Mary Coutts Michie

Smith was born in Nottingham in February 1857, and emigrated to Australia at the age of 12, on The Southern Belle landing in Brisbane, Queensland.

[1] She married James Magyer at Burra, South Australia and as Mary Agnes Mayger, she and her husband were employed at Mount Gipps Station, near Broken Hill.

[1] Mount Gipps was managed by George McCulloch, a founder of the Syndicate of Seven in 1883, and Director of the Broken Hill Mining Company[2] formed in 1855.

Following McCulloch's death in 1907,[4] Mary married third the Scottish artist James Coutts Michie in 1909[1] who had been an art adviser to the couple.

[3] In retirement Coutts Michie lived in a house known as 'Broken Hill,' in Cobham, Surrey.