‘A distressing happening at Karori cemetery last Saturday when the bodies of two women who had died that week in the Wellington Hospital were discovered by the relatives to have become interchanged, was inquired into by the Wellington Hospital Board tonight’.
(New Zealand Herald, 31 August 1934, p13.)
We do not have documentary evidence as to the two women involved. Our theory is that they were Alice Mary Stephenson/Watson and Lavinia Arch. Both were of a similar age and both were buried on 25 August 1934. The bodies had been moved from the hospital mortuary by two undertakers.
The two funerals were in progress before it was discovered that the mourners were burying the deceased of the other family. In one case, the body had already been committed to the grave.
The Hospital Board received a report from the medical superintendent, Dr. H. B. McEwen, and decided that in future more strict regulations be required. Letters of regret were also sent to the respective families.
Alice Mary Stephenson, aged 80 years
Plot: *Public 3/C/346
Also interred in this plot is John William Watson, who died aged 66 in 1941. We have not been able to establish the background for these two. The headstone also mentions Emily Watson who died in 1944.
Lavinia Arch (born Lee)
Plot: *Public 2/W/261
Lavinia is buried with her husband, Walter, who died in 1921. The couple were married in 1882 and emigrated from Coventry, England, to New Zealand in 1901. They do not appear to have had any children. Walter was a grocer and together the couple ran a store in Newtown near the zoo entrance known as ‘The Requisites’. They were involved in a case of selling adulterated milk from their grocery store in 1914. Walter wrote to the newspaper declaring his innocence. It was discovered that he had been sold the adulterated milk.
By Melinda MacKenzie and Julia Kennedy
