Judy Pickard
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19 June 1921
- Painter
- librarian
- women's rights advocate
Judy Pickard | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Judith Ngaire Maud Kain 19 June 1921 Hastings, New Zealand |
| Died | 10 March 2016 (aged 94) Hamilton, New Zealand |
| Occupations |
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| Known for | Abstract painting |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Edgar Kain (brother) |
Judith Ngaire Maud Pickard QSM (née Kain; 19 June 1921 – 10 March 2016) was a New Zealand abstract painter, librarian and advocate for women's rights.
Pickard was born in the New Zealand city of Hastings on 19 June 1921. She was the youngest of five children, and her father imported textiles. After the family moved to Wadestown, Wellington, she attended Samuel Marsden Collegiate School.[1]
During World War II Pickard and her mother travelled to England to join her brother, Edgar Kain, a fighter pilot with the RAF who had recently become engaged, but he died before their arrival.[1] Pickard and her mother were presented by George VI with her brother's DFC medal on his behalf at Buckingham Palace,[2][3] and Pickard joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. She had attained the rank of sergeant by the end of the war and was working as an instructor.[1][4]
After the war, Pickard returned to New Zealand, where she completed a bachelor of arts degree at the University of Canterbury and obtained a diploma from the New Zealand Library School, becoming a librarian. In 1952, she married schoolteacher and writer Alexander Pickard, best-known by his literary pseudonym AP Gaskell, and they had three children.[1]
