Miss Learmonth Dalrymple

Scotswoman Learmonth Dalrymple worked behind the scenes to win groundbreaking educational rights for girls in Otago. She was born in Coupar Angus in 1827 to a prosperous merchant. Well educated according to the standards of the time, the young Learmonth attended Madras College in St Andrews and later travelled in Europe where she became fluent in French. She had aspirations to higher learning that could not be satisfied, however. In 1840, when her mother died, Learmonth as the eldest daughter had to take over the care of her father and seven younger siblings.

Learmonth came to New Zealand in 1854 with her widowed father, two sisters and a brother on the Rajah. They were destined for Wellington but the storm-damaged ship was stuck in Port Chalmers for repair for two months. The Dalrymples travelled on to Wellington when repairs were completed but quickly decided to return south. By 1857 they had settled on a farm at Kaihiku in South Otago. Learmonth kept house and established the first Sunday School there. She also became friends with their neighbour, Major John Richardson. In the years to come while conducting a successful political career he would also front her campaigns for educational rights for women.

Learmonth Dalrymple had made it her life’s mission to extend the opportunities for girls in the colony. In 1863 she began campaigning for a girls’ high school in Otago, providing the brains and organisation for the movement while Major Richardson did the talking in public. After seven years of writing pamphlets and letters (over 700 of them), Dalrymple saw Otago Girls High School open in 1871. The same year she led a successful campaign to persuade the new University of Otago to admit women as students. It was the first Australasian university to do so. Her work opened the way for the pioneering achievements of younger women like Caroline Freeman (in education), Emily Siedeberg (in medicine) and Ethel Benjamin (in law).

Dalrymple was also involved in the movement for free kindergartens and temperance campaigning, and also women’s suffrage. In 1881 she and her father moved to Feilding where she remained after his death the following year. She took a leading role in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union there and headed the Feilding branch in the suffrage campaign.

Her last years were spent back in Dunedin where she died in 1906. Although clearly an effective campaigner, Learmonth Dalrymple was always the ‘perfect Victorian lady’, using others to front her campaigns publicly. As her entry in Southern People states, ‘The development of women’s independence owes an immense debt to her stubborn following of “the path of duty”.’