Mary Josephine Player (''née'' Crampton; 1857 – 5 January 1924) was a New Zealand servant, midwife, welfare worker, feminist and social reformer.

Biography

She was born in

County Kilkenny County Kilkenny ( gle, Contae Chill Chainnigh) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the South-East Region. It is named after the city of Kilkenny. Kilkenny County Council is the local authority for the cou ...

, Ireland in about 1857 as Mary Josephine Crampton. She founded the Women's Social and Political League in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

and was its president for many years. Based on her proposals and through lobbying of William Pember Reeves, the Minister of Labour, the Department of Labour established a women's branch. Through political infighting within the organisation, Player resigned the presidency and was replaced by Louisa Seddon, whose objective it was to endorse the increasingly conservative policies of the

Liberal Government Liberal government may refer to: Australia In Australian politics, a Liberal government may refer to the following governments administered by the Liberal Party of Australia: * Menzies Government (1949–66), several Australian ministries under S ...

, which was led by her husband Richard Seddon. Player was from a poor background and struggled to support herself after her husband's death in 1905. She would take on much nursing work where she could live on site, as she and her children would otherwise have been left homeless. After her daughters had married, she lived with some of them. She died by drowning in the Nelson suburb of

Atawhai Atawhai is a suburb of Nelson, New Zealand. It lies north of Nelson and is the location of Wakapuaka Cemetery, a burial place since 1861. It also has a coastline on Nelson Haven and access to Boulder Bank from . Geography Atawhai covers an area ...

on 5 January 1924 at one of her daughter's homes; the coroner ruled that the death was a suicide due to depression. She was buried at

Karori Cemetery Karori Cemetery is New Zealand's second largest cemetery, located in the Wellington suburb of Karori. History Karori Cemetery opened in 1891 to address overcrowding at Bolton Street Cemetery. In 1909, it received New Zealand's first cremato ...

next to her husband.

References

19th-century Irish people 19th-century New Zealand people 1850s births 1924 deaths Irish emigrants to New Zealand New Zealand feminists New Zealand midwives Health professionals from County Kilkenny Irish midwives Burials at Karori Cemetery 1924 suicides Suicides by drowning Suicides in New Zealand Deaths by drowning in New Zealand {{NewZealand-med-bio-stub