OBITUARY

Southland Times, Issue 22215, 6 January 1934, Page 6

OBITUARY

MISS J. M. PETERSEN. On Saturday last there passed away at her residence, Deveron street, Miss Johanne Marie Petersen. Born at Ambut (Denmark) in February, 1857, Miss Petersen arrived in New Zealand with her parents and their family of seven, of whom she was the eldest, in the emigrant ship Punjab. It, was a long and disastrous voyage, for scarlet fever broke out on the passage and carried off no fewer than 41 of the unlucky emigrants. Mr Petersen and his one surviving son, Jens, started at their trade of carpentering. The son will be remembered as one of the Southland Education Board’s carpenters for a few years before his death. Miss Petersen for nearly 20 years kept the “tuck shop” forming the front of her residence —a spot well-remem-bered by generations of boys attending the High School in Conon street. Just how affectionately she was regarded by these and how effectively she asserted her authority in subduing the overboisterous or the rude youth was clearly revealed by “E.H.S.M.” in a delicately appreciative article in the Southland Times of January 21, 1928. Miss Petersen’s memory was well stored with the history and legends of her native land which was to her to the end “Home.” She was a member of the Lutheran Church, the national church of Denmark. Soon after arrival in New Zealand she joined the Anglican Church, of which she remained a devoted member till her • death. Miss Petersen was a lifelong sufferer from extreme eye-weakness, which in later years developed into blindness. This she bore with uncomplaining fortitude. A woman of markedly simple tastes and of kindly disposition, generous to a fault, rejoicing not in iniquity but rejoicing in the truth, this simple, humble soul has passed on, leaving a memory that is as a sweet savour to her large circle of friends. MR ROBERT CONINGSBY CLARKE. WELL-KNOWN COMPOSER. (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) London, January 4. The death has occurred of Mr Robert Coningsby Clarke, the well-known song writer. * Mr Clarke was born in 1879. He was the composer of “O My Garden Full of Roses,” “The Blind Ploughman, “Red Devon By the Sea,” “Desert Love Songs,” “Songs of Summer,” “Songs of the Malvern Hills,” “You in a Gondola,” and “Daphne.”