Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Corporal Mary Ellen Murphy (Service No:VF507964) enlisted in the AWAS as a Private on 12 March 1943 and was attached to 4 AWAS Training Battalion - graded Storewoman. Promoted to Corporal on 27 June 1944, Corporal Murphy was attached to 64 AWAS Training Battalion and 2 Base Ordnance Depot (BOD), before Discharge 'on compassionate grounds'(husband Sgt Murphy's return to Australia from Germany where he was a PoW) on 27 August 1945.

Mary was born in Bendigo, Victoria in 1915, fourth of six children of Gilbert Andrew Amos Stevenson (b1862 in Creswick, Victoria) and his second wife Sara Christina Wilkinson (b1882 at Sutton Grange via Bendigo, Victoria). Gilbert (a Teacher at Werrap in the Wimmera) and Sara married in Bendigo in 1906 and moved to Tasmania, where Gilbert was a Teacher in Launceston and Bagdad via Hobart. By 1913 Gilbert and Sara had returned to Victoria, living in Warrnabool where Gilbert was a Teacher. In the early 1920s they moved to Sebastopol in Bendigo where Gilbert was Publican and Sarah a Licensed Victualler at Napoleons. By the late 1920s they had moved to Cressy, where Gilbert was a Newsagent.

Mary worked in Newport as a Soda Dispenser for Ernest Hillier Pty Ltd - Chocolatiers and in 1940 married Lionel (Len) Joseph Murphy MiD (b1916 in Newport, Melbourne Ports, Victoria) - Len was a Clerk when he enlisted in the Army in 1940. Mary enlisted in the AWAS in 1943, following Len's capture by the Germans, and following their Discharges in 1945, they settled in Melbourne where Len worked as a Clerk and Fruiterer. Mary died in 1988 and Len in 2006.