Author(s): Penny Griffith

NZ History/Society | NZ Biographies

Millicent Baxter was the pivot and driving force of her husband and sons¿ lives. In some ways they lived in her shadow. Throughout her 96 years, Millicent was surrounded by fame, but virtually untouched by it.Her son James K. Baxter, was arguably the country¿s most celebrated poet. Her husband Archie Baxter was New Zealand¿s most renowned WW1 conscientious objector, subjected to shocking brutality. A forceful and sometimes daunting character with a crushing wit, lucid intellect and sharp political mind, Millicent declined an MA at the University of Cambridge and became a leading promoter of pacifism in New Zealand at a time when women just did not do such things. A strongly independent young woman, she defied her controlling father and turned her back on a life of privilege and prosperity to live with a poor rabbiter from a remote part of New Zealand's South Island.