Elsie Andrews

{{Short description|New Zealand teacher and community leader (1888–1948)}}

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Elsie Euphemia Andrews {{post-nominals|country=NZL|MBE|size=85%}} (23 December 1888 – 26 August 1948) was a New Zealand teacher and community leader.

She was born in Huirangi, Taranaki, New Zealand, on 23 December 1888. Her parents were John Andrews and his wife, Emily Young, who both came from Taranaki pioneering families. Elsie Andrews was the only one of twelve siblings who attended secondary school; she received her education at Huirangi School and with the help of a scholarship, she went on to New Plymouth High School. When she failed entrance examinations to both university and teachers' college, she became a pupil-teacher at Waitara School. After completing her training, she moved around various rural schools before getting a permanent position at New Plymouth's Fitzroy School.{{DNZB|last=Dalziel |first=Raewyn|id=4a15|title=Andrews, Elsie Euphemia|accessdate=23 April 2017|author-link=Raewyn Dalziel}}

Andrews was a member of the New Zealand Women Teachers' Association and from 1931 had an active role as secretary in establishing and running the Pan-Pacific Women's Association, later the Pan Pacific and Southeast Asia Women's Association.{{Cite news |date=29 April 1931 |title=Pan-Pacific Problems: Dominion Women's Committee Inaugural Meeting Held |page=11 |work=Taranaki Daily News |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19310429.2.118.12?items_per_page=10&page=58&phrase=2&query=New+Zealand+Women+Teachers%27+Association&snippet=true |url-status=live |access-date=21 August 2023 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230820212644/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19310429.2.118.12?items_per_page=10&page=58&phrase=2&query=New+Zealand+Women+Teachers'+Association&snippet=true |archive-date=20 August 2023 |via=National Library of New Zealand (Papers past)}}{{Cite news |date=20 February 1934 |title=Pan-Pacific Conference: Miss E. Andrews Delegate |page=6 |work=Taranaki Daily News |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19340220.2.51?items_per_page=10&page=35&phrase=2&query=New+Zealand+Women+Teachers%27+Association&snippet=true |url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230722000157/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19340220.2.51?items_per_page=10&page=35&phrase=2&query=New+Zealand+Women+Teachers'+Association&snippet=true|archive-date=22 July 2023|access-date=6 April 2023 |via=National Library of New Zealand (Papers past)}}

She unsuccessfully contested the {{NZ electorate link|New Plymouth}} electorate in the {{NZ election link|1935}} as an Independent;{{cite news |title=Election Results |url= http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=EP19351206.2.97.11 |accessdate=14 November 2013 |newspaper=The Evening Post |date=6 December 1935 |volume=CXX |issue=137 |page=10}} she was one of only three women who stood for election that year.{{cite news |title=Untitled |url= http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=NZH19351127.2.10.4 |accessdate=11 November 2014 |work=The New Zealand Herald |volume=LXXII |issue=22277 |date=27 November 1935 |page=5}}

In the 1938 King's Birthday Honours, Andrews was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire.{{cite news |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19380609.2.56 |title=New honours: birthday list |date=9 June 1938 |work=New Zealand Herald |page=12 |access-date=1 January 2021}}

Andrews died on 26 August 1948 at New Plymouth, having never married.