Edith Stanway Halcombe (nee Swainson), wife of A W Follet Halcombe. Edith was an accomplished painter and sketcher, having been instructed by her father Willaim Swainson, a naturalist and artist.
Throughout her life, Edith continued to record her surroundings through various mediums, and won prizes for her oil paintings. As the land around her became more settled, she expressed regret at the decline of native wildlife, and engaged in some conservation efforts by capturing birds so that they could be transported to more suitable parts of the country. She was a mother to eight children, and was heavily involved in the newly established Feilding community. She also established her own herd of about twenty Jersey cows, which contributed significantly to the dissemination of the breed in New Zealand when it was sold in 1879.