Cybele E Kirk

Biographical information provided for by Briar Barry for the He Tohu exhibition:

Cybele Ethel Kirk was born in Auckland in 1870, the youngest of nine children. When she was three the family moved to Wellington. The family pronounced her name 'Sibillee', but in later years she was also known as Ethel.

Cybele grew up in a strongly moral, fiercely temperance Baptist household which was, however, genial and full of fun – even the cat was called Prohibition ('Proey' for short). Given to good works, the Kirks supported the socially progressive ideas of their time. At the age of 15 Cybele helped a woman take her drunken husband home, and from that day she became dedicated to the temperance cause, joining both the New Zealand WCTU and the New Zealand Alliance at their inception.

In her early years she was outshone by her brilliant family, but after the death of her mother and sister Lily she found her individual strength as a teacher, social worker, Justice of the Peace, and President of the National Council of Women. In 1935 she was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal for her outstanding community service.

The Sarah J. Kirk who signed the same sheet of the petition is probably her mother, Sarah Jane Kirk (nee Mattocks).

 Read more about Cybele in her Dictionary of New Zealand Biography essay on Te Ara.