Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Harriet Pope was born on 17 September 1854 in St Hellier, Jersey – the daughter of John Pope, a shoemaker, and Mary Ann Ahier.
She emigrated to Otago in 1873 on the Charlotte Gladstone and in October of that year she married James Turnbull, a miner.
They had nine children and lived in Orepuki in Southland where James died in 1892, he is buried in the Orepuki Cemetery.
When Harriet signed the suffrage petition she was still living in Orepuki.
She re-married in 1895 to Robert Ralston, a miner, and they had a daughter the following year.
In 1898 James Turnbull’s will was contested by two of their children – they won the case and Harriet had to pay the court costs.
In 1906 Robert died at their home and was buried in the Orepuki Cemetery.
Harriet was registered as a midwife in 1916 and 1917 and appears to have run a maternity home in Spey St, Invercargill during that time.
She died on 8 July 1946 and is buried with her daughter in the Invercargill Eastern 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
Southland District Council https://www.southlanddc.govt.nz/
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
Invercargill City Council https://icc.govt.nz
Jerripedia http://search.jerripediabmd.net/