She was the daughter of Sarah Jane Mattocks and Thomas Kirk, a surveyor who went on to be an early professor at Victoria University College and the first Chief Conservator of State Forests in New Zealand.

At the meeting, Lily Kirk together with temperance activist Arthur Atkinson spoke in support of the WCTU NZ work in getting literature and pledge cards to people living in rural areas as well as a letter specifically directed to Maori women "at all the stopping places up the Whanganui River.

[11] In this position she served as a regular lecturer on temperance: "A clear, forceful, local speaker, her charming personality, her musical voice, her swift transition from grave to gay, and her wide and accurate knowledge made her a favourite with her many audiences.

"[12] Her speech in May 1895 for the Alliance convention at Palmerston North included the charge that the English history of the start of the liquor trade came from aristocrats who wanted to keep the common folk compliant.

[13] And others did not miss the opportunity to pick up on her frequent allegories of battle in the fight against the liquor trade: one of her speeches was described as "decidedly to the point, chaste, calm, and dignified, and well aimed ...

'"[14] While president of the Wellington WCTU, Lily May Kirk worked with Kate Sheppard to organise public meetings in Canterbury in August 1895, lecturing on temperance first in Christchurch then Kaiapoi and Rangiora.

[15] Those who heard her lectures on the victims of the liquor traffic, the drunkard and those dependent upon him, spoke of her "logical, strong, yet sympathetic handling of this subject – how earnest yet how kind.

[19] There was no mention in The White Ribbon's notice of her report that she had been a part of a group who had argued against the NCWNZ's resolution for women to gain the right to stand for election to the New Zealand Parliament.

Kirk," she served as the recording secretary of the annual convention of the New Zealand Women's Christian Temperance Union held at Dunedin in April 1896.

If your Union would ask of every candidate at the coming General Election to support such a measure, it would soon become the law of the land here, as it was in England many centuries ago, and as it is today already in Colorado and in South Australia.

"[23] Still serving as the WCTU NZ recording secretary, the national superintendent for the Legal and Parliamentary Department, and the managing committee for The White Ribbon, "Miss L.M.

The Greymouth WCTU reported to The White Ribbon why Kirk's oratory style was so successful: "Her voice is so soft and sweet, and her words so well chosen, that they sink into the hearts of her hearers and compel sympathy.

"[29] In March 1901, Lily May Kirk Atkinson attended the 16th Annual Convention of New Zealand Woman's Christian Temperance Union held in Wellington.

The rise in the number of No-License districts, created out of the Alcoholic Liquors Sale Control Act of 1893[32] was of no surprise given the close work between WCTU NZ and the New Zealand Alliance.

Atkinson was elected vice president of the National Council of Women of New Zealand (NCW NZ) at their sixth conference in May 1901 at Wanganui.

At an annual meeting in 1909 over which Atkinson presided, they reported that volunteers were able to find homes for neglected children and funds for an impoverished family with no wage-earners.

At the organising meeting, Lily May Atkinson read out the rules established earlier by the Provisional Committee, stating that the club's purpose was for women's education, conversation and "silence.

Opening on 30 July 1909, on the corner of Cuba and Manners Streets (it was later moved to Lambton Quay) with meeting space and a tea room, this was the first general women's club in New Zealand.

[49] By then, the role of the league emphasised the fear of Japanese aggression in the Pacific and the need for men and women to be educated in civic morality and survival preparedness in specially designated camp institutes.

Her husband told the readers of The White Ribbon the details: "Delirium developed during the night, and at a consultation next morning the diagnosis was that uraemia had supervened on pyelitis, and that the condition was critical.

'I've faced worse stunts than this,' she said quite cheerfully ... On the evening of Tuesday, 19th July, almost exactly 48 hours after she had had to abandon her last attempt to serve the temperance cause ... she passed peacefully away [in her sleep].