Death at Samarai, Papua
p. 38 · Read in the full issue
Mrs. Martha Aston
From a Special Correspondent.
Samarai, May 7.
THE death occurred in Samarai Hos- Pital on April 30 of Mrs. Martha Aston, at the age of 78. For many years she had been associated with Anglican mission work in the Pacific, and was well-known in Polynesia.
Born in Tasmania, she celebrated her first marriage early in life, and sailed with her husband for New South Wales.
Two days after their arrival on the mainland, her husband died, leaving her a widow in a strange land. A second marriage proved equally tragic; her husband, John Aston, of Stourbridge, Worcester shire, disappeared while crossing the West Australian desert country in 1911.
After the ordination of her youngest son, Rev. C. W. Whonsbon-Aston, she joined him at his first curacy in a Sydney suburb. Later, she accompanied her son when he left Australia for mission work in the Diocese of Polynesia. In Fiji, Mrs.
Aston was held in high respect by residents of Suva and Levuka, where Rev.
Whonsbon-Aston was Vicar.
She was adventurous enough in her 77th year to journey from Fiji with her son to Papua. Since the end of last year she had been assisting him at the mission station at Mukawa, in the North- Eastern Division.