Three of the women who signed page 324 of the NZ Women’s Suffrage Petition in 1893 were closely related to
Kate Sheppard. They were
Marie Beath (nee Malcom) – Kate Sheppard's older sister – her niece
Margaret Hamilton Beave (nee Beath), and Alice Fanny Malcolm, her sister-in-law (married to Kate’s brother, Frank Souter Malcolm). The Malcolm family maintained close relationships throughout their lives, including purchasing adjacent properties in Riccarton, and socialising and working together constantly.
Alice Fanny Hodder married Francis (Frank) Souter Malcolm in Ashburton in 1880. Alice was the fourth born child of Catherine and Thomas Riches Hodder, and according to the Intention to Marry information available at National Archives in Wellington, she had lived in Ashburton for 1 ½ years at the time of her marriage. Born in 1862, she had just turned 19 when she married Frank, who was 32, 13 years her senior. They were married in the Wesleyan church in Ashburton on 6 October 1880, and because Alice was still a minor her father assented to his daughter’s marriage.
Frank Malcolm was Kate Sheppard’s younger brother.
Frank and Alice initially lived in central Christchurch, where Frank was partner with his brother-in-law George Beath in the drapery store. However, in 1883 they bought 6 acres alongside Clyde Road and built a house with extensive gardens there. Another of Frank’s sisters – Isabella and her husband Henry May - bought the adjoining 6 acre property at the same time, and four years later Kate and her husband Walter Sheppard bought a two acre plot alongside Isabella’s. When Alice signed the petition she gave her address as “Clyde Road”.
Alice and Frank had two sons and three daughters. After Frank retired from Beath’s, he became a successful auctioneer. In 1909 Frank and Alice moved to Gisborne, where he continued to work as an auctioneer until his death in 1918. Frank is buried in Taruheru Cemetery, Gisborne. Alice lived until she was 91, dying in 1953. She is buried in Te Henui cemetery, New Plymouth, which suggests she was living with one of her adult children, several of whom settled in Taranaki.
