‘Mr Oriental Bay’

Currently for sale on Oriental Parade is number 246, a three storey block of flats. It was built by Gilbert Steel Hill in 1929. Gilbert grew up in a house on the  same site (see his mother Margaret’s story here [insert link]) and no doubt the location had some bearing on his interests and hobbies. He was born in 1868 in Glasgow and emigrated with his family to Dunedin and then came on to Wellington. He was known in the family as Gib.

In 1888 he called a meeting for those wanting to form a football club. The meeting was held in the Oriental Bay boating club’s shed. The club became the Oriental Football Club, as most of those who joined were sailing lads from the boating club. At the following meeting they chose the colours black and white. In 1894 they used a former salt warehouse on Taranaki Street as a gym. But the salt proved a problem as players with cuts showed a reluctance to practice falling on the ball. The club exists to this day, known as the Oriental Rongotai Football club.

Gilbert became something of everything: a champion swimmer and diver,  a champion roller skater (40 miles on wooden wheels in three hours and 50 minutes), and a Wellington representative soccer player. He was a member of the Wellington Rowing Club and he founded the Wellington branch of the Royal Life Saving Association.

Gilbert was also something of a stunt man. He would allow his wrists and ankles to be strapped before he was put in a sack weighted with stones and tied up. Then he was taken to Thorndon Baths and thrown in the deep end. How did he escape? ‘Ah, that’s my family secret, I’ll never tell anyone’. Family folklore says he performed this trick for Bernard Freyberg at the Te Aro baths too.

In 1915, the world’s fastest swimmer Duke Kahanamoku visited New Zealand. At a formal reception held by the Mayor, Gilbert as chairman of the Wellington Centre of the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association of New Zealand welcomed Duke on behalf of the swimmers of New Zealand.

Gilbert married Ellen Hill (no relation) in 1898. Her family were the brick makers from Mt Cook. Read about them here https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/101171453/old-brick-building-with-historic-quirks-on-the-market.

The couple lived in a house behind his mother’s on Hill Street off Oriental Parade, which was later renamed Baring Street so as not to confuse it with Hill Street in Thorndon. Their children were Gilbert, Melva, Linda, Esma, Ngaire and Vida. Gilbert worked initially as a law clerk and later as an estate agent. He purchased the house at 246 Oriental from his sister Margaret and replaced it with the flats known as Coburn House.

After the death of his wife in 1943, Gilbert lived in the top floor flat until his death in 1966. He was aged 97. Gilbert was cremated and the ashes placed with his wife in her family plot at Karori cemetery but is not named on the headstone. Long life ran in the family with his daughters Melva and Esma living to the age of 98, and Vida until she was 101.

Plot:*Public/A/452A

‘Weary of Life, a sad case of suicide’

Amy was born in 1868 in New Zealand, the third of 12 children of William and Elizabeth Astle. In 1892 Amy married Matthew Hutchinson, a fellmonger. Their only child, Mary Louisa Hutchinson was born in 1894.

In 1896, Amy petitioned in the Supreme Court for a judicial separation from her husband. The only ground was ‘revolting cruelty’. Amy succeeded, with custody of Mary and alimony at 35s a week for both of them. This followed in May 1906 by Amy petitioning for a dissolution of the marriage on the ground of desertion of her husband (he had not been seen for five years). Amy showed how she had worked as a housemaid to support herself and Mary. Matthew did not appear in reply. A decree absolute was granted on 13^th March 1906.

Amy then married Henry Barnes on 4^th June 1906. Henry had lived in Wellington for 15 years and was a farmer. Shortly after their marriage, Amy developed acute melancholia and made many attempts to take her own life. After a period of time, Henry had Amy examined by two doctors at Palmerston North and she was admitted to Porirua Asylum on 30^th September. Amy wrote rational letters to Henry every week asking to be let out.

On November 24^th, Henry visited her at Porirua where her doctor said that she had improved sufficiently that she could leave on four months’ probation. Amy did not complain of her treatment at the asylum, but was afraid to go back.

Amy was not left alone after this. They Barnes family were staying with Amy’s sister Jessie Johnson’s family in Adelaide Road. Jessie said that Amy was content when she had something to do, like cook the dinner.

On the Wednesday before her death, she got melancholy and said she wished to die. Her brother-in-law John Johnson said that Amy ‘had no cause for trouble’,  that her husband was kind to her and she had no money worries. But she seemed to dread the thought of going back to the asylum.

On Friday 30^th November, Amy told her sister that she was going out briefly to visit a friend. When Henry came home several hours later and Amy had not returned, they decided to call the police.

That afternoon at the corner of  Cuba and Manners Street, Amy had said to a lady who she did not know, that she was going to Palmerston North and proposed to commit suicide by jumping off the train. The lady reported this to a policeman but they could not trace Amy. Amy then met another lady at the corner of Stout Street and Lambton Quay and told her she proposed to go down to Thorndon Esplanade and throw herself in the water.

The next morning, a housemaid named Annie Hutchins employed by Miss Johnston lifted the blind of a window overlooking the garden in Fitzherbert Terrace and saw the body of a woman hanging from a tree. Police were called and the body was removed to the morgue where it was identified as Amy.

At the coroner’s inquest held that day, the jury determined that Amy died by suicide while insane ‘and that no blame in the matter is attributable to anyone’.

Amy’s burial plot was tidied at a recent Tuesday working bee. We cannot account for the headstone not being in the correct position.

Public 2/G/75

By Julia Kennedy

Thomas Gale ‘one of the best known of our men of business’

The draped urn on the top of this plot symbolises the veil between life and death. Thomas is the only interment in this substantial plot and yet he was a married man with a family.

Thomas was born in Adelaide and educated at St Peter’s Anglican School in Melbourne. He joined the firm of general merchants Messrs Spence Bros. During the New Zealand mining boom, the firm opened businesses on the West Coast. Thomas was sent to run their operation in Hokitika. He worked there for twelve years before coming to Wellington, rising to the position of general manager of Messrs Johnson & Co.

In 1876 Thomas married Lucy Ellen Chapman. Their first son was Herbert Theodore John born in 1877. Frederic Chapman was born in 1878. And their daughter Nellie Adelaide was born in New York in 1883.

Thomas was also a member of the Chamber of Commerce, a director of the Opera House Company and a founder of Wellington bowling club.

Due to ill health he had largely retired from business by 1900 and went travelling to recuperate without success. His illness was a ‘long and trying one’. He died on 19^th June 1902 as his home ‘Dulce Domum’ Island Bay aged 50 years.

His daughter married Charles Allen in Bristol in 1907 and her mother Lucy made her home with them. When Lucy wrote her Will in 1914, she divided most of her property between son Frederick and daughter Nellie. She left £100 for her son Herbert ‘provided he should be heard of within one year of my death’. We can find no trace of Herbert after 1902. Lucy died in 1936 in Bristol. Her estate was worth £5000.

Her son Frederick died in 1938 and was cremated at Karori Cemetery. Nellie died in 1943 in Bristol.

Plot: *Ch Eng/R/24A

By Julia Kennedy

Amelia (known as Milly) was the second daughter of Robert and Rose Adams. Rose’s parents were Edmund and Mary Ann Perrin who arrived in Wellington on the ‘Martha Ridgway’ in 1840.

In 1888 when she was 13, Amelia’s father died suddenly from a ruptured heart while on duty working as a warden at Wellington Hospital. Her mother was left a widow with eight children and twin sons born just a week after her husband’s death.

Amelia married James Thomas Kibblewhite in 1896 at Danniverke. James was from a pioneer family from the Wairarapa where his father was a well-known building contractor. Their children were Doris born  1896, Robert born 1898, James and Oswald born 1899.

Amelia died at  her home in Beach Street Petone in November 1902. She was 27 years old. There was no death or funeral notice for Amelia. Her burial record entry and headstone are spelt ‘Kebblewhite’.

James remarried the following year to Lucy Short, perhaps out of practical necessity with four small children. He was widowed again in 1918. James died in 1945 and is buried at Taita Cemetery.

The headstone appears to have been arranged by Amelia’s mother Rose. Rose died in 1935 aged 85 at Palmerston North.

Plot: *Public/M/38

By Julia Kennedy.

This rather grand plot is for several generations of the O’Brien family. It is constructed with brick piers each surmounted with an iron fleur-de-lis cross. The concrete balusters in the Italianate style. It is also has a lovely wrought iron gate.

The obelisk at the rear of the plot is for Timothy who was the first burial. He died at the age of 20. Timothy worked at the telephone exchange. One day in April 1893, he complained of a sick headache while at work and the following day took to his bed. Typhoid was diagnosed and he was moved to the hospital where he died ten days later. He was very much liked by everyone and his young lady colleagues made up several ‘handsome wreaths’ for placing on the coffin.

Timothy’s father John was the second interment in January 1897 (the obelisk says 1907). He was born in Scariff, Clare, Ireland in 1835. He married Mary Ryan in 1862 and they emigrated with their children to New Zealand in 1875 on the ship ‘Michel Angelo’. The family lived in Lorne Street and John worked as a labourer. He died at Wellington hospital from a ‘fatal illness’ aged 62.

John’s wife Mary lived until 1930. She was 88 years old at her death, which occurred at her daughter Mrs Kershaw’s house in Hataitai. Her obituary said she was ‘an old and respected resident of Wellington’. She had sixteen grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

‘A well known Wellington citizen died on Monday in the person of Thomas O’Brien, formerly master bootmaker and salesman. Mr O’Brien had been in poor health for some years and was 70 years old’. Thomas was the second son of John and Mary O’Brien. He died on 1 September 1941 at his residence in Manly Terrace. A requiem mass was held at St Anne’s Church, Green Street, Newtown before the funeral party departed for the cemetery. His widow Kathleen died just a few months later on 2 December at Manly Terrace, aged 78. Margaret’s requiem mass was celebrated at 6:30am on 3^rd December.

Several of their infant children were buried in this plot also.

Plot: *ROM CATH/#/58

1893 Timothy O’Brien aged 20

1897 John O’Brien aged 62

1898 Thomas B O’Brien

1900 Baby O’Brien

1922 Thomas O’Brien aged 2

1930 Mary O’Brien aged 88

1941 Thomas O’Brien aged 70

1941 Margaret O’Brien aged 78

1977 Benjamin Roy O’Brien aged 75

1978 Margaret Kathleen O’Brien aged 71

By Julia Kennedy

He lived the last ten years if his life in Wellington, and died in 1907 aged 83.

Henry was born in Kinross, Scotland in 1824. He married Margaret Watterson in 1848 and worked as a vinter. The young family emigrated to Victoria, Australia in the 1850s and then to New Zealand in 1869 where he worked as a warder in the Auckland Gaol and was discharged in 1874. The family then moved to Dunedin where they owned a house in Maitland Street. Henry worked as a [house] painter.

In 1881 the Victorian Police were searching for him under ‘Missing Friends’. Apparently he had in his possession a box of Deeds for land in Footscray, the property of James Elder who had left them with Henry in a boat they shared 21 years ago. The search was successful and Henry was found in Dunedin.

‘The Manor Place Tragedy’. In 1883 his daughter Mary, aged 33, was murdered by her husband George Stephenson. Henry had not looked favourably on the marriage from the outset.  The newspaper reported ‘It appears that the man and his wife had separated for several years owing to domestic differences, and we may assume there was some ill feeling  in consequence on the husband’s part’.

George followed his wife up Manor Place in Dunedin, armed with a cartridge of dynamite and a match. It is assumed that he put his arm around his wife’s neck and held her, at the same time lighting the match which was about 2 inches from the fuse. It was a short time before the dynamite exploded causing instant death to both.

Henry said at the inquest ‘About two months ago he [George] was taken up and got seven days for using violent language to her. On that occasion he said “One of us must die”.

Henry’s wife Margaret died in 1892. Of their seven children, only three remained alive at this point. About 1898 Henry moved to Wellington with his daughter Agnes and son George. They all lived in a house at 13 Hankey Street with Mary’s children Charles Frederick and Margaret Florence Stephenson. Henry’s widowed daughter Jean Chinn moved to Wellington at about this time too.

On his death, Henry left the house in Hankey Street to George, Agnes, Frederick and Margaret. And £400 for Agnes. She died in 1934 aged 70 and is the only other interment in this plot.

Plot: *Public 2/M/13

By Julia Kennedy

Nita Blanche Cundy – Accidentally Killed

Nita and her friends had gone to Paekakariki by train from Wellington on a Friday in April 1926. When they were unable to find accommodation at the hotel, and realising there was no train back to Wellington, they enquired at the garage about hiring a car to take them further north. Mr Archibald McArthur and his brother Donald of Lower Hutt on hearing that the girls needed a lift offered to take them in their car which was undergoing some repairs before heading onwards to Patea. They accepted and started their journey at 9:15pm.

Part of the route near Waikanae was under repair and this was where the accident happened. Passing the ‘lighted lanterns’ the car turned to its right side but something had been left unlighted and the car got into difficulties, went over a bank and capsized.

The car was travelling so slowly that two of the occupants were able to step out. Two received minor injuries and the driver briefly hospitalised. Nita was unhurt but died of heart failure. Her friend Marie Willis stated at the inquest that Nita ‘has always been very nervous of motor cars’.

A verdict of ‘accidentally killed’ was the returned at the inquest and that ‘the neglect to provide proper safeguard and light is the cause of the above accident’.

An action was bought against the council for ‘alleged neglect’. Evidence was given and the case was dismissed.

Nita was born in Featherston in 1880. Her parents were Charles (a blacksmith) and his wife Caroline. She had two brothers – Archibald who she was staying with at the time of her death, and Clifford who is the second burial in this plot.

Plot: *Public 2/J/534

By Julia Kennedy

Known to his family as Harry, he embarked on the RMS Turakina at London in January 1906 aged 21. He travelled as a saloon passenger and his occupation was a clerk. On 7th August 1907 he died at Wellington hospital and was buried in the Public2 section at Karori Cemetery on 8^th August. The service was officiated by G. Kay, the cemetery Sexton. There was no funeral notice.

Because his time in New Zealand was so short, we can find no other record of his life in Wellington.

His parents were George Henry and Susannah Sarah Bailey (nee Davis) who were both Londoners. George started his career as a builder’s clerk and by 1900 he was an assistant architect. Harry’s siblings were Marguerite Katherine, Mabel Beatrice and Wilfred Edward. By 1911, Harry’s parents were living in Shropshire where his father had a job as a building surveyor. His three siblings were living together in London where Marguerite working as a telegraphist and Mabel as assistant head of telephones. Wilfred was a mercantile clerk for a colonial broker.

Marguerite married in 1918 to Arthur Deeks. Mabel died in 1962 unmarried. In 1939 Wilfred was a single man living with Marguerite and her husband in Hailsham. We are uncertain if there are any descendants of the siblings.

And we can find no evidence that any of them visited New Zealand and so the headstone must have been ordered through correspondence.

At our Tuesday working bee this week, we ‘re-uncovered’ his headstone. It was visible in 2022 when a photograph was added to the FindaGrave website. You can see from the photo the amount of growth that has sprung up in the past two years and this week’s bee bought it into daylight again.

The unusual and striking design of the headstone takes the form of a Celtic cross (which is identified by the ring) combined with a form of a cross botany where each arm terminates in a trefoil. A trefoil is a term from Gothic architecture to describe the three lobed leaf shape symbolic of the Trinity. In this example, the trefoil on each arm is comprised of three further trefoils. It is very beautifully done. The cross botany was used in heraldry.

The headstone is hard to decipher due to the style of the inscription. If you think you can help, please comment below:

TO THE
BELOVED MEMORY OF
HAROLD GEORGE BAILEY

OF DULWICH, ENG.

ENTERED INTO REST

AUGUST 7 1907

AGED 23 YEARS

“LORD ALL ? JESU BLEST
-last line indistinguishable-

Plot: *Public 2/M/39

By Julia Kennedy

The New Zealand Centennial Exhibition celebrated 100 years since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. It ran from November 1939 until May 1940  on a site at Rongotai next to the airfield. The architect Edmund Anscombe designed the buildings and grounds in the Art Deco style.

Edmund was born in 1874 in Sussex, England. His family emigrated the same year as part of the Assisted Immigrants scheme and they settled in Dunedin. He attended Caversham School and in 1888 he went to Melbourne to visit their 1888 Exhibition. He said:

“From then on, anything pertaining to Exhibitions held for me its own decided and never ending interest”.

He also attended the Chicago World Fair (1933) and New York’s World Fair (1939) among others.

His architectural work in Dunedin included the Lindo Ferguson Building, Arthur Barnett’s Department Store and the Logan Park Grandstand. In 1928 he moved to Wellington and notable among his buildings here is the Post & Telegraph building next to Waitangi Park. He was eating inside one of his own buildings in Hastings when the 1931 earthquake struck, and having such faith in his own work he continued eating and the building was one of the few to remain standing.

Construction on the Centennial Exhibition site began in April 1939 by Fletcher & Love Construction Companies and involved over 1000 people. The site was over 22 Hectares in size of which the buildings covered 7 Hectares.

The Exhibition was intended to show New Zealand’s progress and achievements. Inside the buildings were endless displays of modern technological wonders. There were ‘Courts’ or exhibition halls for Government Departments, Māori, Women, the Dominion, Engineering, Manufacturing, Transportation and the British Empire. There was even a model of the Waitomo caves.

But most visitors headed straight to the Crazy House with its tilting floors or the roller coaster in Playland, not visiting the ‘serious’ exhibits until a second or third visit.

The women’s section was made a special feature. There were displays of Victorian domestic interiors and in the Lecture Hall topics such as ‘The art of icing’; ‘What to do for burns’ and ‘Childrens’ fears’ were canvassed.

William Tretheway’s sculpture depicting Kupe, his wife Hine-te-aparangi, and a tohunga, on the waka Matahourua stood at the end of a reflecting pool facing the main entrance. It was hollowcast in plaster of Paris and painted bronze as it was only intended to last for the duration of the Exhibition. In 2000 it was recast in bronze and placed on Wellington’s waterfront.

After the Exhibition, the buildings were used in part by the New Zealand Air Force and then in 1946 what was remaining burnt to the ground.

Edmund died in 1948. His funeral service was held at St John’s Willis Street and he was cremated at Karori Cemetery. His ashes were interred in Anderson’s Bay Cemetery in Dunedin with his wife.

One of the first colour films in New Zealand was made by Edmund of the exhibition. It is only 30 seconds and well worth a look:

https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/43017/centennial-exhibition

Olaf (known as Yank), aged 35 and a taxi proprietor lived in Seatoun Road. In April 1932 he had gradually been excavating a cliff at the rear of his house to make more room for a yard.

On 14^th April, he worked for a while on the excavation and then came in for a cup of tea. He remarked ‘Isn’t it a wonder the cliff doesn’t fall down after being undermined like that?’

He returned to his work and a few minutes later his wife Mabel heard a woman scream, followed by a rumble. She came out and was told her husband had been buried beneath a fall. Douglas Logan, medical practitioner said that Olaf suffered from severe shock and internal injuries. Mabel was with Olaf when he died at Wellington hospital later that day.

Olaf was born in Denmark. He is the only interment in this plot.

There is a Mabel Hansen who died aged 56 and was cremated at Karori Cemetery in 1951 but have not confirmed the connection.

Plot: *Ch Eng 2/K/268

By Julia Kennedy