Dame Harper. Photo supplied.20-6-1937 to 18-12-2017

When John Harper spotted a small, dark-haired 17-year-old teenager across the table tennis table in the Westerfield Hall, he knew he’d met his future wife.

That young woman was Elizabeth Horrell who in 1995 became Dame Elizabeth Harper, Ashburton’s first recipient of a DBE, for her services to Save the Children.

On December 18,  the woman who gave her heart and soul to the Save the Children, died at the age of 80.

While her public recognition was for services to the children’s charity, husband John and son Robert say her life spanned many more interests and activities.

She was the first born and only daughter of Lagmhor farmers Faith and Jack Horrell, and with five younger brothers to keep in line, John believes her organisational skills were well honed early in life.

Elizabeth’s school years were spent at Lagmhor, Ashburton High School and then Craighead  and she went on to work as an occupational therapist at Ashburton Hospital.

While she was a farmer’s daughter and became a farmer’s wife, Elizabeth was also a farmer in her own right, helping run the farm as well as keeping teams of farm workers well fed. She established her own registered coloured sheep flock and a large pig fattening unit. She went on to become a supplier and then a director of the South Island Pork Group.

At any given time Elizabeth could be involved with Save the Children, working on the farm, working alongside district nurses on night shifts, chairing board meetings, making jam for the SFC charity shop, sitting as a companion with people who were terminally ill, working as an Ashburton Benevolent Fund trustee, singing in several choirs, working within her church and tirelessly assisting anyone in need.

But more than any of those activities, her family remember her as a selfless, loving and caring mother.

Life in the Harper household was lived by the calendar. The phone would ring and Elizabeth automatically walked to the calendar to see where she could fit in a new appointment or activity.

Her life was devoted to people, her husband and son say, and her pleasure was gained by working quietly in the background rather than starring in the limelight.

No matter how busy, she never complained and simply got on with life, happy to help out where ever she was needed.

No matter who she was with – Princess Anne, Prime Ministers or fellow members of a volunteer organisation, she was never any different, her family said.

Her public profile was very much about Save the Children.  She joined this organisation in 1969 after a request from her aunt Naomi Rickard to drive a car during the annual appeal.

She was secretary from 1971 to 1985 and president from 1985 to 1990. She also spent time as South Island representative to the national executive, South Island vice president and was national president from 1989 to 1993.

In spite of taking on national office, Elizabeth continued to work in the Ashburton shop as well as making marmalade and knitting garments as local fundraisers.

In 1994 she received a Save the Children  international award for distinguished and meritorious service and in 1995 was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

That honour did not sit easily with Elizabeth.

John recalls when the official letter arrived she stood looking at it for some time before stating she could not accept it.

Eventually she agreed, but made it very clear she was accepting for Save the Children, to raise the organisation’s profile, not for herself.

While she was entitled to use the letters DBE after her name, John said she always preferred to be known as just Elizabeth, never dame. It didn’t change her a jot, he said.

John and Elizabeth retired to Ashburton from their Hackthorne farm in 1998 but Elizabeth’s work as a volunteer continued and branched into new fields.

The couple’s first son Paul died in 2011 and their only daughter Janet was killed in a car accident as a five-year-old in 1968.

Elizabeth is survived by husband John, son Robert and  her six grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

By Sue Newman © The Ashburton Guardian - 3 January 2018