Bessie Dray

Also signed as 172 Mrs Dray

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Bessie Ann Croft Palmer was born in Devon, England in 1853 – the daughter of Samuel Palmer, a mariner, and Mary Jane Croft.

She emigrated to Otago with her family in 1873 on the Charlotte Gladstone and she married Alfred Dray, an engineer, on 25 December 1877 in Oamaru.

In 1882, shortly after the birth of their third child, the family’s house in Oamaru caught fire shortly before midnight, 'the neighbours were aroused by screams, and found Mrs Dray, who was confined only a week ago, and had lit a candle to attend to her baby during the night. She afterwards fell asleep, leaving the candle burning. The neighbours were awoke by hearing screams, and Mrs Dray was found running down the garden with the child in her arms enveloped in flames. A neighbour...managed to extinguish the flames by means of wet sheets, and the fire in the house was put out by means of buckets of water. The child died on Monday, and both Mrs and Mr Dray are severely burned about the hands and arms.'

They were to have a further four children and when Bessie signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Forth St, Dunedin.

Alfred died in 1934 and Bessie died on 18 January 1939, they are buried together in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.

Sources

BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/

DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search

Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk

GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk

Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz

Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz