brother of the deceased – RIP.¹⁰

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Phyllis was buried in Box Hill Cemetery on 15 August 1955.

Phyllis’s husband, Ray, never remarried. He died on 14 June 1996, 41 years after his wife. He was 88 years old.

Phyllis’ brother, Roy, (Father Alphonsus ‘Roy’ Winter CSsR) died three years after Phyllis in 1958, the result of heart disease. He was 43 years old.

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I have learned a lot more about my auntie in the preparation of this blog post. I see her as a caring, confident woman, a lover of life, dedicated to nursing and dedicated to the welfare of nurses, especially those, who like her, came from the country to the big smoke. We’ll never know where her nursing career could have taken her or what adventures she could have shared with her husband, Ray, her life being cut short by cancer. To me she will always be the auntie in the silver frame on the piano – smiling, glamorous, and forever young.

RIP Ursula Phyllis EDWARDS (nee WINTER) 11 Nov 1907 – 11 Aug 1955

1. Sunbury State School No. 1002, School Register 1910-1932, p5. Genealogical Society of Victoria.
2. Herald, Monday 7 December 1931, p6
3. Obituary Mrs Phyllis Edwards. Unknown newspaper source
4. Obituary Mrs Phyllis Edwards. Unknown newspaper source
5. Obituary Mrs Phyllis Edwards. Unknown newspaper source
6. The Argus, Tuesday, 12 Dec 1933, p10.
7. UK & Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists 1890-1960. Ancestry.com
8. Obituary Mrs Phyllis Edwards. Unknown newspaper source
9. Obituary Mrs Phyllis Edwards. Unknown newspaper source
10. Obituary Mrs Phyllis Edwards. Unknown newspaper source.