The science graduate who taught Timaru girls and led a college
1873–1939
Girls’ education leadership
Tennis Team, 1900. Christina Cruickshank is identified as the teacher on the back right. Courtesy Timaru Girls’ High School Archives.
In a Timaru Girls’ High School tennis photograph taken around 1900, Christina Murray Cruickshank stands among the pupils. She is easily overshadowed in later history by her twin sister, Dr Margaret Cruickshank, whose statue stands in Waimate.
Christina’s own career, however, deserves to be seen.
Christina and Margaret were born at Palmerston, Otago, on 1 January 1873. After their mother died, the twins attended school on alternate days so that one could remain home with their five younger siblings. Each evening, the sister who had attended school taught the other what she had learned. They later became joint dux of Otago Girls’ High School.
Christina continued to university, gaining both an MA and an MSc through the University of Otago. At a time when comparatively few women had access to advanced scientific study, these qualifications allowed her to enter secondary teaching with substantial academic training.
Timaru Girls’ High School records place her on the staff from approximately 1900 to 1905. The surviving photograph establishes a visible school connection, but further work is required to confirm the subjects she taught, her exact appointment dates and any curriculum changes for which she was personally responsible.
Christina later became headmistress of Southland Girls’ High School. In September 1910, she was appointed principal of Wanganui Girls’ College. Contemporary reports described her as an exceptionally well-qualified educationist. She remained in the role until the end of 1931, serving for about 21 years.
Her public contributions extended beyond one school. Christina participated in national secondary-school conferences and was nominated for the executive of the Secondary Schools’ Association. In a 1916 discussion about girls’ education, she warned that excessive schoolwork could leave boarding pupils with too little time to take part in the wider lives of those around them. This suggests an educational outlook concerned with more than examination results alone.
Christina died in 1939 and was buried at Waimate, where she shares a grave with Margaret.
Her South Canterbury chapter was shorter than her later leadership in Whanganui, but it was still meaningful. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Timaru girls encountered a woman with postgraduate science qualifications standing in their classrooms and participating in school life. Christina offered visible evidence that advanced knowledge and educational leadership were not reserved for men.
Read the existing WuHoo stories
Christina Cruickshank: The Teacher in the Photograph
The Cruickshank Twins: Teachers and Healers
Sources
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography: Margaret Barnet Cruickshank
Provides authoritative family and education information about both twins, including Christina’s university degrees and later principalship.
NZHistory: Margaret Cruickshank
Confirms the twins’ alternating school attendance, shared teaching and Christina’s later education career.
Timaru Girls’ High School: A Little History
Records Christina as a staff member from approximately 1900 to 1905 and identifies her in the school photograph.
Hawera and Normanby Star, 6 September 1910
Contemporary confirmation of her appointment as principal of Wanganui Girls’ College.
Otago Witness, 4 August 1931
Records her resignation after approximately 21 years as principal.
Evening Post, 19 May 1916: Education of Girls
Provides direct contemporary evidence of her views on educational pressure and pupils’ wider development.
View of Timaru Girls' High School from above in 1955 (09 Apr 1955). Aoraki Heritage Collection, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/1731
William Ferrier, Album of Views Timaru & District Descriptive & Illustrated. Aoraki Heritage Collection, accessed 04/05/2026, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/168 Book of photographs of Timaru and surrounding districts, published by William Ferrier, a well known local photographer, and Thomas Wagstaff, a local bookseller and stationer. Date of Publication 1904. Publisher W Ferrier & T Wagstaff
Timaru, New Zealand, circa 1910, Timaru, by William Ferrier, F.W. Hutton & Co. Gift of Lord Kitchener, 1960. Te Papa (AL.000566)
Where the Cruickshank Twins, Teachers and Healers rest in their graves in the Old Cemetery of Waimate. Twin girls born on New Year’s Day 1873 in Palmerston, Otago to George and Elizabeth Cruickshank (nee Taggart). - Photo Roselyn Fauth. FUNERAL OF MISS C. M. CRUICKSHANK Miss Christina Murray Cruickshank, whose death recently occurred in Christchurch, was buried in Waimate on Saturday alongside her sister, Dr. Margaret Cruickshank. The service at the graveside was conducted by the Rev. L. Robertson, of Christchurch. Dr. Cruickshank won a high place in the regard of Waimate people through her work during the influenza epidemic in 1918. She died as a result of that work, and a monument in Waimate commemorates her name. Her sister, now buried beside her, had a distinguished academic career. - TIMARU HERALD, VOLUME CXLVII, ISSUE 21507, 21 NOVEMBER 1939, PAGE 3