Lilian Newman

Signed family name

Newman

Signed given name

Lilian

Given address

Gore

Sheet number

Town/Suburb

Gore

City/Region

Southland

Notes

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Originally transcribed as Lilian Neuman

Lilian Wardle was born in Leicestershire, England in 1863 – the daughter of John Wardle and Sarah Tookey.

She emigrated to Otago with her family about 1870 where her mother died in Dunedin in 1871.

Lilian went to Oamaru with her father, then to Waimate where she married Richard Newman, a farm labourer, in 1886.

They had two children and had moved to the Waikaka Valley by the time that Lilian signed the suffrage petition.

Richard died at Waikaka Valley in 1927 and Lilian died in Invercargill on 26 August 1941 – they are buried in the family grave in the Gore Cemetery.

Lilian’s obituary said she “was a foundation member of the Anglican Church at Waikaka and it was largely through her active interest that the building of the church was begun. Her interest in church work was by no means purely denominational. She was a willing worker for the Presbyterian Church at Waikaka Valley and was a member of the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union.”