GISBORNE SISTERS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIX, Issue 21969, 22 May 1941, Page 8

GISBORNE SISTERS

KILLED BY NAZI BOMB LONDON, May 1. A Sutherland Memorial Fund is to be raised by the Society of Women Housing Managers to perpetuate the names of two New Zealanders who were killed by Nazi bombs last September after nearly 40 years’ work in London, Miss Joan Sutherland and Miss Ruth Sutherland (Gisborne). The fund wUI be used as a loan fund for students, and wUI be administered by the council of the society. The New Zealanders were members of the staff of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners’ Estate at Westminster,, and they worked among the poorer classes of South London. They were trained by Miss Octavia Hill, the social reformer and pioneer for better housing. Miss Joan Sutherland was engaged in this work from 1901 until her death, with the exception of a year spent in France with a hospital unit during the last war. She revisited Hawke’s Bay a few years ago. For many years she held a Bible class for charwomen. Miss Ruth Sutherland returned to New Zealand in 1909. She remained there until 1919, when she was urgently requested to return to London to take charge of the Westminster office and the Housing Estate under the commissioners.

Many tributes have been paid to the work of the two New Zealanders, and it is intended that the fund wUI be a lasting tribute to their memory.