Jane Rice

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Eliza Jane Simpkins (known as Jane) was born in Marylebone, London in 1858 – the daughter of Thomas Simpkins and Eliza Annetts.

She emigrated to New Zealand about 1881 and married William Rice, a soap manufacturer, in 1882.

They had five children, a son died at four years of age and another died in WWI, aged 31.

William Rice died in 1908 leaving Jane with four young children. After William’s death Jane moved to Royal Crescent in Musselburgh.

Jane died on 7 November 1951. She is buried in a family grave in the Northern Cemetery, Dunedin.

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