Frances Lysnar

Frances Brewer Lysnar (1864 – 1925) was a New Zealand traveller and writer and the first New Zealand woman to be made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1913.

Biography

Lysnar was born in 1864 in Auckland the eldest daughter of William Dean Lysnar and Frances (Fanny) Sarah Lysnar (née Brewer).[1][2][3] She was known as 'Gypsy'.[1] In 1872 the family moved to the Gisborne area where her father was a teacher and school headmaster at Manutūkē and later of a Māori school at Omahu in Hawke's Bay.[1][2] Her brother was the politician Douglas Lysnar.[4]

Fanny Lysnar suffered from a heart condition and in 1889 Lysnar accompanied her mother on a trip to England for treatment.[1] From 1899 she travelled widely visiting the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands.[2][3] She became involved in missionary work and in the 1890s was lady superintendent in a medical missionary organisation in Melbourne.[2] In the early 1900s she was secretary of the Women's Auxiliary of the Episcopal Church.[2][3]

In 1913 the Royal Geographical Society started to readmit women as members after two decades of discussion; many of those women admitted were travellers or explorers.[2] Lysnar was in London early in the year and was admitted in April 1913 becoming the first woman in New Zealand to be made a Fellow on the grounds of her extensive travel although she had not published anything at that time.[2] Her book on Māori culture and customs and early New Zealand settler history New Zealand: the dear old Maori land was published in 1915 and republished in 1924.[5][6][7]

In 1915 Lysnar travelled to India to the Mukti Mission for child widows and other outcast women and children set up by social reformer Pandita Ramabai.[2][8] She did not return to New Zealand until 1918.[2][9] During the war she travelled to France and to the United Kingdom where she assisted the war effort by working in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force convalescent camp at Hornchurch.[2] After her time in India she continued to support the Mukti Mission by giving lectures in many places including California, Agra, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.[2][3]

Lysnar died in Melbourne in 1925 while on a fundraising visit for the Mission.[2]

References

1. Macgregor, Miriam (1973). "Frances Sarah Lysnar". Petticoat Pioneers: North Island Women of the Colonial Era. Vol. 1. A.H. & A.W. Reed. pp. 111–112. ISBN 0589011340.
2. Roche, Michael (2016). "Frances B. Lysnar: New Zealand's first woman FRGS, 1913". The Geographical Journal. 182 (4): 429–437. Bibcode:2016GeogJ.182..429R. doi:10.1111/geoj.12172. ISSN 0016-7398 – via JSTOR.
3. "Untitled". Dominion. 19 May 1923. p. 14. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
4. Mackay, Joseph Angus (1949). "Gisborne Seat". Historic Poverty Bay and the East Coast, N.I., N.Z. p. 358. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
5. "Book notices". Otago Daily Times. 27 August 1915. p. 10. Archived from the original on 7 October 2024. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
6. Lysnar, Frances (1924). New Zealand: the dear old Maori land. Auckland: Brett Printing and Publishing. OCLC 1345232895.
7. "Dear Old Maori Land". Auckland Star. 14 June 1924. p. 6. Archived from the original on 7 October 2024. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
8. "Distinguished visitor". The Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954). 2 November 1915. p. 5. Retrieved 7 October 2024 – via Trove.
9. "Woman Traveller Returns". Weekly Times. 29 June 1918. p. 10. Retrieved 2024-10-07 – via Trove.

External links

• Photo of Frances Lysnar in Ladies' Mirror, 1 (11):8, 1 May 1923