Gwenyth Morton played hockey for Victoria, and, continuing the medical inclinations of the wider family she took up nursing, raised two boys and contributed to her community in concert with other country women in the Bairnsdale district. Her story was true to the Morton line. She was born 22 November 1892 at her father’s, Dr. Morton’s, house at 39 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. She joined her older sister Doris (1888-1962) who had been born there four years earlier. Assisting at the birth was her own father. Two brothers followed – Lindsay Frank Morton (1895-1969) and Noel Morton (1901-1908).
The story of Gwenyth Morton, later Capuano, later Capp, is not a long one by the standards of her male forebears. In large part this is because of the generally larger roles in life and dominance of the male line in family history as passed down through the ages, and in this case since her grandfather William Nassau Morton arrived in Victoria in 1851. However, Gwen made a major contribution in her own way to the success of their family and community. In Gwen’s case, she did well at languages at school; played hockey in two successive years for Victoria; trained as a nurse in Victoria and England and then, as a nursing sister, successfully ran a regional baby health centre for two years. Marrying late, she raised two boys and supported her husband at home and in his various business and public life engagements. In the meantime, she played active roles in early Country Women’s Association and Red Cross branches in her adopted home at Bairnsdale. It could be said that Gwen experienced a full and engaging life herself.
As the last of this direct line of Mortons and the start of a new line of Morton-Capp through her sons, Gwen Morton descended from strong, enterprising forebears out of Irish stock. Even before that these Mortons had come from England and before that again, in the wake of the Norman conquest of England, from France. Through wars and civil strife, through hardship and famine, Mortons had survived. True, with the advent of the Irish potato famine and the terrible impact this had on families everywhere in Ireland in the mid-19th Century, the Irish branch of the family had broken up.
However, those who emigrated to Canada and to Australia in those dark times recovered and prospered. The opportunities that these colonies of England gave to immigrants without resources was manifest. Within one generation misfortunes from Ireland had been reversed. In Canada a successful medical family had developed. In Australia, a combination of good luck, family connections, entrepreneurship and hard work gave William Nassau Morton a chance to make good – and he did, as a successful merchant in early Hawthorn. Arising from that, his son Francis William Watson Morton in turn was given the education and opportunity to also turn to medicine, while having the chance to engage in sports of all kinds. He became a highly respected medical doctor, prominent in his Church and as a Mason, along with his engagement in various public institutions not least the hospitals for Women and St. Vincent’s. But neither William Nassau Morton or his son Francis William Watson Morton could have been as successful in life without the love and support of their wives who helped to raise their families and build further on the success of those who came after them. Gwen Morton was the beneficiary of this. Gwen played hockey for Victoria. Continuing the medical inclinations of the wider family she took up nursing, raised two boys and contributed to her community in concert with other country women in the Bairnsdale district. Her story was true to the Morton line.
The full biography of Gwen Morton can be seen in The Big Garage 1923-1988: 65 Years of Motoring History, Indie Print 2022. ISBN 9 780646 859743