Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Jane Graham Ralston was born in 1869 in Blue Spur, Otago – the daughter of Gilbert Ralston, a miner, and Mary Livingston. (See 82 Mrs Ralston)
Jane was appointed to the position of pupil teacher at Blue Spur in 1889 and when she signed the suffrage petition she was living with her family in Blue Spur working as a teacher.
In 1902 she was selected to travel to South Africa to teach in the Boer refugee camps.
A photo taken before her departure can be seen here: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW19020514.2.110.21
When Jane returned to New Zealand in 1907 she attended a 'welcome home' at the Blue Spur school where she revisited 'the scenes of her former labors and triumphs.'
She 'gave a short but interesting account of her journeys and work in the Transvaal”.
In 1917 Jane was working as manageress of the Caversham Industrial School and the following year she was gazetted as a juvenile probation officer.
Jane did not marry - she died on 3 February 1957. She was cremated and her ashes are interred in the family grave 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
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
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