Maker: Philippa Walker

Panel number: 195

Petition sheet number: 325?

Person honouring: Mary Barton

Relationship to maker: Great-grandmother

Mary Mulqueen was born in Limerick, Ireland in 1856. Her family lived through the potato famine in the 1840s. No wonder she responded to the call to take an assisted passage to New Zealand, to help balance out the high numbers of men in the colony.

She sailed on the Surat in 1873, when she was 19, and was shipwrecked off the coast of the Caitlins, south of Dunedin. The bay was subsequently named Surat Bay.

The workers at William Larnack’s sawmill nearby came to the passengers’ rescue. Mary’s obituary states that she married one of these men – Jonathan/John Barton in 1875. Family history tells that ‘she walked ashore in the clothes she stood up in’. Her salvaged goods were delivered to her six months later, wet and mildew-ridden. All that survived was her small tin trunk, her boot hook, and a small silver-plated shoe horn. I have these items, which I treasure.

Mary and John Barton had four children, including my grandmother Alice, who went on to champion women’s rights. She was active in the Labour Party, the Dunedin Council and was a Trustee of the King Edward Technical College. Alice Herbert (born Barton) was awarded the Queen’s Service Medal (QSM) for services to women.

Mary was a widow when she died at home in 1932, aged 78. She was buried at Andersons Bay cemetery.

Sadly I did not know either Mary or Alice, but I can see where my Dad got his 'stroppiness’ from. People say they were formidable women.

Panel materials: Fabrics and threads from my collections, which include old family items. Ancestors on both side were tailoresses; my mother was a great collector, who was also frugal and saved buttons, including the old and broken buttons on the panel! Victorian lace and sombre colours for a serious woman. Paua buttons on the lace for New Zealand. Some buttons were cut off clothes – Mary was frugal and poor. Backing is 1950s fabric. Dresses after WW2 had full skirts, using lots of material. My mother had unpicked this skirt from a dress that I remember her wearing – no doubt she planned to make aprons. 'Mend and make do’ was her saying during my childhood, even though we were well off financially.