Learmonth White Dalrymple (c.1827–26 August 1906) was a New Zealand educationalist who campaigned for girls' secondary education in Dunedin and for women to be admitted to the University of Otago.

Her father William Dalrymple, an ironmonger and trader in minerals, manure and grain, remarried Margaret Saunders, but she died within a year or two.

The Dalrymples decided to return to Otago, where they settled first at Goodwood[2] and then by 1857 at Kaihiku, south-west of Dunedin, where Learmonth ran the household while establishing a Sunday school.

To mark the occasion, The Otago Daily Times published an editorial (probably written by Julius Vogel) calling for an equivalent girls' school.

Dalrymple read this and wrote in support of the idea to her neighbour John Richardson, who was a member of parliament and Speaker of the Otago Provincial Council.

They met with a varied reception; some people, both men and women, were antagonistic or ridiculed the idea, while others gave "delightfully encouraging words".

She felt unable to chair the meeting because it was not appropriate for an unmarried woman to do so, but persuaded a Mrs Thomas to take that position on the understanding that Dalrymple would do all the talking.

About thirty women attended, but the meeting was disrupted by a couple of interruptions, and then had to be abandoned because a German band practising outside made speech impossible.

In 1868, Vogel, now the Provincial Treasurer, was persuaded to include £1000 in the estimates for the establishment of a girls' high school, but this failed to pass.

The petition was presented to the university council on 8 August, and they unanimously resolved that women should be admitted, but that they would compete for certificates, the equivalent of degrees.

[3][8] Dalrymple worked to improve kindergarten education, writing a pamphlet and requesting to Parliament that they establish the Frobel system of pre-school learning.

She continued to support the Girls' School, donating a prize to it each year and founded a scholarship for women at the university.

[9] By 1896 she was living south of Feilding in Levin where she continued to participate in civic activities such as voting and education reform.