Item MM 110117 Digital Photograph - Nun Reunited with her Family after World War II, Convent of the Little Sisters of the Poor, Northcote, 1950

Description of Content

A nun, standing with seven adults and four children, outside a convent building. The photograph shows the Dunlop family standing outside The Little Sisters of the Poor, St Joseph's Home for the Aged, in Northcote, 8 June 1950. It shows the verandah at the front of the Home and the dormitories: men were on the left hand side, women on the right. The lower rooms at ground level were linen rooms, store rooms and kitchens. Sister Anne-Mary had left Australia in 1929 to go to La Tour St Joseph, St Pern, France to make her profession as a nun and stayed in England during World War II. After the War, her brother Father Lex Dunlop got permission from the Arch-Bishop of Melbourne to visit the Mother House (the convent's head-quarters) in France, to ask the Mother General if Anne-Mary could return to Australia. He was unable to see Anne-Mary himself. She was permitted to return to Australia because her mother was ill. According to the family, the habit she is wearing was the costume of a French peasant woman at the time the convent La Tour St Joseph was founded. Sister Anne-Mary stayed at the convent of Little Sisters of the Poor in Northcote, for about six months. The whole family came to visit to welcome her home. None of the Dunlop brothers' wives or children had ever seen her, only a photograph. The original print of this photograph was in Lex's collection; he enlarged a copy and sent it to his sister.