Winmill, Dorothy

Dorothy May Winmill (later Cameron) was born in Stratford on 25 July 1923, the daughter of Walter Herbert Winmill (1893-1966) and May Winmill (nee Colley) (1891-1962).

Dorothy attended Stratford Primary School and enjoyed swimming, athletics and acting in plays but dance was her real passion – newspaper articles noted her excellent performances at events around the region, from Axemen’s Carnivals to entertainments for the unemployed during the Great Depression to the annual Kawaroa Seaside Society gala day, where she would dance everything from Highlands flings and Irish jigs to tap and ballet.

By the time she was 13 Dorothy had won 100 prizes for her dancing, in Taranaki and also as far afield as Auckland and Wellington, and her parents celebrated this success by throwing a dinner for 200 guests at the Masonic Hall in Stratford. She attended the Margaret Lawrence School of Dancing and dance clearly came before everything else – her parents even got in trouble for taking Dorothy out of school in order to attend a competition in January 1937.

When the Second World War broke out, Dorothy began dancing at patriotic concerts to raise money for gifts for departing soldiers. She was a member of the Girls’ Penguin Club which purchased parcels for such men but was called up to serve with the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) in February 1942.

It was perhaps inevitable that Dorothy would teach dance too, opening her own school in Stratford sometime before December 1941. She had to suspend classes when she joined the WAAF but reopened her school in September 1945 in the Courier Building on Fenton Street and by December of that year her pupils were performing at homecoming parties for returning soldiers. Dorothy also continued to dance herself, entertaining a large audience at the On Parade revue in New Plymouth in October 1945.

Dorothy married Harold "Chew" Cameron (1925-2005) in 1949 and the couple had four children: Diann, Irene, John and Dean. Also from Stratford, Harold served with the RNZAF during the Second World War then worked as a linesman in civilian life.

Dorothy Cameron taught dance until her death on 12 July 2004. Her ashes were buried in Kopuatama cemetery outside Stratford.