Maker: Dale Dustin-Rollerson

Panel number: 390

Petition sheet number: 476

Person honouring: Celia Dustin

Relationship to maker: Great-grandmother

Celia Barrett was born in Cornwall, England around 1859. She migrated from Plymouth to Wellington in 1880 on the Geraldine Paget. On 2 November 1881 she married William Samuel Dustin, a baker from Plymouth, England whom she had met on the boat. They established Dustins Ltd, a well-known bakery and tea rooms in Wanganui with branches in Palmerston North, Wellington. and Foxton.

The couple had a house in Wickstead Place, Wanganui and had nine children. Their three daughters and six sons all worked in the business.

Both Celia and her mother, Ann Barrett, signed the suffrage petition [sheet 476].

Celia was 53 when she died in Wanganui in February 1914, the year before her 22-year-old son Claude died at Gallipoli. 

Panel materials: I used photos and wrapping paper from Dustins Ltd – scanned and printed on cotton fabric. The background was an old sheet of mine – the images were printed onto purchased cotton.