Maker: Gay Newman

Panel number: 204

Petition sheet number: 246

Person honouring: Esther Kittelty

Relationship to maker: Great-great-aunt

Esther Moutray was born in Belfast, County Antrim in Northern Ireland in 1849. How and when she came to New Zealand is not known.

Esther married William Norman Kittelty, an Australian miner, in Greymouth in March 1875. Their first son, Victor William was born in 1873; three years later came a second son, also called Victor but with the middle name of Albert. He was born in January 1876. 

Esther and William had a total of 12 children, seven of whom died before Esther did. Baby Olive died in infancy in 1882. Victor Albert died in 1888 aged 10. Charles died in 1895, Solomon in 1903, and Victor Norman in 1913, causes unknown. William Leslie was killed in August 1915 at Chunuk Bair, aged 29. In 1918, their youngest son, Harold died in Patea in what the newspapers described as a tragic accident.

Esther was living in Greymouth when she signed the 1893 suffrage petition and enrolled to vote afterwards. After William died (1913), she moved to Auckland.

Aged 77 when she died in 1930, Esther was buried in Hillsborough cemetery, Auckland. She had likely been living with her unmarried daughter Esther.

Panel materials: Lace I’ve had in my sewing box for many years was passed on by my mother. Night sky blue from an old doily. Curtains left over from covering cushions. Book bindings also from remnants of past projects.