Maker: Elizabeth Corbett

Panel number: 349

Petition sheet number: 420

Person honouring: A. V. Coad

Relationship to maker: Unknown

The bust in my piece is modelled on a cameo of Jane Austen. Like Jane, A. V. Coad was a learned woman – she was interested in knowledge and was a teacher.

Anne Venters McLauchlan (Annie) was born in 1860 in Geelong, Australia. She had moved to New Zealand by 1881, when she married James Coad, a brewer. Their daughter Nellie, later a noted feminist writer and teacher, was born in New Plymouth in 1883. Annie and James had six children in total.

The family returned to Australia for a few years, but by 1893 had moved to Wellington, where they lived on Aro Street.

Annie was a teacher, a profession her daughter Nellie followed her into. At some point, she and James separated, for she was listing herself in official records as a widow from 1914 – even though he did not die until 1931.

At the time of her death Annie was living at 37 Washington Ave with Nellie. She was 74 when she died in 1935.

Panel materials: I aimed to represent the strong women who paved the way for women’s voting rights. I chose the materials because they were the traditional suffrage colours. Visually they create a powerful contrast.