Maker: Caroline Smith

Panel number: 107

Petition Sheet Number: 112

Person honouring: Emma Clark

Relationship to makers: Great-grandmother

Emma Clark Emma had 13 daughters, a number of whom also signed the 1893 petition.

Born Emma Keene in 1850, in Purton, Wiltshire, England, she was the daughter of the local policeman. At 11 years of age she worked and lived in Swindon, at the home of a general practitioner, as a nursery maid to his 10-month-old daughter. 

Emma came to the Taieri Plains, Otago, in 1874 with her husband, farm labourer William Clark, and three daughters. She worked in farm labouring most of her life. Many of Emma’s daughters worked in the Mosgiel Woollen Mills, and at that time the mill workers were also agitating for improved working conditions especially for women. 

When Emma died in 1942, at age 92, an article in the Evening Star celebrated her as an ‘Old identity passes’. It states that she was then survived by nine daughters, 40 grandchildren and 34 great grandchildren.

Panel materials: Used material and thread I already had including some felted pieces and and old embroidered tray cloth.