Florence Tilley

Biographical information provided by Peter Ireland for the He Tohu exhibition:

Florence Tilley signed the petition in Ashburton. My Aunty June is Florence’s granddaughter. She is 92. Aunty June, who was eight when Florence died, remembers her gentleness and kindness – in contrast to her stern and forbidding grandfather, Thomas. Behind her husband’s back, Florence occasionally gave her grandchildren a 3d and always a blackball from the jar. Aunty June remembers Florence keeping a polished brass back doorstep, a brass chain where the tea towels were hung to dry, and her grandmother’s gold ring earrings. Three of Florence’s granddaughters; June, Shirley and Veenie all have Florence as their middle name.

Additional biography contributed by Clare Cramond

Florence Tilley signed the petition just below Clara Sumners.  Clara was the sister of her husband Thomas Tilley.

Florence Amelia Attwood was born in 1867 in Warwickshire, England, the third of six children. Her parents were Julia Kendrick and Thomas. In December 1882 when they immigrated to New Zealand on the ship Crusader, Thomas gave his occupation as an engine-fitter, but an English census has his occupation as a photographer. Florence’s older brother Thomas Reginald Attwood who was 17 when they immigrated is listed as a carver/gilder and he became one of New Zealand’s significant landscape artists.

The Attwood family were part of a group of 381 immigrants who arrived at Lyttleton in March 1883 to live in Canterbury. Newspaper reports say the journey and the conditions were very favourable although a tragic note was the death of a boy who fell overboard. On arrival the immigrants’ ship quarters were described as 'beautifully clean and orderly'.

In 1891, Florence’s parents shifted to Palmerston North, but Florence stayed in Canterbury and married Thomas Tilley, a widower with five children. This must have been a huge responsibility for a woman in her early twenties. She and Thomas had more children; Ernest Thomas in 1892, William Walter (1894), Douglas Roland (1896), Reginald Attwood (1899), Elsie Irene (1901) and Netty Florence (1905).

Florence and Thomas were living at Hampstead in 1893 when the petition was signed and she registered on the 1893 Electoral Roll. Her husband Thomas worked as a labourer and a gardener and they continued there for many years.  Florence’s mother Julia was living with her at the time of her death in 1910. Son Douglas featured in the 1911 newspaper when he was involved in an accident and showed bravery by stopping a frightened horse. Florence’s sons fought in the Great War 1914-1918.

Florence and Thomas lived in the same area all their married lives shifting from Oxford Street to Victoria Street by 1919. Some of their children and their families lived locally as well.  Florence died in 1933 at 65 years of age and was buried at the Ashburton Cemetery. Thomas died in 1935.

Sources

Early New Zealand Photographers https://canterburyphotography.blogspot.com/2009/08/attwood.html

Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/  Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7813, 15 April 1904, Page 5

New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Passenger Lists, 1839-1973", Family Search https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FSY2-

Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/  Press, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5464, 24 March 1883, Page 2

Births Deaths and Marriages Online https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/

"New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1865-1957", Database. FamilySearch. https://familysearch.org

Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/  Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXX1, Issue 8186, 11 October 1910, Page 2

Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/   Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXI, Issue 8271, 19 January 1911, Page 3

Cemetery Records https://infoservices.adc.govt.nz/Cemeteries/SearchResults?Advanced=False&Surname=Tilley