Otago policewoman quite a trailblazer
INITIALLY the focus of today’s column was to see if readers could shed any light on the identity of a Dunedin cartoonist from possibly 50 or 60 years ago who signed themselves ‘‘Forsyth’’.
I am still interested in solving that mini mystery, but having had a chat with Murray Lawrence, the chap who has raised the topic with The Wash, it seems to me there is a lot more to the story of policewoman Lenore Lawrence (number W90).
Lenore was Murray’s muchloved aunt who died last September, aged 89. Recently, when ‘‘rummaging through her numerous papers’’, he found the cartoons which we publish today — and yes, we do realised they are terribly sexist by today’s standards but at the time they were probably regarded as little more than cheeky.
Murray says his late aunt would be amused to see the cartoons finally in the public eye — ‘‘She had a good sense of humour and liked a good laugh.’’
But Murray’s ‘‘rummaging’’ also unearthed several other interesting articles in his aunt’s collection including a couple of notable ‘‘firsts’’.
Policewoman Lawrence was among the first eight women to wear a police uniform, as seen in the photograph taken in Wellington in December, 1952.
Before that policewomen, first introduced to the force in June 1941, had all been forced to wear plain clothes because Police Commissioner D. J. Cummings felt that they could do their jobs more effectively.
And secondly, Lenore also became the South Island’s first female ‘‘acting detective’’, four and ahalf years after she joined up.
There was, however, some irony in her appointment. Having been among an elite group of women to first wear a uniform, her new job meant she then reverted to plain clothes.
Interviewed by the Evening Star at the time of her promotion, Lenore was said to have taken the news calmly and had, in fact, forgotten she had applied for the position.
She also explained there were no women detectives in the police force because none had served long enough to earn the rank.
There was a degree of celebrity with her new status, too. Asked to be the guest speaker at a meeting of the Dunedin branch of the National Council of Women in August, 1956, Lenore said her new duties were not very different from those of a uniformed policewoman, including investigating crimes connected with women and girls.
She described some of the homes she had seen in the course of her duties as ‘‘incredibly dirty’’, adding ‘‘when you see these homes you realise the girls just haven’t had a chance and they are really to be pitied.
‘‘When they get to an institution like a borstal, they learn how to be clean for the first time.’’
I’ve no idea how well those comments went down with the Dunedin populace back in 1956, but even now they reflect her tellitlikeitis courage. It should be noted the press report concluded that ‘‘Miss Lawrence answered many questions’’ after her speech, so perhaps that indicates the level of reaction.
Asked why his aunt had chosen to become a police officer at a time when so few women were in the force, Murray says she probably liked the environment.
After attending Otago Girls’ High School she had left at 15 and worked at the Dental School for Sir John Walsh, and ‘‘worked her way up the ranks’’ there, before seeing a chance for a change in career.
Among her papers Murray found a clipping showing a photo of Lenore accompanying Dr Senga Whittingham on a trip to see a dentist, during her highprofile murder trial in Dunedin in 1954.
‘‘There was an amusing comment in the ODT when the trial was reported about my aunt being a buxom police woman! I don’t think you could say that these days. We all had a chuckle when we saw it.’’
Lenore’s police career ended in 1959 after she married Vern Wilson, who worked in sales and marketing for Bruce Woollens in Milton. In those days if a policewoman wished to marry, she had to leave the force.
That disturbing fact was one of many I gleaned from reading through some of the other papers Lenore collected, which make it clear policewomen didn’t have it easy in those early days.
But, as it states on the New Zealand police website, in the ‘‘75 years of women in police’’ section, there were many women who were responsible for ‘‘forging the way . . . and slowly making inroads into a maledominated workplace, tirelessly campaigning for women to be accepted into different operational areas of police.’’
Sounds like Lenore might have been one of them.
Historic hailstorm
Further to yesterday’s item about the crazy, winterlike weather we’ve been having lately in our cocalled summer, Audrey Duncan popped in to share a family photo and vivid memory from the Christmas holidays of 1945.
The photo shows her father, Ralph Johnston, holding a plate of giant hailstones, about the size of golf balls, which pelted the Dunedin family’s camp site beside the Ashburton River during a sudden storm.
Audrey remembers her father sheltering behind a caravan as the hailstones rained down, but when he ventured out he was struck on the temple by one, which left him stunned. Later Audrey went for a drive with her uncle and recalls seeing glasshouses smashed and rows of lettuces ‘‘turned into salad’’.
Car conclusion
A motoring note to end today’s column. Graham Taylor emailed yesterday to say he thinks the car used by Hec and Jack Thompson and Jim Gilbert to drive from Invercargill, to Lake Wakatipu via the Oreti River — as featured in yesterday’s column — was an Overland, early to mid 1920s model.
Graham owns a 1923 model, which does have some modern mechanical upgrades — a 2 litre Toyota diesel engine, gearbox and a Mazda back axle.