suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Reid
Given names: 
A.
Given address: 
Tennyson St. Napier
Sheet No: 431
Town/Suburb: 
Napier
City/Region: 
Hawke's Bay
Notes: 

Biography and image contributed by Barbara Wells, great grand-daughter of Alice Reid

Alice Reid

Alice Bennett was born on 5 May 1848 in Westminster the second child of Metropolitan policeman Charles Bennett and his wife Charlotte Rice. She married Thomas Joseph Jackson on 4 June 1868. Alice and Thomas had three children - Thomas, Alice and Katherine.

In December 1873 Thomas Jackson died in St. George's Hospital aged 27. Alice and the three children moved in with her parents.

Alice, determined to become independent, trained as a nurse and midwife at the Queen Charlotte Lying-In Hospital. 

In 1882 Alice Jackson was recommended to the Agent General in London by the British Ladies Emigration Society, for a post as Matron on the NZ Government emigrant ships. She was the first trained Matron on NZ’s emigration ships.

Alice’s first voyage on the sailing ship Crusader left Plymouth in December 1882 arriving in Lyttelton March 1883. She was paid £25 and £30 if she returned to England to undertake another voyage.

Her second trip on the SS Victory left Plymouth October 1883 arriving in Dunedin in December. Alice's son Thomas was also a passenger on the ship. Her third voyage on the Aorangi, left Plymouth in March 1884 arriving in Lyttelton in May.

On 14 June 1884 Alice Jackson married Alexander Reid in St. Michael’s Church in Lyttleton. A widower with nine children he was the harbour pilot for Sumner & Lyttelton. Alice's daughters joined her six months later.

In May 1886 Alexander Reid died of cancer. Alice and her children moved to Christchurch where she ran a nursing home attached to a Doctor's surgery.

In 1891 the family moved to Napier. Alice continued her nursing advertising her midwifery and nursing services in the newspapers.

Alice’s daughter Alice married Swetton McGregor and moved to Kakanui in North Otago. They had nine children. Thomas went to West Australia where he died, unmarried, in 1896 aged 27. Katharine married John Lincoln in 1904. They had five children.

In June 1896 Alice married widower John Dawson. John Dawson and his family had arrived in Napier in 1879 on board the May Queen under the Vogel Immigration Scheme.

On 14 June 1920 Alice died aged 72 and is buried in the Hastings cemetery.

Sources

Immigration Records Series IM Archives NZ Wellington
Papers Past
UK Census records 1851-1891
UK BDMs
NZ Passenger Lists Archives NZ
London Metropolitan Police Records PRO London
McGregor family records
Dawson family records

Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.

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