Miss Learmonth Dalrymple

Lockdown loop #9

Our loop came past Otago Girls’ High School today. Opening on the 6th February 1871 with 78 pupils, it was the first state high school for girls in the Southern Hemisphere. One incredible woman, Miss Learmonth Dalrymple of Port Chalmers, had campaigned for years to establish a public high school for girls. Her comments included ‘It is premised, in the matter of education, that the claims of youth on the state, irrespective of sex, are equal’. In 1871 she also successfully campaigned for the University of Otago to admit women as students. The initial two-room high school was attached to the Otago Boys’ High School but a tall fence was constructed to keep them apart. In 1885 the boys’ school moved up to Arthur St and the girls’ school was able to expand in its current site, with the ‘new’ Dalrymple Block being built in 1910.