WILPF Women Speak
Ruth Coombes:
Ruth lives in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland and was interviewed in 2020.
Ruth lives in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland and was interviewed in 2020.
Megan Hutching:
Megan has been active in Whanganui a Tara Wellington and Tamaki Makaurau Auckland branches. She was interviewed in 2020.
Megan has been active in Whanganui a Tara Wellington and Tamaki Makaurau Auckland branches. She was interviewed in 2020.
Celine Kearney:
Celine has been active in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland and Otautahi Christchurch branches. Her first experience of WILPF in New Zealand was in 1980. In 1985 she spent time in a women's peace caravan parked across the road from the European headquarters of WILPF in Geneva and joined Aotearoa WILPF in the early 1990's. She was interviewed in 2020.
Celine has been active in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland and Otautahi Christchurch branches. Her first experience of WILPF in New Zealand was in 1980. In 1985 she spent time in a women's peace caravan parked across the road from the European headquarters of WILPF in Geneva and joined Aotearoa WILPF in the early 1990's. She was interviewed in 2020.
Emily Gibson
1891-1947
"A tiny, gentle, yet fiery and determined woman, her life was spent working for
the causes of peace and social justice."
Emily Ray was born in Dublin in the early 1860s and emigrated to New Zealand with her widowed sister, Clementine Kirkby and her two nieces in 1891. Emily had trained as a compositor and proof-reader in Ireland and had worked as a compositor for a newspaper in London’s Fleet Street for 12 years. She lived in Auckland, where she married William Gibson in 1894, and worked as a compositor for the Auckland Star newspaper until the first of her three children was born.
Working for suffrage in London
Emily was involved in the women’s suffrage movement in London, and she ‘naturally’ became involved in the campaign here in New Zealand after she arrived, joining the Auckland Women’s Franchise League. In November 1893 she went with a group of women to vote for the first time at the Army Hall in central Auckland, walking between two rows of jeering men. 'We were brave because we were together but not one of us was not trembling and trying to hold back tears.'
1893-The Auckland Women's Liberal League
Emily considered herself to be politically a Liberal, and not long after the 1893 election she and some other women formed the Auckland Women's Liberal League, 'supporting the Government in every way possible'. The group met in the evening to encourage working women to attend and campaigned vigorously to get a compulsory half-day holiday for shop assistants and domestic workers. The poor working conditions of domestic servants was a subject close to Emily’s heart and she delivered a paper on the subject to the annual conference of the National Council of Women of New Zealand held in Auckland in 1899.
1916-Founding WILPF NZ
She was a founding member of the New Zealand Section of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), established in Auckland in 1916. In 1925 it became the Auckland women's branch of the Labour Party and it was through the efforts of Emily Gibson, who was corresponding secretary until 1930, that it kept in contact with WILPF’s international body in Geneva. Her involvement with the New Zealand Section of the WILPF continued, despite its dwindling numbers, until it finally stopped functioning in 1946.
Emily came to call herself a socialist, but despite her lengthy involvement with WILPF she was not a pacifist, believing that there was such a thing as a just war. She also believed strongly in the League of Nations and is perhaps best considered an internationalist.
Emily Gibson died in Auckland on 24 April 1947. A tiny, gentle, yet fiery and determined woman, her life was spent working for the causes of peace and social justice.
Emily wrote about her life in a special issue of Woman To-day published in 1939: 'Special centennial feature. Then and now'. Woman To-day 3, No 5 (Aug. 1939)--3, No 6 (Sept. 1939)
Kath Knight
"... I believe in the value of every human being to God. This meant that not only must we not kill anyone but we must set about seeing that there is justice..."
Quiet, determined and a lifelong pacifist, Kath grew up in a Christian household in Auckland. She attended the University of Auckland where she was a member of the Student Christian Movement. After meeting her husband, Kath became involved with the Quakers and became a Friend in 1952. She was also a member of the Christian Pacifist Society, and was the group’s secretary for 20 years.
Kath was responsible for the publication of Learning Peaceful Relationships, a book based on two US Quaker publications.
Kath had a long involvement with WILPF until her death in 2001. She became a member of the Auckland branch after it was re-established in the 1950s and for many years served in different roles on the branch executive committee. In 1965, Kath attended the 16th WILPF Congress in The Hague.
About her pacifism, Kath wrote that she believed in ‘the value of every human being to God. This meant that not only must we not kill anyone but we must set about seeing that there is justice and that even those who saw it as their duty to fight must be respected for their point of view. This complication made the process of becoming pacifist into a lifework rather than a complete stance that one could take at the outset.’
More information about Kath here
"... I believe in the value of every human being to God. This meant that not only must we not kill anyone but we must set about seeing that there is justice..."
Quiet, determined and a lifelong pacifist, Kath grew up in a Christian household in Auckland. She attended the University of Auckland where she was a member of the Student Christian Movement. After meeting her husband, Kath became involved with the Quakers and became a Friend in 1952. She was also a member of the Christian Pacifist Society, and was the group’s secretary for 20 years.
Kath was responsible for the publication of Learning Peaceful Relationships, a book based on two US Quaker publications.
Kath had a long involvement with WILPF until her death in 2001. She became a member of the Auckland branch after it was re-established in the 1950s and for many years served in different roles on the branch executive committee. In 1965, Kath attended the 16th WILPF Congress in The Hague.
About her pacifism, Kath wrote that she believed in ‘the value of every human being to God. This meant that not only must we not kill anyone but we must set about seeing that there is justice and that even those who saw it as their duty to fight must be respected for their point of view. This complication made the process of becoming pacifist into a lifework rather than a complete stance that one could take at the outset.’
More information about Kath here
Pauline Tangiora There is information on Pauline here