Isabella Edmondstone

Biography contributed by Shirley Arabin.

Isabella Duff Edmondstone (1852 - 1920) was born in Leith, Scotland a daughter of David Duff and Janet Doig and one of three sisters who emigrated to New Zealand.  Isabella had married William Edmondstone in Scotland but he died in 1890 and she emigrated with her two daughters in about 1891. [i]  They were Jessie Doig Duff Edmondstone and Johanna Mitchell Doig Edmondstone.

Isabella trained in nursing, particularly massage in Christchurch as did both her daughters and opened a private hospital “Glenross” in Wickstead Street, Wanganui [ii] in 1898 and later in 1900 “Mafeking” in Bell Street. [iii]  She left Wanganui after 1914 and moved to Wellington where she lived until her death in Dunedin during 1920. [iv] Isabella is buried at Anderson’s Bay cemetery, Dunedin.[v] Her daughter Johanna was a nurse in the First World War on the hospital ships Maheno and Marama in the Mediterranean and on voyages back to New Zealand with wounded soldiers and did not marry. Isabella’s daughter Jessie married Leo Fanning.