I have grown up bicultural, half Dutch and half Kiwi, with six generations of family roots in Timaru. When my sister took a DNA ancestry test we discovered something new. While half Dutch, we are also a quarter Scottish. That surprised us. We had never identified with Scotland, but suddenly I wanted to know more. Where in our city could I see that part of my past reflected?
So I started a history hunt. I made a list of Scottish people, places, and monuments in Timaru, and one name kept coming up. Alice Shand, one of the four sisters who founded Craighead School for Girls in 1911....
Craighead itself is steeped in Scottish heritage. The house was originally built in 1875 by Henry Sealy (1838–1925) was born in Wellington, Somerset, England), one of Timaru’s early surveyors who emigrated from England in 1859 with his brother Edward. (He is famous for his early alpine photography, butterfuly collection at the South Canterbury Museum and the street is named after him where New World is). Sealy commissioned Thomas Roberts, engineer to the Timaru and Gladstone Board of Works, to design an Italianate villa with bracketed eaves, decorative quoins, sash and bay windows, and arched openings. In 1888, Henry Le Cren added further extensions designed by architects Meason and Marchant.
Henry Le Cren (1818–1895) was born in London, England) renamed the property Craighead after his brother-in-law’s Scottish castle, rooting the name in family heritage. When the estate was subdivided in 1910 it gave Timaru a new neighbourhood. Chalmers Street, Craighead Street, Kitchener Square and Wrights Avenue all trace back to the old Craighead estate.
Le Cren emigrated to New Zealand in 1849 with his cousin James FitzGerald, one of the Canterbury Pilgrims, and established himself as a merchant in Lyttelton. Alongside his business partner John Longden, Le Cren supplied goods to the early Canterbury settlers. By the mid-1850s he had moved into South Canterbury, where he set up a store in Timaru and got Captain Henry Cain to move down to run it for him in the 1850s. Le Cren became one of the region’s most influential early settlers. He was heavily involved in commerce, shipping, and land development, and is remembered for helping establish the landing service at Timaru at the foot of Strathallan Street. He built the famous Beverley Estate that Elizabeth Rhodes later moved into, and in 1881 he purchased Henry Sealy’s house in what was the outskirts of town and renamed it Craighead, after his brother-in-law’s castle in Scotland. He lived there until his death in 1895.
The Shand family purchased the main house in 1910. The four sisters, Eleanor, Fanny, Anna, and the youngest, Ada Elizabeth Shand, turned Craighead into a girls’ school the following year. Their goal was not just to provide lessons, but to give a liberal education on modern lines that would train the intellectual, artistic, and moral faculties of young women. That vision had roots in the Scottish Free Church tradition, where education was seen as both a duty and a calling.
Alice Shand, remembered in her obituary as Miss A. E. Shand, taught music at Craighead from 1911 until 1927. She never married or had children of her own, but her students were her legacy. Music meant more than scales and songs to her. She saw music as a way to teach and build confidence, expression, listening, and belonging. I think in a way, Alice was building culture into a community. And today, Craighead students are still famously known for their chorale and musical tradition.
When the sisters retired in 1926 and sold the school to the Anglican Diocese of Christchurch, Alice returned to Dunedin to live with two of her sisters. She died there later in life. The short obituary notice says little more than that she was the youngest daughter of Professor John Shand of Otago University. Despite her big contribution to Timaru's education, there was only a little written about her in the notice of her death, but it is enough to keep her noted in print, and to remind us how much she gave.
As a woman and mother, I see a contrast between Alice’s life and mine. I parent children of my own while balancing work, volunteering, and projects in public view. Music has always been a part of my life, and I loved hearing Craighead's choir sing when we went to local and national singing competitions with Timaru Girls High School. I think that Alice lived in a time when choices for women were far narrower. She did not raise a family, and I wonder if this was due to the marrage bar, where many women chose careers over family because the laws prohibited women from doing both. Through her choice, she taught many young women, who have inspired generations of daughters.
Her legacy I think was in the confidence of the girls she taught. Founding a school in 1911 was maybe a radical act, I hope they she felt respected and valued, and knew that what she was helping to create, has made a lasting impact in Timaruvians and South Cantabrians lives, long after the sisters moved on.
Alice's story reminds me that heritage is more than plaques and built heritage. It is also about people who carried ideas across oceans, laid foundations and contributed to the culture of our place. Alice and her sisters brought the values of Scottish education, discipline, faith, character, and culture into a Timaru house called Craighead. And more than a century later, those values are still a strong part of Craigheads school day.
I recently visited the school to learn about its history. When I stood at Shand House on the Craighead grounds, I saw more than bricks and Italianate windows. And know after this history hunt, I see four sisters who created a school for girls when it was far from common. I see a Scottish castle name transplanted into Timaru. I see a link between my own DNA and the story of this city.
Alice Shand may not have direct descendants, but every Craighead girl is part of her legacy. Her life shows us that there are many ways to be a mother, of children, of communities, of traditions. For me, tracing Alice is part of tracing Scotland in Timaru, and understanding how much of that story still lives on here today.
And now for my wild goose chase...
History is never a straight line. It twists and turns, and sometimes it takes you down a track that leads nowhere. That happened to me when I tried to find Alice’s final resting place.
I was curious if any Shands rested in Timaru. So I searched the Timaru District Council cemetery database. Excitingly I found two Alice Shands buried in the General Section at Timaru Cemetery.
Alice Mary Shand, 74 Years 22 Dec 1964
Alice Mary Shand, 87 Years 26 Jul 2014
The Alice who died 1964 was buried with George Duncan Shand who died in 1959. For a moment I thought I had found a grave of a Shand sister. Same surname, same cemetery, same era.
But then the pieces did not line up. I found the obituary for Ada Elizabeth Shand. She died in Dunedin, not Timaru. After the sisters retired from Craighead in 1926, she went back south to live with two of them. She never returned to Timaru to live, and she was remembered as Miss A. E. Shand, not Alice Mary.
frustratingly I realised that the Shands buried in Timaru Cemetery are very likely from a different family, possibly locals connected to George Duncan Shand, and not the Craighead sisters from the Otago academic line. Same surname, different story.
I realised how easy it is to leap to conclusions. A name is familiar, the details are close enough, and you think you have found a puzzle piece. Its important to slow down, do good research and make sure that the history repeated is actually correct. While it was a wild goose chase, but not a wasted one. I learned that the Shand name is scattered through South Canterbury, not just tied to Craighead. I also learned the importance of cross-checking obituaries, school records, and council heritage reports before pinning a name to a story.
Hunting for Alice, in I have come away with a better sense of Alice’s place. She is not in the Timaru Cemetery registers, because her legacy in Timaru is not in the ground. It is in Shand House, in the Craighead Chapel, and in the lives of the girls she taught. Her grave is in Dunedin, but her mark is in Timaru.
In the end, I did discover that there are in fact two women named Alice Mary Shand buried in Timaru Cemetery. One was 74 years old when she died in 1964, the other was 87 when she died in 2014. They are not my Alice, not the Craighead sister whose story I set out to find. But perhaps they are a story in themselves. Who were these women? What families were they part of? What lives did they lead in Timaru?
Maybe this is where my next side quest begins...
Sources
Craighead Diocesan School – History and Archives: https://www.craighead.school.nz/about-us
Wikipedia – Craighead Diocesan School: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craighead_Diocesan_School
Timaru District Council Historic Heritage Record – Shand House / Craighead Lodge: https://www.timaru.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/674025/Historic-Heritage-Assessment-Report-HHI204-Former-HJ-Sealy-house-Craighead-Lodge-%2C-former-Le-Cren-house-Shand-House%2C-Craighead-Diocesan-School-Category-B.pdf
Heritage New Zealand List Entry: http://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/2051
Timaru Herald, Obituary: Miss A. E. Shand: https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/2592
Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand – Biography of John Shand: https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2s17/shand-john