Makers: Jo Ager, Sue Ager-King, Mary Ager, Nikhil Chand, and Vijay

Panel number: 211

Petition sheet number: 254

Person honouring: A. Butcher

Relationship to maker: Great-grandmother

Annie Sarah Burrows grew up with many siblings and children of her own. The eldest of 10 children, she was born in July 1851 in London. Her father was a printer; Annie worked in a wool shop until her marriage.

In 1870 she married Edward Butcher. They had six children before emigrating to New Zealand on the Huranui in 1879: Matilda (Tilly), Henry, Frederick William (Bill), Elizabeth (Lil), and Alice Maud (Maud). More children were born after the family settled in Canterbury. 

Annie and Edward lived in Kaiapoi where Edward worked as a watchmaker. In 1885 he established his own shop, the North Canterbury Watch and Clock Co, in Rangiora. Annie had four more children in Kaiapoi: Edward (Eddie), Florence (Florrie), Emily (Mill), and Robert (Bob). In 1891 Edward sold his watch shop to take up farming in Waikari, North Canterbury. Annie’s last two children, Grace and Vera were born in Waikari.

Annie was in Waikari when she signed the suffrage petition.

In 1905 Edward built a house at Weka Pass, where they lived until he died in 1917. 

Annie moved to Cashmere in Christchurch, where she lived with her unmarried children until she died in 1926 aged 75. She and Edward were both buried at Waimairi cemetery.

Before her death Annie was nursed by her daughter Grace, whose family had moved from Wairoa to be with Annie. Grace’s daughter, Mary Ager (100 years old in 2017), remembers her grandmother Annie often saying ‘More haste less speed child!’

Panel materials: Reused an old stained tea cloth, ribbons, and buttons that I already had. Nothing bought new. A small piece of Annie’s granddaughter’s curtain is under the purple bow; curtain material was supplied for the backing.