Myra's story (Part 2)

Here's the link to Myra's story (Part 1). Myra is the half sister of my grandfather, James Oswald Woodlands.

On 11 October 1919, my twenty year old half grand-aunt, Myra Woodland, married fifty year old divorced father of two, Robert Hollyford Whitworth, in Sydney.

This is the only photo we have of Myra who is with her little sister Lorna around the time of her marriage.

Both Lorna and my Dad, Myra's half nephew, remembered meeting Myra when they were young children. Dad was six years younger than Lorna. Their recollection was that she would return home when she was in need and would then depart without warning. There was never any mention of a marriage. On one occasion, her father told her that, if she left without warning again, she wasn't welcome back. That was the last time Lorna and Dad saw Myra. We don't know if her parents had any further contact with Myra. I'm thinking this would have been between 1923 and 1930 when James and Agnes Woodland moved from Newcastle to Sydney.

The 1919 marriage of Myra and Whitworth marked the end of his travelling theatrical company. The only trace of them in the 1920s is sadly through Myra's appearance in the Victorian Police Gazette in 1922 and 1923 and The Argus in 1926. They were living in Prahran. Whitworth's parents had settled there in the 1870s.  By 1922, his parents and all but one of his siblings were deceased. His surviving sibling lived in Perth. 

I recall finding the 1922 reference to Mrs Marie Whitworth. I was thinking that Myra was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But that thought changed when I found the 1923 reference. Myra was missing from her Prahran home and was described as "addicted to drink". Was this one of her visits back to her parents? It certainly ties in with the timing of their move to Sydney. In 1926, Myra's charged with vagrancy and sent to goal for a month. Did she return to her husband or parents after this? I just don't know and doubt I'll ever know.

AU7103-1922 Victorian Police Gazette 1922

AU7103-1923 Victorian Police Gazette 1923

WOMAN SENT TO GAOL. (1926, November 13). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 37. Retrieved December 11, 2022, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3820717

The next twist came when I found Whitworth living with Jean in Prahran in the 1931 and 1934 Australian Electoral Rolls. Without finding a death registration for Myra or another marriage for Whitworth, I was thinking that Myra had another name change. What happened between 1926 and 1931? Had her father's ultimatum had such an impact that she settled down with her husband and decided on another change of identity and lifestyle? That seems to be the most likely explanation. 

Robert Hollyford Whitworth died on 9 June 1934 at the Alfred Hospital, Prahran. His death certificate shows accurately that he was sixty five and that he had two and not three marriages.  It records that he was fifty four at the time of his marriage to Jean Miller in Sydney and that there were no children of this marriage. So this marriage would have been in 1923. There's no record of this marriage. We also have evidence that Myra was alive in 1926. So evidence grows that Myra had settled with Whitworth by 1930.

Click on the image to the left for more details.

(1934, June 12). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), p. 1. Retrieved December 11, 2022, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page19056746

After Whitworth's death, there's no further reference to Myra until Jean Olive Whitworth's death on 23 February 1946. Myra died at her home at 42 Weigall Street South Yarra. Her age is shown as forty seven which ties in with Myra. Her birth and marriage to Whitworth is shown as taking place in Bendigo. There are no names recorded for her parents but her father is shown as a gold buyer. A long way from a baker! She's shown as twenty eight when she married and that there are no children of the marriage. There's no record of a marriage in Victoria or New South Wales in 1927.

Click on the image to the left for more details.

I'm satisfied this is Myra. She's not buried with Whitworth but at the Springvale Botanical Cemetery under the name of Jean Olive Witworth. Visiting her is top of the list for my next visit to Melbourne. 

(1946, February 26). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), p. 7. Retrieved December 11, 2022, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page19533142

Did Myra ever know what happened to her family in Sydney? Lorna and Dad certainly never knew what happened to her. While she died on 23 February 1946-

• Agnes Woodland (nee Cahill), her mother, had died in 23 January 1946,
• James Oswald Woodlands, her half brother, died on 10 May 1946 and 
• James Woodland, her father, died on 8 July 1947.

Her sister, Lorna, who was born in November 1914 when Myra's relationship with Whitworth had become know, married Stan Bisgrove in 1934. Their second child, Gail, was born in March 1946. Myra also had a ten year old nephew, Gail's brother Ron, a twenty six year old half nephew, my Dad, and a sixteen year old half niece, Pat, who never met her. I'm sure she never thought that she was the missing link in our family for many decades after she left. I hope she found contentment after all those turbulent years and that Whitworth treated her with care.

Here's the link to Myra's story (Part 3).