Harriet Randell

This portrait of Harriet Randell (1857-1942) was taken in 1889, just before she travelled to Australia to advance her singing career.

Harriet was the second of the ten Randell children and was the star of the family with a beautiful singing voice. Her father, a devout member of the Plymouth Brethren, had not allowed Harriet to sing except at religious meetings, but after he died in 1880 she was able to pursue a professional singing career. Harriet performed at all of Wellington’s major concert halls, and in 1885 she travelled to Christchurch to perform at the New Zealand Industrial Exhibition.

In 1889, the year this photograph was taken, Harriet was engaged to George Webb. Just before their wedding George confessed that he could not marry Harriet because he already had a wife who was in what would have been called an institution for the mentally ill. Harriet decided to leave Wellington and travel to Melbourne, where she was accepted as a soloist in Dr Strong’s Church Choir. Singing was her only source of income so she asked to be paid for her services, and was the first soloist in Melbourne Cathedral to earn a professional fee.

While touring in Australia Harriet fell gravely ill and had to return to New Zealand to recuperate. She lived with her mother Sarah in St Mary St, Thordon, until 1912, and then moved to rented accommodation in Ghuznee St and later in Boulcott Street. She continued to teach singing until she was in her seventies. She led the Anglican choir at St Peters, Willis Street, for 40 years. Harriet died in 1942, aged 85.

References
Randell, Beverley. 1992. A Crowded Thorndon Cottage: The story of William and Sarah Randell and their ten children. Wellington: Gondwanaland Press.
Randell, Beverley, and Susan Price. 2021. Unpublished research notes provided to curator.