For such a long name, there is only a short amount that can be found out about ‘Mark’.
Mark died aged 27 at Wellington Hospital. His funeral left the Hospital at 2:30pm on the 4th October 1902 and routed via the Trades Hall at 3pm so that his friends from the Operative Bakers Union could “follow the remains of their late comrade” for the long walk to Karori Cemetery.
We don’t know when Mark arrived in New Zealand, but with such a distinctive name, it wasn’t hard to trace him in the English Census. He was born in Essex in 1875 to Thomas Hooper, a farmer, and Harriet Elizabeth Buckland Long, the daughter of a Baker. His parents had married in London in 1867 and he was their only child. Both of his parents were from Somerset and he was raised in that county on various farms, including the rather fancy looking OldHouse Farm (now a Grade II Listed Building https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/IOE01/08332/30 )
Thomas died in 1900 and Harriet then became a lodging house keeper and lived until 1912 when she was buried with Thomas in the Burnham-on-Sea cemetery, with a remarkably similar headstone to that of her son’s (which we can see thanks to www.findagrave.com and their amazing volunteers).
We can only presume it was Harriet who organised the inscription for her son at Karori:
“Beaman Buckland Mark
only son of
Thomas Hooper
of Burnham, Somerset, England
Born Dec 28th 1875
Died Oct 1st 1902
He Sleepeth”
And today we remember him.
Oldhouse Farm