Mary Ruddock
New Zealand businesswoman (1895–1969)
Mary Ruddock (2 April 1895 – 27 June 1969) was a New Zealand businesswoman who ran a dressmaking business in Wellington from the 1930s to the 1960s.
Early life
Ruddock was born in Hastings, England, on 2 April 1895, one of eight children born to the Reverend David and Anne (née Lush).
When Ruddock was eight, the family moved to Wairoa, New Zealand, and her father became Archdeacon of Hawke's Bay in 1907. After her father died in 1920, her mother moved the family to Parnell, Auckland, where they lived in Anne Ruddock's parents' home, historic Ewelme Cottage.
Ruddock attended St Margaret's College, Christchurch and received awards in botany, needlework and class work. She also began to play the violin while at the school.
Ruddock lost both of her brothers in World War I: Edward died in 1915 and Walter in 1917.
In 1921, Ruddock went to England to study music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. On her return to New Zealand, she advertised in the Auckland papers as a violin tutor.
Career
In 1931 Ruddock moved to Wellington and established a dressmaking business called "Mary Ruddock Ltd" specializing in children's clothes.
“Mary Ruddock” enters the record as new Zealand businesswoman (1895–1969). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Mary, Ruddock and Zealand can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q22958049. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1895, 1969, 1907 and 1920.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mary Ruddock” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.