Heritage

Canterbury Writers
Lady Barker (1831 - 1911)

Lady BarkerLady Barker was a 'colonial' rather than a New Zealand writer, but two of the eighteen books she published during an adventurous life in many countries became classics of New Zealand literature and were reprinted many times in Britain and, more recently, here. Station Life in New Zealand (1870) and Station Amusements in New Zealand (1873) endure as vivid and charming evocations of sheep station life in the early days of Canterbury settlement. They have been described as resembling comedies of manners rather more than documentary accounts and though popular were criticised as exaggerated; but her discerning eye and deft style provide memorable pictures of rural events, personalities, pursuits and problems, none more arresting than her account of the great snowstorm of 1867, a disaster which forced her, with her husband, to quit their 9700-acre station in the Malvern Hills and return to Britain. There she wrote the two books based on letters sent home to her younger sister.

Mary Anne Stewart, a true 'daughter of the Empire' was born in Jamaica (her father was Island Secretary), educated in England and married Captain George Barker, who was knighted for services in the Indian Mutiny. On his death she retained her title even after marrying Canadian born Frederick Napier Broome, sportsman, poet, journalist and diplomat, but not, it appears, a very practical sheep farmer. When he was appointed Governor of Western Australia he was welcomed as 'Lady Barker’s husband'. He was knighted subsequently and Lady Barker became Lady Broome.

In addition to bearing six children, Lady Barker wrote extensively about her travels as well as stories for children. Betty Gilderdale’s The Seven Lives of Lady Barker was published in 1996.

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Sources

The Christchurch Writer’s Walkway, E. Beardsley, Canterbury Branch, New Zealand Society of Authors, 1999.

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