Edith Macfarlane
Edith Mary Macfarlane (20 May 1871–2 December 1948) was a New Zealand community worker.
Early life
Edith Mary Durrieu was born in Torquay, Devonshire, England on 20 May 1871, the daughter of accountant Louis Adolphus Durrieu and the former Marianne Feltham. The Durrieu family moved to New Zealand when Edith was about two years old.[1] She attended Auckland Girls' High School.
Community work
During the First and Second World Wars, Macfarlane organized the New Zealand Branch of the British Red Cross Society and the Auckland Women's Patriotic League. Her contributions during the first World War were recognized when she was made an Officer of the British Empire in 1919.[2]
Between the wars she was active with the Auckland branch of the Victoria League. She became the branch's president in 1938, and continued in this role until her death a decade later. The league sent parcels of food and clothing to Great Britain during the second World War.
Macfarlane was also president of the St. James' Free Kindergarten and of the Community Sunshine Association.
Personal life
Edith Mary Durrieu married businessman James Buchanan Macfarlane in 1890. They had six children together. Their eldest son James Blyth Macfarlane was wounded at Gallipoli in 1915. She was widowed in 1939, and died in 1948, aged 77 years.
References
- ^ Kathleen Anderson, "Edith Mary Macfarlane" in Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (1996).
- ^ "For Patriotic Services; Sixty-Seven Appointments" Auckland Star (5 October 1918).
External links
- A 1918 photograph of Edith Mary Macfarlane, from the Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries
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