Fry, Florence Kate
Florence Kate Fry was born in Gundagai in 1874, the first of eight children to widower John William Fry, proprietor of Gundagai's Family Hotel, and Margaret Jane nee McCook. When Florence was thirteen her father died suddenly, and her mother took over the hotel management despite her large family of young children.
Florence commenced as a pupil teacher at Gundagai Public School in November 1890, aged 16 and progressed readily through the annual examinations. Two years later, her younger sister Ethel Jane also commenced as a pupil teacher, but unlike Florence, she struggled with unfavourable reports and exam failure, ultimately withdrawing from training. Meanwhile Florence completed the required four years as a pupil teacher and was deemed eligible for admission to the training school in Sydney. She chose however to apply for appointment to a small rural school.
In late August 1895 Florence was given temporary charge of Bedellick Public School as it reopened after a two-month closure due to low attendance. The school had no teacher accommodation, so like her predecessors Florence lodged with Samuel Southwell and family. Two weeks after arriving at Bedellick she wrote to the Yass district inspector applying for reimbursement of her travel expenses as was customary. A second letter of the same date was less expected as it communicated her intention to resign, effective October 16, her overall period as teacher at Bedellick amounting to six weeks.
Although Florence Fry offered the Department no reason for her resignation, her marriage ten weeks later in Gundagai, to local farmer Thomas Broben, provides a ready explanation. Florence was given away by her uncle, a former mayor of Gundagai, in an occasion the local papers described as a 'fashionable wedding'. Florence and her husband settled in Gundagai where they raised two sons. She was widowed in 1927 when her husband died because of a circular saw accident. Florence lived in Gundagai until her death in 1958.
[Biography prepared by Joanne Toohey, 2023. Sources consulted include NSW school teachers' rolls 1868-1908, NSW school and related records 1876-1979, historic newspapers, NSW births, deaths and marriages index, and 'Early Education and Schools in the Canberra Region' (1999) by Lyall Gillespie].
Schools
- Bedellick
08/1895 - 10/1895