Rona Glynn

Rona Ellen Glynn[1] was born on 24 September 1936[2] at Wood Green Station in Central Australia, the daughter of Ron Price and Topsy Glynn, a housemaid and cook[a] for R. H. Purvis (Ron Purvis Sr), owner of Wood Green.

After Topsy's mother was killed, around 1919, Ron Purvis Sr persuaded the NT police commissioner Robert Stott to put Topsy in to the "Half-caste Institution Alice Springs" (The Bungalow, then at the Alice Springs Telegraph Station), although she was not technically "half-caste", on condition that Purvis employed her on Wood Green Station as soon as she had completed her schooling there, which he did.

[5] Following the bombing of Darwin in February 1942, there were military orders to evacuate The Bungalow, so Topsy went to find work on a farm in New South Wales with her girls.

[6] St Mary's was run by the Australian Board of Missions, and provided accommodation and schooling for Aboriginal children who had been either placed there by their parents or by the Director of Native Affairs.

[6][16] The accompanying photo shows Rona – the tallest girl in the back row – and sister Erica, to her right (viewer's left) during this time.

[18] In 1952 Glynn was appointed by the South Australian Department of Education as junior teacher at the Alice Springs Primary School, taking charge of a Grade 2 class.

[6] The following year she undertook midwifery training at the Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, where after completing the year-long course she remained on staff, becoming a charge sister.