Makers: Lee-Ann, Maya & Kathleen Newton

Panel number: 122

Petition Sheet Number: 134

Person honouring: Penelope C. Valpy

Relationship to makers: Direct blood relative of my mother in law/daughter and husband

Penelope Caroline Valpy (nee Every) was born on 10 May 1840 in Etwall, Derbyshire, England. She was a descendant of the Every Baronets. Caroline married William Henry Valpy Jnr. in 1858 in New Zealand. His father, William Henry Valpy Snr was an early settler to Otago, after time as a judge in Calcutta, India. 

Caroline and William had five sons and three daughters and went to Glenorchy later in life and lived at the Kohimarama station before returning to Oamaru. The Valpy family were instrumental in bringing the Salvation Army to New Zealand, provided the church in Glenorchy and were strong advocates in the temperance movement. 

Caroline was surrounded by relatives who signed the petition - also on sheet 134 are her daughter Evelyn Penelope Oakden (nee Valpy) and daughter in law Louisa Valpy (nee Burnside). Her sister-in-law was notable suffragette and signatory, Catherine Henrietta Fulton (nee Valpy). Caroline Valpy was no doubt influenced hugely by and shared her wider family’s suffrage and temperance views. Her husband died in Oamaru in 1911, and Penelope Caroline Valpy moved to Timaru. She died on 16 February 1924 in Southland aged 84.

Panel materials: Old sheet and painted an image of the top of the lake (Wakatipu) of Glenorchy and Kinloch (where Penelope’s daughter Irene Bryant located). I provided a transfer of the band of hope certificate for the backing.