For almost 60 years, a younger version of Catherine Lee has held a special place in the cultural fabric of Dunedin.
Now the 68-year-old British woman is excitedly preparing to visit New Zealand for the first time in early-2026, her itinerary including a trip to the Dunedin Botanic Garden on 31 January, when she will come face to face with a bronze likeness of her younger self.
As a nine-year-old, Catherine posed as Wendy for the J.M. Barrie-inspired sculpture, Wendy and her Attendants (also referred to as The Darling Children Learning to Fly).
Commissioned by the Dunedin Botanic Garden and created by British sculptor Sir Cecil Thomas OBE in 1967, it followed the installation of another Sir Cecil sculpture, Peter Pan, nearby in 1963. Both artworks were a result of a donation by Green Island resident Harold Richmond.
Catherine recalls she used to pose for Cecil Thomas in his studio at Dora House, in South Kensington, London, where she was asked to balance somewhat precariously on a stepladder to give the illusion of flight.
“I would go every Wednesday afternoon after school. Alas, I never met my ‘brothers’ John and Michael, or Nana the dog, but I grew very fond of Cecil and his wife Dora.”
Catherine also remembers having tea with the sculptor and his wife, Dora, in whose memory the house is named.
“For a nine-year-old, this was an incredibly exciting experience, which came about when my father answered a small advertisement posted in the window of a local shop.
“I was the right age and had a long plait and somewhat cherubic face, which suited the character well,” Catherine recollects.
“I would go to the studio every Wednesday afternoon after school and position myself diagonally and rather uncomfortably on a stepladder, simulating Wendy in flight.
“I never met the two boys who modelled Wendy’s brothers, Michael and John at my side in the statue, or the dog Nana looking up as her charges took flight, but the whole came together very successfully.”
Catherine recalls how Sir Cecil would sometimes take her around the garden of Dora House and show her other works in progress, including a half-finished bust of Queen Elizabeth 2.
“He told me I was even more important than her – as my statue was taking precedence.
“After the modelling sessions, I would take tea with him and his wife Dora until my father came to collect me. A short documentary film was made of the sculpting process, in which I remember my older brother featured carefully conveying a cup of tea to me as I perched on the ladder – it’s the only time in my life he had ever waited on me.”
Catherine has lived most of her life in London, “a city which I absolutely love”. Born round the corner from where Cecil Thomas and his wife Dora lived, she has lived in various parts of the city, apart from brief stints in Oxford where she went to university (she studied English Language and Literature), in Lewes (Sussex) and in Florence, Italy, where she was involved in running a small opera company and several summer music festivals.
“I changed career fairly dramatically on my return from Italy and joined the British Civil Service where I worked mainly on justice and constitutional policies and rose to become the Director General in charge of policy at the Ministry of Justice. I was awarded a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2012 for services to justice, and received the medal from the then Prince of Wales, now King Charles III.”
Catherine says she can’t wait to visit New Zealand, where her itinerary will include spending two days in Dunedin.
“Of course, I will be making a pilgrimage to see the statue,” she says.
“When a friend of my father’s visited Dunedin and told the ladies in the gift shop that she knew the Wendy model, she was showered with free postcards of the statue with a message to the ‘Wendy Child’ written on the brown paper bag containing the postcards.
“I am very much looking forward to seeing the statue in the setting of the beautiful Dunedin Botanic Garden. It has been a lifetime dream.”
*The Dunedin Botanic Garden is planning to host a public talk featuring Catherine Lee and others on February 1, 2026. More details will be shared on Dunedin Botanic Garden Facebook page.