Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Sarah Jane Walton was born in 1870 in Greymouth – the daughter of John Walton, a builder, and Sarah Jane Trimble.
She was 'from her infancy an invalid, as the result of an illness contracted during the noted flood in the year 1872, when she sustained a severe wetting at the age of two years, which was followed by an attack of paralysis.'
She lived in Greymouth, where she signed the suffrage petition, and was 'a familiar figure...as she was wheeled about in her invalid’s chair'.
Sarah died at Greymouth Hospital on 16 June 1931 – she is buried with her parents in the Karoro Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/