Tony Watkins

John and Jane Turnbull arrived in New Zealand in 1863 on the ship Gertrude. In 1872 John moved to Te Au-o-Waikato and his wife joined him there in 1873. It was a further eighteen months before she saw another white woman, as John was one of the first white settlers in the Morrinsville district. At that time all provisions were brought up the river from Thames.

Michael Pierce (Percy) Butler set up a thriving flax mill, employing a dozen men, in Morrinsville, and it was here that he met and married Elizabeth Turnbull in 1906, (Refer to the entry on Elizabeth Butler)

Beatrice Ena Watkins, their eldest daughter, was born on 13 October 1907 in Te Aroha.