Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Elizabeth Gunn was born about 1856 in Victoria, Australia, the daughter of Kenneth Gunn and Margaret Matheson.
She married Edwin Alfred Tapper, a timber merchant and sharebroker from Invercargill, on March 16th 1881 at her parents’ home in Melbourne. A couple of weeks later they sailed for Bluff.
They lived at first in Invercargill before moving to Dunedin in the late 1880s. They had five children.
When Elizabeth signed the suffrage petition they were living in Belleknowes.
In 1914 Edwin drowned when he was swept away while bathing at St Kilda beach. His body was not found.
After Edwin’s death Elizabeth moved back to Victoria where her daughter was living.
She died at her daughter’s home on August 20th 1924. She is buried in the Brighton General Cemetery, Victoria.
Sources
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
Community contributions