Lady Barker (1831–1911)
Author of Station Life in New Zealand
About the Author
Disambiguation Notice:
Also used the pen name Lady Broome
Image credit: Mary Anne Barker and Frederick Broome. Alexander Turnbull Library.
Works by Lady Barker
Associated Works
Happy Endings: Stories by Australian and New Zealand Women, 1850S-1930s (1987) — Contributor — 11 copies
The Haunted and the Haunters: Tales of Ghosts and Other Apparitions (1975) — Contributor — 10 copies
In Deadly Earnest: A Collection of Fiction by New Zealand Women 1870s–1980s (1989) — Contributor — 7 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Barker, Mary Ann, Lady
Broome, Lady
Stewart, Mary Anne - Birthdate
- 1831-01-29
- Date of death
- 1911-03-06
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Spanish Town, Jamaica
- Place of death
- London, England, UK
- Places of residence
- London, England, UK
Pietermaritzburg, Natal, South Africa
Canterbury, New Zealand
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
India
Mauritius (show all 7)
Port of Spain, Trinidad - Occupations
- travel writer
journalist
children's book author
cookery writer
editor - Relationships
- Barker, Sir George Robert (1st husband)
Broome, Sir Frederick Napier (2nd husband) - Short biography
- Lady Barker was born Mary Anne Stewart in Spanish Town, Jamaica, where her father was Island Secretary. She was sent to England for her education. In 1852, she married Captain George Robert Barker of the Royal Artillery, with whom she had two children. A few years later, Barker was knighted for his leadership at the Siege of Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny, making her Lady Barker. In 1865, after Barker's death, she married Frederick Broome, a Canadian-born sportsman and future diplomat 11 years her junior, who was in London on a visit from New Zealand. She departed with him for New Zealand, leaving her children behind in England. The couple lived at Steventon, a sheep station, for three years before selling out and returning to London.
The experience would provide a rich well of material for Lady Barker, and several of the works she produced became classics of New Zealand literature. Poems from New Zealand appeared in 1868, followed by The Stranger from Seriphos (1869). Then she published Station Life in New Zealand (1870), a collection of her letters home. Over the next eight years, she produced 10 more books, including Station Amusements in New Zealand (1873) and First Lessons in the Principles of Cooking (1874). This book led to her being appointed Lady Superintendent of the National Training School of Cooking in South Kensington.
She also was a journalist, writing articles for The Times. In 1875, Broome was appointed Colonial Secretary of Natal in South Africa, and she accompanied him there. His subsequent posts were in Mauritius, Western Australia, Barbados, and Trinidad. Drawing on her travels and experiences in these countries, Lady Barker published A Year's Housekeeping in South Africa (1880) and Letters to Guy (1885). Broome was knighted in 1884, and thereafter she styled herself Lady Broome. She published the last of her 22 books, Colonial Memories, under this name. - Disambiguation notice
- Also used the pen name Lady Broome
Members
Reviews
Written in 1870, STATION LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND is a fascinating account of the time Lady Mary Anne Barker lived on a sheep station on the south island of New Zealand. It is just a series of letters that she wrote back to her family in England, starting with her arrival in MelbourneAustralia en route to Christchurch. It gives the reader a real insight into life as a settler in the 1860s, with all its highs and lows.
I gripped my chair in sympathy as she is careened at high speed along the highway by a drunken passenger coach driver. I chuckled at her first attempts at cooking and I cried with her when her naughty dog has to be put down and when she has to help dig dead lambs from a snowdrift after a huge blizzard. Mary Anne writes in a light-hearted style, and she vividly portrayed the lives of genteel sheep farmers (and the not so genteel) the weather and the beautiful scenery and wildlife.
Born in Jamaica, educated in England, her first husband Lord George Robert Barker was knighted for his role at the Siege of Lucknow in India. He died 8 months after receiving his title, however when Mary Anne arrived in New Zealand she was with her second husband, Frederick Broome. For her writing Mary Anne retained her Lady Barker title although later in life her second husband was knighted and she became Lady Broome. During her life Mary Anne lived in England, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Mauritius, Australia and Trinidad. A well travelled lady with some eighteen published works.
STATION LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND is considered the best of the settlers’ tales from the years of colonization of New Zealand, and is a classic of early New Zealand literature.… (more)
I gripped my chair in sympathy as she is careened at high speed along the highway by a drunken passenger coach driver. I chuckled at her first attempts at cooking and I cried with her when her naughty dog has to be put down and when she has to help dig dead lambs from a snowdrift after a huge blizzard. Mary Anne writes in a light-hearted style, and she vividly portrayed the lives of genteel sheep farmers (and the not so genteel) the weather and the beautiful scenery and wildlife.
Born in Jamaica, educated in England, her first husband Lord George Robert Barker was knighted for his role at the Siege of Lucknow in India. He died 8 months after receiving his title, however when Mary Anne arrived in New Zealand she was with her second husband, Frederick Broome. For her writing Mary Anne retained her Lady Barker title although later in life her second husband was knighted and she became Lady Broome. During her life Mary Anne lived in England, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Mauritius, Australia and Trinidad. A well travelled lady with some eighteen published works.
STATION LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND is considered the best of the settlers’ tales from the years of colonization of New Zealand, and is a classic of early New Zealand literature.… (more)
Opening Sentence: “…Now I must give you an account of our voyage: it has been a very quick one for the immense distance traversed, sometimes under canvas, but generally steaming…”
Written in 1870, STATION LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND is a fascinating account of the time Lady Mary Anne Barker lived on a sheep station on the south island of New Zealand. It is just a series of letters that she wrote back to her family in England, starting with her arrival in MelbourneAustralia en route to Christchurch. It gives the reader a real insight into life as a settler in the 1860s, with all its highs and lows.
I gripped my chair in sympathy as she is careened at high speed along the highway by a drunken passenger coach driver. I chuckled at her first attempts at cooking and I cried with her when her naughty dog has to be put down and when she has to help dig dead lambs from a snowdrift after a huge blizzard. Mary Anne writes in a light-hearted style, and she vividly portrayed the lives of genteel sheep farmers (and the not so genteel) the weather and the beautiful scenery and wildlife.
Born in Jamaica, educated in England, her first husband Lord George Robert Barker was knighted for his role at the Siege of Lucknow in India. He died 8 months after receiving his title, however when Mary Anne arrived in New Zealand she was with her second husband, Frederick Broome. For her writing Mary Anne retained her Lady Barker title although later in life her second husband was knighted and she became Lady Broome. During her life Mary Anne lived in England, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Mauritius, Australia and Trinidad. A well travelled lady with some eighteen published works.
STATION LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND is considered the best of the settlers’ tales from the years of colonization of New Zealand, and is a classic of early New Zealand literature.… (more)
Written in 1870, STATION LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND is a fascinating account of the time Lady Mary Anne Barker lived on a sheep station on the south island of New Zealand. It is just a series of letters that she wrote back to her family in England, starting with her arrival in MelbourneAustralia en route to Christchurch. It gives the reader a real insight into life as a settler in the 1860s, with all its highs and lows.
I gripped my chair in sympathy as she is careened at high speed along the highway by a drunken passenger coach driver. I chuckled at her first attempts at cooking and I cried with her when her naughty dog has to be put down and when she has to help dig dead lambs from a snowdrift after a huge blizzard. Mary Anne writes in a light-hearted style, and she vividly portrayed the lives of genteel sheep farmers (and the not so genteel) the weather and the beautiful scenery and wildlife.
Born in Jamaica, educated in England, her first husband Lord George Robert Barker was knighted for his role at the Siege of Lucknow in India. He died 8 months after receiving his title, however when Mary Anne arrived in New Zealand she was with her second husband, Frederick Broome. For her writing Mary Anne retained her Lady Barker title although later in life her second husband was knighted and she became Lady Broome. During her life Mary Anne lived in England, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Mauritius, Australia and Trinidad. A well travelled lady with some eighteen published works.
STATION LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND is considered the best of the settlers’ tales from the years of colonization of New Zealand, and is a classic of early New Zealand literature.… (more)
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 16
- Also by
- 6
- Members
- 164
- Popularity
- #129,117
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 3
- ISBNs
- 49
- Languages
- 1
She was also pretty adventurous and like a lot of women writers from past times she emphasises feminine fragility while taking on challenges that many modern-day people, male or female, might hesitate to confront. She bush-bashes, climbs hills, rescues sheep, and participates in burn-offs (the last maybe a little too enthusiastically).… (more)