Makers: Racheal, Cohen (7) and Ada (4) Stringer

Panel number: 111

Petition Sheet Number: 116

Person honouring: Sarah M. Evans

Relationship to makers: None

Sarah Matilda Louisa Evans (nee Marsh) was born in New Zealand on 17 January 1859 but sailed to England when a child, then returned as a young adult. 

Her parents Octavius Marsh and Bedelia MacGillycuddy met on the ‘Persia’, which arrived in 1852. Octavius was with the 65th Regiment and Bedelia accompanied her widowed mother. They both came from well-to-do families. Octavius left the Army in 1858 taking up his land grant in Havelock North but the farm failed. 

Sarah was one of their five children. In 1864 the family sold up intending to return to England, but Octavius died in January 1865. The Marsh family in England offered to help the children. In about 1866, Sarah left ‘in the care of a lady’ to live with her aunt and uncle at 39 Grosvenor Place, Bath, Somerset. The other children followed; they were all well treated, received good educations and happy holidays. 

In about 1881 Sarah returned to her mother in Ngaruawahia who had remarried. Sarah was teaching at the school, then moved to teach in Thames in 1883. Her letters show her loneliness and the hardship she experienced. 

In 1885, Sarah married Sidney Percival Evans, a locomotive engineer. They had two children, Sidney Theodore and Dorothy Augusta Caroline. In 1893 the family lived in Meredith Street, Sydenham, Dunedin where Sidney was manager at the Hillside railway workshop. In 1904 their son Sidney died aged 18. Sarah never overcame her grief and took her own life on the 24 November 1905. She is buried in Purewa Cemetery, Auckland.

Panel materials: Fabrics collected over the years as well as a few items special to me. I used purple ribbon roses from my late mother in law’s (Susan Lillian Stringer) craft collection as well as lace from my wedding quilt and thread from my mother (Margaret Helen Clark). Additionally I used pearls from an old necklace to make the water drops.