Maker: Rachel McConnel

Panel number: 109

Petition Sheet Number: 114

Person honouring: Joan F. Stewart

Relationship to makers: None

Joan Fairburn Stewart was born in 1869 in Cookham, Berkshire, England, the daughter of James Stewart, a cabinet maker, and Barbara Cuthbertson. 

Joan came to Otago in 1876 on the ‘Corona’ with her parents and seven siblings. The family lived in Fifield St, Roslyn, Dunedin. Joan’s sister Barbara Stewart was also living at this house when she signed the petition. When she signed the suffrage petition, Joan was working as a mantle maker. 

Joan died on 19 August 1953. She was cremated and her ashes are buried in the Waikumete Cemetery, Auckland.

Panel materials: Quilting fabric inherited from my grandmother, and antique threads and lace from my partners’ deceased aunt.