Fanny Upsdale

Signed family name

Upsdale

Signed given name

Fanny

Given address

Queenstown

Sheet number

Town/Suburb

Queenstown

City/Region

Otago

Notes

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Frances Susannah Sole, known as Fanny Annie, was born in 1852 in Canterbury, Kent, England – the daughter of John Sole, a servant, and Emma Lawrence.

Her father died shortly after her birth and her mother re-married shortly after.

Emma emigrated to Otago in 1874 on the William Davie and she married Henry Boy Upsdale, a clerk, in 1875.

They had two children and lived in Queenstown where Fanny signed the suffrage petition.

In 1881 Henry jumped off the wharf into Lake Wakatipu and was charged with attempting to commit suicide, he was not prosecuted.

He appears to have had a problem with alcohol as, in 1885, he was charged with breaching a prohibition order.

Fanny and Henry were both members of the Queenstown Good Templars Lodge.

In 1893 Henry again attempted suicide by jumping in the lake, he pleaded guilty and was discharged. While Henry was in jail Fanny was temporarily appointed to Henry’s job as librarian. Fanny was active in the local Salvation Army in the 1890s.

In 1896, their son drowned in Lake Wakatipu while transporting firewood in a small boat.

Henry was again charged with breaching a prohibition order in 1897 - he died suddenly in 1928 while working in the library.

Fanny died on 28 October 1936, she is buried with Henry in the family grave in the Queenstown Cemetery.

Her obituary said 'though she did not take any active part in social affairs in the town she employed a great deal of her time in philanthropic work in her own home, which was an open house to those in need. In this way, too she was a mother to many who sought a guiding hand and who needed to be sustained against the buffeting of the waves of misfortune'.