Miss Hilda Frame B.E.M. 23/8/ 1900 – 18/3/1981.

Hilda Frame was a foster mother to over 300 children for over 50 years.

Hilda Frame, a much loved resident of Governors Bay, dedicated her life caring for an extraordinary number of foster children over many decades. On 7^th October 1970 she was presented with a medal (B.E.M) that was awarded by the Queen “for her meritorious services to the community”.

She planted the trees that stand in this reserve. Her cottage (that was originally the stables for the existing historic house called Ellerslie) became a preschool after her death. In 2020 the C.C.C. built the skate bowl right beside where the old cottage once stood.

In 2020 the Junior school students at Te Kura o Ōhinetahi|Governors Bay School did inquiry topic work about Hilda Frame.

As part of this study they wrote to Brendan Smyth of the Heritage team CCC to ask why the reserve had no sign in memory of Hilda Frame. This led to the children being invited to present their request to the Community Board. Covid restrictions delayed things and it was on 12th April 2021 that the children were well received at the Lyttelton Community Board Meeting. At this meeting was a reporter from the Bay Harbour News who wrote an article about this. Mr Zane Darrell, one of Hilda Frame's foster family, happened to read the newspaper and got in touch with school, the family were very pleased and wanted to give Hilda Frame's medal to the Governor's Bay community, which he did in December 2021.

Victoria Bliss, from the council's heritage team, has liaised with all the different council departments in order to get our request to become a reality; she also worked with us to get an intangible heritage grant to pay for the sign to be made.

The sign was erected in November 2024 on posts using wood from the old Governors Bay Jetty. Brendan Smyth came along to represent the Christchurch City Council team; Zane Darrell and other foster family members helped the students with the official unveiling. David and Heather Bundy from The Governors Bay Heritage Trust, who originally showed the children photographs of Hilda Frame, were also in attendance. The sign was unveiled at 12 noon on 11th November 2024 with an audience of the school students and members of the Governors Bay Community.

Hilda Frame’s telegrams and correspondence can be found in C.C.C. Tūranga Library- He Kohinga Pūranga / Archives.