Dr Christine Turner Morrow

Morrow, Christine Turner
born:
died: 19.02.1971 aged 69 years
Daughter of Edwin Turner & Lily Mary Morrow
(nee Best).
Whilst studying at the Sorbonne in Paris, World War II broke out and she was unable to
return to Australia. When she was finally able to get passage to England she carried
many messages from the French Underground Movement. On her return to Western
Australia she was awarded a decoration by the French Government "Officier
d'Academie" for service in the "French Cause".
Another plaque at the gravesite reads “At the Sorbonne and later at Toulouse Doctor
Morrow found a great love and admiration for French Literature and the French people.
On her return to Western Australia she taught their language with love and joy in our
schools and at the University of WA she was named Chevalier Dans L’Ordre de Palmes
Academiques in 1947.
"Sincere Et Tendre"

Biography
Obtained a BA from the University of Western Australia in 1925 and from 1934 studied at the Sourbonne in Paris. Received a doctorate at Toulouse. Returned to Western Australia and worked as a teacher and lecturer. Papers held in WA Library (MN983)
All Works by
"Abominable Epoch" Christine Turner Morrow , Perth : [1972] autobiography
https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/3891424
https://nnels.ca/items/abominable-epoch

Hanna Diamond, « Christine Morrow, Une abominable époque. Journal d’une Australienne en France 1940-1941 », Clio [En ligne], 35 | 2012, mis en ligne le 23 août 2013, consulté le 12 mars 2024. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/clio/10642 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/clio.10642

This testimony, which was published in English in 1972, was translated and then republished by Rémy Casals to include it in his collection “Témoignages pour l’histoire”. Born and raised in Australia, the author, Christine Morrow, arrived in Europe in 1935 to prepare her doctoral thesis in London and then in Paris. When she neared the end of this work in May 1940, she was in Brittany when the Germans invaded France. Her British nationality forced her to flee the occupied zone to cross the demarcation line and reach Toulouse where she managed to finish her university work and subsequently return to England. She narrates her experiences by remembering them using her contemporary diary and the second part of the book cites several extracts noted at the time of these events.

His text describes his day-to-day experience starting from his hasty departure from Brittany with his friend Gisèle. She goes through difficult times where she lacks money, suffers from hunger and has to live rough like a vagabond. She sleeps here and there in attics or wherever there is room for her; one night, for example, it was on the train station platform in Bordeaux. In the occupied zone, she cannot allow herself to speak in public for fear of betraying her nationality. She is often dependent on the generosity of others and she believes she has encountered more good will than bad.

His extraordinary love for France and his repulsion towards the Germans is palpable. She comments on the "infestation" of the country by the German presence and she avoids all contact with them, even refusing to eat in their presence.

In Toulouse, she faces difficult times and she clearly describes the atmosphere of the survival challenges that the refugees who filled the city faced. While she is looking for a tip to be able to go abroad, she meets many people passing through who are in the same situation as her and who simply want to leave French territory. She spends months going through various twists and turns trying to get a departure visa for Portugal but the rules are constantly changing all the time in a "Kafkaian" way and she is constantly running from one embassy to another and from Toulouse to Marseille to amass a collection of visas and authorizations which ultimately never serve any purpose.

His testimony accurately depicts the mentalities and reactions of the French at the time towards the foreigners who were trapped in this city by these tragic events, and in particular the behavior of the natives surprised by this invasion of refugees. Because, despite everything, with the help of an entourage of resistance fighters from the Toulouse university community, Christine Morrow managed to defend her thesis after having completed her corrections during the nights when she could not sleep because of the fleas which had invaded her bed. . It is this same determination that allows the young Australian to find a way to return to London. Moving in her frankness and freshness, Christine Morrow provides us with important testimony about this community of refugees who were forced to continually move around in fear and risk everything to flee the Germans.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/125776051/christine-turner-morrow

FamilySearch Family Tree
Birth: Apr 28 1902 - Coolgardie, Western Australia, Australia
Death: Feb 19 1971 - Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Parents: Edwin Turner Morrow, Lily Mary Morrow (born Best)
Siblings: Elizabeth Bessie Morrow, Dorothea Turner Morrow, Anne Elizabeth Turner Morrow