Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Margaret McArthur was born about 1855 and she married William Child Iles, a widower and stable keeper, in Dunedin on 11 April 1873.
She had had a daughter the previous year named Margaret Ilse McArthur who presumably was William’s child.
The family lived in Invercargill, moving to Dunedin in the early 1880s and they had a further nine children, three who died in infancy.
When Margaret signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Filleul St, Dunedin & William was working as a warder at the Dunedin Hosptial.
Margaret died on 4 January 1903 and William died in 1923, they are buried in the family grave in the Northern Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/