The mother of former defense minister Christopher Pyne has died aged 92.
Margaret Elsie Pyne died peacefully at Adelaide’s Lourdes Valley nursing home at Myrtle Bank on September 12, just six weeks before her 93rd birthday.
The mother of five and grandmother of 12 had been a widow since 1988, following the death of her husband Remington, an eye doctor from Adelaide, at 59.
Mr Pyne, the youngest of five children from a Jesuit family, said his mother, who was also a Liberal Party member, had her ‘funs all the way’.
“If you’re going to die, that’s not a bad way to go,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
“She was an engaging, erudite and fun-loving person and we greatly appreciated her presence and she will be greatly missed.”
“She dedicated her life to her family, really.”
An obituary in The Advertiser newspaper read: “Loved mother and stepmother of Remington, Nicholas and Annemarie, Alexander and Veronique, Samantha and Simon and Christopher and Carolyn.
‘Loved grandmother of Remington, Henrietta and Alexa, Beatrice, George and Edwina, Sebastian and Sabine, Eleanor, Barnaby, Felix and Aurelia.
The mother of former defense minister Christopher Pyne has died aged 92. Margaret Elsie Pyne died in an Adelaide aged care home on September 12, just six weeks before her 93rd birthday (she is pictured in 2019 with her son)
Mr Pyne retired from politics in the May 2019 election and that month used Mother’s Day to note that Margaret was almost 90.
“A wonderful life, well lived.”
‘The Matriarch. My mother Margaret. Still shooting close to 90. Happy Mother’s Day,” he said.
Reflecting on his life on Friday, Mr Pyne said: ‘She kind of ruled the roost keeping everyone in line and that’s why she was the matriarch.’
Margaret Pyne married in 1956 and had lived in Italy and the UK where her husband Remington had worked as an eye doctor.
She then joined the Liberal Party in the late 1960s and was associated with the ideologically moderate side which later produced South Australian prime ministers David Tonkin, a fellow eye doctor and family friend, and Dean Brown, as well as the future federal cabinet ministers Amanda Vanstone and Robert Hill.
As a boy, Mr Pyne’s mother took him to hustings to support Mr Tonkin at his Adelaide seat in Bragg, in the city’s east.
“She was an active member of the Liberal Party, that’s true,” Mr Pyne said.
“My earliest memory was handing out voting cards to Bragg for David Tonkin.”
Mr Pyne was first elected to Parliament in March 1993, aged 25, at the seat of Sturt in Adelaide’s east after challenging longtime MP Ian Wilson, a former cabinet minister federal, for the pre-selection of the Liberal Party.
But he only became a minister in 2013 after telling future Prime Minister John Howard in 1995 that he was ‘yesterday’s man’ when seeking support to replace Alexander Downer as Liberal leader. .
An obituary in The Advertiser newspaper noted that the widow died peacefully at the Lourdes Valley facility in Myrtle Bank. She died just three days after the Queen and had been a widow since 1988, following the death of her Adelaide doctor husband Remington, aged 59.
Mr Pyne was the leader of the moderate faction of the Liberal Party in South Australia and is in favor of Australia becoming a republic.
“She was definitely a fan of mine,” Mr Pyne said of his mother.
He spent 14 years in the backseat before becoming a junior minister with the aging portfolio in March 2007.
By then the Howard government had been in power for 11 years and had lost the November election to Labor’s Kevin Rudd.
Mr Pyne had to wait until September 2013 to become a minister, with the election of Tony Abbott’s coalition government, by which time he had been an MP for 20 years.
He served as Minister for Education from 2013 to 2015 before moving to Industry and Science in September 2015 when Malcolm Turnbull became Prime Minister.
The South Australian became defense minister in August 2018 when Scott Morrison took over.
The South Australian became defense minister in August 2018 when Scott Morrison took over
After spending more than half his life as an MP, Mr Pyne retired from politics in 2019 and set up Pyne and Partners as a registered political lobbyist.
His mother’s death came just nine months after he lost his school friend from Saint Ignatius College, Christian Kerr, a journalist at The Australian who helped him win the Liberal Party shortlist three decades ago.
“We were really good friends,” Mr Pyne said.
“Losing your mother at 93 is not unexpected; Christian Kerr was a good friend – 56 in fact – it was very unexpected and obviously a real tragedy.
Margaret Pyne’s funeral will take place next Wednesday at Saint Ignatius Catholic Church in Norwood.
Comments are closed.