Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Also signed as 163 C. Croft
Caroline Gain was born in Walworth, Surrey in 1858 – the daughter of David Gain, a master butcher, and Mary Ann Sophia Bilton.
She married Charles Chesman Croft, a grocer, on 5 March 1878 at the Central Hill Baptist Chapel in Upper Norwood, London.
They had two daughters before they emigrated to Victoria, Australia in 1881 on the Norfolk.
They settled in Glen Innes, New South Wales where they had a further six children, one who died in infancy.
The family travelled to Otago around 1889 and settled in Dunedin.
They had four more children, one who died aged four years, and when Caroline signed the suffrage petition they were living in Selwyn, North East Valley.
They celebrated their golden wedding in March 1928 and later that year, in November, Charles died.
Caroline died on 22 August 1937 – she is buried with Charles in the Northern Cemetery.
Sources:
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
NSW Government https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/