Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Helen Graham Bennet was born on 19 April 1864 in Glasgow, Scotland – the daughter of Robert Bennet, a tailor, and Euphemia Lonnie. (See 59 E Bennet)
She emigrated to Otago in 1865 on the Peter Denny with her family and settled in Dunedin.
Helen married James Coats, a painter, on 29 July 1887 in Melbourne, Australia. They had 2 children before they returned to New Zealand where their third child was born.
When Helen signed the suffrage petition they were living in Albany St, Dunedin.
James died in 1939 and Helen died on 29 July 1940, they are buried with their son in the Northern 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
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au