While our Gum Gully volunteers were weeding the cemetery next to Ian Galloway Park, Russell made a remarkable discovery among the tradescantia: the headstone of Winifred Duncan. The headstone appears to have rolled down the hill at some point. We let the cemetery team know, and Maarten and a colleague carefully returned the headstone to her burial location.
Winifred was born in 1921. There is a matching name and date in the Scottish BDM index which would make her place of birth Garmouth, Moray. Her father, William Alexander Duncan, emigrated to Wellington in September 1927 ahead of the rest of his family. He presumably did this to get established with a job and to secure a house for them. Winifred, her mother Mary and brother Andrew followed him in July 1928. William worked as a millwright and the family lived in Berhampore.
Winifred died on 23 October 1929. Without ordering her death certificate, we do not know the cause of her death unfortunately. The funeral of ‘their beloved daughter’ departed from the Mortuary Chapel of E. Morris at 2pm on 25th October. The interment was private.
Plot: *Public 2/L/458
By Julia Kennedy
