Maker: Fleur Morris

Panel number: 212

Petition sheet number: 255

Person honouring: E. M. Mortland

Relationship to maker: Paternal great-grandmother

Eliza Orr was born in about 1856 in Letterkenny, County Donegal in Northern Ireland.

She married Samuel Mortland in 1872. They had a daughter, Emily, in May 1873 and a son, John, in February 1876. 

The family of four left Donegal for New Zealand on the Opawa, arriving in Canterbury on 3 January 1878. The family settled in Kaiapoi where Samuel worked the land.

Eliza and Samuel had five more children: Alexander (1878), William James (1880), Mary Ann (1883), Eliza Jane (1886), and Joseph Alfred (1888). William was killed in 1917 in World War 1 in France or Belgium.

After Samuel died in 1909 Eliza moved to Christchurch.

Eliza died in June 1920 at her daughter’s residence in Woolston, Christchurch, aged 64. She and Samuel were both buried at Sydenham cemetery.

Panel materials: Recycled vintage pillowcase and other fabrics and threads I had on hand.