Sometimes when you start a research project, you just know there’s going to be lots of stories come your way. It was exactly like that this week when I began looking into the Purtill family from the Darling Downs. I told a version of this story in Darling Downs radio 4AK.

In the early 20th century, shire councillor Stephen Purtill was the patriarch of a family full of incredible achievements. They were from out Highfields, Perseverance, Ravensbourne outside of Toowoomba.

His first cousin was police sergeant Patrick Purtill. In a thirty-eight year career in the Queensland police force, Sergeant Purtill spent twenty-six years of that in charge of police stations at Brisbane, Rockhampton, Maryborough, and Townsville.

Councillor Purtill himself be would unanimously elected chairman of the Highfields Shire council.

When Councillor Purtill was married in 1907, his resolve must have been tested because his sister-in-law was the formidable Reverend Mother Paul who was the Mother Superior at St. Vincent’s Hospital.

Councillor Purtill would have six children including three boys and three girls.

All three sons served in the Second World War. Michael was a bombardier in the Australian Army. Garry was a warrant officer with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in England. And John was executed by the Japanese while a prisoner of war during the First Sandakan Death March.

Councillor Purtill had already experienced tragedy. In 1910 uncle Patrick Purtill was gored and killed by a bull. In 1917 during the First World War, his brother the stockman Sinon Purtill was killed in action during the First Battle of Passchendaele. He was forty-two years old, which means he was old enough that he should never have gone away to war in the first place. Incidentally, my own great grandfather was gassed in the same battle and he was a ridiculous forty-four years old.

And then there were Councillor Purtill’s three daughters. All three served as nurses and religious sisters. One was Sister Mary Grace of the Sisters’ of Mercy in Bundaberg. Another was Sister Honor who came home to nurse their mother to the very end.

Then there was Sister Stephanie Purtill who trained at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Toowoomba. In the Second World War she was a senior nursing sister in the RAAF nursing service. She served right across Australia and on escort duty to Canada. After the war, Sister Stephanie became a religious nursing sister at the Mater Hospital in Brisbane, and was made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, which is an M.B.E.

So with a shire chairman, a bull-gored stockman, a mother superior, a family full of nurses and soldiers, and an M.B.E., there will surely be a load of good stories coming from the Purtill family that I can tell you about.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON RADIO 4AK.

Photo credits:
Picnic group at Highfields, 1900-1910 – State Library of Queensland.
Constable Patrick Purtill, 1916 – Queensland Police Museum.
Gunner John Francis Purtill – Australian War Memorial P02468.009.
Private Sinon Purtill – Toowoomba Chronicle, 24th January 1918, page 5.
Eileen Stephanie Purtill – National Archives of Australia.