Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Alice Beckett was born in 1865 in London, England – the daughter of Edward Beckett and Margaret Carter.
She emigrated to New Zealand with her family in the 1860s and they settled at Tuapeka.
Alice married Thomas Howland, a miner, on 26 January 1888 in the Duntroon parish.
They had four children and when Alice signed the suffrage petition the family were living at Maerewhenua in North Otago.
In October 1894 Thomas, who had gone to Coolgardie presumably for work, drowned when the steamer Wairarapa was wrecked at Great Barrier Island on his journey home.
Their fifth child was born in January the following year – Alice was granted assistance of 30s per week for five years.
She re-married in 1919 to James Heggie McKenzie, a widower and stonemason.
ames died in 1929 and Alice died at her daughter’s home in Oamaru on 5 March 1943.
They are buried together in the Old Oamaru Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
Waitaki District Council https://www.waitaki.govt.nz/Services/Cemeteries