Christopher Pyne’s mother Margaret dies aged 92

The mother of former defence minister Christopher Pyne has died at the age of 92.

Margaret Elsie Pyne died peacefully at Adelaide’s Lourdes Valley aged care home at Myrtle Bank on September 12, just six weeks short of 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 Adelaide doctor, at age 59.

‘Loved mother and mother-in-law of Remington, Nicholas and Annemarie, Alexander and Veronique, Samantha and Simon and Christopher and Carolyn,’ a death notice in The Advertiser newspaper said.

‘Loved grand mother of Remington, Henrietta and Alexa, Beatrice, George and Edwina, Sebastian and Sabine, Eleanor, Barnaby, Felix and Aurelia.

‘A wonderful life, well lived.’

Mr Pyne retired from politics at the May 2019 election and that month used Mother’s Day to note Margaret was almost 90.

‘The Matriarch. My mother Margaret. Still firing at almost 90. Happy Mother’s Day,’ he said.

Mr Pyne was first elected to Parliament in March 1993, at the young age 25, in the eastern Adelaide seat of Sturt after challenging long-serving sitting MP Ian Wilson for Liberal Party preselection.

But he didn’t become a cabinet minister until 2013 having reportedly told future prime minister John Howard in 1995 that he was ‘yesterday’s man’ when he was seeking support to replace Alexander Downer as Liberal leader. 

A death notice in The Advertiser newspaper noted the widow died peacefully at the Lourdes Valley facility at Myrtle Bank. She died just three days after the Queen and had been a widow since 1988, following the death of her husband Remington, an Adelaide doctor, at age 59

Mr Pyne was the leader of the Liberal Party’s moderate faction in South Australia and is in favour of Australia becoming a republic.

He spent 14 years on the backbench before becoming a junior minister with the ageing portfolio in March 2007.

By that time, the Howard government had been in power for 11 years and lost the November election to Labor’s Kevin Rudd.

Mr Pyne had to wait until September 2013 to become a cabinet minister, with the election of Tony Abbott’s Coalition government, by which time he had been an MP for 20 years.

He was education minister from 2013 to 2015 before shifting to industry and science in September 2015 when Malcolm Turnbull became PM.

The South Australian became defence minister in August 2018 when Scott Morrison took over. 

The South Australian became defence 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 established Pyne and Partners as a registered political lobbyist. 

His mother’s death occurred just nine months after he lost his Saint Ignatius College school friend Christian Kerr, a journalist at The Australian who had helped him win Liberal Party preselection three decades ago. 

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Pyne.