The loss of a doctor

It’s always a tragedy when someone dies young and doubly so when they had already proved they were capable of greatness.
Agatha Adams Monfries was 30 when she died in 1911 and unusually for her time,
She was a medical doctor. One of the earliest New Zealand females doctors. And by the time she died she had been in charge of a national institute, specialised in the care of women and children and become the beloved local doctor of Taumarunui.
Agatha Helen Janes Adams was born in 1880 to Robert Noble and Jane Ellen Adams in Otago. Her father was from Dunedin and had married his Scottish emigrant wife. Robert was the publisher of the Otago Daily Times and Otago Witness.
Agatha attended Otago Girls’ High School and qualified for a scholarship.
She was in good company, from Otago Girls’ there were 9 girls who went on to pursue medical careers between 1896 and 1906.
Agatha’s brother Robert had himself become a doctor and likely encouraged Agatha to go to Otago University. She graduated aged 23 and began practising specialising in diseases of women and children.
She was proactive in getting involved in things like meetings of The Society for Promoting the Health of Women and Children, offering her services as a medical advisor to an orphanage and locum for a local sanatorium for consumptives.
In 1907 she was appointed medical superintendent to Karitane Infants’ Home by special recommendation of Dr Truby King, the founder of the institution.
Agatha married Reverend James Inch Monfries in 1909 aged 28 in Wellington.
They went to Taumaranui and Agatha became the first female doctor there and medical officer for Taumarunui Hospital but there was too much to do and she gave that up after a year.
However she kept the appointment as the Native Health officer for the district. Along with her job she was church organist and Sunday school teacher.
On February 19, 1911 Agatha gave birth to her first child who was stillborn, then two days later she died of peritonitis. She was 30.
She was a huge loss to the local community and was hugely mourned. The Maori community gathered at the manse the couple lived in, bringing with them an aute (a type of mat which was an emblem of love and grief for the deceased) which was draped over the coffin and a wreath which was then placed upon the coffin.
Agatha is buried in the Taumarunui Old Cemetery and while there is no mention of her son, it is supposed he was buried with her.​