Mary Anne Barker, Lady Barker (29 January 1831 – 6 March 1911), later Mary Anne Broome, Lady Broome, was an English author. She wrote mainly about life in New Zealand.

Biography

Grave of Frederick Broome in Highgate Cemetery

Born Mary Anne Stewart in

Spanish Town Spanish Town ( jam, label=Jamaican Creole, Panish Tong) is the capital and the largest town in the parish of St. Catherine in the historic county of Middlesex, Jamaica. It was the Spanish and British capital of Jamaica from 1534 until 1872. Th ...

, Jamaica, she was the eldest daughter of Walter Steward, Island Secretary of Jamaica. She was educated in England, and in 1852 married Captain

George Robert Barker Brigadier-General Sir George Robert Barker KCB (9 February 1817''England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538–1975'' – 27 July 1861) was a British soldier. Born in London, he was the youngest son of John Barker, a former deputy-storekeepe ...

of the Royal Artillery, with whom she had two children. When Barker was knighted for his leadership at the

Siege of Lucknow The siege of Lucknow was the prolonged defence of the British Residency within the city of Lucknow from rebel sepoys (Indian soldiers in the British East India Company's Army) during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. After two successive relief att ...

, Mary Anne became "Lady Barker". Eight months later Barker died. On 21 June 1865, Mary Anne Barker married

Frederick Napier Broome Sir Frederick Napier Broome (18 November 1842 – 26 November 1896) was a colonial administrator in the British Empire, serving in Natal, Mauritius, Western Australia, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. The Western Australian towns of Broom ...

. The couple then sailed for New Zealand, leaving her two children in England. The couple's first child was born in Christchurch in February 1866, but died in May. By this time, they had moved to the sheep station ''Steventon'', which Broome had partnered with

H. P. Hill H is the eighth letter of the Latin alphabet. H may also refer to: Musical symbols * H number, Harry Halbreich reference mechanism for music by Honegger and Martinů * H, B (musical note) * H, B major People * H. (noble) (died after 1279 ...

to buy. They remained there for three years; they lost more than half their sheep in the winter of 1867, and in response Broome sold out and the couple returned to London. Both Mary Anne and her husband then became journalists. Still calling herself "Lady Barker", Mary Anne Broome became a correspondent for '' The Times'' and published two books of verse: ''Poems from New Zealand'' (1868) and ''The Stranger from Seriphos'' (1869). In 1870, she published ''Station Life in New Zealand'', a collection of her letters home. The book was successful, going through several editions and being translated into French and German. Over the next eight years, Lady Barker wrote ten more books, includin
''A Christmas Cake in Four Quarters''
(1871), a sequel to ''Station Life'' entitled ''Station Amusements in New Zealand'' (1873), and ''First Lessons in the Principles of Cooking'' (1874). This last title led to her being appointed Lady Superintendent of the National Training School of Cooking in South Kensington. When Frederick Broome was appointed Colonial Secretary of Natal in 1875, Lady Barker accompanied him there. Broome's subsequent colonial appointments had him travelling to Mauritius, Western Australia, Barbados, and Trinidad. Drawing on these experiences, Lady Barker published ''A Year's Housekeeping in South Africa'' (1877) and ''Letters to Guy'' (1885). Frederick Broome was knighted on 3 July 1884, and thereafter Mary Anne called herself "Lady Broome". She published the last of her 22 books, ''Colonial Memories'' under this name. After Sir Frederick Broome's death in 1896, Lady Broome returned to London, dying there on 6 March 1911. She is buried with her husband Frederick on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery.

Works

*''Station Life in New Zealand'' (Whitcomb and Tombs, 1870, reprinted 1950)Jarndyce Catalogue CCXLIX, Travellers. Spring 2021. . *''Station Amusements in New Zealand'' (1873) *''A Year's Housekeeping in South Africa'' (Macmillan, 1877) *''The Bedroom and Boudoir'' (1878)

References

* * * * *
Lady Barker (as writer) on Canterbury Library websiteLady Barker (as pioneer) on Canterbury Library website

External links

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, Mary Anne 1831 births 1911 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery Jamaican non-fiction writers Jamaican women writers Australian diarists British writers Women diarists 19th-century New Zealand writers 19th-century New Zealand women writers

Biography

Works

References

Further reading

External links