Millicent Baxter
| Millicent Baxter | |
|---|---|
| Born | 8 January 1888 Christchurch, New Zealand |
| Died | 3 July 1984 (aged 96) Dunedin, New Zealand |
| Nationality | New Zealander |
| Education | University of Sydney and Newnham College, Cambridge, England |
| Known for | peace activist and pacifist |
| Spouse(s) | Archibald Baxter (m. 1921, d. 1970) |
| Children | James K. Baxter |
| Parent(s) | Helen Connon and John Macmillan Brown |
| Relatives | Viola Macmillan Brown (sister) |
Millicent Amiel Baxter (8 January 1888 – 3 July 1984) was a New Zealand peace activist and pacifist.
Baxter was the eldest daughter of John Macmillan Brown, one of the founding professors of Canterbury University College, Christchurch, and Helen Connon, the principal of Christchurch Girls' High School and first woman graduate with honours in the British Empire. Baxter and her sister Viola grew up in a large Fendalton mansion with a governess and lessons from her mother.
After her mother died in 1903, Baxter went to live with relatives in Sydney and was educated there at the Presbyterian Ladies' College and at the University of Sydney, graduating with a B.A. in Latin, French and German in 1908.
In 1909, Baxter and her father travelled to England and Europe together. After his return to New Zealand, she entered Newnham College, Cambridge, to study languages, and then went on to Germany to study German and old French. She returned to New Zealand as the First World War was breaking out, and undertook war work for the New Zealand Red Cross and the Lady Liverpool Fund. In mid-1918, a friend showed her a letter written by Archibald Baxter to his parents, describing the punishments he was suffering in France as a conscientious objector. Baxter said of this letter "it altered my whole outlook on politics and on everything in life."
In 1920, Baxter was offered work at Wellington Girls' College, however her father insisted that she move to Dunedin with him instead. She went, and when Macmillan Brown went away travelling, Baxter taught in his place. While in Otago, Baxter sought out Archibald at his family home in Brighton - they fell in love and were married on 12 February 1921, despite strong opposition from Macmillan Brown at the wide disparity in their backgrounds. The couple bought a farm at Kuri Bush, and farmed there for the next nine years. The Baxters had two sons, Terence in 1922 and Jim in 1926. Jim grew up to become one of New Zealand's foremost poets, James K. Baxter.
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