Mary Richmond (teacher)

Mary Elizabeth Richmond CBE (30 August 1853 – 3 July 1949) was a New Zealand community leader, teacher and writer.

Richmond (right), in Wellington with her brother-in-law, Walter Fell, and his daughters, c. 1890

She was born in New Plymouth, New Zealand in 1853. Her parents were William Richmond and Emily Elizabeth Atkinson.^[1]

From 1884 until 1890, Richmond was a teacher at Wellington Girls' High School. In 1898 she opened a private school in Wellington for children from kindergarten to preparatory level, which she operated until 1911. In 1905 she founded the free kindergarten movement in Wellington; the first of the Richmond Kindergarten Schools was opened in 1906.^[1]

She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1949 New Year Honours for services in education and welfare work.^[2] She died later that year in Wellington,^[1] was cremated,^[3] and had her ashes buried at Karori Cemetery.^[4]