The seditious woman

There is a great deal of talk these days about freedom of speech. It’s generally held that we have freedom of speech - but that we don’t have freedom from its consequences.
And it's nothing new. Do you speak out against what you see as wrong? Or do you say nothing?
It’s worse during times of crisis like wars.
In wartime censorship applied even to personal letters and there were a great many things never published even in newspapers.
In 1914 the War Regulations Act was passed. The wide reaching legislation included the suppression of the seditious activity which could be anything injurious to public safety. This could be almost anything depending on how it was seen. And it was an imprisonable offence.
By the end of the First World War there were 102 successful prosecutions, 67 people were jailed, 29 filed and eight convicted and discharged.
One often mentioned, as a way to illustrate how over the top the prosecutions were, was a 70-year-old woman called Ellen Fuller. But who she was is missing.
She was born Elen Brigitte Larson on July 20, 1847, Oslo, Oslo Fylke, Norway, to Lars Hansen and Johanne Elisabeth Olsdatter. Elen had a brother and sister.
In 1872, Elen had a child out of wedlock to Otto Christian Smith - a sea captain. At the time she was 25 and working as the domestic servant of Nils and Ragnild Gundersen. They fostered the child, a boy called Otto.
Meanwhile Elen boarded the Albion in 1876 as a single woman and came to Australia. In Melbourne she met Walter Fuller (who had come to Australia from England). They married in 1878 in Melbourne before eventually coming to New Zealand.
Walter was a printer by trade and worked for the Government Printing Office.
For years they went about their lives until Ellen - as she was now called - came to the attention of the authorities in 1916 for what called seditious utterings at the Palmerston North Railway Station, saying the Kaiser was her lord and master and insulting the King.
She was charged, and when she did not turn up in court was given a sentence of two months hard labour - jail.
It turned out Wellington police had failed to serve the court summons on her in time for her to go to court. Ellen denied the charges and when she did make it to court her lawyer argued the words did not breach the War Regulation Act.
A rehearing was granted but with the same result and an appeal to reduce the sentence because of her age and mental capacity was rejected.
In reality Ellen had become a slightly senile, bad tempered, eccentric old woman who shouted a lot. It had gotten so bad she had been separated from Walter for some time.
Only a few years later in 1919 Ellen died on February 17. Her son, who at first used the last name Gundersen, but later reverted to Smith, also came to New Zealand and raised a huge family.
Walter outlived Ellen and despite being separated for many years, they are buried together at Karori Cemetery.