PRIDAY, Stella Muriel

Stella Muriel Priday (nee Hurford) was born on 19 April 1886, in Hawthorn, Victoria, the first of the three children of financier Thomas Walter Hurford (c1851-1892) and his wife Mary Grace (nee Paterson) (d1945). 

Thomas Hurford died in 1892 aged 41 after several months of illness, possibly exacerbated by the financial crisis of the early 1890s - 'respected and loved most by those who knew him best' according to his death notice (Argus 16 April 1892). His estate was valued at some £2600 which his wife with three children under 6 used to purchase income-generating property such as a house at 32 Erin Street, Richmond. (Nearby was the Melbourne residence of the Honorable Richard Baker, first President of the new Commonwealth Senate at No 26, a doctor and private hospital at No 8, and the Salvation Army Women's Training Centre at No 62). 

In 1901, 15 year old Muriel eloped with one of her mothers's lodgers, Sidney Priday, a 32 year old whiskey salesman. Mr Priday had already gained local attention because he drove a car, a sight that was still a novelty in 1901. The son of Queensland immigrants, he had travelled to London returning in 1900 on the RMS Ophir. All suggestions point to a man of the world.  

Their action set off a drama that enthralled newspapers across the new federation from north to south and east to west under headlines such as 'A Romantic Elopement' and 'A Remarkable Tragedy'.

Muriel and Sidney booked a passage on the 'Rosetta Maru', intending to start a new life in China. They married in Sydney en route then travelled on to Townsville. Mrs Hurford meantime had alerted police and set off in pursuit. The couple was apprehended in Townsville where Sidney was charged with abduction and Muriel with vagrancy. Before the case could be decided, Sidney took an overdose of morphia and died, leaving 15 year old Muriel a widow. Newspaper reports suggested that the judge was likely to have been disposed towards the couple and probably would have dismissed the charges. 

Muriel retained her married name throughout her life and on her enlistment papers described herself as a widow. Shipping lists record a 'Nurse Priday' travelling from Melbourne to Brisbane in 1911, suggesting she kept in contact with Sidney's family. 

She trained as a nurse at the Children's Hospital and the Women's Hospital. 

War Service

Neither of her brothers (Thomas Clifton and Walter Cecil Norman) enlisted, but Muriel did so in September 1917. She gave her address and that of her mother (her nominated next of kin) as 4 Jolimont Terrace, Jolimont (now No 42 Jolimont Terr in current numbering). Their names are not those listed for that address in the Sands and McDougall Municipal Directory 1917, so it is likely that Mrs Hurford herself was now a boarder in another's home. 

She left Sydney on board the No 2 Australian Hospital Ship Kanowna, on 26 September 1917. The ship's departure was delayed when the Seamen's Union refused to provide a crew - this was the period of the General Strike which affected the eastern seabord of Australia in 1917. Confusion about the departure may explain why Muriel formally completed her enlistment papers at sea.

'Kanowna' was one of Australia's two designated hospital ships. Under the Hague Convention of 1907, it was painted white and sailed fully lit. It could only carry troops classified as 'invalids', but its main purpose was transport not treatment. It was small, not especially convenient to work in, and carried around 470 invalids per voyage. Its medical staff typically included around eight doctors and a similar number of trained nurses, whose job it was to maintain the health of the invalids and treat illnesses that occurred on voyage. Between 1915 and 1919, it transported sick and wounded troops between England and Australia via Cape Town. Despite the protection of the Hague Convention, British and Australian hospital ships were vulnerable to attacks by German submarines and a number were sunk during the war. 

Muriel disembarked safely in England at Avonmouth near Bristol after a nine week voyage on 29 November 1917. She left London for Australia in December 1917 on the same ship with troops for repatriation. In the interim, she and other Kanowna staff may have made contact with potential patients before they boarded the Kanowna for the return voyage as was customary. The ship disembarked in Sydney in February 1918. The sight would have been similar to that in the photograph below of disembarkation from the Kanowna in Port Melbourne in 1916 (AWM CO1070).

This appears to be Muriel's only active service. She was discharged  from her unit on 4 June 1918, and from the 3rd Military District on 13 November 1918.

After the War

Muriel was a young widow who needed to earn a living on her return from overseas. (Interestingly, her unmarried brother left her his estate of some £400 in 1924). For a number of years Muriel was in charge of nursing duties at the Repatriation Department located in St Kilda Road. There 'her good and conscientious work won for her the cordial appreciation of the doctors, of the staff and many friends among the soldiers' (Age 21 January 1931). 

She lived for a number of years with her mother, Mary Hurford, at 16 Yarra Grove, Hawthorn, any animosity from the drama of 1901 apparently behind them.

Muriel died as the result of an accident at her mother's home in Yarra Grove, Hawthorn, on 19 January 1931, aged 44. Probate for her will was granted to her mother, who outlived Muriel, dying in 1945. The Edith Cavell Trust Fund (which supported sick and needy Victorian army nurses) paid £22.15.0 to her mother for the cost of the funeral (Priday, Stella Muriel, Index Card, Edith Cavell Trust Dund, M291 NAA Melbourne).

Muriel Priday is buried in the Presbyterian section of the Melbourne General Cemetery. 

Stella Muriel Priday featured in the East Melbourne Historical Society's 2015 exhibition, 'Gone to War as Sister: East Melbourne Nurses in the Great War'. Her panel can be seen at Gone to War as Sister - exhibition panel 11