Claude Albert Curtis Woodford – served in WWI twice
Claude was 8 years old when his father died in 1895 (see previous story). He went to Sydney Street school and eventually became a draughtsman.
Claude attested on 9th August 1914, less than two weeks after the outbreak of war. At that point he was living in Farm Road, Northland with his mother and her cousins. He was at that time a storeman at British General Electric. He joined the 5th Wellington Regiment. By 29th August he was in Samoa where he suffered from dengue fever. In March 1915, he was suffering from ear trouble. As a consequence Claude was discharged from the army until he could receive treatment. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star.
He then became a self-employed military badge maker and he started a hobby for breeding show dogs, winning the Fox Terrier novice class in 1915 with his dog named Good Stuff.
He reenlisted on 6 January 1917 and was promoted to Lance Corporal. By September he was in France where he joined the 2nd Battalion, Canterbury Regiment. He served in the field from 18 December 1917 until 7 March 1918 when he was detached to Headquarters. In September he had two weeks leave in the UK.
In April 1919 Claude married Mabel Agnes Shute in Portsmouth. He returned to New Zealand on the SS Ruapehu on 7 June 1919 which departed from Plymouth. We are not certain how Mabel travelled to New Zealand. He was formally discharged in August 1919. Their son Thomas was born on 21 August 1921.
By 1922, Claude’s residence is recorded as the Hospital at Trentham. He died there on 21 January 1923 aged 35, from war injuries.
The funeral (which was a state charge) left Wilson’s mortuary chapel for Karori Cemetery. The “Last Post” was sounded by trumpeter Major Chegwin. Among those present was Major Rockstrow, who represented the General Officer Commanding New Zealand Military Forces, and the Mayor representing the citizens of Wellington, Sir John Luke M.P., together with representatives from the Returned Services’ Association, Women’s National Reserve, Chamber of Commerce and Commercial Travellers’ Association. Mr F Thompson represented the Messengers Department, Government Buildings where Claude used to work and the pall-bearers were four fellow-employees.
Plot Soldiers/K/20
Mabel died in 1969, aged 79, and her ashes were interred in the Woodford plot Ch Eng/E/19
Their son Thomas became a draughtsman like his father.
Thomas Curtis Woodford was born in 1848 in Paddington, London to a watchmaking father. The family emigrated to Canterbury when he was ‘quite a lad’ and he learned his father’s trade in his father’s shop in Christchurch. He then went to Hokitika to manage a watchmaker’s business for Mr Proctor. He moved to Wellington in 1877 and in 1886 he married Emma Jones at St Paul’s Cathedral. Emma came from a family of early Nelson settlers.
The couple had one son, Claude, in 1887. At about the same time Thomas opened his shop on Lambton Quay at the Bowen Street end.
In the early hours of 12th June 1895, Nightwatchman Campbell ran up to Thomas’ residence in Tinakori Road and told him that his shop was in danger of being burned. Thomas dressed quickly and was soon at the scene where it was apparent the danger had passed.
He decided to get some refreshment for the firemen and knocked on the door of the Royal Hotel at about 3am. While waiting for the manager to dress and descend, he collapsed in the doorway. He was carried into the parlour and a doctor telephoned for, but when he arrived Thomas had already died.
A post mortem was carried out by Dr George Anson and a verdict of death from heart disease was returned by the jury at the inquest. For some time prior to his death he had been working late in order to cope with orders.
His life was insured for £250 with AMP.
Thomas is the first of 14 burials of his wife’s family and extended family in this plot.
Ch Eng/E/19
Lambton Quay. Photo courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library.
This wasn’t Walter’s first time in court. Back in 1896, he was there for assault charges against the Sexton of Karori Cemetery, Ernest Nash. The following year he claimed and won £5 damages from Nash for sending him to a fake address to enquire about a new headstone. In 1899 Walter was fined 40s for assaulting Nash. In 1906 Frederick Kilmister claimed £29 damages for Walter’s dogs worrying his sheep. Walter ended up paying £17.
24 March 1917, two local stonemasons Donald McVicar and Thomas Walker asked that Walter Mansfield be bound over to keep the peace.
‘The allegations were than on February 21st last, in the sacred precincts of Karori cemetery, Mansfield did use certain insulting and provoking language to complainants, and were afraid if he repeated the dose they might forget themselves and “stoush” him’.
McVicar said that Walter accused him of smothering up his maker’s mark on a headstone. A terse conversation followed.
Some choice excerpts from the case:
“You get your jobs by _____ crawling”
“Morris the undertaker is the dirty ____ who is running you”
“You were drummed out of the army and I can prove it”
“Did somebody hit him on the head with a wet brush?”
Walter’s defence lawyer said that covering up a maker’s mark was as bad as if a painter restored a picture and painted over the original artist’s name. When pressed by the complainant’s lawyer for the names of the afflicted headstones, Walter said he could not remember them but could point them out in the cemetery.
John Hickmott, another monumental mason also gave evidence that Mansfield ‘started the barney’.
Magistrate Reid decreed that in the interests of all parties it was advisable that Walter should be bound to keep the peace for six months towards both men, and that he would be required to enter into a personal surety of £50 to do so. Costs were also allowed against him.
At this point in his career, Walter had been a stone mason in Wellington for 27 years. He completed many fine works that we can still see today.
Walter Simeon Mansfield was born Water Stratford, Buckinghamshire, England in 1860. His father was a farmer and stone mason. He emigrated to New Zealand on the ‘Loch Dee’ barque in 1882 and Walter married Ada Steffert in 1886. Ada was the daughter of a German settler. Together they had eight children (Ada, Reuben, Arthur, NR, Bessie, Clara, Walter and Leonard). Two of their infant children are interred at Bolton Street Cemetery. Ada died in 1937 and is interred at Karori Cemetery in what is quite a modest plot design by comparison to the work her husband undertook (Ch Eng/U/208).
Walter died in 1953, age 93, and his estate was valued at £119. He was cremated at Karori Cemetery but there is no headstone to his memory. Instead his name is remembered on hundreds of beautiful headstones around Karori. Do look out for them when you next visit.
Sarah McKinlay and her husband Charles Robert Ralph
Charles was born in 1862 in Glasgow and Sarah in 1863. Charles’ parents were Charles Ralph and Ann Duncan. Who Sarah’s parents were is not clear.
At aged 19, Charles was boarding with the Reilley family and working as a blacksmith. The couple married at Dennistoun, Glasgow in 1883. They first appear on New Zealand Electoral Rolls in 1894, living at Victoria Place [Victoria Street], Wellington.
By 1899 they had moved to Regent Street, Petone.
In 1902 Charles obtained a licence for a boat skid on the Petone foreshore. The cost was 10s 6d per annum.
Sarah died on 21st August 1905, age 42. Her funeral departed Petone at 1:15pm and arrived at Wellington train station at 2:30pm, and then went on to Karori Cemetery. Over the next few years, Charles placed memorial notices in the newspaper which echo her headstone inscription: ‘Gone but not forgotten’.
Charles was the secretary of the St John Ambulance society at Petone which offered first aid training to the public. Initially this was just for men, and then a year later a women’s class was formed, initially presided over by Charles. The hurdle in establishing the class was the fees demanded by medical professionals to teach the women. ‘Those whose need for the instruction is greatest are unable to afford the subscription demanded’ (NZ Times 17 May 1909). He was also a member of the Northern Star Lodge of which he was Chief Templar.
Charles wrote his will on the 6th January 1910 and died on the 28th, age 47. His funeral departed the house of Mr W Williams, Petone at 1pm, passing Thorndon esplanade at 2:30pm before making its way to the cemetery.
In his will he specifically bequeathed his leather suite of furniture, one duchesse chest, one grey parrot, and one lady’s gold watch and chain to Mrs Jean Williams. His estate was valued at under £100.
In his will he also refers to his widowed sister in Auckland, Agnes McCabe, and a nephew William Williams and niece Annie Brett. But we have been unable to piece these family connections together.
Clarrissa was born in 1898, to Frederick and Mary Jane Laughton. Her father was an umbrella maker when she was younger and then became a hairdresser. She was one of ten children. Her husband [Leonard] George was the son of Walter and Louisa Bryden. Walter was a railway waggon and carriage wheel maker.
The young couple arrived in New Zealand from Leeds in 1922, a few months after they were married. They settled in Invercargill where their two youngest children were born. It was here that George, who was an engineer, established the New Zealand branch of F & A Parkinson & Co (later Crompton Parkinson), which was a British electrical manufacturing company.
The family then moved to Wellington where George was elected to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce in March 1927. In April, Clarrissa donated money to the Eastbourne war memorial. This was as much as we could find out about her life in New Zealand.
Clarrissa died three weeks after the birth of her third son, on 18th October 1927, at her home in 400 Muritai Road Eastbourne (the numbers may have changed).
On 13 October 1928, George sold up the family home, described as the last house on the beach. Included in the sale were a new ‘Guerney’ electric range and an oak cased ‘Colombia’ Grafonola.
George and his two eldest boys set sail for Vancouver on the S.S. Niagara on 25 October 1928. They arrived in London in November and went on to his father’s house in Leeds. Newspaper reports said that he had been recalled back to head office.
Youngest son James arrived back in England in March 1930 accompanied by a typist named Marian Bellingham. Marian had emigrated to New Zealand in 1926 and her sister, Mrs H A Bick lived in Pahiatua where Marian based herself.
George Bryden and Marian Bellingham were married in London in June 1930 and went on to have six children. George died in 1960 in Leeds. Marian died in 2001 aged 96.
Percy Gates Morgan M.A married Mary Jane Gilmour in 1900. Percy was a graduate of the Otago School of Mines and Mary (Minnie) was the daughter of a mine manager. Effie, born in 1901, was one of four daughters born to the couple. Percy went on to become director at New Zealand Geological Survey.
Effie was the Dux of Roseneath School in 1913. She then attended Wellington Girls College and was awarded a junior university scholarship. In 1926, she qualified at the University of NZ (Otago) and graduated M.B., Ch.B. (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery). She worked first as school medical officer in the Hawkes Bay, Wellington and Otago and later as house surgeon at Wellington hospital. She also acted as assistant medical officer at Porirua Hospital.
Of her sisters, Hazel attained a Bachelor of Arts and was a schoolteacher and Margaret was a nurse. Joyce attained a Bachelor of Home Science and became a teacher also.
Over the last 12 years of her life, Effie suffered ‘indifferent health’ and died at her home in Hataitai in 1937.
Interred in this plot – Effie’s father (d 1927) and mother (d 1952) and sisters Margaret Eileen (d 1953) and Hazel Noel Emily (d 1977). The fourth sister Joyce Gilmour was cremated at Karori in 1990 and her ashes scattered in the rose garden.
Louisa was born in 1857. Her parents Arthur Harvey and his wife Emma Vernon seem to have bounced backwards and forwards from England to the colonies. The couple were married in Ealing, London in 1854. Several children were born in London before Louisa was born in Queensland. Her brother Herbert was born in Sydney in 1858 before the family returned to London in the early 1860s.
Arthur appears to have followed his silk merchant farmer into trade and most of his siblings were merchants also.
The family returned to Australia in the early 1870s and settled in Adelaide. Arthur came representing a number of other capitalists with a scheme to build a land-grant railway across the continent to Port Darwin. This did not proceed and instead he became a land and mining speculator.
In 1883 Louisa married William Graham Rhind in Dunedin. He was the inspector for the Bank of NSW. Her father’s residence at the time was noted as Medindie, NSW.
William died aged 53 in 1898 at their home on The Terrace and was interred in Karori. Arthur Harvey while visiting his daughter on a trip from Adelaide died at her Thorndon Quay home in 1902. He was interred at Karori Cemetery in plot Ch Eng/N/49.
Louisa and her children Elizabeth (known as Betty) went to live in England in 1911. The trip was intended for Betty to further her art studies. Presumably the war delayed their return until 1919 when they settle back in Wellington. Betty became an art teacher at Samuel Marsden College.
Louisa died in 1935 at her home in Coutts Street, Kilbirnie.
Fearn & Quick – architects of the William Booth Memorial Training College, Aro Street.
Stanley Fearn was born in Mile End, London, in 1887 to Walter who was a pawnbroker and his wife Emma Tilly. The family moved out of London to Woodford where Stanley was educated at Woodford College, Burnham College and Bancrofts School. He started his architectural training in 1904. Stanley arrived in Wellington on a third-class ticket in 1911.
William Benyon Austin Quick (known as Austin) was born in New Zealand in 1886 to William Henry Quick and his wife Elizabeth Thomas. William senior was a solicitor. Austin was educated at Mrs Swainson’s school in Fitzherbert Terrace (the forerunner to Samuel Marsden College), before attending Victoria University where he was described as being ‘of a reserved disposition but sterling character’.
Stanley and Austin formed an informal partnership in 1913, and together they designed the Training College in the neo Georgian style. It was designed as a residential college for 50 students, (25 female and 25 male) and cost 13,000. The building opened in 1914. The partnership won the inaugural NZIA Gold Medal Award for their design in 1927.
When the war started, the partners wound up their business as soon as they were able to and joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
Stanley served in Egypt, France and Belgium, attaining the rank of Second Lieutenant before his return to New Zealand in 1919.
Austin left as a sergeant with the 5th Reinforcements and served in Egypt and Gallipoli before he was invalided home with enteric. He re-joined his battalion in France and was killed in action while serving in the machine gun section in 10th December 1916. He is interred at Rue-Petillon Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix, Pas de Calais, France. Austin is remembered on a brass plaque at Old St Paul’s which reads ‘A chorister in this church as a boy and man’.
Stanley lived for 50 years longer than his friend, and became a distinguished architect. He married Winifred Glasse of Essex in 1916 and they had a son and a daughter. Their son, Detmar, also became an architect. Stanley lived in Wilton Road, Northland.
To celebrate King Charles’ coronation day, did you know that at Karori Cemetery there are:
1977 named Charles
320 with surname King
5 men named Charles King
This is what we know about our five Charles King:
1903 Charles King, died aged 37, Public 2/C/8 Lived in Caroline Street, member of the Court of Sir George Bowen A.O.F. . Charles’ occupation was a violinist, conductor and music teacher. He married Annie Lucretia Ahlgren in 1893. In June 1903, a benefit social was held in his aid at Druids Hall and 180 couples attended. He publicly thanked his friends in the newspaper for their material kindness during his present illness. He died on the 30th October. Annie died in 1944 and is in the same plot.
1914 Charles Mould King, died aged 53, Ch Eng 2/C/46 Born in Melbourne. When he was four, his mother died and Charles and his father moved to Hokitika. Held rank of Quartermaster Sergeant in the D Battery of Artillery, was a prominent Oddfellow, churchwarden and spent his working life as a clerk. He and his wife Maria Miles had three sons. Maria died in 1946 and is in the same plot.
1924 Charles Edward King, died aged 33, Ch Eng 2/G/451 Charles was born in Oamaru. He worked as a hairdresser and lived in Cuba Street. His wife Minnie (nee Lewis) was a key witness in the Newlands Baby Farming scandal. Minnie and infant daughter are also interred in this plot.
1926 Charles Maynard King, died aged 35, Ch Eng 2/H/141 Charles was born in Wellington and was a Member of the Eastbourne Lodge. He lived on Marine Parade. He was a ‘pictorial artist’ and partner of the signwriting firm ‘Hanna & King Limited’. His wife Annie and son Jack are also interred in this plot.
1943 Charles Egerton Wredenhall King, died aged 76, Ch Eng/C/28 Born on the Isle of Man, his parents had married in India (where his mother was born). He was married to Minnie Worth in 1893, they had no children. He worked as a storeman and the couple lived in Webb Street. He is buried with his wife and parents.
Louise Elizabeth de Bathe Brandon was born in Wellington in 1877. She was the the fourth child born to Henry Eustace de Bathe Brandon and Anna Maria Wilson.
Louise spent many years writing short stories under a pen-name and was very interested in journalism. She was at one time an editor of the ‘New Zealand Free Lance’ and also of the ‘New Zealand Times.’
Louise completed her nursing examinations in 1909 and was the top placed student in those exams. She completed her training in Wellington Hospital in 1910.
When the First World War was declared on 4 August 1914, Matron in Chief Hester Maclean asked if nurses would be sent with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF). The response was “No nurses would be sent’. However on 7 August Hester Maclean received a request for six nurses to proceed with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
The six nurses requested on 7th August left NZ on the 15 August 1914 for an unknown destination, which turned out to be Samoa. Louise Brandon was one of these nurses and along with her colleagues she replaced the German nurses at Apia Hospital.
The New Zealand Army Nursing Service (NZANS) had yet to be established, therefore Louise and the other nurses were attached to the New Zealand Medical Corps – No 4 Field Ambulance, as members of the New Zealand Medical Corps Nursing Service Reserve.
Louise returned to New Zealand from Samoa and along with 13 other nurses left on the hospital ship Maheno on its maiden voyage from Wellington on 10 July 1915.
On the Maheno there were 7-8 doctors, 3 chaplains, 14 nurses and 60-70 orderlies. The doctors, chaplains, and nurses had officer status and enjoyed better accommodation and first class passenger menus. Although the government had said that nurses would be treated as officers, it is reported that Lieutenant-Colonel James Elliott, the senior military officer on the Maheno’s first voyage, withdrew many of the nurses privileges, greatly souring relations.
During the voyage the nurses were responsible for sorting and packing all the donated linen and knitted goods. Each staff nurse was responsible for training six orderlies. There were lectures, incident simulations, and bandaging practice.
The Maheno sailed via the Suez to Anzac Cove arriving on 26th August 1915. Records complied from the ships diary note that on arrival at Anzac Cove the Maheno found ‘a destroyer and cruiser bombarding the coast immediately opposite to us. Several bullets came on board, which added excitement to the proceedings’.
Louise and the other nurses onboard were immediately put into action and on the 28th of August the ship left with 445 patients for Mudros, a port in Lemnos, Greece. The ship returned to Anzac on the 30th August. The ship’s diary states that they were faced by epidemics of diarrhea, dysentery, and other intestinal complaints. The worst wounds were caused by bombs and shrapnel. Lice were also noted as being bothersome.
Conditions on the ship must have been frantic. One nurse wrote ‘I had theatre duty, and when we were not operating we were all dressing wounds. . .some of the wounds were ghastly, and gas gangrene was prevalent. We had 13 amputations in the short trip from Mudros to Alexandria.’
The next five weeks were spent treating wounded from Gallipoli, either at ANZAC Cove, Mudros or transporting them to Malta or Alexandria. One of the other nurses onboard wrote that the Maheno ‘looks like what she is – an errand of mercy for all you men…’
Louise returned to New Zealand on the Maheno on 1 Jan 1916 and continued serving on the ship until March 1917 when she joined another hospital ship ‘Marama’.
Her third overseas posting was on the Corinthic and she also spent time as the Matron of the New Zealand Officers’ Convalescence Hospital at Brighton. Louise finally concluded her nursing service on 1 February 1920.
Throughout WW1 Louise always worked alongside her friend Louise Alexa McNie (later Buchanan). The two women sat their nursing exams the same year, went to Samoa together and worked on the Maheno, Marama, and Corinthic together.
Both Louise Brandon and Louise McNie were awarded the Associate Royal Red Cross. Established by Queen Victoria, this decoration was conferred exclusively on women until 1976. The award is made to a fully trained nurse of an officially recognised nursing service, military or civilian, who has shown exceptional devotion and competence in the performance of nursing duties over a continuous and long period, or who has performed an exceptional act of bravery and devotion at her or his post of duty.
Following her return to New Zealand Louise Brandon became Matron of the Military Hospital at Rotorua. She also had a practice of her own at Kelvin Chambers, 16 The Terrace.
In 1933 Louise attended an International conference of Nurses in Paris and Brussels, and spent 8 months on holiday in England.
Upon her return from the war Louise lived at her home at 56 Pipitea St, Thorndon. She left this property to two of her nephews upon her death. She also left funds to support her sister Gladys and brother Gerald. Louise never married.
Louise died in Wellington Hospital on 23 September 1945 after a long illness. Her ashes are in the Soliders Niche (DIV B1/2) in the Services Section.
Note: Many members of the wider Brandon family were involved in WWI. Louise’s brother Major Percy Eustace de Bathe Brandon OBE was also a decorated soldier, brother Private Gerald served in Egypt. Louise’s brother in law Robert Thomas Heaney was killed in action in France in April 1918. We have also featured Louise’s sister Constance in another story (https://friendsofkaroricemetery.co.nz/constance-annie-de…/).
