Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Helena Lydia Carpenter was born in London, England in 1843 – the daughter of James Edwin Carpenter, a cloth worker, and Helena Poole.
Helena emigrated to New Zealand in the 1860s where she married Samuel Marshall Clark, a school teacher, in 1866.
They had five children, one who died in infancy, and they lived in Clyde, Dunedin and Christchurch.
When Helena signed the suffrage petition they were living in Henley Rd, St Albans.
In the 1910s they moved back to Dunedin where Helena died at her home on 24 October 1910 – she is buried with their young daughter in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.
Samuel died in 1913 at their daughter’s home in Auckland – he is buried in the Waikumete Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
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