Obituary

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 115, 16 May 1941, Page 5

Obituary

MRS. FLORENCE ADA MARY LAMB POLSON Mrs. Florence Ada Mary Lamb, wife of William John Poison, M.P. for Stratford, passed away on Wednesday. | Mrs. Polscn was born in Melbourne in 1879, and was the fifth and youngest daughter of Alfred and Martha Wilson, of that city. Educated first at the Presbyterian Ladies’ College and at an academy in Paris, Miss Wilson, as she then was, spent a number of years living on the Continent, during which time she acquired an intimate knowledge of the French and German languages. She travelled extensively, and lived in South Africa for two years before returning to Australia. While in South Africa she resided with her brother who, as a lieutenant, had taken part in the Matabele campaign and who earned the soubriquet of “Matabele” Wilson and rose to the rank of Colonel during the Boer War. Mrs. Poison was married in Melbourne in 1910 and came to Manurewa, from then on until her husband won the Stratford seat in 1928, after which she divided her time between the two places of residence. Mr. Poison, then president of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, was appointed by the Government as a member of a commission to go abroad and study on the spot the various phases and methods of extending rural credit and Mrs. Poison accompanied lier husband, when her linguistic ability proved to be of great help to the commission. Some of the documents included in the commission’s report are Mrs. Poison’s translations of the originals. While on this extended journey, Mrs. Poison’s mind was turned to the problems of women living in rural districts in various countries, and she studied the organisations in being in England, Denmark, Holland and the United States of America, with a view to creating an organisation in New Zealand suitable to its peculiar conditions. On the voyage back to the Dominion she spent her time collecting her ideas. Some years previously she had formed the W.D.F.U., and had become its first Dominion president. The ideas and schemes which she saw in practice in other countries, she advanced in New Zealand through the W.D.F.U. During her presidency, the bush nursing, housekeeper and travelling library services were inaugurated. On the retirement from the presidency, she was elected a life member.

Mrs. Poison was predeceased by her sisters, Mesdames Henry Butler and Francis Harman, both of Melbourne, and her son, Donald Gunn (“Jim”), who died in 1927. She is survived by her husband, her daughter, Mrs. James Cranstone, and her sons, John and Robin, and also by her sisters, Mesdames I. M. Moss and Edward Chase, both of Melbourne, Victoria.