Maria Thomson

Maria Thomson (1809 – 21 December 1875) was a New Zealand businesswoman. She established a private school and invested in property in Christchurch in the late nineteenth century.

Biography Thomson was born in England and emigrated to New Zealand when she was 43 years old, arriving at Lyttelton on board the Hampshire on 6 May 1853. She purchased two town sections on Oxford Terrace and opened Christchurch Ladies' School on 22 March 1854 in a building called Avon House. She advertised using the name Mrs Charlie Thomson and enrolled both day girls and boarders. She returned to Christchurch in 1868 and re-opened her school in Avon House. She was buried in the Barbadoes Street Cemetery. Her will, which she had made in October 1875, left the bulk of her estate to Christchurch's Anglican bishop for religious and charitable works. Much of the funds were spent on the establishment and maintenance of Cathedral Grammar School.

After he death, her friends contributed funds for a memorial window in the chapel in the Barbadoes Street Cemetery, and former pupils gathered funds for two memorial windows designed by architect Benjamin Mountfort and placed in the south-eastern corner of the Church of St Michael and All Angels.