What the newspaper did not record
c.1848–1903
Timaru Herald
The Timaru Herald documented the public life of South Canterbury. Yet one woman at the centre of the family that owned it appears only briefly in its surviving pages.
Elizabeth Goldthorpe was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, around 1848. The 1851 English census records her as a three-year-old living with her parents, Joseph and Kezia Goldthorpe, and younger brothers in Dudley. Her father was described as a travelling draper.
The family later emigrated to New Zealand. On 25 September 1867, Elizabeth married Edward George Kerr at St John’s Church in Christchurch. The marriage was reported in The Press, where Edward was described as a Kaiapoi storekeeper. The original notice should be attached directly to the revised WuHoo page.
Elizabeth and Edward raised a large family and eventually lived at Harlau in Timaru. Several different lists of their children appear in family and website research, including a possible duplication or confusion between Maria Margaret and Maude Margaret Kerr. The total should not be stated until the civil registrations and household records have been reconciled.
In May 1887, Edward Kerr purchased the Timaru Herald. He already owned the South Canterbury Times, and the newspapers were subsequently produced from shared premises. This firmly connects the Kerr family with the district’s newspaper history. It does not, however, prove that Elizabeth worked in the business, made editorial decisions, managed its accounts or influenced what it published.
Elizabeth died at Harlau on 28 May 1903, aged 55, and was buried in Timaru Cemetery. Her death notice identified her principally through her relationship to Edward.
That slender record presents a useful historical question... what work did Elizabeth undertake within her household, family networks or community? Did she have any involvement in the newspaper company? Did she participate in church, welfare, cultural or political organisations? Did letters or account books survive?
Today if you are at the Bidwill Trust Hospital, you can find a wing named in honour of the family. The Kerr Wing at Bidwill Hospital, opened in 2018, commemorates the wider Kerr family and appears to be particularly associated with later family members and the charitable trust established by Peggy Kerr née Unwin.
While Elizabeth might not have had much to do with the running of the newspaper, her current importance lies in making the gap visible. A business could remain associated with a family for generations while its formal history preserved far more about the male proprietor than the woman living beside him.
Read the WuHoo story: The Woman Beside the Newspaper: Searching for Elizabeth Goldthorpe Kerr
Sources
Existing WuHoo research on Elizabeth Goldthorpe Kerr
Provides census, marriage, family, Harlau and death-notice leads. These details need to be tied to full original citations.
Papers Past: Timaru Herald
Provides the searchable newspaper record and background to the publication.
Aoraki Heritage Collection
A likely source for Kerr-family clippings, local directories and newspaper-history files.