Helen Connon
| Helen Connon | |
|---|---|
| Born |
c. 1860 Melbourne, Australia |
| Died |
(aged 43) Rotorua, New Zealand |
| Alma mater | Canterbury College |
| Known for | First woman in the British Empire to gain an Honours degree |
| Spouse(s) | John Macmillan Brown |
| Children | Millicent Baxter and Viola Macmillan Brown |
| Relatives |
Archibald Baxter (son-in-law) James K. Baxter (grandson) |
Helen Connon (c. 1860 – 22 February 1903) was an educational pioneer from Christchurch, New Zealand. She was the first woman in the British Empire to win any university degree with honours.
Connon was born in Melbourne, in 1859 or 1860 to George Connon, a Welsh carpenter and his Scottish wife Helen Hart. She was their second child. The family arrived in Dunedin around 1862.
In Dunedin, Connon was taught by a newly qualified teacher, Robert Stout; he would later become Prime Minister of New Zealand.
After the family moved to Hokitika, she was enrolled in Hokitika Academy - a boys' school, because the local girls school (a Dame school) was considered inadequate by her mother. At this school she soon outshone the boys. The principal was impressed and opened a class for girls, placing the 15-year-old Helen in charge. When she was 16, she received a school prize called "Facile princeps" - "Easily the Best".
In 1874 the family moved to Christchurch and Connon's mother pleaded with the newly arrived Professor John Macmillan Brown to enrol her daughter as Canterbury College's first woman student. She matriculated in 1878, and graduated with a BA in 1880 – the second woman arts graduate in the British Empire. She was beaten only by Kate Edger, also a New Zealander, who graduated on 11 July 1877.
When Connon graduated with an MA with first-class honours in English and Latin in 1881, she became the first woman in the British Empire to gain a degree with honours.
In 1878, while still a university student, Connon became one of the first five teachers at Christchurch Girls' High School, teaching English, Latin and mathematics. In 1882, at the age of 25, she was appointed the school's second principal, and held this position until her resignation due to poor health in 1894.
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