Biographical information provided by Stefanie Lash, Archives New Zealand, for the He Tohu exhibition:
Lucy McClelland was born in Dublin, Ireland. She was the daughter of a gentleman, John Johnston McClelland. She signed the Women’s Suffrage Petition with her mother Louisa and her sister Kathleen. They lived on North Belt, the street that is now called Bealey Ave, Christchurch.
At the age of 36 she married an older widower, William Townsend, and they moved to Park Terrace by the Avon River near Hagley Park. They had two children, Raymond and Josephine. After she was widowed, she moved to Sumner. When she died in 1947, she was 89.
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
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