Elsie Locke, 1912–2001

Abstract

Elsie Locke was widely known as a peace activist and historian but she was also a groundbreaking and successful author of children’s literature. Her literary reputation rests primarily on her historical novels set in New Zealand’s colonial past, many of which have been reprinted. Attending university during the Depression, she associated with many of New Zealand’s emerging literary figures. She also became a socialist because of her experiences and observations of poverty at this time, and her many social histories reflect this lifelong conviction. The realisation that she was largely ignorant of Maori history led her to study the Maori language, and to incorporate a Maori perspective into her writing. She received several awards in her later life for her children’s literature. Elsie Violet Farrelly was born in Waiuku, New Zealand on 17 August 1912, the youngest of six children. Her parents, William John Allerton and Ellen Electa (nee Bryan), were only educated to primary level but nevertheless were progressive thinkers in the raising of their children. William grew up in Reefton, New Zealand and while his intelligence was recognised at school he was unable to be educated beyond Standard Six. Because of this, he strongly encouraged the academic endeavours of all his children. Ellen was also born in New Zealand and, having been a teenager during the suffragette movement of the 1890s, she imparted to her daughters the value of independence and a sense of gender equality. She attended Waiuku District High School from 1925 until 1929, where she was the sole student in her class during her final two years. Farrelly always wished to be a writer, in contravention of the social norm that literate women become teachers or nurses. After winning a scholarship, Farrelly entered Auckland University College in 1930. Entering university at the beginning of the Depression, Farrelly struggled to support herself through a mixture of scholarships and part-time employment. A seminal influence on her developing political views at this time was witnessing the demonstrations of unemployed men. As she later recalled in Student at the Gates, ‘When the last of the ten thousand had passed me, I was left on the pavement to answer the question these men had silently flung at me: whose side are you on? Whoever you are, and wherever you are going, I am going too, I had answered’ (98). Farrelly became increasingly interested in socialism while at University, attending meetings of the Friends of the Soviet Union and the Fabian Club.