Matilda Roger

Signed family name

Roger

Signed given name

Matilda

Given address

Sandy Mount

Sheet number

143

Town/Suburb

Otago peninsula

City/Region

Otago

Notes

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Matilda Roger was born in 1871 in New Zealand – the daughter of Robert Roger, a farmer, and Mary Ann Milligan.

When Matilda signed the suffrage petition she was living on the family farm at Sandymount on the Otago Peninsula.

She married William James Davidson in 1897 and they had eight children, two who died in infancy.

Their marriage appears to have deteriorated after the birth of their last child as, in 1913, Matilda applied for a separation order on the grounds of persistent cruelty.

The order was granted and the maintenance payment was set at 25s per week.

They remained apart for two weeks then lived together again for the next 3-4 months until, due to a disturbance, the police were called and William was ordered out of the house.

In April 1914 William was charged with assaulting Matilda and in August that year she applied for 'maintenance, separation, and guardianship orders against her husband'.

William enlisted in the Army in late 1914 and served overseas. He died shortly after his discharge at the Featherson Military Hospital in 1918.

Matilda appears to have run a private maternity hospital from her home in St Kilda, Dunedin in the 1910s and 1920s.

She died at her home on 6 May 1927 and is buried in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.