The Australian Women's Register

Marion Strang (nee Kerr) was born in 1871 in the district of St. Georges, Edinburgh, Scotland and was baptized in that city in St. Georges Church in Charlotte Square. The daughter of Alexander and Ruth Kerr (nee Johnston), Marion married David Strang in July 1897. They had a daughter, Jane.

David Strang migrated to the United States in 1910, to settle in Utah, although it appears that Marion did not follow him there. Instead, she migrated from Scotland to Australia in 1925, arriving in Adelaide aboard the Hobson’s Bay on November 1 1925, following her daughter, who had migrated one year earlier. (It appears that Jane had no knowledge of her father’s movements during this period, only discovering that he was still alive after her mother’s death in 1941.)

After arriving in Adelaide, Marion moved to Broken Hill where Marion found work at the Broken Hill and District Hospital. She became head nurse in charge of the section of the hospital for elderly persons. In 1932, when that section was closed by the New South Wales government for economic reasons, Marion rented a home in Wolfram Street to house those who had nowhere to go. With barely any money remaining, she raised a loan on her property back home in Scotland in order to furnish the home. Local businessman Frank Griff, together with the Broken Hill Country Women’s Association and many Broken Hill miners, assisted with financial contributions. The Old Folks Home, as it was known, moved to larger premises at Williams Street in 1939. Marion Strang stayed on as night nurse until her death in 1941.