Easily the best

"When Helen Connan received her Master of Arts degree from University of New Zealand in 1881, she became the first woman in the British Empire to get an honours degree. She later became the second lady principal of Christchurch Girls High School, establishing it firmly as a leading acedemic secondary school. Helen Connan's personal life was no less interesting. Her childhood was spent in pioneering gold towns in Victoria and South Island of New Zealand. When her family settled in Christchurch in 1874, Helen became one of the first women students at Canterbury College, the forerunner of the University of Canterbury. In 1886 she married Professor John Macmillan Brown, the man who had guided her through Universty years.