Eliza Turner

Signed family name

Turner

Signed given name

Eliza

Given address

Cutten St S.Dunedin

Sheet number

Town/Suburb

South Dunedin

City/Region

Dunedin

Notes

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Eliza Matilda Turner was born in 1870 in New Zealand – the daughter of Henry Robert Turner and Catherine McPherson. (See 65 Catherine Turner)

When she signed the suffrage petition Eliza was living with her parents in Cutten St, South Dunedin.

She married Walter John Felmingham, a bootmaker, in 1897 and they had two children.

Their marriage did not last and they separated sometime after the birth of their second child in 1900.

Eliza worked as a music teacher of pianoforte. Her newspaper advertisements said she was a 'pupil of Herren Hirschburg (Conservatorio Frankfort) and Barmeyer (Conservatorio Leipzig)', her name also appears to have changed around this time to Elvia.

In November 1906 Eliza’s husband committed suicide by swallowing carbolic acid. While giving evidence at her husband’s inquest Elvia said 'they had been living apart for some considerable time, and were recently separated.'

Elvia moved to Auckland in the 1920s and was still advertising her teaching services in 1926.

She died on 3 October 1938 and is buried in the Waikumete Cemetery, Auckland.