sketcher and teacher, was born on 7 April 1843 at Southampton, England, the second daughter of John and Eliza Thurston. She came to New South Wales on 23 December 1853 with her widowed mother and two sisters, and she lived with her mother and sister Emily until the mid 1860s. She probably worked as a teacher in later years. The Eliza Thurston listed as a schoolmistress at Rylstone, near Mudgee in Balliere’s Official Post Office Directory of New South Wales for 1867 (compiled 1866) was surely the daughter rather than her elderly mother. However, not long afterwards, on 2 March 1867, Eliza West Thurston married Dr John Morton at Mudgee.
Pencil drawings dated 1858, a watercolour of a moss rose dated 1863 and a sepia wash drawing dated 1867, all initialled E.W.T., survive in a family collection. An accomplished later watercolour of passionfruit flowers, leaves and tendrils is also initialled E.W.M. Her notebook giving details of Thurston family history is with the Sir John Bates Thurston Papers (National Library of Australia, ms 1914/1).
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- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 1989
