Kate Edger

Edger was born in 1857 at Abingdon, Berkshire, England. Her father was the Rev. Samuel Edger, a Christian minister.{{cite book|author=Robert S. Ellwood|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tmwK3xu4PAgC&pg=PA263|title=Islands of the Dawn: The Story of Alternative Spirituality in New Zealand|date=January 1993|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-1487-8|pages=263–}} Her family emigrated from England to New Zealand in 1862. They lived in Albertland and then in Auckland.{{DNZB|Hughes|Beryl|2e3|Edger, Kate Milligan|25 April 2011}}

Edger and her sisters received much of their early education from their father who was a university graduate.{{cite web|title=More About the Kate Edger Educational Charitable Trust | Academic Dress Hire | Graduation & Academic Regalia|url=http://www.auckgradwomen.org.nz/KEET/kateedger.htm|access-date=26 May 2014|publisher=Auckgradwomen.org.nz}} There was no higher education for girls at the time, but as she showed academic promise, she was placed in the top class of Auckland College and Grammar School. When Edger applied to the senate of the University of New Zealand for permission to sit for a university scholarship she did not state her gender and her application was successful. She was the only female in classes at Auckland College and Grammar School, which was affiliated to the University of New Zealand (Auckland University College was yet to be established). She graduated on 11 July 1877 with a Bachelor of Arts (specialising in mathematics and Latin) from the University of New Zealand. Her qualification was lauded and 1,000 people came to cheer as the Bishop awarded her with a camellia to symbolise her modesty and her achievement.

Edger and her sister, Lilian, both went on to obtain master's degrees from Canterbury College (now the University of Canterbury).

File:Kate-Edger principal.jpg

Edger's first teaching position was at Christchurch Girls' High School. She was appointed the founding principal of Nelson College for Girls in 1883. In addition to being the principal she taught English grammar, composition and literature, physical science, Latin, mathematics, singing and geography. After her marriage in 1890 she intended to continue working, but later resigned. This is thought to be due to her pregnancy with her first child.

Edger had several positions in the Women's Christian Temperance Union New Zealand (WCTU NZ). She served as an assistant Corresponding Secretary, White Ribbon Associate Editor (11 years), Recording Secretary (15 years), national Superintendent of Scientific Temperance Teaching, and national Superintendent for Peace and Arbitration. She was also a founding member of Wellington's Society for the Protection of Women and Children, and a Dominion Secretary of the League of Nations Union of New Zealand.{{cite journal|date=18 May 1935|title=In Memorium|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/WHIRIB19350518.2.6|journal=White Ribbon (NZ)|volume=40|issue=476|page=2|access-date=29 March 2021|via=PapersPast}}

Edger married William Evans in 1890. She supported her husband's charitable works by running a private school and taking on private pupils.{{Cite web|title = Kate Edger|url = http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/people/kate-edger|website = www.nzhistory.net.nz|access-date = 12 June 2019}}

Kate's siblings were Louisa Florence Edger, Emily Marian Edger, Gertrude Evangeline Edger, Herbert Frank Edger and Margaret Lilian Florence Edger.

Edger's sister Gertrude had a daughter, Geraldine Hemus, who became the third woman in New Zealand to be admitted to practice law as a barrister and solicitor.{{Cite book|title=Redbrick and Bluestockings: Women at Victoria, 1899–1993|last=Hughes|first=Beryl|publisher=Victoria University Press|year=1992|location=Wellington. New Zealand|pages=23}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/news-and-communications/people-in-the-law/obituaries/obituaries-list/geraldine-marian-hemus,-1876-1969|title=New Zealand Law Society|website=www.lawsociety.org.nz|language=en|access-date=16 September 2017|archive-date=22 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200722205913/https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/news-and-communications/people-in-the-law/obituaries/obituaries-list/geraldine-marian-hemus,-1876-1969|url-status=dead}}

Her elder sister Emily Marian Edger (1850-1935) married William Judson, noted for building a set of town houses at 203-209 Ponsonby Road, Auckland.

The fourth sister, Lilian Edger, was, like Kate, one of the first British women to earn a university degree. Lilian founded Ponsonby College, a secondary school for girls, in 1888. In the 1890s she was giving public lectures in Auckland on subjects such as ‘practical theosophy’ and ‘karma and re-incarnation’ and in 1899 completed an 18-month lecture tour of India and the Australian colonies. She died in New Zealand aged 79 in 1941, having resided in Benares, India, for forty years where she taught, gave lectures on theosophy and wrote several books on theosophical subjects. She was the principal of the Theosophical Girls’ School at Varanasi and was also in charge of the education of the two sons of the Maharaja of Darbhanga.{{cn|date=May 2023}}

Their brother Herbert Edger was a lawyer, and a Native Land Court Judge from 1894 to 1909.

From 1921, on the death of her husband, Kater Edger lived in Wellington. She moved to Dunedin in 1932 where she died on 6 May 1935.

File:Tennis at the Ladies’ College (now Nelson College for Girls) in 1889 (15807860119).jpg

The Kate Edger Educational Charitable Trust provides financial assistance for women pursuing undergraduate or postgraduate degrees.{{cite web|last=Auckgradwomen.org|title=The Kate Edger Educational Charitable Trust|url=http://www.auckgradwomen.org.nz/KEET/index.htm|access-date=25 April 2011}} In 2004 the Kate Edger Information Commons was created at The University of Auckland.{{cite web|last=Auckgradwomen.org|title=About Kate Edger|url=http://www.auckgradwomen.org.nz/KEET/kateedger.htm|access-date=25 April 2011}}

In 2017, Kate Edger was chosen as one of the Royal Society of New Zealand's "150 Women in 150 Words" project. In September 2018, the Department of Mathematics at the University of Auckland was temporarily renamed to the "Kate Edger Department of Mathematics" to mark the 125th anniversary of women's suffrage in New Zealand.{{cite web|url=http://suffrage125science.auckland.ac.nz/|title=Suffrage 125 – Women in Science|date=18 September 2018|publisher=University of Auckland, Faculty of Science|access-date=19 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180919024423/http://suffrage125science.auckland.ac.nz/|archive-date=19 September 2018}}

In September 2023, Edger was awarded an honorary doctorate, as part of the University of Auckland's 140th anniversary celebrations. The award was accepted by Edger's granddaughter.{{Cite web |title=Higher education pioneer given honorary doctorate - The University of Auckland |url=https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2023/09/19/higher-education-pioneer-kate-edger-receives-posthumous-honorary.html |access-date=2023-09-23 |website=www.auckland.ac.nz}}

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Category:1857 births

Category:1935 deaths

Category:University of New Zealand alumni

Category:British emigrants to New Zealand

Category:New Zealand social workers

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Category:19th-century New Zealand women

Category:Christchurch Girls' High School faculty

Category:New Zealand suffragists

Category:19th-century New Zealand educators