Samuel's mother had been a teacher but was widowed young and not entitled to return to teaching under the regulations of the time. She had supported herself and her son by campaigning for women to be given the vote in the colonies of Victoria and Tasmania. Florence's parents had encouraged her to be presented at Buckingham Palace.
Mary was a gifted student. She went to Firbank Grammar School and won a scholarship to Rosbercon College for her final years. She then qualified as a secretary and was working at the Royal Melbourne Hospital almoner's department when she decided to study social work at Melbourne University.
Mary Shilton...felt called to be an overseas missionary
At the same time she felt called to be an overseas missionary. After working on the Anglican Inner-City Ministry Team on the depressed fringe of Melbourne's central business district in the late 1940s, she trained to go as a missionary with the Church Missionary Society in Tanganyika and sailed from Australia in 1951.
In Africa she worked as diocesan bookkeeper for Bishop Alfred Stanway, a visionary Australian who did much to build the enduring health of the Anglican Church in Tanzania.
She met again a Sydney-born missionary colleague, Norman Powys, and found him to be much more likeable than he had seemed in Melbourne, so much so that they were married in Dodoma in 1953.
The couple then built and ran a bush hospital in Murgwanza before sailing home for leave. While they were spending time with family in Sydney, Dr Powys died suddenly, leaving Mary pregnant with their third child.
She returned to Brighton to stay with her widowed mother and, supported by Florence, raised the children. For a decade she was the sole social worker for the Anglican Homes for the Elderly in Melbourne then senior social worker with the Mission of St James and St John.
As a teenager Mary Powys had known Lance Shilton in Melbourne when they were in the League of Youth. The families kept in touch and Powys and Shilton, by then dean of Sydney, met again in Melbourne in 1982, two years after he had been widowed.
They were married in Melbourne and she moved to Sydney to make another new life. She was fully involved in his ministry at St Andrew's Cathedral and wrote many press releases supporting him as a Christian spokesman.
In Sydney Mary Shilton also continued with many of her voluntary involvements, especially the Church Missionary Society, and she was made an honorary vice-president of CMS Australia.
Lance Shilton retired in 1989. The Shiltons travelled and spent time with their grandchildren, and he took short-term ministries in a number of Sydney parishes. Mary then nursed him until his death from cancer in 1998. Her memory faded in her final years but she remained the cheerful person she had always been.
Mary Shilton is survived by her brother, George; her children, Ruth Russell, and David and Malcolm Powys; and 10 grandchildren. [rc]
Harriet Veitch with David and Malcolm Powys
Copyright © 2009. Fairfax Digital
November 7, 2009
AUSTRALIA: From Australia and to Africa she was devoted to the needy
.
SYDNEY, NSW / The Sydney Morning Herald / Obituaries / November 7, 2099
Mary Bolitho little knew, growing up in Victoria, that her life would take her around the world, leave her twice widowed and end peacefully in Sydney.
Mary Eleanor Florence Bolitho was born in Brighton, Victoria, on December 18, 1925, one of two children of Samuel Bolitho, who was in the navy in World War I and later became a commercial artist, and his wife, Florence Mary Sprott, a privileged young Englishwoman. Samuel and Florence had met in England during the war and Florence came to Australia in 1923 to marry him.
Samuel's mother had been a teacher but was widowed young and not entitled to return to teaching under the regulations of the time. She had supported herself and her son by campaigning for women to be given the vote in the colonies of Victoria and Tasmania. Florence's parents had encouraged her to be presented at Buckingham Palace.
Mary was a gifted student. She went to Firbank Grammar School and won a scholarship to Rosbercon College for her final years. She then qualified as a secretary and was working at the Royal Melbourne Hospital almoner's department when she decided to study social work at Melbourne University.
Mary Shilton...felt called to be an overseas missionary
At the same time she felt called to be an overseas missionary. After working on the Anglican Inner-City Ministry Team on the depressed fringe of Melbourne's central business district in the late 1940s, she trained to go as a missionary with the Church Missionary Society in Tanganyika and sailed from Australia in 1951.
In Africa she worked as diocesan bookkeeper for Bishop Alfred Stanway, a visionary Australian who did much to build the enduring health of the Anglican Church in Tanzania.
She met again a Sydney-born missionary colleague, Norman Powys, and found him to be much more likeable than he had seemed in Melbourne, so much so that they were married in Dodoma in 1953.
The couple then built and ran a bush hospital in Murgwanza before sailing home for leave. While they were spending time with family in Sydney, Dr Powys died suddenly, leaving Mary pregnant with their third child.
She returned to Brighton to stay with her widowed mother and, supported by Florence, raised the children. For a decade she was the sole social worker for the Anglican Homes for the Elderly in Melbourne then senior social worker with the Mission of St James and St John.
As a teenager Mary Powys had known Lance Shilton in Melbourne when they were in the League of Youth. The families kept in touch and Powys and Shilton, by then dean of Sydney, met again in Melbourne in 1982, two years after he had been widowed.
They were married in Melbourne and she moved to Sydney to make another new life. She was fully involved in his ministry at St Andrew's Cathedral and wrote many press releases supporting him as a Christian spokesman.
In Sydney Mary Shilton also continued with many of her voluntary involvements, especially the Church Missionary Society, and she was made an honorary vice-president of CMS Australia.
Lance Shilton retired in 1989. The Shiltons travelled and spent time with their grandchildren, and he took short-term ministries in a number of Sydney parishes. Mary then nursed him until his death from cancer in 1998. Her memory faded in her final years but she remained the cheerful person she had always been.
Mary Shilton is survived by her brother, George; her children, Ruth Russell, and David and Malcolm Powys; and 10 grandchildren. [rc]
Harriet Veitch with David and Malcolm Powys
Copyright © 2009. Fairfax Digital
Samuel's mother had been a teacher but was widowed young and not entitled to return to teaching under the regulations of the time. She had supported herself and her son by campaigning for women to be given the vote in the colonies of Victoria and Tasmania. Florence's parents had encouraged her to be presented at Buckingham Palace.
Mary was a gifted student. She went to Firbank Grammar School and won a scholarship to Rosbercon College for her final years. She then qualified as a secretary and was working at the Royal Melbourne Hospital almoner's department when she decided to study social work at Melbourne University.
Mary Shilton...felt called to be an overseas missionary
At the same time she felt called to be an overseas missionary. After working on the Anglican Inner-City Ministry Team on the depressed fringe of Melbourne's central business district in the late 1940s, she trained to go as a missionary with the Church Missionary Society in Tanganyika and sailed from Australia in 1951.
In Africa she worked as diocesan bookkeeper for Bishop Alfred Stanway, a visionary Australian who did much to build the enduring health of the Anglican Church in Tanzania.
She met again a Sydney-born missionary colleague, Norman Powys, and found him to be much more likeable than he had seemed in Melbourne, so much so that they were married in Dodoma in 1953.
The couple then built and ran a bush hospital in Murgwanza before sailing home for leave. While they were spending time with family in Sydney, Dr Powys died suddenly, leaving Mary pregnant with their third child.
She returned to Brighton to stay with her widowed mother and, supported by Florence, raised the children. For a decade she was the sole social worker for the Anglican Homes for the Elderly in Melbourne then senior social worker with the Mission of St James and St John.
As a teenager Mary Powys had known Lance Shilton in Melbourne when they were in the League of Youth. The families kept in touch and Powys and Shilton, by then dean of Sydney, met again in Melbourne in 1982, two years after he had been widowed.
They were married in Melbourne and she moved to Sydney to make another new life. She was fully involved in his ministry at St Andrew's Cathedral and wrote many press releases supporting him as a Christian spokesman.
In Sydney Mary Shilton also continued with many of her voluntary involvements, especially the Church Missionary Society, and she was made an honorary vice-president of CMS Australia.
Lance Shilton retired in 1989. The Shiltons travelled and spent time with their grandchildren, and he took short-term ministries in a number of Sydney parishes. Mary then nursed him until his death from cancer in 1998. Her memory faded in her final years but she remained the cheerful person she had always been.
Mary Shilton is survived by her brother, George; her children, Ruth Russell, and David and Malcolm Powys; and 10 grandchildren. [rc]
Harriet Veitch with David and Malcolm Powys
Copyright © 2009. Fairfax Digital
