She was born at Reevesdale near Goulburn, New South Wales to Major Richard John Morphy, pastoralist of Grena Mummell, Goulburn, and his wife Mary Emma, née Styles. She was raised by maternal grandparents, after her mother died of measles, because her father was away serving in the Indian Army.
She was educated at home.
She travelled to Egypt to be closer to him. When she arrived she noticed the lack of facilities for the troops and established a canteen in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis largely at her own expense. She opened a second canteen in Egypt at Portuguese Said, and a third in Kantara for troops fighting near the Suez Canal with two other Australasian women.
The Kantara canteen expanded to include dormitories and dining-rooms and eventually had the capacity for handling thousands of mentor
Profits from the canteens were used to provide the troops with comforts for their journey home. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1918 and promoted to Dame Commander (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1920 civilian war honours.
When she returned to Australia she continued working within the community. She helped found the Returned and Services League of Australia in Goulburn and she was active in the Country Women"s Association and RSPCA.
She was Australia"s oldest dame, a record that was not broken until Dame Elisabeth Murdoch surpassed her age in January 2007.
A street in the Canberra suburb of Cook is named in her honour.
Upon her return to Australia she lived in a house called "Bolderwood" in the Sydney North West suburb of Pennant Hills. The house still stands today.
