Makers: Christine McGuigan, Chris Tait, Lyn McCullough

Panel number: 116

Petition Sheet Number: 123

Person honouring: Agnes Boult

Relationship to makers: None

Agnes Theresa Boult (nee Regan) was born around 1866. She married James Zachariah Boult, a butcher and farmer, in 1887. They had five children: Albert Edward, Charles William, Eliza Josephine, Ernest James and Ivy Margaret who was born in 1903. They lived in Mandeville near Gore. 

In 1913 James was drowned while shifting stock to high ground during a flood. The Southland Times in September 1914, under Mandeville Notes reported that ‘We have had to bid goodbye to a very old resident of the village in the person of Mrs Boult, accompanied by her two youngest children (Miss Ivy and Master Ernest), she left us about the middle of August. Mrs Boult’s absence will be much missed, especially by country ladies, as her home was a place of welcome to ladies going to and coming from Gore. Mrs Boult now resides at Hastings, North Island.’ Agnes must have returned to Mandeville where she died on 19 March 1926. She is buried in the Gore Cemetery with her husband.

Panel materials: Panel consists of three layers. The surface or ground was recycled cotton, screen printed, by Chris Tait, with an image of the actual petition page containing Agnes Boult’s signature. Over that, a purchased piece of loose weave fabric had a copied image from “The Ladies are at it again”, by Rosemarie Smith. the Illustration entitled ‘Would you like to sign’, on page 56, was by Ruth Paul. This image, which was traced onto the fabric through the use of a lightbox, was then embroidered by Chris McGuigan. Coloured pencil was used as well, very lightly, so as not to block the underlying image of the petition panel. Lyn McCullough completed the piece with embroidered lettering of the petition number, Agnes’s name and her date of birth and death. All three of us added cross stitches around the panel to represent the 46 other women who signed each petition panel.