[1][2] The family emigrated to Dunedin, New Zealand in 1866 and later lived at Hokitika, Auckland, Napier and Gisborne where Annie Rees died.
[1][3][4] Widely known as Lily Rees, she helped father write political pamphlets during her 20s and published articles on historical and current topics.
In April 1902, along with 19 other women from New Zealand, Rees was selected to teach children in the Boer concentration camps of South Africa.
[2][4] From her experience there as part of the ‘Learned Eleventh,’ as the cadre of teachers was called, she published accounts of the camps in the New Zealand press.
She briefly practiced law with her father at his firm before opening a school for girls, Cook County College, in 1912 in Gisborne, which she ran until 1923.