Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Margaret McArthur Candish was born on 17 August 1854 in Dunfermline in Fife, Scotland – the eldest child of James Candish, a joiner, and Margaret Mowbray.
In 1859 her brother James was born and that same year, in April, her father died.
Her brother died two months later and a few months after Margaret and her mother boarded the Henrietta as assisted immigrants bound for Otago.
Margaret’s mother re-married the following year and they settled in Dunedin.
In 1881 Margaret gave birth to a daughter, also called Margaret.
When she signed the suffrage petition she was living in Great King Street with her mother and daughter.
Her daughter died in 1907 and her mother died in 1908.
Margaret died on 14 April 1931 in Dunedin – she is buried with her mother and daughter in the Northern Cemetery.