Remembering Christina Jamieson this International Women’s Day

In celebration of International Women’s Day we’re remembering just one of the many pioneering women in Shetland’s history, Christina Jamieson.

Christina Jamieson, born in Sandness in 1866, was arguably the first ‘modern’ Shetland woman. She was the daughter of Robert Jamieson, the headmaster, and Barbara Laing, one of their talented children. When Robert died the family moved to Lerwick and eventually settled at Twageos House. Christina was interested in literature, and made a living writing short stories and other articles for magazines and the press. She was also exercised about the plight of women, and became president of the Shetland Suffrage society, founded in 1909. Her lively writing on women’s suffrage caused annoyance among some Shetland men. At the end of the First World War she became chairperson of the Lerwick School Board, the first Shetland woman to hold such a position. With her nephew Bertie Jamieson, a communist, she edited a volume of extracts from the Waas Kirk Session register of the eighteenth century. She was also a leading light in the Shetland Folk Lore Society, who rehearsed ‘Shetland sketches’ (short plays) at Twageos House. Christina’s health declined in later years, and she emigrated to New Zealand to stay with her brother. She died in Wellington in 1942.