Originally transcribed as A. S. Brownlie
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Helen Scott Brownlie was born on 26 April 1838 in Blantyre, Lanarkshire, Scotland – the daughter of Alexander Brownlie , a cotton power loom tenter, and Jane Douglas.
She emigrated to Otago in the 1870s and worked as a milliner. In 1873 she set up her own business in Princes St, Dunedin and, in 1876, she went into partnership with her sister Barbara. (See 101 B Douglas Brownlie)
In the 1880s Helen and her sister became active in the Salvation Army. https://issuu.com/salvos/docs/ajsahistory_vol_6_iss_1/s/11783628
Then in the mid-1880s Helen left Dunedin and went to Wellington where she worked as Matron at the female Rescue Home until about 1887 when she returned to Dunedin and the millinery business.
When Helen signed the suffrage petition she and Barbara were living in York Place, Dunedin.
They moved back to Scotland in the late 1890s and, in 1901, they were living in Rothesay, Buteshire running a ladies’ outfitters.
Barbara died in Rothesay in 1919 after which Helen moved to East Helensburgh where she died on 3 March 1920.
Sources
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Scotlands People https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk