![]() That was until she came across a newspaper article that made reference to a Matilda Seque and a connection with the Mong family in Dunedin. She figured it was a European name, possibly Belgian. Henley trawled through Papers Past - the National Library’s online resource of digitised newspapers - and old immigration records looking for any mention of the family name. The unusual surname finally gave them something to work with. It was a very big day to finally know her name. Oh there was a flurry of excited texts going back and forth that day. Marriage records showed Mrs H.D Muir was born Myrtle Violet Matilda Seque. Then in early June, as the country was emerging out of lockdown, came another breakthrough. He then cross-checked each one of those names against the marriage registry. Miller once again pored over archive material looking for anything that might offer a lead on Mrs Muir’s upbringing and netballing background.Ī search of births over the time period from the 1890s to early 1900s, based on estimates of Mrs Muir’s age, produced about four pages of baby girls born with the name Myrtle. In particular, they were determined to fill in the outline of Mrs Muir - the woman who would go on to coach the Silver Ferns. “We thought with the centenary coming up in 2024, we really needed to know who these women were - really were - and try to flesh them out a bit more, because they were really the women who brought netball to the fore, made it a national game, believed in it, fought for it all on their own,” says Henley. Earlier this year, they returned to that original 1924 executive. With the information Miller had uncovered, Netball NZ was able to cobble together a basic profile of Mrs Muir for the launch of a new Silver Ferns website.īut there was still a nagging sense for Henley and Miller that it wasn’t enough. Myrtle.Ī collection of memorabilia from the Netball NZ archives. After nearly 25 years of service to the sport, Mrs Muir dispensed with formality, signing off her welcoming address as president: “Myrtle Muir”. Then, in an old programme for the 1948 Dominion tournament, he found it. Frustratingly, in all official documents she was referred to as Mrs H.D Muir. Miller scoured through old minutes, tournament guides, team lists and news reports looking for any mention of the coach. Chances are, if the document exists, Miller will be able to find it. He has become Netball NZ’s unofficial keeper of records. ![]() His passion, though, is preserving the history of netball. After a stint with the ABC in Australia, Miller moved to New Zealand following the 2007 Netball World Cup to join Sky Sport’s production crew, working across a range of sports. He’s been making himself useful ever since, going on to become a bench official doing scoring and statistics at national tournaments. Mrs Muir is buoyant about her side’s chances ahead of the historic 1938 tour to Australia. So it was this sense of who is she? Because she’s not even got a name. “I remember thinking to myself ‘how sad’, you know, that you just get remembered as this set of initials, and probably her husband’s initials. “She was always this enigma really,” says Henley, a senior tutor in media and communications at the University of Auckland, who has researched netball's role in New Zealand culture and society. She was also a member of the original executive that established Netball NZ (then the NZ Basketball Association) in 1924, going on to serve as president from 1932-1949. She was the first coach of the Silver Ferns, guiding the national netball side in four tests against Australia. ![]() Mrs Muir holds an important place in New Zealand netball history. Third from the top, in gold block lettering demarcated with a black outline, reads the name Mrs H.D Muir. In the nostalgia-filled corridors of Netball NZ’s Auckland headquarters hangs an honours board commemorating the sport’s life members.
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