Originally transcribed as Merreal E Ivens
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Merrial Ethel Ivens was born about 1877 – the daughter of Edgar Ivens, a bank agent/accountant, and Eugenie Veronique Adolphine de Vils. (See 100 Eugenie Ivens)
Her family lived in New Zealand and Melbourne before settling in New Zealand.
When she signed the suffrage petition Merrial was living with her widowed mother in Tapanui, South Otago working as a music teacher.
She travelled to Buenos Aires with her mother and sister Mabel in 1899 'and joining the staff of the ‘Standard’ quickly established a reputation as a brilliant journalist.'
She married Charles J Gilbert on 22 June 1909 at Christ Church, Calle Upsallaia, South America.
'Later she accompanied her husband to Spain, and when he died she had great difficulty in taking her aged mother to England, where she subsequently died.'
Merrial returned to Buenos Airies and 'continued her work as social editor and contributor to the ‘Standard’' She died there in 1934.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz