Maker: Emily Giddens

Panel number: 256

Petition sheet number: 314

Person honouring: Louisa Coombe

Relationship to maker: None

Louisa was a businesswoman, breeder of toy poodles, Labour party worker, and knitter. 

Louisa Eleanor Priscilla Welham was born at Ipswich, Suffolk, England in July 1872 to Emma Hearn and George Welham. As a child she spent some time in an Ipswich orphanage after the death of her parents.

By 1890 she had moved to London where she married Henry Coombe, a tailor. They migrated to New Zealand two years later, settling in Palmerston North. 

The couple had three children: Thomas (1893), Florence (1895), and George (1897) Coombe. Some 26 women in Louisa’s street (Taonui St) signed the petition.

Louisa was a breeder of French toy poodles. After being widowed in 1916, she moved to Wellington where she went into business in Adelaide Road for eight years. She was also an ardent worker for the Labour Party. 

Louisa remarried – to William McKeag in 1927. She did much knitting for Air Force Relations, receiving an acknowledgment for her work shortly before her death.

She died at her home in Wellington in September 1943, aged 73, and was cremated at Karori cemetery.

Panel materials: Felt, wool, lace, silk ribbon, beads, patchwork material. Materials we already had.