Mary Manson Dreaver

In 1941, she won the Waitematā seat in a by-election, becoming the third woman to enter the New Zealand Parliament. Her particular triumph there was to introduce the Women Jurors Bill, which became law in 1942.

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Isabella Flora Siteman

Although lacking formal education, Isabella Siteman was aware of the benefits it could confer. She decided to devote a large part of her savings to the better education of students who required financial help. Her will left the residue of her estate in trust for this purpose. The Isabella Siteman Scholarship was founded in 1923 and was intended to provide assistance to young men and women who wished to obtain a university education in New Zealand.

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Christina Kirk Henderson

Her mother’s mission work led Christina to take an active role in the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union of New Zealand. She served as secretary (1917–20) and president (1930–32), but her main contribution was her editorship, from 1923 until 1946, of Harvest Field, the union’s magazine.

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Frances Jane Ross

Frances Ross is remembered as a pioneer in women’s education and an outstanding teacher who combined knowledge and dignity with a sense of fun.

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Rata Alice Lovell-Smith

Rata and Colin Lovell-Smith were leading artists of the Canterbury School, a regionalist movement which expressed a growing awareness of a local identity and harboured aspirations for a distinctive New Zealand art.

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Daisy Frances Christina Osborn

Although ‘Gods’ featured in the 1940 National Centennial Exhibition of New Zealand Art in Wellington, and other work is held in public and numerous private collections, her contribution to Canterbury art was not recognised until she was included in the 1993 exhibition, White Camellias.

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