Another glimpse into the past

 

After our last glimpse of the story of 186 the Terrace, the house, Fern Glen, had been taken over by the entreprenerial hotelier Hamilton Gilmer.  Back in Westland, where the Gilmer brothers had made their fortunes by selling grog and accommodation to the miners, Hamilton had formed a lifelong friendship with another hotelier who had arrived on the west coast to make a fortune, Richard John Seddon.

As Seddon's biographer Gavin McLean put it, "Richard Seddon's nickname, 'King Dick', says it all."  An abrasive man who was anti-Chinese and keen on giving pensions to old pioneers, Seddon dominated New Zealand politics for a decade or more. Ardently patriotic, he claimed that New Zealand is "God's own country," which was the inspiration for the word "Godzone".  

In 1881 he was the Member for Westland, which meant that he had to serve in the Wellington parliament.  Is this why Hamilton Gilmer moved to Wellington too?

Maybe.  It is plausible -- and was beneficial, too, once Seddon became New Zealand's premier in May 1893 (after tricking Sir Robert Stout out of the job). Hamilton supported Seddon in his combative political dealings, and became a Member of the Legislative Council in 1907.

With Hamilton Gilmer when he moved into Fern Glen were his wife, Elizabeth, and their six children -- Dorothea, Hamilton junior, Samuel, Knox, Florence, and Annie. And because of his staunch friendship with Seddon, the Gilmer family socialised often with the premier and his family.

Thus Knox, who became a dentist, became the husband of Seddon's daughter, Elizabeth May Seddon.  Elizabeth, the seventh of Seddon's eleven children, was born in March 1880, and married Knox Gilmer on July 3, 1907. 

And they lived in this house at 22 Boulcott Street, just around the corner from Fern Glen, right next to Knox's dental surgery, which was at 24 Boulcott Street.

Like her father, Elizabeth had huge energy.  If she had been a man, she would have been a political force in parliament; as it was, she became a political force in the women's movement. After Knox's sudden death of a brief illness in 1921 (at the age of 43) she applied even more of her enormous drive and strength to public affairs.  The Plunket Society, the Health Camp movement, the Crippled Children's Society, the Wellington City Council, and the Wellington Hospital Board all benefited from her active membership and direction.

It may be because of the last that Knox's sister Florence Elizabeth was courted by Dr. William Herbert, who was next in line to be appointed the Honorary Physician at Wellington Hospital. And on February 10, 1906 they were married in the gardens at Fern Glen, 186 the Terrace. And shortly after that, they were living there.

And so the story continues ...