[1] Hemus also held positions with the National Council of Women of New Zealand and was a prominent member of the Auckland Theosophical Society.
[2] Hemus was born in Auckland on 11 November 1876,[3] to Charles Hemus (a photographer) and Gertrude Evangeline Edger (a sister of Kate Edger, the first woman New Zealand to earn a university degree in New Zealand).
In 1940, in her role as president, she sent a letter to Justice Minister HGR Mason, recommending the appointment of women associates in Magistrates' Courts for domestic proceedings.
She often spoke at the Theosophical Society public lectures, on topics such as "The Power of Thought", "Justice or Mercy, Which?
She was instrumental in the establishment of the Vasanta Garden School, which opened in Epsom in 1919, and was based on theosophical ideas of education.