Bertha Mabel Ward

Biographical information provided by Helen Smith for the He Tohu exhibition:

Bertha Mabel Ward was born in 1867, the daughter of Robert Ward, Judge of the Native Land Court, and his wife Eleanor Ward (nee Wakefield). She married Arthur Holmes, a bank clerk, in 1895 and they lived in Victoria Ave, Whanganui. One son, Robert Ledger Holmes (1897-1973), was born to the couple. By 1906 they had moved to Palmerston where Arthur was manager for Messrs Abraham and Williams. Around 1916 they left for Whangarei where Arthur took up the position of manager for the North Auckland Farmers’ Co-operative Association. Bertha died in 1918 in Auckland, aged 51 years, after a long illness.

Her sisters Ethel Mary Ward and Marion Isabel Ward also signed this sheet of the Petition.