Farewell to a fine friend and teacher

Fondly-remembered former head teacher at Greytown Primary School, Esther Allardice, has died.

The 90-year-old passed away at the Summerset Village care home in Palmerston North on Sunday.

She had worked for 14 years at Greytown Primary School as senior teacher at the junior school after starting in the role in 1967, says old friend Beth Hutchings. Mrs Hutchings, who had worked in the school office for 32 years, said she had formed a close bond with Ms Allardice, who for 17 years had boarded in Greytown with Mrs Hutching's widowed mother, Ivy Garrity.

"I have known Esther for 46 years and she was like a big sister to me actually," Mrs Hutchings said.

Ms Allardice had been a driving force behind numerous charity events held at the school, including a fundraiser for the school hall that was held during her tenure, she added.

"She was a wonderful teacher who didn't take any nonsense. She organised a lot of charity events and Guy Fawkes parades, where the children dressed up and all headed over to the rugby grounds, and she had a great sense of humour.

"Esther was hilarious - she wrote great poems about people and was really good with words."

Mrs Hutchings said Ms Allardice had come from a family of 10 and had left Greytown at her retirement and headed back to her hometown of Dannevirke.

She had returned briefly to Wairarapa and again lived at the Garrity home, from where she did relief teaching in Featherston, Mrs Hutchings said, but had left Wairarapa permanently about 11 years ago.

Mrs Hutchings said Ms Allardice had lived independently in Palmerston North for about a decade before moving into a care facility early last year.

Greytown Primary School principal Kevin Mackay said he had started at the school shortly before Ms Allardice retired in the early 1980s.

"She was the boss of the junior end of the school and a very strict boss at that."

He said younger staff and pupils had been in awe of Ms Allardice, although he and another junior teacher gave her a loud farewell at her retirement.

"We saw her off when she retired by riding a motorbike through her classroom, much to her distress. No young teacher would have dared do anything like that though, if she hadn't been retiring."

A funeral service will be held at the Knox Church in Dannevirke this afternoon.