By Roselyn Fauth
The grave of Janet Meikle (Wright) (1865 - 1906), Timaru Cemetery - Photo By Roselyn Fauth 2025
Did you know New Zealand’s very first car fatality happened right here in Timaru? A farmer’s wife, a brand-new motorcar, a steep farm track... and a tragedy that marked the beginning of our country’s road safety story.
If you’ve been following my blogs, you’ll know I’ve been on a deep dive into Timaru’s whaling history. What started with the early 1830s whalers has led me through many unexpected pathways. Long story short, this journey introduced me to Ann and Sam Williams. Sam was a whaler in Timaru in the late 1830s and returned around 1856, where he and Ann lived in the Rhodes 1851 cottage at the foot of George Street.
When Ann died in 1860, Sam remarried Mary Ann Gardner. And it was while I was on the trail of Mary Ann’s father’s grave at the Timaru Cemetery that I stumbled across an unexpected cemetery neighbour: Janet Meikle. Her name rang a bell, and then I realised how I had heard about her. While I hadn't set out to learn Janet’s story. Her grave happened to be near the one I was looking for, and curiosity (as often happens) and my love for history hunting side quests, led me to learn that Janet was the first person in New Zealand known to have died in a motor accident caused directly by a car. Now I found myself transported from the stories of the 1830s whalers, to the early 1900s world of motorcars, when a new and dangerous technology was just arriving in South Canterbury...
On 8 September 1906, Janet Meikle (Wright) (1865 - 1906) and her husband John were driving their 8-horsepower De Dion motorcar back from a trip to town, to their farm at Table Downs in the Washdyke Valley. Janet was an experienced and capable driver, described in the Timaru Herald as “an expert in its management, and a particularly cool driver.”
But as they made their way down a steep and muddy farm driveway, (Spur Road near the bottom of Kellands Hill, west of Washdyke Flat Road, Timaru), on 8 September 1906, the car swerved on a corner. In trying to correct it, Janet turned a fraction too far. The De Dion scraped along a fence before overturning into a freshly ploughed paddock.
John was thrown out, breaking his thigh. Janet was trapped beneath the car and could not be freed in time, and John told an inquest, "Jack I'm dying," were her last words.
James in what would have been a painful effort with a broken leg when he reportedly "crawled towards the house until he could make the maid, Grace Robertson, heard his cries for help. Grace ran for another worker, who was ploughing about 1.5km away. He brought horses and rope and pulled the car off Janet.
Despite desperate efforts with a spade, rope, and horses, she had been crushed by the weight of the car and died. She left behind John and their young daughter, Mary Eileen Lovegrove (Meikle) who was just four years old.
The accident caused enormous sorrow in Timaru. It was the first serious motor accident in the district, and people struggled to believe the news. The South Canterbury Automobile Club expressed its sympathy and asked members to attend Janet’s funeral “without cars.”
This wasn’t just a family tragedy — it was a turning point. In just eight years since the colony’s first cars had arrived, the dangers of motoring were already being felt.
Reflection: What Janet’s Story Has Taught Me
I didn’t expect to meet Janet on this cemetery visit. She wasn’t part of the whaling era I set out to explore, yet here she was, a neighbour in the cemetery, resting with her story. Janet reminds me that the past is full of ordinary people whose lives intersected with great change. She was not a pioneer politician or a well-known leader, but a farmer’s wife, a mother, and an early adopter of a new machine that promised to make life easier. Her death reminds me that progress always comes with risk, and that statistics we read today, such as road toll numbers, accident figures, can begin with individual stories like hers.
Janet’s story has taught me to keep looking for our locals history. The next headstone, the next newspaper clipping, the next side quest can reveal something unexpected.. a new layer of who we are and who we have become. I am not just learning facts, but aiming to recognise the people whose lives, however brief or tragic, still shape the story of Timaru and New Zealand.
I feel it is a shame that her legacy in the newspaper archives is how she died. It would be interesting to learn more about who she was and her family.
All I could find so far, was that Janet was the daughter of William Wright and Janet Kerslake. Her headstone in Timaru Cemetery specifically records that she died from a motor accident. She was driving 8-horsepower De Dion Bouton (sometimes referred to as “Dory de Dion”); the most common model in the colony at the time. Her husband, John Meikle, suffered a fractured thigh and was unable to help. Janet and John had a four-year-old daughter. Janet was considered an “expert” and “particularly cool” driver with several years’ experience. For social context I was surprised to learn many rural women drove cars in the early 1900s, often handling supply trips to town while their husbands worked on the farm.
It wasn't until now that I made the connection that her husband John Meikle was the owner of Timaru's Grosvenor Hotel, which at the time was one of the towns top hostelries. According to a news article in the Otago Daily Times, John had arrived in New Zealand with only a sovereign to his name and went on to become a rich man. "He arrived in New Zealand from Scotland with only a sovereign to his name [worth about $200 today]" says a grandson Bruce Meikle. "John may have been involved in gold mining, and was certainly a coach driver, proprietor of Timaru's Grosvenor Hotel and invested in farms. Some time after Janet's death, John may have been involved in gold mining, and was certainly a coach driver, proprietor of Timaru's Grosvenor Hotel and invested in farms."
He was married three times, and was twice made a widower. His wealth could explain how he was in a position to buy a motor car, which was a French made De Dion Bouton at about 400 pounds, maybe 70,000 today. This make and model was one of the most popular cars in New Zealand at the time. The news article stated that Belgian born Emil Bockaert was the Timaru agent for the car, and drove it town from Christchurch. Janet was reported to always be the driver.
This makes me think that Janet must have been one of the earliest women drivers in New Zealand. She had been driving for about two years. New Zealand had had cars for only about seven years So maybe her claim to fame should also include that she was one of the pioneering motorists as well.
After her death, within a year, John married he married Grace Robertson, with whom he had a son, and lived to the age of 82. He moved away to settle in the North Island and died aged 82.
Grosvenor Hotel, Timaru. Hocken Digital Collections, accessed 10/09/2025, https://hocken.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/23636
What were the first cars
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New Zealand’s first two cars were imported in 1898 by Wellington businessman William McLean.
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The first motorcycle fatality occurred in Dunedin in 1905 (Alfred Price).
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The Model T Ford arrived in 1909, making motoring more affordable.
Road toll context:
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1921: 69 road deaths recorded in New Zealand.
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1973: Worst year, with 843 deaths.
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Since 2007: Annual toll has not exceeded 400, despite far more vehicles on the roads.
In 1902 Claude Smith died when thrown from a trap whose horse was startled by a motorcar in Christchurch.
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/new-zealands-first-fatal-car-accident
https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/otago-daily-times/20200915/281831466150972
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/Meikle
John Meikle from Geni.com ancestory page
Janet Meikle. Age at Death: 36. Date of Death: 8 Sep 1906. Timaru Cemetery Row 3, Plot 218 timaru.maps/Plot_ID=22025. Her husband moved to the North Island after he remarried.
