A stalwart battler for Canterbury heritage
‘With her passing, yet another earthquake has struck Canterbury’s architectural heritage!’’ So wrote Peter Richardson when he learned of the loss of Pamela Wilson, 80, in February, appropriately at the Ngaio Marsh Retirement Village. Pam Wilson was a doughty fighter to preserve the very best of Christchurch and Westland’s built heritage.
Wilson was appointed the first Southern Regional Officer for the NZ Historic Places Trust (Canterbury) in 1989 and served in that role with great distinction until declining health sadly forced her retirement in 2007. In that year Wilson received two distinguished accolades for her resolute professionalism: a Christchurch City Council Civic Award and, from the Governor-General, the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for noted service to heritage conservation in Canterbury-Westland.
As Robyn Burgess remarked: ‘‘Pam was an absolute legend and her deep knowledge, kind and gentle humour, curiosity and dedication is widely recognised, both within Heritage New Zealand/Pouhere Taonga and in the wider community.’’
Wilson’s exemplary dedication to the Historic Places Trust began in the early 1980s. In her Regional Officer role, Wilson grew the profile of the Trust and contributed hugely as a female Hercules battling adroitly for heritage restoration and conservation and along the way mentoring young like-minded conservators in the subtle art of researching and registering often unappreciated built structures.
She worked closely in her role with Anna Crighton, Jenny May and the City Council Heritage team and, in Burgess’ words, was ‘‘a very astute negotiator and would front to developers and tell them how important historic places were.’’
Wilson was instrumental in listing and saving many iconic buildings and places, including the Nurses’ Memorial Chapel, the Ngaio Marsh House, and the Edmonds factory gardens. She attended many hearings where she was a forceful advocate and worked closely, as a dedicated and meticulous heritage stalwart, with city council staff to create the monumental two-volume directory of all key heritage structures for the City Plan.
Sadly, she lived to see many of these structures destroyed or demolished in the post-2010 quake sequence; yet, being a positive person, Wilson rejoiced in what was able to be saved. As Burgess noted, Wilson ‘‘was on ‘a cup of tea and biscuit’ status with all of the Category 1 owners of Canterbury’s large homesteads.’’
She was a staunch ally and mover in our cultural heritage sector as a skilled architectural historian, ably supported by husband John. They were a kind of power couple, both being absolutely dedicated to promoting the best from our past.
Born in 1937, an only child, to Edward and Georgie Pankhurst in Invercargill, Pam was educated at South Otago High School and later Southland Girls’. She started her career as a supply pupil-teacher, aged only 17, at Waimahaka School for a year, being two days’ too young to enrol at the Dunedin Teachers’ College.
When she finally did so, Pamela Pankhurst met a young trainee, John Wilson, there and eventually they married in 1961, with Pam following him to his sole charge work in primary schools at St Clair and Hyde.
While training as a teacher, Pam studied some arts papers at Otago University and was delighted to encounter Died in the Wool, Ngaio Marsh’s 1944 detective novel set at The Grampians station in Central Otago. A deep fascination with Marsh ensued, and this was augmented when, much later, Wilson started researching the architecture of Marsh’s uncle, the Arts and Crafts architect Samuel Hurst Seager – a quest which she followed for over twenty years and which was intended for a doctorate. Wilson listed ‘‘Marton Cottage’’, Dame Ngaio’s family home (designed by Seager), as a Category 1 structure on the Historic Places Register and helped establish the Ngaio Marsh House and Heritage Trust.
Pam Wilson also rejoiced in serving on the Riccarton Bush Trust for two decades. She worked closely with chairman Charles Deans and manager Rob Dally in the careful restoration of Riccarton House following the major earthquakes of 2010 and
2011, and also kept a close eye on ensuring any grounds maintenance was done to highest heritage values. Wilson also worked on researching the Kate Sheppard House in Ilam after her retirement and stayed an active and deeply valued member of the Ngaio Marsh Trust Board until
2015 as her health faltered. Wilson was a tutor in History and Art History, and the late Jonathan Mane-Wheoki quickly arranged for the creation of an MA to keep her within the Art History department fold and supervised her Masters research. Wilson was, therefore, a trailblazer in gaining the first MA in Art History at UC so that her thesis was the first completed in Art History at Canterbury, and it ‘‘served as a model for many subsequent students’’, according to one of her mentors, Professor Ian Lochhead.
Daughter Marisa has justly observed that while her mother was small in stature and gentle in nature, ‘‘this didn’t define her. She had a core of inner strength and determination that allowed her to achieve more than she ever thought was possible.’’ She ‘‘dug, deep, she pushed her agenda, she influenced people.’’
Pam Wilson was large of spirit and a force for positive social good in Christchurch, serving her adopted city with immense dedication. Her contributions to recording, and where possible, saving our built environment were many and significant.
She is survived by husband John, son Mark (and Kathy) and daughters Debra (and John) and Marisa.