Isabella McLandress

Biographical information provided by Catherine Amey, National Library of New Zealand, for the He Tohu exhibition:

Isabella McLandress was born in 1866, the daughter of John McLandress, a bootmaker who ran the Dundee Boot and Shoe Warehouse on Princes Street, Dunedin. Most young women of Isabella’s class had little chance of a university education. However, in 1885 she won the Scott Scholarship, which entitled her to receive 20 pounds a year for three years towards the costs of her higher education. She received her B.A. degree in 1889.  Her father was declared bankrupt the same year, but she continued studying and in 1890 she was awarded an M.A. with Third Class Honours in Chemistry from the University of Otago. During the 1890s she taught in Dunedin, but after her father’s sudden death in 1896 she left home to work in the North Island. On 15 June 1900 she was appointed first assistant at the Napier Girls High School, and in 1901 she became headmistress of the Waipawa District High School. In 1905 she was the sole teacher at Makairo School, but by 1906 she was ‘female second-assistant’ at Masterton District High School, where she also passed a First Aid Examination with high marks. Sadly, the new century held tragedy as well as adventure for Isabella. In 1908 her older sister Jessie died at the age of 43, and in 1918 her brother John’s body was found in Auckland Harbour, a suspected suicide. [1] Some time after her brother’s death, Isabella moved to Australia. By 1933, she was living in Auburn, NSW, and apparently still teaching. She remained in Australia until she died on March 8, 1939.