#Mary Dora Ballantyne

[suffrageinstitchesnz]

Maker’s name: Kathryn Hill

Petition sheet number: 226

Person honouring: Mary Dora Ballantyne

Relationship to maker: Great-great-grandmother

Mary Dora Ballantyne (known as Dora) was a member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and in 1894 was elected President of the Christchurch Branch. 

She was an extremely capable and practical woman who often convened the committees that ran the union's tea and coffee rooms, and their annual temperance booth at the Agricultural and Pastoral Show. After the 1896 show, a WCTU report commented on Mrs Ballantyne's leadership. She had been in charge of about 80 helpers on the last day at the show: “At the head of this indefatigable band, who worked steadily and skilfully, was Mrs Ballantyne, our hard-working President. We believe that had Mrs Ballantyne the providing of an army with stores, she would be equal to such an undertaking: and with all the boasted superiority of men in the matter of finance, there cannot be many who would surpass her in that department.”

Born in Shrewsbury, England in 1844, Dora Deakin married Thomas Ballantyne in Adelaide at the age of 21. They had eight children. Thomas was a successful businessman and on their arrival in New Zealand in 1883 he bought Canowie, a 60-acre farm in Upper Riccarton. 

Just a year later, he was killed in an accident while trying out a new buggy. Dora and her children stayed on at Canowie, and were actively involved in the Upper Riccarton Methodist Church, hosting garden parties and picnics at the farm. In later life Dora lived in Clyde Road, Christchurch. She died in 1914.

Panel materials: Existing materials – quilting fabric and thread.

Unique ID number: VRS.2019.234