New Zealand Memories Issue 149

DANCE
Do You Remember the
Misses Beresford?
Candice McLennan
Some years ago, while travelling in a bus along Auckland’s Symonds Street, I overheard a snippet of
conversation from the seat in front of me. As we passed where Number 106 once proudly stood, I heard
“Do you remember the Misses Beresford, I wonder what happened to them?” In an unusual moment
of serendipity I was able to tap them on the shoulder and provide some answers. Coincidentally, I am
one of the Misses Beresfords’ great nieces.
So who were these two talented ladies? The Misses Beresford were among the leading figures in Auckland
entertainment during the first fifty years of last century. Miss May Beresford taught piano and singing and
Miss Aileen taught dance and violin. Mary Bridget (known as ‘May’) and Aileen Kathleen were born in 1876
and 1884 respectively, sisters to John Benson, Percy James, Bertie Cecil and Leslie Charles. Initially they lived
in Normanby, Taranaki. The family then settled in Whangarei in the mid 1880s where their father, Charles
Henry Beresford, set up and ran a general store along with their mother, Marie Therese. Whangarei is where
May and Aileen received their musical and dance education. They were well-respected performers with their
own orchestra, which toured the North Island giving concerts. Aileen was often asked to judge local dancing
May Beresford in costume in the early the 1900s.
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