Maker: Rhonda Blood

Panel number: 277

Petition sheet number: 331

Person honouring: Lavina Thornhill

Relationship to maker: Same family name as mother

Lavina Maria Thornhill lived at 9 Belfast Street, Mt Cook, Wellington when she signed the petition. She remained there her entire adult life.

Lavina Bristow was born in England in 1858, the eldest of three children. She came to New Zealand with her parents George and Emma Bristow, and her two siblings in the 1870s.

Her father George was a coachmaker and wheelwright, based in Little Taranaki Street (now Egmont Street), Wellington.

Lavina married James Vickers Thornhill in 1883. James was born in England in 1853, emigrated during the 1870s, and worked as a furnaceman.

He and Lavina had seven children, two of whom died young. These two children and Lavina’s parents were buried in Wellington’s Bolton Street cemetery.

Lavina lived until 1945, when she was 86 – she was buried along with husband James [died 1925] and another daughter in Wellington’s Karori cemetery.

Panel materials: Vintage fabric I already had.