Helen Meril Shanly was born to Helen Tanzine and William Johnson Shanly on 3 April 1935 in Wellington.

William J Shanly was born on 1 February 1901 to William Ignatius and Sarah Shanly. By 1926, at the age of 25, William J was already a rising civil servant in Wellington, appointed to the position of Private Secretary to the New Zealand Postmaster-General.

On 6 October 1933, six months after the decree absolute of his first marriage which produced a daughter, William J Shanly and Helen Tanzin Griffin married at St Luke’s Church in Remuera, Auckland.  The couple lived in Kelburn, Wellington.

In 1935 and 1936, the Helen and William Shanly enjoyed a high-profile social life, receiving numerous invitations to balls and receptions, including with the Governor General and the Prime Minister.

By late 1936, when Helen Meril was under two years old, William Shanly had left Helen Tanzin. In 1939, she divorced him.

In 1940, William J Shanly married his third wife Gladys Norma Thomas and together they had four children and lived in Island Bay, Wellington. Shanly went on to have a profession in aviation and died aged 63 on 18 May 1964.

After her father left family, the widowed Sarah Griffin moved in with her daughter Helen Tanzin (Big Helen) Shanly to look after her grand-daughter, Helen Meril (Little Helen), while Helen Tanzin taught to support the three of them.

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Between October 1936 to 13 March 1941, Helen Tanzin taught at Manakau School, north of Wellington. 

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In 1941, the family of three—Sarah, Big Helen and Little Helen—moved from Manakau to Putaruru in the Waikato district where Helen Tanzin was Senior Assistant Mistress at the Putaruru District High School.

Helen Meril’s grandmother, Sarah Griffin, who lived with Helen and Helen for seven years, died in 1943 aged 82.

Move to Christchurch

Ralph Fergus Cahill (1906-1974) was one of three children born to the youngest Deacon child, Mabel Thomasine and her husband Thomas Francis Cahill: Sylvia Eliza (1902-39), Arthur Thomas William (1904-58), then Ralph in 1906. Both Mabel and Thomas died of the Spanish Flu in 1918 leaving their orphaned children in the care of a nanny called Biddy.

Ralph had married Grace Maud Main in 1933; Grace died in 1945.

In 1947, Helen Tanzin Shanly married Ralph Fergus Cahill in Rotorua, Bay of Plenty. Helen and Ralph Cahill, and 12 year-old Helen Shanly, then moved to Christchurch. Helen’s half-sister, Joan, was born on 14 April 1948.

Helen received her primary school certificate in 1947 in Spreydon, Christchurch, then attended Christchurch Girls’ Grammar School from 1948. Her friend Julie recalls that Helen had the first ballpoint pen she had ever seen, given to Helen by her father. In November 1951, Helen attained her School Certificate with straight As in English, Latin, French and History.

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Teachers College in Dunedin

In 1953, Helen moved to Dunedin to undertake a Diploma of Physical Education at the University of Otago, where she graduated in 1955 with her degree confirmed on 7 May 1956.

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In February 1956, Helen was accepted to Division C Training College, in her home town of Christchurch. In October 1956, Helen was offered a position on the teaching staff of Linwood High School, Christchurch.

Helen only met her father twice following his departure when she was an infant, although he sent her gifts from time to time such as mementoes from his 1937 journey to the Council of the League of Nations in Geneva with the Minister for Labour, for whom he was Secretary (photos below). 

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Helen’s marriage

It was in Dunedin that Helen met Brian Graham Tidmarsh who was studying dentistry at the University of Otago. On 30 August 1958, Helen married Brian Tidmarsh at St Augustine Church, Cashmere, Christchurch.

Helen’s bridesmaids were her friend, Julie Caldwell, half-sister, Joan Cahill and Brian’s sister, Mary. Brian’s best man was his friend Ian Cresswell and groomsmen his cousins Graham (Sam) and Alfred Sneyd. Helen and Brian honeymooned in Wairakei, near Taupo.

Helen and Brian moved to a flat in Burwood Crescent, Remuera in Auckland. After about 18 months they bought a house in Papatoetoe in south Auckland.

From February 1959 to July 1960, Helen was a primary teacher at Diocesan School for Girls, Epsom, Auckland. Brian was working for the Health Department as a condition of his dental bursary, before he purchased his own dental practice from a retiring dentist, George Thomson.

Helen and Brian had two children: Angela Helen, born on 6 January 1961, and Stephanie Anne, born on 18 July 1963.

After living in Papatoetoe, the family moved to 113 Orakei Road, Remuera.

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England years

In 1968, the family sailed to England on the Northern Star and rented a house for about six months in Letchworth, Hertfordshire.

In the summer of 1968, the family took a six-week summer holiday in a VW van through the West Country, Wales and Ireland.

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Brian had a Commonwealth Lecturer’s position at the Royal Dental Hospital, in Leicester Square, London. From 1968-70, Helen was teaching part-time at a school in Sevenoaks.

In 1969, the family shifted to a cottage in West Heath Lane, Sevenoaks, Kent, and hired a boat to travel on the Thames.

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In July and August 1969, the Tidmarsh family went on a camping holiday to Europe, taking the VW van over on ferry. They travelled through the Forest of Ermononville, Rheims, Besancon and onto Lausanne, Lake Geneva. However, Brian became seriously ill and was taken to hospital in the middle of the night then flown back to London. Helen drove the van back to England with Angela and Stephanie.

The family returned to the Continent the following summer, in August 1970, travelling to Interlaken, Lake Thun, going up the Schelthorn by cable car and train to Kleine Scheidegg to walk on the alpine meadows beneath the North Face of the Eiger.

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On 4 November 1970, the family set sail on P&O’s Oriana from Southampton, heading back to New Zealand via South Africa. A huge storm in Bass Strait damaged the ship: restaurant windows were smashed, the cinema flooded, and crew slept in the public areas in the middle of the ship to avoid being thrown out of their bunks. The Tidmarsh family arrived back in Auckland, New Zealand, on 14 December 1970.

In 1970, the family settled in Dunedin where, after a few months staying in a dentist colleague’s home in Maori Hill, they purchased a home at 47 Tweed Street, Roslyn. Brian had a lecturer position at New Zealand’s Dental School at the University of Otago, becoming senior lecturer, then Associate Professor in the field of endodontics. Helen returned to teaching physical education part-time in a south Dunedin high school.

Daughters Angela and Stephanie completed primary, then secondary school, in Dunedin.

For a number of years the family had a wooden crib (holiday house) in Livingston, North Otago, 2 hours 40 minutes drive north-west from Dunedin. It was there that the daughters learnt to ride horses and helped muster sheep; Brian sifted for gold in the river; they picked fruit from the orchard and had a pet sheep called Cindy.

The marriage between Helen and Brian Tidmarsh ended in 1980.

New home in Maori Hill

Helen bought her own home in Maori Hill, Dunedin, putting a lot of effort into paying it off, doing it up and creating her garden.

Helen shifted from teaching, to working in the Department of Internal Affairs in Dunedin. In that role, Helen travelled to Brisbane in August-September 1988 to participate in World Expo 88 on behalf of New Zealand exporters.

In June 2004, Helen joined a tour of Russian art museums in Moscow and Petersburg organised by Associate Professor, Peter Stupples, who taught art history in the Russian Department at the University of Otago, followed by art history and theory at the Otago Polytechnic Dunedin School of Art.

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Grandchildren

Helen’s older daughter, Angela, had married Peter Smyth in New York in 1993. They had two boys born in Canberra, Miles in 1994 and Griffin in 1997. Angela and Peter separated in 1998. In 2006, Angela moved with the boys to Melbourne, where Peter also moved.

Helen’s younger daughter, Stephanie, married Simon McKenzie in Dunedin and they had two sons, Timothy, born in 1989 and James, born in 1993. The McKenzies moved to Palmerston North.

Some of Helen’s happiest memories were of her early childhood with her grandmother, Sarah Griffin, who had cared for her between the ages of two and nine. As an adult, Helen was a very loving and caring grandmother to her four grandsons. She made Timothy and James, Miles and Griffin, clothes, wrote often, and sent them interesting books and articles. Despite the distances and cost, Helen saw all of her grandsons at least yearly and they all have very fond memories of her.

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Once she retired, Helen hosted in her home many overseas students who were learning English before commencing studies at the University of Otago. One in particular, Nick Lei, was very fond of Helen, inviting her to his graduation in Christchurch and to meet his parents. Nick considered Helen as his second grandmother and he attended her funeral.

For some years Helen’s mother, Helen Tansin Cahill, lived with her younger daughter and son-in-law, Joan and Grant Knight and their sons in Auckland and then Dunedin. When the Knights returned to Auckland, Helen Snr remained in Dunedin, where Helen visited her often in her Mornington rest home until her death aged 97 in 2003.

80th birthday trip

On 3 April 2015, Helen travelled to Sydney to celebrate her 80th birthday with daughters, Stephanie from Palmerston North and Angela from Melbourne along with Angela’s sons, Miles and Griffin.

On the itinerary were the Queen Victoria Building, The Rocks, a Sydney harbour cruise, Hyde Park, the Chinese Gardens, Art Gallery of New South Wales. Highlights were a trip to the Blue Mountains to visit the Three Sisters and the Jenolan Caves. Finally, Helen and family attended Aida, an Opera on the Harbour, spectacularly staged on the Sydney harbour foreshore, before Helen flew home to Dunedin.

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Death

Helen died suddenly on her 82nd birthday, 3 April 2017.

On the morning of her birthday, Helen walked two kilometres from her home in Maori Hill down to the Dunedin Botanic Gardens where she met with friends. She then walked three kilometres to the Octagon in the centre of Dunedin and had lunch at the Nova restaurant, after which planned to see a movie. It was at the Nova that Helen suffered a rupture of a large intracranial artery. She died 12 hours later in the Dunedin Public Hospital, with daughter Stephanie at her bedside.

Helen’s funeral was at St John Anglican Church in 8 April 2017. Some of Helen’s ashes are buried at the foot of the grave of her grandmother, Sarah Griffin, in the Putaruru Cemetery. The remaining ashes are scattered under rhododendron bushes in Cherry Tree Walk in the Dunedin Botanical Gardens.

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