Historian expands work

MORE FACTS: Historian Diana Beaglehole is extending her work on Wanganui. PICTURE / BEVAN CONLEY

Historian Diana Beaglehole who grew up in Wanganui and dearly loves her hometown, is updating and extending her online history of the Whanganui region.
Now living in Wellington, Diana is writing a fuller version titled River City and Region, which will be made available as a book as well and includes both spellings - Wanganui and Whanganui.
The updating is from 2008 and mainly extends the chapters Maori Tradition and The Arrival of Pakeha, she said.
The Whanganui region is between the Whenuakura and Rangitikei rivers, extending from the volcanic plateau in the northeast to the Tasman Sea in the west.
Her online history is in the Places section of Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand and can be viewed ar www.teara.govt.nz.
Also online, are seven biographies Diana has written about people in the region while an editor at the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.
These can be seen in the Biographies section of Te Ara and can also be read in printed volumes of the Dictionary.
The biographies and volumes involved are:
¦Volume One (1769-1869): Tricker, Walter Pettit (farmer, soldier, victim of injustice)
¦Volume Two (1870-1900): Hatrick, Alexander (merchant, ship owner, tourism entrepreneur, mayor)
¦Volume Three (1901-1920): Gibbons, Hopeful (brewer, businessman, philanthropist, local politician)
¦Volume Four (1921-1940): Veitch, William Andrew (railway worker, trade unionist, politician)
¦Volume Five (1941-1960): Emmett, Frederick Richard Edmund (music dealer, colour therapist); Porritt, Arthur Espie (athlete, doctor, sports administrator, governor-general); Winstone, Jane (aviator and World War 2 pilot).
Even though Wellington has been her home for more than 30 years, retired teacher Diana still treasures memories of her time teaching in Wanganui,.
Two of her pupils, decades on from her Wanganui East School standard four class, went on to become become great New Zealanders.
"I'm still very, very proud."
One was the late celebrated physicist Sir Paul Callaghan and the other was well-known children's writer Jane Buxton.
Sir Paul was the founding director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology at Victoria University of Wellington.
Ms Buxton grew up in Wanganui and has written more than 200 children's stories, plays, poems and articles published both in New Zealand and overseas.
Diana has long been a keen supporter of the Sarjeant Gallery.
"I've been visiting the gallery since the 1940s and have become increasingly impressed through learning more about it over the past 70 years. I'm one of the people supporting the project who no longer lives in Wanganui but who wants to help maintain the gallery and I always will."
The gallery's history began, of course, in 1912 through the legacy of Henry Sarjeant and, before long, his widow Ellen supported its development through purchasing work for the collection, Diana said.
However further support is now needed to help ensure the gallery and its art is protected for future generations.
"The seismic strengthening will make the building safe for people and for work on display, and the new wing will be purpose-built to store, display and care for the gallery's valuable collection."
"I can hardly believe the gallery had only been in Wanganui for about 25 years when I first visited it. Here's hoping, though, that current support will ensure it's around for far longer than another 25 years."