Lady Polson Lane – Named after Mary Victoria Cracroft Polson, née Grigg, (1897-1971). Mary Polson was a politician and community leader. Developed at 64 Hackthorne Road. An existing right-ofway further developed in 1995 and named then by residents. Mary Polson had lived there.
A small amount of information from the library website and some of the information is incorrect. I didn’t search Papers Past as there is a Wikipedia page for Lady Polson but the best information was on Findagrave which included a photo of her.
Mary was born Mary Victoria Cracroft Wilson and she was the granddaughter of John Cracroft Wilson. She married Athur Grigg and they lived in the Ashburton / Mt Somers area. After Arthur was killed in Libya in 1941 Mary took over his seat in parliament under something called widow’s succession. She was then elected in 1942 and was only the fourth woman elected to parliament but was the first for the National party. Mary was only in parliament for a year but stayed active in politics. She remarried William Polson who was a politician in the North Island. Mary was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1946 and her husband was knighted in 1951.
After William’s death Mary moved to Christchurch and lived at 64C Hackthorne Rd. She was active in the guiding movement when living in Christchurch and she is buried at Bromley cemetery. She sounds like she was an interesting person.
There are only about 12 houses in this lane and the oldest is from 1910 and another is from 1960 with the rest dating around the 1990s and 2000. QV website played up and I couldn’t get more information about the dates of the houses. I didn’t walk this lane as it was very obviously a private lane. This was a pity as I suspect that the house from 1910 would be lovely. This lane is on land that would have originally been owned by Lady Polson’s grandfather.
A lot of information for a tiny lane.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 