Remembering Mary Ager

Remembering

Mary Ager

Mary Elm Ager was born on September 15, 1917 in Wairoa, Hawke’s Bay. Her family moved to Christchurch in 1926 and after a couple of years the family moved to Rangiora where her father, Theo, became manager of the Farmers Trading Company and later deputy Mayor of Rangiora. Mary started St Margaret’s College as a boarder in 1935 and in 1936 became a Prefect and a Head of House Prefect. Her duties included lining the girls up to walk crocodile fashion to and from school and ironing the younger girls’ uniforms each day. While Mary was at SMC she was involved in a school production of ‘Iolanthe’ in which she played the Fairy Queen. Travel played a large part in her life, she spent three years during her thirties working as a nanny in New York before visiting other areas of the United States and Canada. She also travelled to Europe where in England one of her highlights was a visit to Buckingham Palace for a garden party, standing at one stage close to the Queen. During a road trip from New South Wales to Melbourne as a girl the family experienced the Black Friday bushfires, Mary and her siblings spread ice cream on their faces to cool down.