suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Benson
Given names: 
A.
Given address: 
Reed Street
Sheet No: 295
Town/Suburb: 
Oamaru
City/Region: 
Otago
Notes: 

Biography contributed by Colyn Storer (née Morley)

'A. Benson' was Ada Sarah Benson (née Thompson), the second eldest of five daughters of George Thompson and Jessie Elizabeth (née Phipps). George, who had emigrated from Cork Ireland to Oamaru before he went to Victoria, and Jessie were married in Geelong Victoria on 6 October 1863.

They moved back to Oamaru where their eldest daughter Alice was born on 20 July 1864, but returned to Geelong where Ada Sarah was born on 24 January and baptised on 28 August 1867. The family was still in Geelong when the next daughter Beatrice was born in 1869, before they finally settled in Oamaru about 1873. 

Ada married Frederick Benson on 7 May 1890. He was born in 1853 at Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, England. They had four children: Frederick in 1891, Alfred in 1892, Leila in 1894 and Una in 1898. Sadly, Frederick left the family about 1900 and probably went to South Africa, where it is believed he died about 1920.

Ada lived in Reed St Oamaru with her extended family who helped her to bring up the children. They all married and she enjoyed her grandchildren. Ada lived with her daughter Una and husband Arthur Willetts, a chemist at Main Road in Johnsonville, Wellington, from the mid 1920s as recorded in NZ Electoral rolls. 

She died there on 7 May 1941 and was buried on 9 May at Oamaru Cemetery where she is commemorated along with her grandson, Gunner Herbert James Benson who was killed in the Second World War at Sora, Italy. Her will was probated in Wellington.

Ada's sister Mrs Crawshaw (Alice Emily) also signed this Petition and their mother Jessie E Thompson was a signatory of the 1892 Suffrage Petition but did not sign the 1893 petition which was finally approved by Parliament.  

Sources

BDM online NZ
BDM Victoria
New Zealand electoral rolls 1853-1981 (Ancestry.com.au)
New Zealand Society of Genealogists
Oamaru Cemetery records
Archives New Zealand probate records (Family Search)

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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