The woman at the back of the tennis photograph and twin sister of respected Dr
1873–1939
Teacher, scholar and school principal
In a Timaru Girls’ High School tennis photograph from about 1900, Christina Cruickshank stands at the back right.
Her twin sister Margaret has a marble statue in Waimate. Christina has a school photograph. That difference does not necessarily measure their impact. It tells us something about the types of work communities are most likely to commemorate.
Christina Murray Cruickshank was born near Palmerston, Otago, on 1 January 1873. She and Margaret shared household responsibilities after their mother’s death, alternated their school attendance and later became joint duxes of Otago Girls’ High School.
Christina gained a University Junior Scholarship and continued at the University of Otago, graduating MA with honours and MSc. That was an exceptional academic record for a woman in the 1890s, when women had only recently entered New Zealand’s universities in significant numbers.
She began teaching at Kyeburn in 1896, then worked at Prince Albert College in Auckland and briefly at Otago Girls’ High School. A contemporary obituary records that she spent five years teaching at Timaru Girls’ High School.
Later accounts often describe her as an early science teacher at Timaru. Her postgraduate scientific training makes that plausible, but plausibility is not enough. The exact subjects she taught should be checked against staff timetables, annual reports or the school’s early magazines before publication.
What is firmly established is that she was part of the school during its early years as a separately organised girls’ institution. Her presence placed a woman with advanced university qualifications in front of pupils at a time when science and higher study were still frequently treated as male territory.
In 1911, Christina became principal of Wanganui Girls’ College. She held the position for twenty years, leading the school through the First World War and the social and educational changes that followed. On her death in 1939, former pupils and newspapers remembered a demanding scholar and a deeply respected educator. The praise is evidence of reputation, not a complete measurement of teaching quality, but its consistency across accounts is notable.
After retirement she lived in Christchurch. When she died on 16 November 1939, she was buried at Waimate beside Margaret.
The photograph is therefore a useful doorway, but not because Christina is merely “Margaret’s twin”. It catches a nationally qualified woman educator during five years of work in Timaru, before another two decades of principalship.
What changed because of her work: Generations of girls were taught and led by a woman whose academic authority in arts and science challenged the narrow educational expectations placed on women.