Margaret Alcorn

Margaret Andrews Alcorn (11 July 1868 – 1 November 1967) was an interior decorator and business owner in Wellington, New Zealand.

Early life Alcorn was born in Hokitika on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island in 1868 to Samuel Wesley and Jane Alcorn (born Andrews). Samuel and Jane had emigrated to Dunedin from Ireland, married there in 1865, and then moved to the West Coast. She had one older sibling, Mary and six younger siblings: Ethel, Olive, Winifred, John, William and Kathleen.

The drapery business was successful, and the Alcorn children enjoyed a prosperous household with a governess and private schools. This life changed dramatically, however, in 1877 when a fire in the shop destroyed the business and killed a younger daughter of the family, Winifred, aged four. In 1902 she won a class prize in design, and in 1903 she won the South Kensington National Book Prize in an art competition run from London. The sisters also offered professional advice and design ideas for their customers' homes.

Margaret had a long involvement with the business of Arthur Riley, who had been the principal of the Wellington Technical College when she had studied there, and whose premises were also in the Kennedy Building. Margaret was Riley's company secretary, accountant and later a company director.

After Mary died in 1928, Margaret managed the shop alone, including opening a second shop in Burlington Arcade (pictured). The shops struggled to survive during the Great Depression and the business went into liquidation in 1934. Although Margaret did not legally need to clear the business's debts, she took in boarders until they were paid.

Margaret died at her home in Oriental Bay in 1967 and is buried in a family plot at the Bolton Street Cemetery.