Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Sarah Edith Watkins was born about 1865 in Ireland – the daughter of James Scholes Watkins, an accountant, and Margaret Sarah Scolon.
She emigrated to Otago with her family in 1880 on the “City of Florence” and they settled in Dunedin. Sarah and her sister Amelia (See 68 A Watkins) opened a business as children’s outfitters in Braithwaite’s Buildings, Princes Street where she signed the suffrage petition.
They “retired from business” in 1925 and moved to Tennyson where Sarah died on 11 August 1942 – she is buried in the family grave in the Northern Cemetery.
Sources:
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz