Biography contributed by Nancy Carr
Birth Name: May Lilian Caffin
Born: Victoria, Australia 1868
Parents: James Caffin (1842-1934) and Elizabeth Marion Mckenny who were married in 1864
Siblings: James Arthur, Herbert Edward, Ethel Marion, Edward Bertie
Emigration: 1874 from Melbourne, Australia to Otago, New Zealand on the ship Albion
Education: Dunedin. Her father didn’t believe in girls going to university.
Marriage: 4 October 1898 to Arthur Goodwin Whitehorn. Double wedding celebrated at the Anglican Church in Otaki. The other couple being Mr M W Coventry and Miss Bertha Cecilia Whitehorn.
Offspring: Marion Berners Whitehorn 1901who married Mr David Williams.
Occupation: Governess 1896 in Otaki for the Mc William family. May Lilian established Sonning School in Hamilton 1909. Adverts at this time show she could prepare girls to enter university. This school grew and was eventially taken over and became the Anglican Girls School – Waikato Diocesan School. May retired as principal and proprietress around 1925.
Interests: Signed Women’s Suffrage Petition 1893. Dancing. Assisting at the Anglican Fair.
Death: 16 October 1928 and is buried in Hamilton East Cemetery with her husband who passed away on the 8 of December 1935
Sources
James Caffin Otago Daily Times Issue 4246 27 September 1875 page 4
BDM:Victoria Australia, Year 1864, Registration number 11
'Australia, Victoria, Outward Passenger Lists, 1852-1924,' database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2PD-PQ1J : 17 March 2018), May Caffin, born 1868, emigrated 1874; citing series VPRS 948, Public Record Office Victoria, North Melbourne; FHL microfilm 352,108.
Papers Past
NZBDM:1901/4019
Images
May Lilian Caffin (ancestrylibrary.com.au)
May Lilian Caffin (Waikato Diocesan School)