Learmonth Whyte Dalrymple
| Learmonth White Dalrymple | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1827 Coupar Angus, Angus, Scotland |
| Died | 26 August 1906 (aged 79) Dunedin, New Zealand |
| Nationality | New Zealand |
| Known for | educationalist |
Learmonth White Dalrymple (c.1827–26 August 1906) was a New Zealand educationalist who campaigned for girls' secondary education in Dunedin and for women to be admitted to the University of Otago.
She was born in Coupar Angus, Angus, Scotland about 1827, the eldest of nine children. Her unusual name most likely comes from the Learmonth family, which married into the Dalrymple family. However, her name was registered as Larmonth at baptism on 21 July 1827. She went to school at Madras College in St Andrews. She later considered her schooling inadequate, particularly lacking in mathematical training, which her father considered an unsuitable subject for women. Her mother Janet (née Taylor) died on 23 February 1840, leaving eight surviving children. Her father William Dalrymple, an ironmonger and trader in minerals, manure and grain, remarried Margaret Saunders, but she died within a year or two. Learmonth travelled extensively in Europe and learned fluent French, but also took over much of the work of raising her siblings.
William decided to emigrate to Wellington, New Zealand, and sailed on the Rajah from Gravesend on 14 June 1853 with Learmonth and three other of his children. A fifth joined them in New Zealand some years later. The trip was an eventful one, as they encountered a pirate ship. All women and children were issued weapons and brought on deck, which deterred the pirates. Near Tasmania, the Rajah was damaged in a storm, with a wave sweeping over the decks, carrying away the boats and cooking galley, and doing extensive damage to the stern. The ship stopped at Dunedin for two months for repairs before continuing to Wellington. The Dalrymples decided to return to Otago, where they settled first at Goodwood and then by 1857 at Kaihiku, south-west of Dunedin, where Learmonth ran the household while establishing a Sunday school.
In August 1863 the Otago Boys' High School opened. To mark the occasion, The Otago Daily Times published an editorial (probably written by Julius Vogel) calling for an equivalent girls' school. Dalrymple read this and wrote in support of the idea to her neighbour John Richardson, who was a Member of Parliament and Speaker of the Otago Provincial Council. He replied encouraging her and suggesting she organise a petition to the Provincial Council. He had in mind that she could gather a dozen signatures over a week, but Dalrymple wrote out ten or twelve copies of a petition calling for girls' school "which would be accessible to the middle and wealthier classes" and organised women to canvass for signatures for each. They met with a varied reception; some people, both men and women, were antagonistic or ridiculed the idea, while others gave "delightfully encouraging words". Richardson and W. H. Reynolds moved in the Provincial Council that a scheme for girls' education should be presented to the next session. The motion passed unanimously, but nothing resulted from it.
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