Maker: Margaret Couch

Panel number: 336

Petition sheet number: 403

Person honouring: L. E. [Letitia Elizabeth] Brooks

Relationship to makers: Great-aunt

Letitia Elizabeth Pegler was born on 11 October 1867 on board the sailing ship Warwick as it travelled back to England from New Zealand. Her parents, Eliza Allen and John Pegler, and older brother, Len, would have expected her to be born in England, but stormy weather had delayed the ship. The first six years of Lettie’s life were spent in the Yorkshire city of Leeds, where a younger sister and brother were born. 

In October 1874 Lettie returned to New Zealand, where her mother Eliza’s parents and siblings had settled. Eliza’s oldest sister, Annie Jane, had married Wesleyan missionary Cort Schnackenberg. The Schnackenbergs were living in Raglan, which at the time lacked a teacher. With a little nepotism, Eliza and John Pegler were appointed to run the Raglan School.

Lettie married William John Brooks, a pork butcher with a shop in Karangahape Road, in September 1890 and moved into a flat above the shop. Her aunt Annie [Schnackenberg], now a widow, had moved into her parents’ home at Mt Albert – she was actively involved as a leader in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. She was rallying her family, including Lettie, to help with the cause.

Lettie was still in Karangahape Rd when she signd the petition.

Early in the 1900s, Lettie and John sold the butchery was sold and moved to their new suburban villa at 25 Mt Albert Road. They developed a wonderful garden and were fortunate enough to be able to follow their interests.

Lettie was involved in local activities and joined the Auckland Lyceum club where at age 70 she embarked on stitching needle paintings. These works are treasured by her great-nieces and -nephews.

The work I inherited is of autumnal beech trees, each taking ages to complete. The leaf I stitched with her silks gave me better insight into the process, and admiration for her tenacity.

Panel materials: Old cotton sheet. Sewing items from my or my mother’s stash and some buttons from my late mother-in-law, Nola Couch. The silks to embroider the autumn leaf were from Aunt Lettie’s own work-box so would have been at least 65 years old. The purple cross-stitch design was a test piece I had worked, based on a Quaker sampler (Lettie’s father was a Quaker).