Maker: Margaret Gibson

Panel number: 527

Petition sheet number: Unsure

Person honouring: Mrs H. Smith

Relationship to maker: Husband’s great-great-grandmother

Henrietta was born in England in 1832. Her family lived in the Channel Islands for some years. Her father was transported to Van Diemen’s Land [Tasmania] for forgery of bank notes. Henrietta went to the Salisbury Diocesan Training College for Schoolmistresses in 1850 before leaving in 1851 to teach in Wiltshire, Winchester, and Sudbury. 

In 1854 she left England and sailed to Tasmania as a governess to the Staples family. She married Mrs Staples’ brother Henry Smith in December 1864 and lived at Rathmore. In 1864 they came to Christchurch; she taught and had babies along the way. He is a shadowy figure.

I began to wonder about Henrietta’s involvement with the Women’s Movement when I realised she was teaching at St Albans School at the same time as [suffragist] Ada Wells. Henrietta died in Christchurch in 1898.

Panel materials: Old cotton sheet, embroidery material & threads, paper flowers, glue, and paper, sewing machine thread from stash.