Margaret Brassil nee Swan
Margaret Swan was born in Perth on 18th March 1897.
At some stage the family has moved back to Sydney, and Margaret attended Fort Street Girls High. She did the Intermediate Certificate in October 1912, with results as follows:
“Swan, Margaret, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 16.
The following is the list of Fort Street pupils
successful at the Intermediate Certihcate Examination held in October last.
The numbers in the lists refer to the following
sections:— ( i) Mathematics!., (2) MathematicsII., (3) English, (4) French, (5) German, (6)
Latin, (7) History, (8) Elementary Science (Chemistry and Physics), (9) Geography, (10)
Geology, ( i i ) Botany, (12) Zoology, (13) Business Principles and Practice, (14) Agriculture I.,
(15) Agriculture II., (16) Drawing and Manual Woodwork, (18) Practical Agriculture, (19)
Drawing and Manual Metalwork”
(from The Fortian February 1913)
She received a scholarship for the next 2 years of school
As a result of success at the Intermediate Examination the following pupils have received
Probationary Student scholarships tenable at
this school for a period of two years:—Elsie
Webb, Maggie Swan, Chrissie Drake, Ena
Drake, Mary Cowie, Olive Storey, Jessie McRae, Maud Turtle, May Millar, Edith Whitton,
Elsie Segaert, Catherine Pegum, and Lorna
Jenkins.
(from The Fortian March 1913)
She finished school at the end of 1914. (Unfortunately the copies of the Fortian in early 1915 are not in their digitalized archive.)
She made the Leaving Certificate Honours List for Mathematics in 1914. Why are we not surprised?
Margaret received a scholarship to the Blackfriars Teachers College (later to become Sydney Teachers College). This had been set up in 1906 in Broadway and was closely associated with Sydney University. Margaret received a BSc from Sydney and did her teachers training at the college.
Margaret seems to have commenced uni studies in 1916, and completed them in 1919. She was appointed to Cleveland Street Intermediate School in June 1919,
and then to Taree Public in August 1919.
From Taree to Bowral District School in October 1920,
The first public school in Bowral was established around 1868. Secondary education was introduced in 1906 when a course was created at Bowral Public School to allow students to continue study after primary. The secondary school was known as Bowral District School. In 1915, the school had its first students pass the Leaving Certificate exams. In 1920 the school was named Bowral Intermediate High School, and enrolled 120 students.
It appears to me that Margaret was always a High School Teacher. She went to Taree District School which no doubt had a secondary section, and from there to Bowral. Bowral established a separate Secondary school – Bowral Intermediate High – while Margaret was teaching there.
She moved from Bowral to Newcastle High as an Assistant Mistress in January 1923.
In 1926 she was a tutor at the newly established Sancta Sophia college at Sydney University.
Margaret Swan was an Assistant Mistress at North Sydney Girls High when she resigned on 31 July 1927. She married Francis Michael Brassil 3 days later, on 3rd August 1927. At that time Francis was CPS and CLA (Clerk of Petty Sessions and Crown Land Agent) at Hillston.
They moved from Hillston to Nowra in May 1928. Francis was welcomed as the new Clerk of Petty Sessions in a meeting at the Nowra Courthouse. It makes interesting reading to see how a country CPS was generally regarded
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/111928414?searchTerm=F%20M%20Brassil%20Nowra#
Their first child, Rose Montague Brassil, was born at Nowra on 9th November 1928.
The family moved from Nowra to Wyalong in October/November 1929. This was a promotion for Francis in his role as Clerk of Petty Sessions and Crown Land Agent. It seems funny now to think of Wyalong as being more important than Nowra.
Whilst at Wyalong Margaret and Frank had 4 more children – Margaret 30th June 1930, Patrick 11th November 1931, Thomas 26th August 1933, and Maria 17th June 1935.
Margaret died at Wyalong on the 28th August 1935, apparently of septicemia. This of course, was before the days of antibiotics. What would most probably have been a simple treatment some 5 years later was, in 1935, practically a sentence of death.