Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Maggie/Margaret Miller was born on 9 July 1858 in Hawick, Roxburgshire, Scotland – the daughter of Andrew Miller, a stocking knitter, and Elizabeth Thompson.
She married Henry Waugh Whillans, a power loom weaver, in 1883 and later that year they emigrated to Otago on the Trevelyan accompanied by Maggie’s family.
They had four children and when Maggie signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Farley St, Kaikorai, Dunedin.
They later moved to Milton then to Oamaru where Henry died in 1927.
About five years later Maggie “became seriously ill at Hawera, but was not permitted to be brought to Oamaru by either boat or train. However, she was allowed to be taken by aeroplane, and was the first patient to travel by an ambulance plane”.
She died at Oamaru on 23 June 1935 and is buried with Henry in the Old Oamaru 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
Waitaki District Council https://www.waitaki.govt.nz/our-services
