Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Catherine Wallace Christie was born in 1856 in London – the daughter of George Cowie Christie, a draper, and Elizabeth Wallace. (See 46 E Christie)
She came to New Zealand in the mid 1860s and they settled near Henley on the Taieri Plains, south of Dunedin.
In 1870, at the age of 14, Catherine was in charge of the small 'native school' in the area. She 'had to rely pretty much on her own resources in those early days of early struggle...she applied for and was granted a Government subsidy for the [school]'.
In 1876 she was appointed as schoolmistress at the Caversham Industrial School in Dunedin where she worked for the next 30 years.
When Catherine signed the suffrage petition she was living with her parents in Eglington Rd, Mornington.
As well as her teaching duties Catherine was active in the Fabian Society and gave numerous public lectures for the Theosophical Society.
She retired from teaching in 1906 and in her retirement speech she gave a short history of the school and received great praise for her teaching: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW19060711.2.32.1
After Catherine’s retirement she took a trip to India and on her return in 1911 she gave a lecture to the Theosophical Society on 'The Brotherhood of Religions', later that week she was to give a lantern lecture on 'India and the Indian People'.
Shortly after this she moved to Wellington near her sister Annie - she died on 7 October 1923 at Waikanae.
She was cremated and her ashes buried with her sister in the Karori Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz