Biographical information provided by Alison Hollis for the He Tohu exhibition:
Beatrice Maria Thorburn was the wife of my great uncle. She was born in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1864, and was the youngest child of 13 to Scottish immigrants Mary Robertson Spiers and William Lang Thorburn.
Beatrice married bushman and gum digger, William Edmund Burke in 1888. The young couple settled in Mahurangi, Auckland where they had 10 children. Two of their sons fought in the First World War. One (Thomas) was seriously injured and the other (Malcolm) was killed at Ypres. Another son, Francis, had an untimely death at age 44, after falling from a tree in Auckland in 1945, leaving a young family of 7.
Related images:
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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