Local History and Community Groups
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George Athea
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- Accidentally Killed Deep in Public2 section is this fine headstone to 28 year old George Henry Athea who “met with a fatal accident whilst in the execution of his duty”....
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Joseph Kitching and William Brodrick
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- Joseph John Kitching died February 18th 1912 aged 52 also William Henry Brodrick died 8th July 1913 aged 54 This lovely headstone enjoying the sunshine and Ian Galloway cricketing, belongs...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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John Hearfield
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- The slightly unusual shape of this headstone caught our eye. The shape is known as Ogee (a double curve) and was used in Gothic and Gothic Revival architecture (so popular...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Mary Smylie
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- Mary Jane was born in 1861, Dublin, to James and Charlotte Campbell. Mary married (Dr) Archibald Smylie in Dublin in 1883. Archibald was born in 1842 in Antrim. Their first...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Gee Ching Dong (Herbert Gee-Dong) and Wong Yuk Lan (Lily Gee-Dong)
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- Gee Ching Dong (who became known as Herbert) was born in 1891 in the village of Gee-wong-tong in the Guangzhou Province, China. Several members of his family emigrated to New...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Ivy Fenwick Anna Ginn (nee Poppelwell)
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- 1882-1971 Ivy was born 10 October 1882, in Dunedin, parents Elizabeth Henry and William Poppelwell (V). She was the only girl among four brothers George, Henry, Colin and Cecil. Her...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Catherine Elsie Lynette Wells (nee Mackenzie)
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- 1891-1970 Catherine (known to us as Nan) was born on September 4th 1891 to James and Annie Elizabeth Mackenzie of Wellington. Her full name was Catherine Elsie Lynette but she...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Edwin Royden Wells
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- 1887-1950 Edwin was born in Wilson’s Street, Lyttelton on May 20th 1887. He was the first son and third child of Alban and Agnes Wells. Edwin chose a career in...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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John Alvin LeBlanc 1918-1943
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- John was one of many US Soldiers that found themselves on shore in New Zealand during World War 2. Between June 1942 and mid 1944 there were between 15,000 –...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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‘Te Whaea o te Katoa’
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- Janet Munro was born on 31 January 1883 in Glasgow, to Mary McLean, a housekeeper, and William Munro, an iron foundry warehouseman. She was educated in Glasgow and became a...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Captain Butt
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- Richard Groombridge Butt was born on June 2, 1832, in St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands, to Marie (Mary) Cabot (Smith) and Richard Butt. He travelled to New Zealand, via Brisbane,...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Winifred Jean Duncan
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- 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...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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George William MacNamara (Sam) Barford
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- George died in 1913 and was buried in the Church of England 2 section. On 22nd September 1916, the Town Clerk received a letter from his widow asking if the...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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‘Distressing Mistake’
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- ‘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...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Margaret French aka Mrs Death
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- Margaret – Mrs Frued or Freude or Mrs French On 3rd December 1892, a woman arrived in Wellington at the Te Aro Hotel named Margaret. She had a note of...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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William Haydn Flood | Musician
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- As his middle name suggests, William came from an enthusiastic musical family. His father, Joseph was a musician in Honiton, Devon. William followed his father and brothers in this profession...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Special General Meeting & Speaker – March 2026
- Karori Historical Society
- Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday 3 March 2026 at St Ninian’s, Newcombe Crescent, Karori at 7pm. Members and friends welcome. The meeting on 3 March will be in two parts: At 7pm, we are holding a Special General Meeting to approve changes to our constitution and the decision to reregister in order to meet […]
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Karori, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Captain William Kelly | Master Mariner
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- As part of our gardening project, Russell tackled the Kelly plot and over several days persevering, removed the enormous flax that had dwarfed the beautiful headstone. The plot interested Russell...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Karori Ghosts
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- ‘Cemetery Reported to be Haunted’ We found this article from July 1939.
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Marion Martin
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- ‘Mrs Martin was one of the oldest residents in Wellington, and was highly esteemed for her plain unostentatious kindness of disposition’. Marion Baird was born in Fountainhall, a hamlet southeast...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Sarah Jane Kirk | temperance leader, suffragist and human rights activist
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- Sarah Jane Mattocks was born in 1829 in Warwickshire, England. She worked as a silk marker before marrying Thomas Kirk, a bookkeeper on Christmas Day, 1850. In 1862, the Kirk...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Thomas Ward | Engineer & Surveyor 1849-1934
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- Thomas was born in Oxford, England and trained as an engineer, working on the Great Northern Railway and at University College, London. He came to New Zealand in 1873 and...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Walter Joseph and Phoebe Elizabeth Lawrence
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- Walter Joseph Lawrence was born in Camberwell, London in 1878[i] and Phoebe Elizabeth Thornton[ii] in St Saviour, London in 1881. The couple married in London in 1906[iii] before immigrating to...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Jacob William Heberley (Hākopa Hēperi) | Carver
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- Jacob was the sixth child of James ‘Worser’ Heberley and his wife Te Wai (also known as Māta Te Naihi), of the Puketapu people of Te Āti Awa. James and...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Working Bee Find
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- This beautiful object was found by one of our volunteers at our October 2025 Working Bee in Gum Gully. Our volunteer very carefully cleaned the floral tribute as well.
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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William Henry Willway | The Children’s Friend
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- William was born in 1823 in Bristol, England. His father was a silk dyer, but by age 15, William was working as a clerk. On Christmas Day 1849, he married...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Services Section | Photo Find
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- WCC Archives sought our help to identify the location and occasion of this photo: It is interesting to note that there were so many women in the photo, which made...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Thomas Kirk | botanist
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- Thomas grew up in a household where botany was a common interest. His father George was a nurseryman and his mother Sarah (born West) was both a nurserywoman and a...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Henry Mitchell | Founder of Mitchelltown
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- Henry arrived in Wellington as an 8-year-old child and died in 1913, aged 80. He came out from England with his parents, brothers and sisters on the ‘Gertrude’ in 1841....
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Compton Family
- Friends of Karori Cemetery
- Mary Martha Whiting was born in 1854 in Tasmania and came to New Zealand with her family at a young age. She was the third child of thirteen siblings. Her...
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Karori Cemetery, Northland, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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