Edith Lilian Vose

Edith was the first child in her family born in New Zealand in 1881, two years after their arrival from England. She was the fifth child and had two elder brothers and two elder sisters who had made the journey with their parents.

In 1897 her elder brother Samuel had been successful in securing some land in the new Wharenui settlement in Riccarton, Christchurch. Three acres on which he needed to build a cottage and develop market gardens in return for ownership after a certain period. Less than three years later Samuel died and his nineteen-year-old sister was the beneficiary of his land, cottage and garden. Perhaps she had been living there with him keeping house and helping with the work. This was the cottage where she remained for the rest of her life, raising a family.

In 1926, Edith was forty-five. She had five children, the youngest aged twelve was still at school. Her eldest son had completed his apprenticeship a few years earlier and left without a word and gone to Australia. Her second son was nearing the end of his apprenticeship or had possibly completed it. Would she have been filled with anxiety that he might follow his brother?

Her days would have been busy with domestic chores, milking the cow, making butter, tending the garden and fruit trees often you would imagine with assistance from the children. Edith’s mother has died in December of 1925 imagine there were days were grief still consumed her in that first year without her.