Isabella Flett

Biographical information provided for the He Tohu exhibition:

Isabella Gaudie was born in 1837 in Birsay, in the Orkney Islands. In 1863 she emigrated to New Zealand alone at the age of 26, and settled in Lyttelton.

Isabella married Robert Flett, a shipwright who was also from Birsay. The couple lived at Birsay Cottage, Sumner Road, Lyttleton. They owned many houses around Sumner Road, which Isabella ran while Robert was at sea. Robert drowned on a visit to Birsay in 1890 after accidentally falling off a cliff, and was buried there.

Isabella died in 1915, aged 79.