Clara Jane Seabourn

Biographical information provided by Stefanie Lash, Archives New Zealand, for the He Tohu exhibition:

Clara Jane Perryman was born in Hammersmith, London, in 1866 and at the age of 8 moved to New Zealand with her parents and her two sisters. In 1891 at the age of 25 she married John Seabourn, a baker. He was a widower with seven children, and they had a further five children together. Clara was widowed at the age of 35 when John accidentally drowned at the Sydenham Baths. She raised her children by herself, and then moved to 44 Malcolm Avenue in Beckenham, where she lived until she died at the age of 85.