Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Lucy Cockerell was born in 1861 in Victoria, Australia, the daughter of George Cockerell and Mary Ann Brace.
She came to New Zealand with her family as a young child. She married 37 year old James Geddes on October 4th 1878 in the Palmertson parish at the age of 17.
They had 10 children, one who died in infancy, and when Lucy signed the suffrage petition they were living at Newland Farm in the Shag Valley, near Palmerston.
James died at their home in 1910, and Lucy remarried in 1913 to widower Samuel Hillier.
They lived in Lyttelton. Lucy died at her daughter’s home in Temuka on March 3rd 1923. She is buried with James in the Palmerston Cemetery.
Samuel died in 1932, and is buried in his family grave in the Lyttelton Cemetery.