by Rodney Hammett, Bulletin 9/2022, November 2022

I had the privilege to spend time with Sr Catherine (who died on October 9) when she took up my 90^th birthday present offer to investigate her family history. I explained that this would be a journey of discovery where there would be ancestors found, previous family folklore would likely need to be challenged as more facts were unearthed and some family secrets would likely be exposed. She was up to the task, so in 2013, we started chatting about her life and what she could remember of her parents’ families.

Born Catherine Mary Bell on 7 February 1922 at Bowral, she was the second child of Thomas Bell and Elizabeth Mabel (née Dodd). She had an older sister Annie Elizabeth, two younger sisters; Mary and Margaret Frances, and a brother Jim. The girls lived long but Jim died when 46. Thomas and Elizabeth married at Mascot in February 1919. Thomas was 20 years older than Elizabeth.

Thomas was of Irish stock, his parents arriving as assisted immigrants to New South Wales on the ship Sir John Moore in March 1863. They arrived with some of the McBarron family, his mother’s family, and had been sponsored by John McBarron who had arrived in the colony in 1855. The McBarron family were originally from Scotland, moving to Ireland in the 1600s to one of the Plantation Settlements established in Ulster. In New South Wales John Barron first set up a small business in Sussex St then went to Burrawang, near Robertson, which was a private village established in 1865 on land made available to settlers under the Robertson’s Land Act (1861).

The McBarrons and Bells established themselves as farmers in the area, so it was no surprise that Thomas Bell was drawn back to Burrawang in the early1920s. Thomas and Elizabeth ran a modest dairy farm. Catherine remembers helping her father with milking and it being hard work involving all the family members. There was no electricity and their only means of transport was a sulky. Catherine also remembered the three mile walk to school, and then back home again at the end of the day. Church on Sunday was a treat as the family all piled onto the sulky and sometimes the priest would drive the children back in a car while her parents returned in the sulky.

Life for Catherine and her siblings was thrown into turmoil when their mother died in 1935 aged only 44. She had been unwell for some time at home; Catherine remembers a neighbour driving her mother and father to the Bowral Hospital in early April, never to see her again. Elizabeth died on 26 April.

Catherine’s 66-year-old father was left with five children whose ages ranged from 6 to 15 and a dairy to keep operating. Thomas realised the only solution was to send the children to orphanages; the girls going to the Mater Dei Orphanage, Narellan, run by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan and Jim was sent to the St Vincent’s Boys Home at Westmead. Annie decided to leave home after she found a job in the local hotel. As it turned out, Catherine never saw her father again; he died in1942.

So the family’s misfortune led to Catherine’s life with the Sisters of the Good Samaritan, where she recalled being impressed by the way the nuns treated her. They also discussed her future life options. Catherine left the orphanage in 1938 for more study with the Sisters at Queanbeyan. She sought and was granted admission to the Good Samaritan Novitiate at Pennant Hills on 17 November 1940 where she was given the name Sister Mary Conleth. She gave her professional vows on 4 January 1943 and gained her Certificate of Teaching in 1944.

She was a pupil teacher at St Scholastica’s in 1943. Catherine then taught children in primary schools for over fifty years at numerous places all over Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia. Most of these schools were in remote locations. Her longest posting was 9 years at Mt Magnet, WA (1986-1994). A noteworthy posting was to South Johnstone in Far North Queensland (1946-1948) where she became a citizen scientist, collecting ants for Fr McAreavey, SJ. Subsequently an aunt, Conlethea, was named after her.

In retirement, Catherine came to Polding Villa, at St Scholastica’s, in 2010. Catherine, always smiling, went about her life talking to and helping families where she could. I met her through my wife Lesley being one of the participants in a senior’s Tai Chi class at St Helens in the early 2010s. These classes were always followed by coffee at Alice’s, a tradition still practiced.

When Polding Villa was demolished in 2016 Catherine moved to a home for retired nuns at Balgowlah. While this provided for her basic needs, I know she missed the lively personal exchanges and the Glebe atmosphere. Later she moved to aged care at St Catherine’s Eastwood where she died on 9 October.

At her funeral at St Scholastica’s Chapel on Thursday 20 October, there was a large gathering of her extended family, many from the Order and friends who had known Catherine over the years; one came from the NSW South Coast and another from South Australia. All of us were able to share our memories of a wonderful and caring woman.

Acknowledgement: Some of the story about Sr Catherine is sourced from the Funeral Mass booklet prepared by Sisters of the Good Samaritan of the Order of St Benedict, St Scholastica’s Glebe.