Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Ethel Ballinger Lack was born in 1872 in New Zealand – the daughter of Thomas Lack, a signwrighter, and Georgina Elizabeth Ballinger.
Ethel married Herbert Edward Brunton in 1901 and they had at least one daughter. Herbert worked as a fancy goods dealer and the family lived in Hastings. Herbert was declared bankrupt in 1908 and again in 1914 while working as a hairdresser in Puhekohe, which he blamed on failing trade and his wife’s ill health.
Herbert died in 1918 of influenza in Whakatane. After Herbert’s death Ethel ran the post office at Kopeopeo until two years before her death.
Ethel was keenly interested in horticulture, exhibiting and judging at flower shows throughout the Bay of Plenty. She was a member of the Church choir for 17 years and an enthusiastic worker for the Woman’s Institute.
Ethel died in September 1940 and she is buried with Herbert in the Whakatane Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Whakatane District Council https://www.whakatane.govt.nz
