Taking a working place in South Canterbury’s senior yachting team
1917–1998
Timaru Girls’ High School
Sailing and Sanders Cup
Margaret MacKay Riddler was born in 1917. National Library records identify her as a daughter of Ivy Young and as the adopted daughter of Eva and Thomas Riddler junior. She married Henry Hill Kingham in 1943.
Margaret attended Timaru Girls’ High School. She appears in a 1935 photograph of the school’s A basketball team, evidence that she was already involved in organised sport as a young woman.
Her most distinctive South Canterbury contribution came through sailing. In 1941 Margaret was a part-owner and crew member of Gallina I, the yacht selected to represent South Canterbury in the Sanders Cup competition.
The South Canterbury Museum catalogue records Margaret as the yacht’s spinnaker-hand. Her future husband, Harry Kingham, was captain, with Bill Morrison and Bernard Daly also in the crew. Working the spinnaker was not a decorative position. It required the crew member to handle a large sail, respond quickly to changes in wind and direction, and coordinate closely with the skipper and the rest of the team.
The Museum describes Margaret as the first woman to compete in the Sanders Cup. That may be correct, but such a claim requires confirmation from contemporary competition records before it is used without qualification. What is securely established is that she was part of South Canterbury’s working crew in a major interprovincial yachting competition.
Her story also offers a useful correction to the way sporting photographs can be read. A woman standing beside a yacht may be mistaken for a supporter or family member. Margaret was a part-owner and active sailor whose work contributed directly to the boat’s performance.
Impact: Margaret Riddler helped represent South Canterbury in senior competitive yachting as a part-owner and working crew member of Gallina I. Her participation placed a Timaru woman inside the practical teamwork of the Sanders Cup rather than on its sidelines.
Timaru and South Canterbury connection: Margaret attended Timaru Girls’ High School and sailed as part of the South Canterbury Sanders Cup team.
Concise sources
National Library of New Zealand authority record for Margaret MacKay Kingham. Supports her names, parentage, adoption and marriage.
Timaru Girls’ High School basketball photograph, 1935. Supports her school and sporting connection.
South Canterbury Museum catalogue records for Gallina I and the 1941 Sanders Cup crew. Supports her ownership and role as spinnaker-hand.
Photograph lead
South Canterbury Museum holds a photograph associated with Margaret and Gallina I.