Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Nellie/Ellen Wakely was born in 1873 in Nelson – the daughter of Samuel Wakely and Elizabeth Scammel.
As a young child she moved to Wanganui with her family where her mother died in 1884.
Ellen signed the suffrage petiton in Gore shortly before she married Thomas Chatterton, a cheese maker, in 1893 - they had seven children.
Thomas died in Dunedin in 1936 and Ellen died in Invercargill on 21 August 1943 – they are buried together in the Gore Cemetery.
Ellen’s obituary said she “was a devoted member of the Anglican Church”.
Sources:
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/