Mary Napier Allott Tribute Onlinetributes.com.au

Who was Mary Napier Allott?

I am having a lot of difficulty saying the word  was because until 18/06/11 02:30 am we used the word is.

 She was Sir George Everest’s  great great grand niece.

A great grand niece  of  Mary Everest Boole.

Grand daughter of Clarence Augustus Everest and Anne Sarah Nussey.

William Edward Stober and Sophia Nussey Everest’s daughter.

Niece to Olga and Kathleen .                                                                                              

Sister to Ted, Will and three other brothers.

Wife to Gerald  Gordon Allott.

Sister in law to Sheila.

Aunt to Malcolm.

Mother to Shirley and Tristan.

Mother in Law to George.

Grandmother to Anton,  Lara and Andrei.

Friend to Joan, Margaret, Nora  and many others.

Mary was a loving gentle person.   Family and friends were most important to Mary, and she always loved having people about her. 

Mary was born in Portsmouth, England  in August 1926.  Brother Ted was born 4 years later.  Mary’s parents later  separated and Peggy, her father’s second wife, produced four more brothers for Mary.  However, Mary and Peggy were not close and Mary went to live in Harrogate with her Aunts Olga and Kathleen.    Here she developed a love of the North Country around Yorkshire and the Lakes district.  

In World War 2 she worked as part of the land army and joined the WRAFs She started nursing training as a fever nurse but gave this away about half way through. 

After World War 2 she  did secretarial work.  She met Gerald Allott and they married during 1951.  They spent a lot of time cycling on a Tandem over England and Europe, taking their first child (Shirley, born 16/2/1953) with them in a carriage attached to the tandem.  A second child (Tristan ) was born on 1/5/1956.They also bought a beautiful house in Winchcomb  in Gloucestershire.  Mary loved history and literature and she used to weave the two together and told stories about Mercia, an ancient British kingdom of which Winchcomb was the capital.  Her favourite Poet was Robbie Burns and she kept his bust with her.

In 1960 they moved to Australia as Gerald, who had worked  in British Army Signals, had received a posting.    Gerald and Mary  did lots of exploring, particularly in the years soon after they  arrived in Australia.  Holidays to Mildura, Apollo Bay, Wilsons  Promontory, Healesville, Marysville, Port Fairy, Warnambool, Canberra, Robe  were part of our childhood.  Mary also took up painting for a while, and read widely.

Mary and Gerald made the decision at the end of Gerald’s posting to stay in Australia and Gerald transferred to the Australian Defence Signals Directorate.  They bought land and built a house in Rowville when it was still quite rural.  As Mary did not drive at this time, she would walk a couple of  miles to the bus stop and take the bus to Dandenong to go shopping.  She would then have to bring the shopping back by bus, and walk home carrying the shopping, quite a feat when you consider she was purchasing for a family of four.

As Tristan and Shirley grew up she started volunteering, firstly with reading at school and school excursions. She gained her driving licence when Shirley was 15 and her volunteering activities increased.  She used to help in the Tuck Shop at Dandenong high school, as well as delivering meals on wheels and driving disabled people to appointments as a red cross volunteer.  

In the 1970 Gerald was posted to Hong Kong and she lived there for 2 years and loved the shopping and exploring the islands of Hong Kong.  There was a family holiday in England during this time to meet/catch up with  relatives.  By time the family came back from Hong Kong the children had grown up.

Shirley went to nursing school and became a registered nurse and Tristan went to Monash University and followed  career paths in teaching and Computer/Web programming, eventually combining the two.

Gerald retired from work in 1982 and ,without the responsibilities of Children, Mary and Gerald travelled widely in Australia, and to England twice to meet the family once again.  Mary took up Croquet with Gerald, and while Gerald got into serious competition,  May preferred more social games.  Through Croquet they made a number of friends, particularly Joan Goff, who became a lifelong friend,

It was during the second trip to England that Mary’s health started to fail.  She developed Arthritis, which impacted severely on her mobility and future travelling.

Shirley married George in 1974 and has 3 children, Anton, Lara and Andrei.  Tristan formed a circle of close friendships and decided against marrying  and  having children.

Mary’s health deteriorated to the extent that she entered a hostel in Springvale in 1997, and soon after became a resident of a nursing home.  In the nursing home she was able to continue her social activities and enjoyed the company of many other people.

Gerald visited  and helped  Mary  as much as he could until he passed away 2006 after a short illness.

After Gerald’s passing , Joan kept up almost weekly visits to her friend Mary for many years.

Mary lived in Oak and Birch nursing home (part of Regis Sherwood Park, Cranbourne)  during this time, and many memorable occasions were shared there with  family members . 

Mary’s Health started to deteriorate rapidly over a number of months in 2011 and she passed away in Casey hospital palliative care unit on Saturday 20/6/11 at 2:30 am.

This is the last verse of “Afton River “ By Robbie Burns in memory of Mary :

Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes,

Flow gently, sweet river, the theme of my lays;

My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream,

Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.