Biography contributed by Dr Nicola Francis
Mary Christina McKAY was born at Waipū, Northland on 19 August 1864, the first child and only daughter of Margaret Ann SUTHERLAND (1836-1914) and Alexander McKAY (1832-1898). Both parents arrived in New Zealand as part of the Highland Scots-Nova Scotian migration. Margaret Ann Sutherland arrived on the Breadalbane in 1858 and Alexander McKay on the Gazelle in 1853, having sailed from Nova Scotia to Melbourne on the Margaret.
The family spoke Gaelic in their home at Waipū. Mary attended North River School in Waipū. She was 29 when she signed the Women’s Suffrage Petition at Waipū in 1893.
In 1899 Mary McKay married Julian Brook (1865-1957), the school teacher at Waipū Central School. The family moved to East Tāmaki and Birkdale for Julian Brook’s teaching positions, and to Remuera on his retirement in 1923.
Mary gave birth to four sons and five daughters between 1890 and 1909: Julian Cornelius XVII (1890-1918), Margaret Mary (1892-1982), Dorothy Caroline (1893-1894), Dorothy Gladys (1896-1905), Jessie Winifred (1897-1933), Arthur Alan (c.1900-1905), Colin Sutherland (1905-1963), Maurice Alister (1906-1973) and Alice Elizabeth (1909-2001).
Two daughters and a son died during childhood. On 2 September 1918 Mary’s eldest child Julian was killed in action on the Somme where he served with the New Zealand Rifle Brigade during the First World War.
Mary was president of the District Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild, an organisation that sewed comforts for serving soldiers, sailors, the sick and wounded and their families in distress during the First World War. She was involved in the Presbyterian Church.
Mary died at her home 158 St Johns Road, Remuera on 29 July 1936 and was interred at Waikumete Cemetery on 31 July.
Sources
Waipū Museum Genealogy Department, The Centre, Waipū, Tai Tokerau Northland, Aotearoa New Zealand.
Papers Past, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa | National Library of New Zealand, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand.
Auckland Museum, The Auckland Domain, Parnell, Auckland, New Zealand. He Toa Taumata Rau Cenotaph, http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph
