Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Mary Georgiana Armstrong was born on September 30th 1836 in London, England – the daughter of William Henry Armstrong, a lawyer’s clerk, and Emma Devalle.
She married Edward Cook, an attorney’s manager, in 1860 and they had at least 2 children before they emigrated to New Zealand in the mid 1860s.
They settled in Dunedin where they had a further 6 children, 3 who also died in infancy.
Edward died in 1890 after which Mary went to live with her daughter Edith in Palmerston, where she signed the suffrage petition.
They moved back to Dunedin for a time before Mary died on September 27th 1900 in Christchurch.
She is buried with Edith in the Linwood Cemetery.
Sources
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
Community contributions