Biographical information provided for the He Tohu exhibition:
Louisa Eleanor Priscilla Welham was born at Ipswich, Suffolk (England) on 15 July 1872 to George and Emma Welham (nee Hearn). As a child she spent some time in an Ipswich orphanage after the deaths of her parents. By 1890 she had moved to London where she married Henry Coombe, a tailor, and immigrated to New Zealand two years later, settling in Palmerston North. The couple had three children: Reginald Thomas (1893-1918), Florence Emma (1895-1969) and George Prince (1897-1979).
Louisa was a member of the Toy Dog Club and exhibited French poodles.
After being widowed, she moved to Wellington where she went into business in Adelaide Road for eight years. She was also an ardent worker for the Labour Party. Louisa remarried to William McKeag in 1927 and did much knitting for the Air Force Relations, receiving an acknowledgment for her work shortly before her death. She died at her home in Wellington on 29 September 1943.