Our Gladys – A Life of Community Service

By Liz Grant

They sit quietly – modestly – on the section at the corner of Winchester and Oxford streets in Ōhinehou Lyttelton. But these four red brick cottages, built in 1965, add to much-needed social housing for the town’s residents. ‘Boyd Cottages’ proclaims a blue plaque, honouring local woman Gladys Ethel Boyd. A quarter of the way into the 21st century, perhaps not so many people know anything of Gladys and her dedication to her community.

She was born in Lyttelton in 1898, the daughter of Richard and Frances Meyrick (née Loader). She went to Lyttelton District High School and lived in Lyttelton all her life. In 1916, when Gladys was just 18 years old, she married Donald John Boyd (1881-1962) who had come to New Zealand from Scotland and who worked at the port. They lived at 44 Cornwall Road.

Throughout her married life Gladys volunteered much of her time working for the community, in both her hometown of Lyttelton and in Christchurch city. In 1947, she and Mrs JA Gilmore were the first women to be elected as Lyttelton Borough Councillors. Gladys was a member of the Council for 18 years and consistently got a high number of votes in Council elections. In the election of 1959 it appears that both she and her husband Donald stood as candidates. Gladys got elected with 753 votes, but Donald, with 514, missed out on a place because there were only nine vacancies that year.

Gladys became chair of the Council’s Health and Sanitation Committee and the Traffic Committee. She was also the Council’s representative on the Allocation Committee for State Housing, and on the Patriotic Committee. Women’s Patriotic Associations were formed in WWI and continued during WWII. Their primary focus was to provide parcels for soldiers, containing clothing, food, and tobacco. Thousands of women throughout the country were involved.

Gladys did not stop there…she was a member of the North Canterbury Hospital Board for 12 years, representing the combined district of the County of Heathcote and the Borough of Lyttelton. She served on its Benevolent, Building, and Public Health committees.

Gladys Boyd was 68 when she died on 6 December 1966. As a mark of respect, the Lyttelton Borough Council’s flag was flown at half mast. Her obituary, published the next day in The Press, cited the many other organisations she was involved with:

• Lyttelton sub-centre of St John Ambulance

• New Zealand Child Health Council

• Save the Children Fund

• Urban Fire Council

• Rāpaki Women’s Welfare League

• Canterbury School Committee Association (of which she was President for a term)

To top it off, Gladys Boyd also served as a Justice of the Peace for 12 years.

The Boyd Cottages were damaged in the 2010/2011 Canterbury Earthquakes but were able to be repaired. On 15 June 2012 they were rededicated by the Hon Ruth Dyson, who for many years was the MP for Banks Peninsula. Not long after that occasion, speaking in Parliament on the centenary of New Zealand women winning the right to stand for Parliament in 1919 (26 years after women got the vote), she had an amusing story to tell.

Gladys and Donald had six children – four daughters (though one died at the age of 18) and two sons – so there was a lot going on at 44 Cornwall Road. Ruth recounted:

“At the reopening ceremony for [the cottages] recently after their post-quake repairs were completed, a family member told a story of Gladys' husband walking back from the waterfront where he worked, and his mate yelled out from across the road "So where's Gladys tonight?". And he said, "I don't know. She's on every board except the blimmin’ ironing board”.

With thanks to John and Donna for allowing us to photograph their back garden.