Catherine Jubilee Robertson (1890-1979), also known as Kathleen, was my unknown grandmother and the birth mother of my father, Cyril Robertson Bradwell (1916-2008). She was also unknown to my father except for a ‘forgotten’ name Kathleen Jubilee Robertson, vaguely recalled later when cited on a birth certificate that listed his birth on the 19t…[Read more]

My writing about these few years in Kenya is for my children and grandchildren, but it is also a story of childhood; situated both on the edges and in the midst of British colonial conquests and experiments. There are differences and similarities in the consequences of Africa’s colonial stories and that of New Zealand’s. My own forbears were buf…[Read more]

This is a story of three lady teachers whose teaching careers and endeavours on behalf of women and children have been mainly forgotten. It is an incomplete story, lacking in photographic records and collated from a myriad of fragmentary news clippings, writings, sightings and reports gathered over some years. Misses Agnes Inkpen and Isabella…[Read more]

An international Froebel conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, in June 2020 (cancelled due to COVID19) was the opportune occasion to present Miss Little’s story at the same institution where she trained as a teacher in the 1890s. A century ago she travelled to New Zealand and embarked on a range of endeavours for the betterment of children and…[Read more]

This is an overview essay setting the context of Scottish – New Zealand education links in colonial times that shape our story of three infant teachers who arrived in New Zealand in the early 20th century. As historians of early childhood institutions in New Zealand our researches, collectively and separately, have included the archival…[Read more]