Maker: Robin Grigor

Panel number: 496

Petition sheet number: Did not sign 1893 petition

Person honouring: A. E. Jerome Spencer

Relationship to maker: None

When war was declared in 1914, Bessie organised sewing meetings and offered her services for war work in Hawke’s Bay. She later spent time in London nursing shell-shocked victims and in 1918 joined the Women’s International Street Patrol.

Anna Elizabeth (Bessie) Jerome Spencer, was born in Napier in November 1872, the eldest daughter of Anna Heatly and William Spencer, a surgeon. She spent holidays on local farms, loving the rural life.

The Women’s Institute [WI] in New Zealand traces its origins to Bessie’s attendance at a WI craft exhibition in London in 1919. An avid craftswoman herself, she was ‘deeply impressed’, and investigated the WI movement, planning to establish it in New Zealand’s rural hinterland. 

She was a former principal of Napier Girls’ High School [1901] and a woman of great physical and intellectual energy. Before the war she and her friend Amy Hutchinson were involved in a progressive group with wide interests, based at Rissington, Hawke’s Bay. Their interest in the WI probably reflected the goals of this group, which valued crafts not just for their usefulness, but as a means of developing the intellectual, cultural, and spiritual potential of both individuals and society. The Townswomen’s Guild, which she also established, in 1932, aimed to provide similar opportunities for urban women.

In 1923 Bessie attended the Canterbury College Jubilee Celebrations, meeting Kate Shepherd and Jessie Mackay, who persuaded her to revive the National Council of Women in Hawke’s Bay. She became the first president of the Napier–Hastings branch in 1924.

In 1933 Bessie attended the National Federation of Women’s Institutes in London and the inaugural meeting of the Associated Country Women of the World in Stockholm. She was honoured with an OBE in 1937.

Bessie had never married; she died in Napier in 1955.

Panel materials:  Materials I already had. Old pillowcase for the backing.  The maple leaf and the fern at the top of banner and the rose were off a tea towel that was put out as a souvenir to celebrate 75 years of Women’s Institute in New Zealand in 1996.