Maker: Marion Cooper

Panel number: 241

Petition sheet number: 298

Person honouring: Margaret Cooney

Relationship to maker: None

Margaret’s early life and education galvanised her interest in social justice, community care, and political reform, which she expressed through fundraising and donating to causes, as well as by supporting political meetings and petitions. 

Margaret Gertrude Page was born in 1862 in Goorteeny, Galway, Ireland, the second of 11 children. She arrived in New Zealand in 1879 and worked until her marriage to James Cooney in 1884.

The couple had 11 children. James was a produce merchant who ran Oamaru’s Royal Oak store, selling goods such as chaff, onions, tea, and in 1913 ‘a large lot of linseed oil’.

Margaret was living in Oamaru when she signed the petition and enrolled to vote in subsequent elections.

Three of her children died before Margaret did in December 1922.

Panel materials: Fabric I already had.