by Roselyn Fauth
I am on a specific hunt for history... As I step into a new role as Community Builder at Timaru Girls’ High School, I am trying to understand not just dates and buildings, but the deeper story of how girls’ education emerged in this part of the world. What did it mean to be a girl with ambition in the late nineteenth century. Who came before. And how did Timaru sit within a wider national story of education, faith, work, and opportunity.
My recent reading has taken me north to Canterbury, through an Anglican colony lens. A thesis on family migration from Oxford to Christchurch offered a compelling insight into how belief systems, education, and settlement were deliberately intertwined. But to understand Timaru Girls’ High School fully, I realised I also needed to go south.
That decision took me to Dunedin. And from there, via a quiet trail of historical breadcrumbs, to a woman named Jane Runciman.
She served for many years as secretary of the Dunedin Tailoresses’ Union, one of the most influential women’s unions in New Zealand. The union played a key role in campaigns for shorter working hours, fair wages, and improved conditions for women employed in the clothing and manufacturing trades. Her leadership helped professionalise union administration and sustain long-term organising at a time when women’s labour was often dismissed or undervalued.
Jane Runciman was among the first women appointed as a Justice of the Peace in New Zealand. This appointment placed her in a formal legal and civic role at a time when women were still excluded from many areas of public authority. Her work as a JP reflected growing recognition of women’s judgement, leadership, and public service following women’s suffrage in 1893.
Here is a blog so far with information on a Timaru lass, and her story that represents a shift from women being seen solely as dependants or moral guardians to being recognised as civic decision-makers.
A girl arrives in Timaru
Jane Elizabeth Runciman was born in Waterford, Ireland, in 1873. In 1883, when Jane was ten years old, she arrived in New Zealand with her mother Susan and her sisters. They came to join her father, William Edward Runciman, a grocer who was already living in Timaru. A younger sister, Violet, was born here two years later, in 1885.
Jane Runciman was a Timaru girl.
We do not yet know where she lived in town, or which school she attended. That is part of the work still to be done. But we can say with confidence that she spent her formative years here, at a time when secondary education was only just becoming available to girls, and when Timaru High School was still a single institution educating boys and girls together.
It is tempting to want certainty too quickly. Did Jane attend Timaru High School. Was she taught in a room warmed by a coal fire. Did she walk the same streets our students walk today. For now, those questions remain open. What matters is that she was here, absorbing the possibilities and limitations of girlhood in a colonial town where education was becoming a serious civic commitment.
Education, work, and choice?
By the late 1880s, the Runciman family moved south to Dunedin. Jane trained as a tailoress and soon became involved in the labour movement, at a time when women’s work was often invisible, poorly paid, and physically demanding.
She rose to prominence in the Dunedin Tailoresses’ Union and later became one of the most influential women in New Zealand’s labour movement. She never married. She bought her own home in Cumberland Street. She was among the first women appointed as a Justice of the Peace. She worked tirelessly for women’s welfare, fair pay, and better working conditions.
This matters for a girls’ school story because Jane’s life shows what education made possible, even when formal schooling was limited. She belonged to the first generation of women who could imagine independence as a legitimate adult path.
She also belonged to a generation shaped by place. Otago’s strong emphasis on education, inherited from its Scottish roots, created pathways that simply did not exist everywhere. Women were admitted to Otago University earlier than in most parts of the world. Secondary schooling for girls was treated as a civic good, not a luxury.
Timaru sat between these worlds. Influenced by Anglican Canterbury to the north and Presbyterian Otago to the south, it developed its own educational identity. Timaru Girls’ High School would later emerge from this landscape, shaped by both traditions and by local determination.
Single sex education and the long view
Jane Runciman never attended Timaru Girls’ High School as we know it today. The school did not yet exist in that form. But her life helps us understand why single sex education for girls mattered.
In the late nineteenth century, education was not just about knowledge. It was about character, moral formation, and future roles. Girls were expected to be educated, but not too educated. Ambition had to be carefully contained.
Single sex schools created spaces where girls could develop confidence, leadership, and intellectual seriousness without constant comparison to boys. They were imperfect, shaped by their time, but they opened doors.
Jane Runciman walked through those doors and then held them open for others.
A grave, a street, and unfinished work
Jane died in Dunedin in 1950 and is buried in the Northern Cemetery. Her grave sits among others that tell stories of women who lived full, demanding lives that rarely made headlines.
Finding her Timaru home, her school, her daily routes through town remains a task for the future. That work matters. It turns abstract history into lived experience. It reminds students that history is not finished, and that questions are as important as answers.
For me, this is what community building looks like. It is a slow, curious walk through the past. It is following a breadcrumb trail from Oxford to Christchurch, from Dunedin to Timaru, from a union hall to a school gate.
Jane Runciman did not set out to be a symbol. She set out to live with purpose. In doing so, she left us a trail worth following.
And the hunt continues.
References and further reading
Jane Runciman biography, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Te Ara
https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3r33/runciman-jane-elizabeth
Jane Elizabeth Runciman photograph and burial details, NZ History
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/jane-elizabeth-runciman
Susan P. Runciman suffrage record, NZ History
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/suffragist/susan-p-runciman
Dunedin Tailoresses’ Union, NZ History
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/women-together/dunedin-tailoresses-union
Timaru Boys’ High School history article (context for early co-educational Timaru schooling)
https://timaruboys.school.nz/our-community/news/article/118683
Aoraki Heritage Collection, Timaru Girls’ High School jubilee and archival material
https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/
Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers
Jane Elizabeth Runciman: confirmed facts
Birth and family
Full name: Jane Elizabeth Runciman
Born: 4 June 1873
Place of birth: Waterford, County Waterford, Ireland
Parents:
Father: William Edward Runciman, grocer
Mother: Susan P. Runciman (née unknown)
Siblings: At least four sisters, including Violet Runciman
Migration and Timaru connection
Arrived in New Zealand: 1883
Age on arrival: 10
Place of settlement on arrival: Timaru
Reason for settling in Timaru: To join her father, William Edward Runciman, who was already living and working there
Sibling born in Timaru: Sister Violet Runciman, born 1885
Sources:
https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3r33/runciman-jane-elizabeth
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/suffragist/susan-p-runciman
Education (what is known)
Jane Runciman spent part of her school-aged years in Timaru during the 1880s.
No surviving evidence yet confirms which school she attended in Timaru.
She later trained as a tailoress after moving to Dunedin.
Source:
https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3r33/runciman-jane-elizabeth
Move to Dunedin
Family relocated to Dunedin: Late 1880s
Jane lived in Dunedin for the majority of her adult life.
Source:
https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3r33/runciman-jane-elizabeth
Occupation and public life
Trained occupation: Tailoress
Union involvement:
Active member of the Dunedin Tailoresses’ Union
Served as long-term secretary of the union
Labour movement:
Prominent figure in New Zealand’s labour movement
Advocate for women’s working conditions, fair pay, and shorter hours
Judicial role:
Among the first women appointed as a Justice of the Peace in New Zealand
Marital status: Never married
Property ownership: Purchased and owned her own home in Cumberland Street, Dunedin
Sources:
https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3r33/runciman-jane-elizabeth
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/jane-elizabeth-runciman
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/women-together/dunedin-tailoresses-union
Death and burial
Died: 13 November 1950
Place of death: Dunedin
Burial location: Northern Cemetery, Dunedin
Grave reference: Block 180A, Plot 55
Source:
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/jane-elizabeth-runciman
Contextual facts relevant to Timaru Girls’ High School (verifiable)
Timaru High School opened: 1880
It was originally co-educational, educating boys and girls together.
Jane Runciman lived in Timaru during this early co-educational period.
The 1897 fire at Timaru High School led to rebuilding and eventual separation of boys’ and girls’ education.
Timaru Girls’ High School later emerged from this educational lineage.
Source:
https://timaruboys.school.nz/our-community/news/article/118683
Facts not yet confirmed (research in progress)
These should not be stated as facts without further evidence:
Exact Timaru street address where the Runciman family lived
Name of the school Jane Runciman attended in Timaru
Whether she attended Timaru High School specifically
Exact Cumberland Street house number in Dunedin
Any direct correspondence or diary material from Jane herself
Clear next research targets (fact-finding)
Timaru school admission registers or prize lists, c. 1883–1889
Wise’s Post Office Directories for Timaru, 1880s (Runciman, grocer)
Timaru electoral rolls and rates books
Dunedin electoral rolls and Wise’s directories for Cumberland Street
Probate file for Jane Elizabeth Runciman (to confirm last address)