Meryl Elma (Holliday) Kienzle (1907 - 1988)

Born 7 Jan 1907 in Balmain, New South Wales, Australia

Ancestors

Wife of Herbert Thomson Kienzle CBE — married 4 Jun 1936 in Papua, Australia (later Papua New Guinea) [uncertain]

Died 21 Nov 1988 at age 81 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Biography

Meryl Elma Holliday was born on 7th January 1907 in Balmain, New South Wales, Australia. She was the eldest daughter of George Holliday and Evelyn Jones, and grandaughter of Sydney Anglican minister, Reverend H T Holliday (1854-1924). ^[1]

She was an opera singer and nurse.

Aged 29 years, Meryl married Fijian-born Bert Kienzle, a 31 year-old plantation manager and gold mine assistant manager in Papua, on 4th June 1936. As no record of marriage has yet been located in New South Wales, or Queensland, it is presumed the couple married in Papua. ^[2]

Meryl's registration as a nurse was confirmed in the Register of Nurses, New South Wales Government Gazette of 13th August 1940. She was then residing with her paternal grandmother at Meraildrey, Warunda Road, Huntley's Point. ^[3] Huntley's Point is the peninsula on the Parramatta River on which the northern end of the Gladesville Bridge sits.

After settling in the Yodda Valley, near Kokoda, in 1941 Bert evacuated his young family to Australia as the threat of Japanese invasion became ominous. They were reunited in 1946. After the war, as well as re-establishing his rubber plantation, Bert purchased Papuan Airlines, served as a director of the Papua New Guinea Development Bank and was at the forefront of ensuring the indigenous carriers, known as the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels, were re-settled and properly recognised. In 1979, four years after independence was achieved for Papua New Guinea, the couple retired to properties at Tweed Heads, New South Wales and Allora (near Warwick), Queensland.

Widowed for ten months, Meryl passed away on 21st November 1988 in Sydney, New South Wales. She was aged 81 years and was survived by four of their five children:

1. Katherine 'Mary', married surname Hardy
2. Carl (-1947)
3. Diane, married surname Moloney
4. Jokn 'JK'
5. Wallace 'Soc' (1950-); nicknamed so as, apparently, pregnant Meryl's tummy looked like a soccer ball.

The museum at Kokoda, opened in 1995, is named the Herbert Kienzle Memorial Museum.

Sources

1. ↑ New South Wales Birth Index #1090/1907
2. ↑ Meryl was listed as his next-of-kin on his service record
3. ↑ Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW: 1901 - 2001) View title info Tue 13 Aug 1940 [Issue No.111 (SUPPLEMENT) Page 3381 REGISTER OF NURSES AS AT 31st DECEMBER, 1939; accessed 30 Jun 2021]