Ann O'Connor Alabaster

Ann O’Connor Alabaster (née Warner, 15 February 1842 – 25 February 1915) was a New Zealand teacher and businesswoman. She was the founder of the prestigious boys' school Lincoln Cottage Preparatory School in Christchurch.

Early life Alabaster was born in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, to Sarah Lyne and her husband Robert Warner, a shoemaker. As a teen, she taught at the parish school of St Ebbe, Oxford. She met curate of St Ebbe and fellow teacher Charles Alabaster (b. 1832/1833, d. 1865) there and married the 25-year-old in 1858, herself aged sixteen. She had a second son, John Chaloner Alabaster, the following year. Canon Frances Knowles, her new husband, was an Anglican clergyman. Alabaster loved music, and sang in concerts in Christchurch after retiring. She died in Christchurch on 25 February 1915.