BEAGLEY, Margaret Mary née Dillon also known as Nurse Mollie Beagley
Born February 1889; died 24 November 1918; buried 25 November 1918; age 29
Margaret Mary BEAGLEY, known as Mollie, was the eldest child of eight, all born in New Zealand, to Lena née HOGAN and John DILLON who had both come from Country Clare in Ireland. Her parents married in the Catholic Church in Christchurch in 1888. Mollie’s father, John, worked as a constable in the police and for a time the family lived in Hereford Street, Christchurch. While still a pre-schooler Mollie observed the impact on her family of the deaths in quick succession in August 1893 of her next younger sister, Lena (3) and her next younger brother, David, who was only 12 months old. Both were buried Linwood cemetery.
After finishing school, Mollie was able to embark on nursing training. After graduating she worked for 3 years at Blenheim’s Wairau Hospital (source obituary in Evening Post 25 November 1918). Her formal nursing career came to an end when she married Norman Allan William Beagley of Kilbirnie, Wellington, in April 1918 at the Catholic Cathedral in Christchurch. Mollie’s parents were then living at Kauru Hill, Maheno, Oamaru, probably farming. Mollie was by then 29 or 30 years old, and Norman was younger by five years, having been born on 11 February 1894. His parents were Maria Frances ROLLISON from County Cork, Ireland who had married Frederick Beagley, in 1889, in Victoria, Australia. Norman had two sisters, Eleanor Ann, who was older and became a well-known Wellington horticulturalist (specialising in rose and hydrangea growing) and Margaret May who was younger (source: Evening Post 14 November 1944).
Norman was educated in Catholic schools, served as an altar boy, and attended Wellington Technical College for two years. He started work as a messenger boy and attended Wellington Technical classes four evenings a week until an unauthorised gunpowder experiment in class with another chemistry student resulted in his exit and his sudden decision to depart for Australia to embark on earning his own living.
Back in New Zealand, Norman worked as a bricklayer, following his father’s trade. He enlisted as soon as the call went out in 1914, served in Egypt and in the Dardanelles where he received a gunshot wound to the head and returned to New Zealand in 1915 (source NZ Army file from Archives New Zealand) where he worked for the army pay corps for a time.
Born February 1889; died 24 November 1918; buried 25 November 1918; age 29
Margaret Mary BEAGLEY, known as Mollie, was the eldest child of eight, all born in New Zealand, to Lena née HOGAN and John DILLON who had both come from Country Clare in Ireland. Her parents married in the Catholic Church in Christchurch in 1888. Mollie’s father, John, worked as a constable in the police and for a time the family lived in Hereford Street, Christchurch. While still a pre-schooler Mollie observed the impact on her family of the deaths in quick succession in August 1893 of her next younger sister, Lena (3) and her next younger brother, David, who was only 12 months old. Both were buried Linwood cemetery.
After finishing school, Mollie was able to embark on nursing training. After graduating she worked for 3 years at Blenheim’s Wairau Hospital (source obituary in Evening Post 25 November 1918). Her formal nursing career came to an end when she married Norman Allan William Beagley of Kilbirnie, Wellington, in April 1918 at the Catholic Cathedral in Christchurch. Mollie’s parents were then living at Kauru Hill, Maheno, Oamaru, probably farming. Mollie was by then 29 or 30 years old, and Norman was younger by five years, having been born on 11 February 1894. His parents were Maria Frances ROLLISON from County Cork, Ireland who had married Frederick Beagley, in 1889, in Victoria, Australia. Norman had two sisters, Eleanor Ann, who was older and became a well-known Wellington horticulturalist (specialising in rose and hydrangea growing) and Margaret May who was younger (source: Evening Post 14 November 1944).
Norman was educated in Catholic schools, served as an altar boy, and attended Wellington Technical College for two years. He started work as a messenger boy and attended Wellington Technical classes four evenings a week until an unauthorised gunpowder experiment in class with another chemistry student resulted in his exit and his sudden decision to depart for Australia to embark on earning his own living.
Back in New Zealand, Norman worked as a bricklayer, following his father’s trade. He enlisted as soon as the call went out in 1914, served in Egypt and in the Dardanelles where he received a gunshot wound to the head and returned to New Zealand in 1915 (source NZ Army file from Archives New Zealand) where he worked for the army pay corps for a time.
Norman Allan William Beagley
from his Online Cenotaph record
from his Online Cenotaph record
The couple set up home in Orangi Kaupapa Road in Northland, Wellington. When the epidemic reached Wellington in early November 1918, Mollie volunteered to help nurse those affected and was attached to the team of volunteers at St Andrew’s Church, at 30 The Terrace, Wellington. Perhaps it was there that she contracted influenza. Mollie was taken to the Normal School Temporary Hospital in Thorndon, which is where she died on 24 November. Mollie was buried in the Catholic section of Karori Cemetery the following day.
E Morris Jnr funeral records show that Public Health contributed £7 to the cost of Mollie’s burial.
Her nursing colleagues erected a memorial to Nurse Beagley on her grave in Karori cemetery. This says:
In Honoured Memory of Nurse BEAGLEY wife of Private N. A. BEAGLEY d 24 Nov 1918. She gave her life nursing in the epidemic of 1918. Erected by her fellow workers.
Norman Beagley married again in 1920, to Emily Helena WILLIAMS but this marriage was short-lived. He continued to work for the Defence Department as a pay clerk after the war but about a year after Mollie’s death, Norman was run over by a military lorry and experienced permanent injuries to his legs. He was discharged at the end of 1920 as unfit for further military employment and compensated under the Workers’ Compensation Act. Thereafter Norman spent most of his itinerant working life on stations and plantations in different parts of Australia, travelling widely. He visited New Zealand in 1951 (Corinthic shipping record), remarried in 1960 in England, and in 1970 authored Up and down under (published by Mitre Press in London, copy in National Library) describing his exploits, travel, and aspects of life in Australia and New Zealand. While the book provides some personal information, biographical details are sparse and his short marriage to Mollie is not mentioned. Norman died in Dorset, England in 1974.
Other Beagley family members were buried in Karori Cemetery in Church of England 2, his father in 1942, and his mother and sister in 1944.
Researched and written by Jenny Robertson
Grave Information:
Section: ROM CATH
Plot: 28 W
E Morris Jnr funeral records show that Public Health contributed £7 to the cost of Mollie’s burial.
Her nursing colleagues erected a memorial to Nurse Beagley on her grave in Karori cemetery. This says:
In Honoured Memory of Nurse BEAGLEY wife of Private N. A. BEAGLEY d 24 Nov 1918. She gave her life nursing in the epidemic of 1918. Erected by her fellow workers.
Norman Beagley married again in 1920, to Emily Helena WILLIAMS but this marriage was short-lived. He continued to work for the Defence Department as a pay clerk after the war but about a year after Mollie’s death, Norman was run over by a military lorry and experienced permanent injuries to his legs. He was discharged at the end of 1920 as unfit for further military employment and compensated under the Workers’ Compensation Act. Thereafter Norman spent most of his itinerant working life on stations and plantations in different parts of Australia, travelling widely. He visited New Zealand in 1951 (Corinthic shipping record), remarried in 1960 in England, and in 1970 authored Up and down under (published by Mitre Press in London, copy in National Library) describing his exploits, travel, and aspects of life in Australia and New Zealand. While the book provides some personal information, biographical details are sparse and his short marriage to Mollie is not mentioned. Norman died in Dorset, England in 1974.
Other Beagley family members were buried in Karori Cemetery in Church of England 2, his father in 1942, and his mother and sister in 1944.
Researched and written by Jenny Robertson
Grave Information:
Section: ROM CATH
Plot: 28 W