![]() ![]() The second Sylvia described herself as named after a ghost. The fifth child, also named Sylvia, survived only four days. Sylvia was the sixth of 10 children born to the couple. Shortly after, Francis fell ill with a painful arthritic condition and was never able to work again. Born in Mercer, near Auckland, in 1876, she began teaching at the age of 15. Sylvia’s mother, Margaret Maxwell, was the daughter of a blacksmith. ![]() For work, he tried various manual and clerical occupations. ![]() Although his family were poor, Francis thought of himself as a gentleman. Her father, Francis Ashton Warner, had arrived in New Zealand at the age of 16 in 1877. Sylvia Constance Ashton Warner (whose pen-name was Sylvia Ashton-Warner) was born in Stratford, Taranaki, on 17 December 1908. This biography, written by Sue Middleton, was first published in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography in 2010. ![]()
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