Tony who is one of our fabulous volunteers uncovered this dear wee headstone during our working bee in September. Such a large plot for Alfred Oscar Aplin who died in 1902 at 4 months old.
His parents were Alfred Septimus Aplin, age 25 and his wife Ellen Ruth (nee Holmes) age 16. Ellen’s father had arrived on the ship ‘Oriental’ as a baby in 1840 and she had 12 older half siblings. She married Alfred on 18th December 1901. Alfred junior was born in June the following year.
The couple lived at Crofton where the wider Aplin family were farmers. The area is known today as Ngaio. Young Alfred died shortly after 7am on 1st October. A doctor who examined the body said it was likely the child died of convulsions. The coroner was informed but we can find no record of an inquest.
The couple went on to have six more children who all lived to adulthood. It can’t have been an easy life for Ellen. In 1936 she was found illegally in a yard drinking beer with three men who all had various aliases. All pleaded guilty and Ellen was subject to a prohibition order which she breached a month later and was fined 10s.
Alfred senior died in 1956 and Ellen in 1972. Both were cremated at Karori Cemetery.The only other burial in this plot is that of one year old Ronald Barry Aplin who died in 1942. He was Alfred and Ellen’s grandson, and a son of Maxwell & Winifred Aplin.
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