Florence Keene

Florence Myrtle Keene (née Matthews 3 May 1908 – 15 February 1998) was a New Zealand historian, teacher and author who contributed significantly to the recorded history of the Northland Region.

Early life and family Keene was born in Kaitaia, Northland, on 3 May 1908, the daughter of Herbert Bismark Matthews and Eliza Myrtle Matthews. She is a descendant of Reverends Joseph Matthews and Richard Davis, both of the Church Missionary Society; the former had worked in New Zealand since 1832 while the latter was based at the Te Waimate Mission. Keene was educated at Kaitaia Primary School and Epsom Girls' Grammar School. After attending Auckland Teachers' Training College and the University of Auckland, she taught throughout Northland. Her first teaching post was at Kaeo, where she taught 56 students.

She was a member of the New Zealand Women's Writers, Whangarei Historical Society, the Historic Places Trust, and was on the executive committee of the Northland Regional Museum.

Selected bibliography

Cross over Kauri (1960) O Te Raki (1963) Between Two Mountains (1966) With Flags Flying (1973) By This We Conquer (1974) Rangatira from Aupori (1974) Tai Tokerau (1975) Milestone: Whangarei County's first 100 years, 1876-1976 (1976) To the Northward (1977) Legacies in Kauri: old homes & churches of the North (1978) Mimiwhangata Station (1978) Poroti: marking the centennial of the Poroti School, 1879-1979 (1979) Myrtle and Sophia (1982) Time Turns the Pages (1983) Under Northland Skies: forty women of Northland (1984) Women: Today & Yesterday (1987) No turning back (1989) Northland founders (1989) Kaitaia and its people (1989) ... And his wife : women of Whangarei (1991) From past to present : Waimamaku and Poroti (1992) Down the O'Donnell, Davis, Matthews ladder (1995)