Makers: Fleur Findlay, Miranda Findlay, and Sylvia Findlay Rawle

Panel number: 274

Petition sheet number: 328

Person honouring: Ada Wells

Relationship to makers: Great-grandmother/ great-great-grandmother

Ada Pike was born in England in 1863. When she was 10 she travelled with her parents and siblings to Lyttelton on the Merope.

Ada was academically talented and gained a university junior scholarship to attend Canterbury College in 1881.

In 1884 Ada married Harry Wells, an organist, at Christchurch. Harry’s volatile temper and continual drinking meant he was unable to hold steady employment. Ada was forced to take sole responsibility for the economic and emotional support of her family [three daughters and a son].

She took teaching positions and accepted private patients for massage and healing. It was said that her delicate, sensitive hands ‘possessed a healing touch that came from the depths of her spirit’.

Perhaps as a result of her marital experience, Ada held strong beliefs on women’s rights. Her talents as a fervent, efficient organiser and campaigner were invaluable to the women’s suffrage movement.

After women won the right to vote, Ada continued to take an active role in local and national politics. She argued for many causes and held many offices in various charitable groups. Ada was also active in the campaign to amend the electoral law to enable women to be elected to Parliament. In 1917 she stood as a Labour candidate and became the first woman to be elected to the Christchurch City Council.

Ada died at Christchurch in March 1933 and was buried at Waimairi cemetery. In her lifetime she was a prominent and, at times, controversial public figure. Ada played a pivotal role in advancing women’s equality and economic independence. 

Panel materials: Blue background material was purchased new, but others – the lace, cross-stitch backing, ribbon flowers, and embroidery cottons – we had already.