Carter
What was the family name of Mary Raine between Feb 1905 and May 1905?
Mary Raine Mary Bertha Raine ( Carter , also known as Mary Thomas during her first marriage , 17 February 1877 – 3 February 1960 ) was an Australian businesswoman and philanthropist . Her bequests to the University of Western Australia created and funded the Raine Medical Research Foundation . Early life . Raine was born Mary Carter in London on 17 February 1877 to Charles and Mary Carter . She was the oldest of thirteen children . After finishing school at 14 , she became a probationary teacher in London . She took singing lessons , and at age 17 found work as a singer , including at Drury Lane and the Adelphi Theatre , which lasted until she lost her ability to sing after a bout of typhoid fever . During this time she continued to work in one of her fathers shops . After she lost her singing voice , Carter worked at The Scotch House , a boys and mens outfitter , doing clerical work and filling in for sales staff . Travel to Australia . By 1900 , Britain was at war with the Boer republics , resulting in financial difficulty for London businesses , including The Scotch House and Charles Carters . Prompted by a desire to improve her lot in life , and a comment from her father about his having to maintain his daughters for the rest of my life , Mary booked a passage to Australia . In 1900 , at the age of 23 , Carter sailed with her sister Daisy to Moreton Bay in Queensland , Australia , on Jumna , arriving on 20 November . On her arrival in Australia , she had , her lifes savings . Both girls worked as barmaids in Brisbane . Mary also sang at the hotel , and was offered a role in a local theatrical production . However her voice failed her again after a week in the theatre . In 1901 the two sisters moved to Sydney . Mary Carter was offered a job managing a hotel in Nyngan , but arrived there in 1902 to find that the hotel had no guests , no customers , no stock and no suppliers willing to deliver until outstanding bills were paid . With the help of another new employee , and using some of their own money , Carter bought alcohol by the bottle from a rival hotel , then sold it by the glass from their hotel , making a profit . They repeated the process , until the hotel became a self-sustaining business again . Two years after Carter took over management of the hotel the licensee left town as a result of police investigation into family cruelty . The hotels owner , Reschs Limited , offered Carter the licence , but the liquor licensing laws of the time did not allow an unmarried woman to hold the licence . Carter return to Sydney , where she met up with Daisy again , and they decided to return to England . The return voyage was to be via Fremantle , Western Australia . On the passage across the Great Australian Bight Daisy suffered from severe sea sickness , and on the advice of the ships doctor they abandoned the voyage , disembarking at Fremantle in 1904 . Perth , Western Australia . Carter again found work as a barmaid , at the Metropole Hotel on Hay Street , Perth , and then later at the Central Hotel on the corner of Forrest Place and Wellington Street . In both cases wages included accommodation , so she was able to save a significant portion of her income . With those savings , the £100 she had brought from England , and a loan for the remainder , she bought a house in Subiaco . She leased that property and used the rental income to pay the loan off within two years . She then bought the vacant block adjacent to her first property , built a house on it and leased it out as well . Carter maintained her interest in music , and sang as a soloist with the choir at Wesley Church . On 5 May 1905 , she married William Morris Thomas , becoming Mary Thomas . The couple moved to a farm in Harvey but struggled to make a living . Mary supplemented their farming income by running a small boarding house in nearby Mornington Mills . As well as the financial difficulties they faced , the Thomases relationship was strained by Williams increasing consumption of alcohol – a problem that had existed since their courtship – and in 1911 Mary returned to Perth , moving into a house that she had bought before the marriage . The couple did not divorce ; William remained in Harvey , but stayed with her occasionally when he visited Perth . He died in 1918 after falling from a horse . After returning to Perth in 1911 Mary Thomas took up work as a barmaid again , while continuing to buy and sell ( always for a profit ) property . In 1915 she bought her first business , the Bon Ton Cafe on William Street . The cafe did well , and Thomas soon bought a second one nearby , the Popular Cafe , and employed someone to manage it . She ran the Bon Ton Cafe for eight years , while simultaneously expanding her investment in real estate , including a row of houses in East Perth . Hotel industry . In 1924 , Thomas established Metropolitan Properties Ltd , with a capital value of £100,000 , to manage her real estate portfolio . That same year she bought the Gordons Hotel for £40,000 , half of which she had borrowed , and obtained her first liquor licence . In 1927 she undertook a major refurbishment and expansion of the hotel at a cost of about £27,000 , and in 1928 re-opened it as the Wentworth Hotel . The Wentworth became her home , headquarters and the flagship of her business empire . She was often known to her customers as Ma Thomas . Thomas continued to buy properties in the city , including the Bohemia , the United Services Hotel , the Royal Hotel , the Williams Building , Bon Marché Arcade and the Windsor Hotel in South Perth . In 1940 Thomas took over the lease of the newly refurbished hotel in Bullsbrook , some from Perth , and renamed it the Chequers Hotel . The business did well , having a virtual monopoly catering to the recently constructed , nearby RAAF Base Pearce , but the distance from Perth made direct supervision difficult , so she surrendered the lease after two years and restricted her hotel businesses to areas closer to the city . In 1942 , the fighting in World War II was getting closer to Australia , and large contingents of US servicemen began arriving in Perth , including those based in the then-secret Fremantle submarine base . Thomas was informed that the Wentworth Hotel was to be requisitioned by the United States Navy , and she had no choice but to cede control of most of the hotels running to them . This arrangement lasted until the end of the war in 1945 . During the occupation by the US , there were regular fights between Australian and US servicemen , to the extent that in 1943 the Australian Army banned its soldiers from the Wentworth . The ban was lifted a week later , after Thomas wrote to Prime Minister John Curtin and Western Australian Senator Dorothy Tangney . Marriage to Joe Raine . On 3 December 1943 , Mary Thomas married Arnold Yeldham ( known as Joe ) Raine , thus becoming Mary Raine ( or colloquially , Ma Raine ) . Joe Raine was a farmer from Manmanning , and a regular guest at the Wentworth when he was in Perth ; they had known each other for several years . Joe moved into the Wentworth with Mary , and also became her business partner . Medical research funding . In the mid-1950s , the University of Western Australia launched an appeal for funds to create a medical school , and the Raines were approached directly for a contribution . A donation was made , with the promise of more in future . In September 1956 Joe suffered a severe stroke caused by arteriosclerosis , resulting in paralysis . After several weeks in hospital , with no sign of recovery , he was moved to a room in the Wentworth Hotel , with a hospital bed and a team of nurses to tend him . On 11 February 1957 he suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and died . He was buried at Karrakatta Cemetery . Mary inherited Joes estate , worth £153,906 , and donated it to the University of Western Australia to establish the Arnold Yeldham and Mary Raine Medical Research Foundation , with the money to be invested and initially used for research into arteriosclerosis . In 1957 Raine made a new will , leaving small amounts to some friends and family – she had no children of her own – with the bulk of her estate to go to the University , for the purposes of finding a cure for the illness that killed Joe . She signed a deed of trust with the University to specify how the estate was to be used after her death , and formalising the donation of Joes estate . At the time of her death , the estate was worth about £1,000,000 , making it one of the largest private donations ever made to an Australian university . Death and legacy . After Joes death , Raines health deteriorated , and the University of Western Australia took over management of her hotels . She died on 3 February 1960 , and was buried alongside Joe at Karrakatta Cemetery . The Raine Medical Research Foundation carries their name , but Raine instructed that none of the money she left was to be used for a building or monument in her or Joes name . In 1984 the city block that included the Wentworth , Royal and Bohemia Hotels – all now owned by the University of Western Australia , as part of Raines bequest – was redeveloped and opened in 1986 as Raine Square . In 2008 , a bronze bust of Raine , created by Robert Hitchcock , was unveiled in the Universitys Winthrop Hall . External links . - Raine , Mary Bertha in The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia