We recently assisted a local interested in finding the grave of Woolf Phillips. This task was made easy with the WCC search website Ever After. WCC have GPS located a good percentage of the graves at Karori and the task is continuing. Did you know it even provides Google directions to the plot? We encourage you to try it and get out and explore the Cemetery. https://wellington.discovereverafter.com/
We thought we would like to find out a little more about Woolf. He is buried in the Jewish section plot C/107 with his wife Hetty.
Woolf was born in 1868 in “Klock, Poland, Russia” and married Hetty Borofski in Christchuch in 1896, not long after he arrived in New Zealand. Hetty was the daughter of Simon Brown (officially Simon Borofski), a native of “Warsaw, Poland, Russia” and had been in New Zealand for 21 years. Woolf and Hetty’s daughters Rose Victoria and Esther Pearl were born in 1897 and 1900 respectively.
Since New Zealand was from 1840 a British Colony, British citizenship applied. Those who were not British were aliens and to become British Citizens they needed to go through a process called naturalisation. Woolf’s naturalisation papers from 1907 help us to learn a little more about him:
“I beg to report that the applicant is a married man in business as a Merchant Tailor in Adelaide Road and has been for the past five years. Mr Fielder, Merchant of Manners St who has known the applicant for about eight years say that he is a very respectable sober honest man and a good citizen and well worthy of having the Letters granted to him”. And Woolf duly signed his Oath of Allegiance.
In 1907, Woolf was advertising for a tailoress: “First class Trouser Hand, constant work guaranteed”.
In 1919 he bought a civil case against Mrs Ben Abel for the alleged balance due for making a costume. Nellie Abel counterclaimed as she believed the coat did not fit and had been cut badly. Mrs Abel put the coat on in the courtroom, and in the opinion of an independent tailor, it was “a perfect fit and finished in a workmanlike manner”. Woolf won the case.
In 1931 he gave £1 pound to the Mayor’s Napier earthquake relief fund.
In 1937 he advertised a reward for his missing green and yellow canary.
Woolf and Hetty lived in various locations around Newtown for all of their married life, first presumably over their shop at 120 Adelaide Road and then to the leafy surroundings near Wellington Zoo.
Longevity runs in the family. Hetty’s father Simon died in 1934 aged 93. Woolf died in 1957 aged 89. Hetty died in 1961 aged 89. Rose died in 1968 aged 71. Esther died in 1997 aged 97. All are buried in the Jewish section at Karori with the exception of Esther who is at Makara.
Rose married George Stevens in 1938 and Esther married Abraham Freeman in 1954.
