Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Sophia Smith Henderson was born in 1864 in New Zealand – the daughter of William Henderson, a weighbridge keeper, and Annie Smith.
When she signed the suffrage petition Sophia was living at the family home in Duncan St, Dunedin working as a dressmaker.
She married Henry Ely Shacklock (son of the coal range manufacturer, also named Henry Ely Shacklock), an iron founder, in 1894 and they had one daughter.
Henry died in 1923 and Sophia died on 22 May 1936. They are buried together in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.
Sophia’s obituary says she
was a prominent officer in the YWCA for many years, and her enthusiasm and liberal gifts to it and to similar institutions will be long remembered. All her life she was a member of the Moray Place Congregational Church, and her loving sympathy and material assistance, especially in the social side of the church’s activities, will be greatly missed. She was a practical supporter of many associations that had for their objects the amelioration of distress and the moral uplift of the community. Her private charities were also considerable. She was a charming and lovable woman and her life was an inspiration and example to those who were numbered among her friends.
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
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
Community contributions