Selina Cossgrove

This biography has been re-published in full with permission. Licensed by Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence. This biography, written by Margaret Esplin, was first published in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography in 1996.

Born: 21 May 1849, United Kingdom
Died: 23 October 1929
Country most active: New Zealand
Also known as: Selina Robertson

David Cossgrove married Selina Robertson at Sandfly Bay on 11 February 1875. She had been born, probably on 21 May 1849, at Cairneyhill, Perthshire, Scotland. Her parents were William Robertson, a farmer, and his wife, Catherine Campbell, who had settled at Sandfly Bay in 1860. Selina and David were to have eight children.
Selina Cossgrove fully supported her husband and also made her own contribution to the community. While in Westport she initiated the establishment of the Gladstone Memorial Ward for women at the Westport Hospital, and organised fund-raising for it. At Tuahiwi she taught sewing at the school, and while her husband was in South Africa she ran the school herself, assisted at various times by their daughters Catherine, Selina and Elfrida. She devoted much of her time to training Māori women in child care, hygiene and health.
It was Selina Cossgrove who encouraged her husband to form what became the Girl Peace Scouts’ Association, in response to persuasion from their youngest daughter, Muriel. David Cossgrove was determined, perhaps even stubborn, in his insistence that this should remain independent of the English movement, and the resulting difficulties are reflected in letters exchanged with Lady Baden-Powell in 1919 and 1920. Catherine Cossgrove became the first scoutmistress of the girl peace scouts in August or September 1908. On receiving Baden-Powell’s permission to establish this movement, David published Peace scouting for girls in 1910; Selina wrote three sections for this book. The favourably reviewed book also contained far-sighted articles on self-defence and the dangers of corsets. It sold widely in several countries, including Japan and the United States.
The Cossgroves always enjoyed the regular scouting work, in spite of the administration involved. David Cossgrove had considerable organisational skills and set very high standards of behaviour. He was about five feet eight inches tall, bearded and of slight build, and made an imposing figure in his uniform. Selina Cossgrove was evidently a strict disciplinarian. Both had the Scottish Presbyterian combination of idealism and a strong belief in the work ethic. Between them they arranged camps, frequently addressed troops and attended rallies and church parades. One of David Cossgrove’s favourite activities was the camp-fire yarn, at which he excelled. Many of these educational stories were published in the Dominion Scout, a monthly magazine that the movement published from 1910 until 1913. Encouraged by his wife, he also wrote storybooks for the junior branches of the boy and girl scouts that they had established, and handbooks for the Sea Scouts and a senior group called the Empire Sentinels, which contained ideas taken from Freemasonry. Cossgrove was interested in Māori culture, and his book Ngā toro tūrehu: the fairy scouts of New Zealand, draws on Māori folk themes.
In 1915 David Cossgrove accepted the position of first paid organising secretary for the scout movement. This enabled the couple to retire from teaching, move into Christchurch and devote themselves wholeheartedly to the work they and several of their sons and daughters had come to believe in so passionately.
David Cossgrove died at Christchurch on 9 September 1920 of stomach cancer. Selina Cossgrove died at Christchurch on 23 October 1929 and was buried with him. This dedicated couple had made a lasting contribution to the welfare of youth in New Zealand.

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Posted in Activism, Education.