Maker: Lauren Jessup

Panel number: 301

Petition sheet number: 357

Person honouring: [Sarah Matilda] S. Hanan

Relationship to maker: None

Born in February 1828 in Limerick, Ireland, Sarah Matilda Clarke married James Albert Hanan in Melbourne on 23 April 1860. She’s perhaps best known for her family!

The couple came to Invercargill around 1862, on the ship Glencoe with their baby son James Albert Hanan. Further children born here included Blessing in 1865 (she died in 1875) and Josiah Alfred in 1868.

Known as Joe, this son became a solicitor, local government politician, and mayor of Invercargill before becoming an MP in 1899. His older brother James went into the drapery business in Invercargill. Sarah’s grandson was the prominent reforming politician, Ralph Hanan.

Trained as a coach builder and heraldic painter, Sarah’s husband was a Darwinist who owned a copy of On the Origin of Species. He also described himself as an artist and opened a Temple of Science in Invercargill where he lectured on many topics. He built an orrery (clockwork model of the solar system), and rebuilt the temple after a major fire in 1882.

Sarah spent over 36 years in Invercargill, raising her children, extending their education and working in family businesses. She signed the suffrage petition just a few years before her death.

Described in her obituary in 1898 as having a ‘cheery and obliging disposition’ she became frail with age and used a wheeled chair to get about.

The Hanan family grave is in St John’s Church of England cemetery, Invercargill.

Panel materials: All recycled materials and fibres – purchased from local op shops, with the exception of embroidery floss.