Hester F. C. Rawnsley

Biography contributed by Jacqui Beets

Hester Frances (Fanny) Charlotte Rawnsley was born on 17 June 1870 in Plymouth, Devon, England, the youngest of five children of Captain Edward John Rawnsley of the 108th Madras Infantry and Mary Rawnsley (nee Mathews).

She emigrated to New Zealand with her mother and siblings about 1884. In 1885 she was a pupil at Wellington’s Mount Cook Girls’ School, where she received the Temperance lesson prize. In 1893 she and her mother lived at 69 Majoribanks Street, Mount Victoria, Wellington, where both signed the Petition. Her sister-in-law Eleanor Rawnsley of Andersons Bay, Dunedin, also signed the Petition.

Hester Rawnsley was a typist and stenographer. In 1903 she was a prizewinner in a Wellington public typing examination. In 1907 she was appointed “expert shorthand writer and typiste” to the Attorney-General’s Office, and would work in the New Zealand Civil Service for the next twenty-four years.

Hester took a keen interest in political, intellectual and service matters. In July 1898 she contributed a paper to the Southern Cross Society on the question “Should Women Receive Equal Pay for Equal Work?” and in 1911 was elected a member of the New South Wales Metaphysical Society. In 1914 she gained certificates in First Aid and Home Nursing from the St. John Ambulance Association. After retiring from Government service in 1931 she was active in the Wellington Braille Club, achieving certification as a Braille writer in 1932.

Hester Rawnsley passed away aged 71 on 1 May 1942 at Wellington. She is buried at Karori Cemetery in the same plot as Albert Edgar Earls. Albert Earls worked for the Government Life Insurance Department. He passed away on 31 March 1914 and Hester regularly inserted newpaper memorials on the anniversaries of his death. Their shared headstone bears the inscription: “Loved”.

Sources

1871 England Census; The National Archives; Kew, London, England.

Ancestry.com https://www.ancestry.com.au

Archives New Zealand https://www.archives.govt.nz

Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/

New Zealand Births, Deaths and Marriages online www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz.

Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz