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Sheila Weight

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Sheila Weight

Weight serving in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force circa 1940–1941
Birth nameSheila Mary Weeks
Born(1922-01-10)10 January 1922
Died15 July 2011(2011-07-15) (aged 89)
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service / branchWomen's Auxiliary Air Force
Spouse(s)Peter Everard Weight
Children6

Sheila Mary Weight MNZM JP (née Weeks; 10 January 1922 – 15 July 2011) was a New Zealand local-body politician. She was the first woman to service as president of the Auckland Institute and Museum Trust Board.

Biography

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Weight was born Sheila Mary Weeks in London, England, on 10 January 1922,[1][2] and served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force during World War II.[3] She emigrated to New Zealand in 1946,[4] and subsequently married Peter Everard Weight.[5] The couple went on to have six children.[5][6]

Later in life, Sheila Weight served as a councillor on the One Tree Hill Borough Council and represented the borough on the Trust Board of the Auckland Institute and Museum. From 1982, she also served as vice-president of the institute,[7] becoming the president in 1986. She was the first woman to be elected to either position.[8] She was appointed to be a justice of the peace in 1985.[9]

In the 1999 New Year Honours, Weight was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the community.[10][11] In the same year, Weight received an Auckland Museum Medal, becoming a Companion of Auckland War Memorial Museum.[12]

Weight died on 15 July 2011.[6] Her husband, Peter, died in 2013.[5]

References

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  1. ^ "Death search: registration number 2011/16839". Births, deaths & marriages online. Department of Internal Affairs. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  2. ^ "Sheila M Weeks in the England & Wales, civil registration birth index, 1916–2007". General Register Office, United Kingdom. Retrieved 7 August 2022 – via Ancestry.com.
  3. ^ "Sheila Weight in uniform. Women's Auxilliary Air Force". Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  4. ^ "New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, passenger lists, 1839–1973: Wellington, 1946". FamilySearch. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  5. ^ a b c "Peter Weight obituary". The New Zealand Herald. 16 March 2013. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  6. ^ a b "Sheila Weight obituary (2011)". The New Zealand Herald. 16 July 2011. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  7. ^ "Auckland War Memorial Museum News Number Fourteen" (PDF). Museum Quarterly. 14. Auckland: Auckland War Memorial Museum. June 1983. ISSN 0111-2252. Wikidata Q115749472.
  8. ^ "Auckland War Memorial Museum News Number 26" (PDF). Museum Quarterly. 26. Auckland: Auckland War Memorial Museum. 1 July 1986. ISSN 0111-2252. Wikidata Q115749483.
  9. ^ "Justices of the peace appointed" (PDF). New Zealand Gazette. No. 110. 13 June 1985. pp. 2519–2520. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  10. ^ "Sheila Weight". Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  11. ^ "New Year honours list 1999". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 31 December 1998. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  12. ^ "Museum Medals". Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 9 July 2024.