Lily Ponds

It is well timed for ANZAC Day 2023 that we are pleased to announce the two lily ponds in the services section have had their restoration completed. These ponds are of historical importance and the Friends’ championed for their restoration.

These ponds were completed in November 1926. They were commissioned by the Department of Internal Affairs. Some of the original waterlilies were donated by the Auckland Racing Club and eighteen varieties were sent from the Melbourne Botanical Gardens.

There were once goldfish in the ponds too, donated by the Women’s National Reserve. These proved an allure for children out walking with their parents and instructions were issued to keep a close eye out for offenders who would ‘be severely dealt with’. The goldfish have long since escaped, however waterlilies will return to the ponds.

During their restoration, a number of curious articles were retrieved by the contractors while digging out the bases. A fish paste jar bought back childhood memories for our committee member Philippa. A piece of an infant’s headstone was also recovered and Philippa has gone to some lengths to research its original placement. Based on the scant details on the piece and some crack sleuthing, Philippa has concluded the piece came from the headstone of Claude Victor Boyd who died aged 3 years in 1892. We hope to be able to return it to its plot.

In the meantime we hope that you visit the cemetery and admire the lily ponds which we think add greatly to the tranquillity of the space.

Services area, image courtesy of Wellington Recollect
Lily ponds April 2023
Services section April 2023

Margaret Steel Hill

‘a kind and benevolent disposition’

Margaret and Andrew Hill were likely one of many married couples who used emigration rather than an expensive divorce to change course in their lives.

Margaret Steel was born in 1833 in Riccarton, Ayr, Scotland. She worked as a hatmaker. She married Andrew Hill, a brassfinisher, in Glasgow in 1859. Their children Margaret, William, George and Gilbert were all born near the Clyde over the following years.

In March 1870, whether by design or planning Andrew sailed alone on the ‘Dunfilan’ for Dunedin. His youngest son Andrew junior was born in August the same year back in Glasgow. In June 1871, Margaret arrived on the ‘Wild Deer’ to Dunedin with her children. Andrew worked there as a brassfinisher until 1875 at which point he returned to Glasgow and Margaret moved with her children to Wellington.

How does a woman survive with five children? At first Margaret returned to her hat making skills, advertising heavily throughout 1876-77 that straw hats ‘were cleaned and altered to the newest styles on the shortest notice’. She then ran a modest registry office (employment exchange). The family lived at Taranaki Street, then Stafford Street before moving in early 1880 to the sleepy village that was then Oriental Bay. She named her home ‘Kelburne House’ and it sat just along from the Hay Street corner. She was also said to have been the person to name the suburb of Roseneath and Baring Street behind her house was originally named Hill Street.

Margaret seems to have been a hospitable lady. Her sons’ friends of the Oriental Bay boating club would call for ‘a capital tea’. And they had a boat shed opposite her house (now the location of the band rotunda).

In 1884 she adopted a little girl named Ivy, and the three women of the family continued living at Kelburne House. Ivy recalled climbing over the rocks to attend Clyde Quay School.

Margaret died in 1903. In 1930, her son Gilbert demolished the house and replaced it with the three storey block of flats that remain today, known as Coburn House.

Public/O/63

Margaret Steel Hill standing in door way, with her daughter Margaret Brown Hill and Ivy seated. Unknown boy.
Oriental Bay 1890s, courtesy of Te Papa online
Detail photo, Margaret’s house likely to be the single storey building with buggy parked adjacent.
Hill plot
After cleaning, August 2023

Titanic & Karori Cemetery

14th April 2023 marks the 111th anniversary of RMS Titanic striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean. There were no known New Zealanders on Titanic but we have found a small link to a grave at Karori Cemetery …

Elizabeth Budding was born in 1857 at Rouen, France to Welsh parents. She married Edmund Williams, a tailor, in 1882 and their children were born in London into a busy family tailoring business where Elizabeth also worked. Elizabeth was widowed in 1905 and in about 1910 emigrated to Wellington to be near her daughter Amy (b. 1882) who had married William Riggin, caretaker of Wellington College.

Her fifth son, Charles (b. 1888) started working as a ballboy at Prince’s Club before turning professional as a rackets player. He became the school racket coach at Harrow School. He became world champion aged 22 when he defeated J. Jamsetji of Bombay.

Charles boarded the Titanic as a second class passenger at a cost of £13. His intended destination was Harvard College to play USA champion, Jack Soutar.

On the night of April 14th, Charles had been playing on the racket court and was in the smoking room when the iceberg struck. After the Titanic sank, he was originally reported as “missing”. The newspapers may have mixed him up with Charles Duane Williams, another passenger who did drown. He was finally announced as rescued in New Zealand newspapers on 22nd April.

According to an account in ‘The Press’, Charles who was wearing a lifebelt jumped overboard and floated for a few minutes before he was picked up from a lifeboat. He also reported to Lloyds that Captain Smith swam up to the lifeboat with a baby in his arms (there is no evidence that this happened). He stood for nine hours in a small boat with water up to his knees. Eventually they were rescued by the RMS Carpathia.

In August 1912, King George visited Harrow School, and while there congratulated Charles on his escape from the Titanic.

Charles resided in the USA from 1924, married and had six children. He died in Chicago in 1935, aged 47. He is buried in Rosehill Cemetery.

Elizabeth married George Cloake in 1916 and she died in 1932, aged 74.

Public 3/C/2

Thanks to this website for inspiring us to search for a Karori Cemetery connection:
https://remueraheritage.org.nz/story/new-zealands-connection-with-the-titanic/

Charles Williams & Jack Soutar
RMS Titanic
Elizabeth William’s headstone

Joseph Parker

‘The Greatest Editor’

Joseph was born in Nelson in 1873, the son of Joseph, a carpenter and his wife Ann Boyes. Ann was widowed in 1875 and moved with her younger children to New Plymouth where Joseph junior attended high school and was a keen amateur boxer.

He started his journalistic career first at the ‘Taranaki Herald’ and ‘Taranaki Daily News’, followed by the Christchurch ‘Press’. He joined the sub-editorial staff of the ‘Evening Post’ in 1903. He became chief sub-editor in 1907 and then succeeded Mr Lukin as editor in 1916.

‘… he held that the editorship of a metropolitan newspaper demanded his whole attention, and that an editor could best serve the public by maintaining an independent position free from the ties to which personal association with public affairs might lead’ (Evening Post, 4 April 1942)

Joseph married Vera Myrtle MacDonald in 1907. She was the niece and adopted daughter of Frances Rossiter and her husband (Hon) Thomas Kennedy MacDonald. Their children were Erik, Joan and Frances.

In 1938, Joseph travelled with his wife and daughters for a nine month stay in Europe where he witnessed the Munich crisis. ‘… this impressed with him the dangers that the Empire must be prepared to face, and the trials which could only be met with the utmost efforts of all partners in the British Commonwealth of Nations. On his return to New Zealand he never failed to stress the urgency of this effort’.

He collapsed and died suddenly on 2 April 1942, after completing his work day. He had been editor of the ‘Evening Post’ for 26 years.

Prime Minister Peter Fraser and Chief Justice Sir Michael Myers, Consul-General for Poland Count K A Wodzicki and president of the Hebrew Congregation for Wellington Mr B Van Staveren were just a few of the dignitaries that attended his funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral. The members of the literary department of the ‘Evening Post’ were the pall bearers.

Joseph’s ashes are located in the columbarium behind the Small Chapel. There is no inscription on the plaque. Vera died in 1971 and her ashes were scattered in the rose garden.

Joseph Parker
Parker plaque without inscription, centre.

Edwin & Sarah Silk

Edwin was born in 1837, the son of coachbuilder Robert and his wife Sarah. The family lived in Longacre, London.

Edwin arrived in New Zealand in the 1850s and at first he undertook hotelkeeping with his brother Albert. He was then appointed the first station master at Kaiapoi in 1872. The railway was controversial locally as the merchants had built up their trade on shipping and had put money into shares and sheds. He was then moved to Rangiora when it became the terminus.

In 1873 he married Sarah Amelia Tribe at St Luke’s church, Christchurch. Sarah was born in St Pancras, London and the daughter of Charles Tribe, then a journeyman upholsterer.

Edwin was then station master at Ashburton until 1878. On his departure he was presented with a purse containing 90 sovereigns as a mark of esteem. “The public had always received from Mr Silk the greatest courtesy”.

Mr and Mrs Silk then moved to Wellington where Edwin commenced work for Shaw, Savill & Albion. At first they lived in Majoribanks Street, then Austin Terrace before retiring to Jubilee Road, Khandallah.

Edwin had written his Will in 1875 and left the whole of his estate to his wife, but perhaps due to the fact they were about to travel and as they had no children, Edwin prepared a codicil to his Will in 1907 stating that should his wife predecease him then his property was to be divided among his Tribe in-laws and their descendants. The couple went to Europe in 1907, returning in 1908. Edwin died suddenly the same year, aged 72.

Sarah lived in Jubilee Road and died in 1933, aged 82.

[some information in this of story was supplied from the Macdonald Dictionary of Canterbury Biography project 1952-1964]

Plot Ch Eng/K/69

Silk plot

Arthur Delaney

What is their connection? Can you follow it along?

Arthur J. Delaney died 1913 aged 47 years

Also

William Thomson died 1912 aged 82 years

And

Margaret A Parsonage died 1906 aged 28 years

Arthur John Delaney was born at New Plymouth in 1866, the son of John Delaney from Ireland who had served in the Crimean war. Arthur worked as a Harbour Board employee. He married Mary “Minnie” Christina Thomson in 1889. Their only child Ethel was born in 1891. He died 30th March 1913 after a long and painful illness at his home in Herald Street.

William Thomson was a “well-known Wellington identity”. He was born in Scotland and went to the goldfields at Ballarat in 1858 and the on to the goldfields at Otago. He then returned to his trade as an iron moulder working at Sparrow’s foundry Dunedin where he made the first casting there. He then came to Wellington as a foreman for E.W. Mill’s foundry and then was leading moulder at Seager’s foundry. Only old age compelled his retirement. He was a widower with two sons and a daughter. His daughter was Minnie Delaney.

Margaret Agnes Parsonage was the younger sister of Minnie and daughter of William Thomson. She was born in 1877. She married Arthur Douglas Parsonage in 1905 and died 21st March 1906 at Alicetown, Lower Hutt.

Also in the plot are Mary “Minnie” Christina Delaney died 1925 aged 55 and Jane Emma Warring died 1940, aged 76.

Minnie Delaney resided at 66 Seatoun Road with her son-in-law Basil Warring. She died aged 54 in 1925 and is interred in this plot.

Jane Emma Warring was born Jane Perry in 1865 in Auckland. She married William Henry Warring in 1883 and they had seven sons and two daughters. He was a police constable in Timaru and died there in 1906. She remarried in 1909 to George Burns but divorce was granted in 1920 based on desertion.. “He turned out to be a degenerate and his habits were such that in 1911, her son turned him out of the house”. Jane died in 1940 and was the last interment in this plot.

[Ethel Delaney had married Basil Warring in 1916. They were both cremated at Karori Cemetery]

Plot: Ch Eng/K/53

Delaney plot

Emily Brouard

Emily Elvina Brouard

“she dusted but did not read them”

Emily was housekeeper to Alexander Turnbull.

Born about 1874 in Guernsey, Channel Islands to Nicholas (a sailmaker) and Selina his wife (nee Heaume). In 1891 Emily was working as the only servant of a stone merchant in Guernsey and his large family.

In 1900 she arrived on a third class ticket in New Zealand. On the same ship was her sister Alice Dorgan, Alice’s husband Theo Dorgan and two nieces Edith & Beatrice. Emily was described as being “short in stature, active and efficient, and with a lively disposition”.

By 1911 she was working for Alexander Turnbull as his maid, first in his parents’ former house on the corner of Bowen Street and The Terrace (later Bowen Hospital) and then in his new house at 27 Bowen Street from 1916. Alexander died in 1918 and in his Will he left Emily and his other maid Hannah Grierson £150 each. Emily and Hannah remained living in the house, responsible for it after hours and for its cleaning. In 1920 the house was opened as the Turnbull Library.

“Their domain … comprised the kitchen, bathroom, pantry and the two maid’s rooms. A carefully drafted eight clause schedule defined their duties. As well as cleaning the building, they were responsible for moving the books and answering the door. For many years the visitor’s first impression of the Library after ringing the bell was of the front door being opened by the tiny bird-like figure of Miss Brouard who was well capable of making a  quick assessment of the credentials of the caller before permitting entrance”. (Turnbull Library Record, Volume 3, Issue 2, 1 August 1970, Page 92)

Emily retired her post in 1944 and was the last resident housekeeper of Turnbull House. On her retirement she was interviewed by the NZ Listener and written up under the caption “She dusted but did not read them”. Emily then moved to Yule Street, Kilbirnie and lived there until she died in 1951. Emily was cremated at Karori Cemetery.

Her sister Alice died in 1955 and their family plot is ROM CATH/S/183.

Emily Brouard, courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library
Alexander Turnbull Library, 1930s. Courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library.

Henrietta Mason

Henrietta Emma Rex was born in a tent at Stawell, Victoria in 1859 to William and Dorothy Rex (see previous story).

Henrietta married Harry Brooks Mason who was a printer (as was her father) in 1884. Their children were Henry Greathead Rex (b 1885) Irene Ellen (b 1887)  Henrietta Rex (b 1889), Spencer Rex (b 1891), Dorothy Emily Rex (b 1893), John Brooks Rex (b 1899), Read Rex (b 1904) all born in Wellington.

She attended the first Women’s Social and Political League meeting in 1894 at which Miss Price read a paper on “The Higher Education of Women”. Henrietta selected the musical pieces for the evening. At the following meeting Henrietta read a paper on “The Nationalisation of Music”. The following lecture was given by Miss Yates “Home Perils Combatted by Vegetarianism and Temperance”. Eventually she was elected vice president of the organisation and sat on the committee with notable women such as Mrs T K Macdonald and Mrs R J Seddon.

Alongside the League and raising her children, Henrietta also gave dancing classes on Mondays and Thursdays at 8pm and children’s classes on Saturday afternoons at her private hall in Ghuznee Street. She continued teaching assisted by her daughters until the start of WWI.

Harry died in 1938 and Henrietta in 1944. She left her piano to her daughter Dorothy, her house at 74 Tinakori Road to her daughter Irene and her two cottages in Elizabeth Street to Dorothy and Read. Her estate was worth about £2,800.

Of their children, Henry [Rex] was elected mayor of Te Puke in 1915 and was given the portfolios of attorney general and minister of justice in the first Labour Government in 1935.

Henrietta Rex graduated with a BA in Economics from Canterbury College in 1913. She became a novelist and also a missionary on Raga Island. She worked for 20 years at Columbia University, New York City. In 1973 she established The Hon Rex Mason Prize for Legal Writing in honour of her brother and is the oldest legal writing prize.

Dorothy received the second highest mark in New Zealand for the junior civil service exam in 1910 and spent periods living in Sydney and New York. John Brooks became a civil engineer and Spencer Rex joined his brother Henry in partnership as Mason & Mason barristers and solicitors. Read Rex became a journalist and was a conscientious objector in WWII. Irene became an amateur actress and lived independently in Sydney.

Harry & Henrietta Mason and all of their children except for Spencer are interred in this plot which has a ‘hip tomb’ form like the one Henrietta organised for her parents.

Plot Ch Eng 2/M/439

William & Dorothy Rex

William Rex – “another link in the chain of early colonists has been severed by the death of Mr William Rex”

William’s obituary described him as being of a roving disposition. He was born in 1818 at North Shields, Northumberland. He trained as a printer and resided with his widowed mother who ran a boarding house in Newcastle.

From there he went to Argentina which coincided with Buenos Aires declaring war on Uruguay in 1851. After riding out those troubles he returned to Newcastle before heading off to the gold fields in California. Gold then lured him to goldfields in Victoria and then after the discovery of gold at Gabriel’s Gully he came to Otago. He spent some time mining on the west coast too.

In between all of those adventures he married Dorothy Ellen Taylor in 1857 at Geelong. Dorothy was born in 1821 in Gateshead, Durham. Their children were Henrietta Emma (b 1859) and George (b 1861).

William lived that last 25 years of his life in Wellington where he returned to his trade as a printer and for many years was at the Government Print Office. He still took an interest in mining and speculating on the Thames goldfields.

The newspapers give us a few glimpses into his life: In 1875 the family were living in Molesworth Street when William was fined 5s for allowing his chimney to catch fire. And in 1885 he was charged for having allowed soapsuds to flow from his property into the street.

The Old Age Pension Act became law in 1898. The Act gave a small means-tested pension to elderly men and women with few assets who were ‘of good moral character’ and had for the previous five years been leading a ‘sober and reputable life’. In February 1899, the Pensions Court granted William and Dorothy £18 each which was the maximum permitted. William died in November the same year, aged 81.

Dorothy continued living at their home in Taranaki Street and kept lodgers. She died in 1906 aged 83/85 (depending on records) and was “held in esteem by a large circle of friends”.

The ‘hip tomb’ form of their plot has three marble plaques – one for each William and Dorothy and a third inscribed with “Erected by their loving daughter”. More about Henrietta next time …

Plot: Ch Eng/M/19

Rex family plot

William Corfield

electrocuted at Miramar

William, aged 24, was driving a lorry belonging to his employer John Keir along Evans Bay Road on 3rd November 1906. He was carting timber from Miramar wharf to Eason’s Mill at Kilbirnie. He noticed a wire lying on the road. To prevent it getting tangled with the cart’s wheels, and not knowing it was live, grasped it with both hands and was immediately killed. The wire carried a charge of 2000 volts.

William Weldon, also a carter and present at the accident said that he had noticed that the wire across the road had been sagging for months before the accident. It was thought that a load of furniture had touched the wire and bought it to the ground.

At the time of William’s death, his effects totalled £7:0:0 and was owed £1:8:0 in wages.

The Public Trustee acting as administrator for William, “his relatives being resident outside of the colony”, made demand on John Keir for the payment of £105 13s in compensation. Mr Keir’s insurance company paid the sum which was forwarded to William’s widow in Lewisham, Sydney by bank transfer. Mr Keir’s then sought to recover this amount from the Electric Light Company on the ground that the accident was due to their negligence. The Company refused to pay and an action was taken in the Supreme Court.

The company blamed a cart laden with furniture as causing the wire to be pulled from a safe height and that the accident was caused by William’s contributory negligence in handling the wire.

His Honour Mr Justice Button gave judgement on 21 November 1907 in favour of John Keir as it was in his opinion that the Electric Light Company had not maintained the wire at such a height above the roadway to prevent vehicles from touching it.

William, also known as William Corfield Wilson and William Wilson was born in Queensland in 1882 and married Florence Cole in 1904 in NSW. Their son Russell John was born the same year. She remarried to Arthur Wrigley in 1912 and he was killed in WWI in 1915.

This headstone reads “erected by his friends”. William is the only interment in this plot.

Plot: ROM CATH/O/101

William Corfield plot