suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Hansard
Given names: 
Edith
Given address: 
Napier
Sheet No: 436
Town/Suburb: 
Napier
City/Region: 
Hawke's Bay
Notes: 

Biographical information provided by Max Kerr for the He Tohu exhibition:

Edith Laura Hansard was born in London in 1862, the third child of Charles James Hansard and Mary Ann Root. He was a member of the Hansard family that earlier that century had begun the systematic daily printing of debates in the House of Commons. Mary Ann died shortly after Edith’s birth and about 1870, Charles brought his young family to New Zealand.

Edith began training as a nurse at Napier Hospital in 1892 when she was 30. She acted for a short time as Matron but resigned in 1898 for work as a private nurse. In 1902 she obtained recently introduced state registration and moved to Christchurch where she worked first with the Nurse Maude District Nursing Service and then as a nurse with the Plunket Society. During the 1918 influenza epidemic she helped set up and supervise a home in Armagh St for infants and small children whose mothers were unwell. The local papers published many appreciative comments about this work. Edith retired in 1921 and lived first in Feilding and then back in Hawke’s Bay where she died in 1959 at the age of 96.

Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.

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