Mary Anne Barker
Mary Anne Barker,
Lady Barker (1831â€"
6 March 1911), later
Mary Anne Broome,
Lady Broome, was an author.
Born Mary Anne Stewart in
Spanish Town,
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 of the
Royal Artillery, with whom she would have two children. When Barker was knighted for his leadership at the
Siege of Lucknow, Mary Anne became "Lady Barker". Eight months later Barker died.
On
21 June 1865, Mary Anne Barker married
Frederick Napier Broome. 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 to buy. They remained there a little over a year; 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 also published two books of verse,
Poems from New Zealand (1868) and
The Stranger from Seriphos (1869). In 1870, she published her first book
Station Life in New Zealand, a collection of her letters home. The book was reasonably successful, going through several editions and being translated into
French and
German.
Over the next eight years, Lady Barker wrote ten more books, including
A Chistmas 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 (1880) 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.
*
* The Seven Lives of Lady Barker: Betty Gilderdale. Publisher: David Bateman, Auckland, NZ, 1996. isbn 1 86953 289 9 (A full biography)
* Station Life in New Zealand: Lady Barker. With an introduction and notes by Betty Gilderdale. Publisher: Vintage, Auckland, NZ, 2000. isbn 1 86941 423 3
*
Free ebook of Lady Barker at
Project Gutenberg{{Persondata
NAME=Barker, Mary Anne, Lady | ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Broome, Mary Anne, Lady; Stewart, Mary Anne | SHORT DESCRIPTION=author | DATE OF BIRTH=1831 | PLACE OF BIRTH=Spanish Town, Jamaica | DATE OF DEATH=6 March 1911 | PLACE OF DEATH=London
|
