Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Annie Elizabeth Hickman was born about 1860.
She married John Edward Churchill, a mariner, on December 27th 1882 in Westport. They had three children, one who died in early childhood.
In 1887 John was charged by Annie with “unlawfully assaulting and beating her”.
The evidence given was that “the frail Ann Elizabeth had, in the absence of her husband, who is a seaman, been leading an immoral life.”
Hoping to remedy the situation John sent Annie to Greymouth and was “under the impression that she had mended her ways”. When John came to visit “he found that his wife was the inmate of a brothel. He went to the house yesterday morning and remonstrated with” Annie.
“But she was not ashamed in the slightest degree, and said that she would lead what life she chose.” In the heat of the moment John struck Annie. The case was dismissed.
A few years later the family moved to Dunedin. When Annie signed the suffrage petition they were living in Grosvenor St, Kensington.
They moved to nearby Ravensbourne in the 1910s where John died in 1921. Annie died the following year on March 2nd.
They are buried in the family grave in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.