Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Elizabeth/Minnie Beattie was born in 1868 in New Zealand – the daughter of James Beattie, a farmer, and Margaret Ann Whiteside.
She married John Jury, a farmer, in 1887 and they had eight sons and two daughters.
When Minnie signed the suffrage petition the family were living at Highcliff on the Otago Peninsula.
John died in 1913 and, in 1917, Minnie appealed to the Military Service Board on behalf of her son Robert.
At that time five of her sons 'had gone to the front' one son 'had returned home invalided, been discharged, and in error drawn in the ballot. He had declined to appeal and had gone back again – the Chairman said the family had done excellently' and the appeal was adjourned.
By the end of the war six of Minnie’s sons had served their country.
Minnie died on 12 July 1955 in Petone, she is buried with John in the family grave in the Andersons Bay 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