Karori Cemetery

Karori Cemetery is the second-largest cemetery in New Zealand. It opened in 1891, and is located in the Wellington suburb of Karori.

Karori Cemetery
View of Karori Cemetery
Details
Established	1891
Location	Karori
Country	New Zealand
Owned by	Wellington City Council
No. of graves	95,000
Website	Wellington City Council entry for Karori Cemetery
Footnotes	cemeteries database

History

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Karori Cemetery, 31 December 1953, a week after the Tangiwai disaster.

Karori Cemetery opened in 1891 to address overcrowding at Bolton Street Cemetery.

In 1909, it received New Zealand's first crematorium, which is still in use and is Australasia's oldest.

Karori Cemetery reached capacity during the 1950s, and Mākara Cemetery became Wellington's main burial ground. Burials at Karori happen only in pre-purchased family plots, in children's plots, and in pre-purchased ash plots.^[1]

The Karori Crematorium and Chapel are listed as Category 1 Historic Places with the Heritage New Zealand.

Description

The cemetery covers almost 40 hectares (99 acres) and has seen more than 83,000 burials.^[2]

War graves

Wellington Provincial Memorial in 2025.

The cemetery contains separate World War I and World War II services sections. Buried here are 268 Commonwealth service personnel of World War I^[3] – including most deaths from the first New Zealand Expeditionary Force Reinforcement Camp and others at Trentham, and the Upper Hutt Remount Depot^[4] – and 123 of the World War II, besides a Norwegian and a French war casualty.^[3]

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) also erected a plaque commemorating 15 New Zealand service personnel of World War II who were cremated at Karori Crematorium and their ashes scattered. It is set into the Services Columbarium Wall in the Services section.^[5]

In addition, the CWGC erected the Wellington Provincial Memorial, in the form of a marble arch connecting the two Services sections, inscribed with the names of service personnel from Wellington Province who died serving in the World Wars but have no known grave.^[3]

Friends of Karori Cemetery

Cemetery tour in February 2023.

The Friends of Karori Cemetery was incorporated as a Charitable Trust on 17 February 2021. Their purpose is to advocate for and develop the heritage and ecological values of Karori Cemetery, and to assist with grave/plot restoration.

The Friends offer tours on the first Sunday of each month and undertake working bees in the cemetery.

Burials

Main category: Burials at Karori Cemetery

• Lily May Kirk Atkinson (1866–1921), popular orator, suffragist and temperance worker – president of New Zealand Women's Christian Union 1901–1906; president of New Zealand Society for the Protection of Women and Children 1903–1911
• Suzanne Aubert the saint founder of the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion (later translated to the motherhouse of the religious institute
• Albert Henry Baskerville (1883–1908), Organiser of the famous All Golds tour to Great Britain and Australia^[6]
• William Thomas Beck (1865–1947), New Zealand Army officer and one of the first New Zealanders to land on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915
• Euphemia Cunningham (1882–1989), World War I munitions worker and recipient of the Medal of the Order of the British Empire in 1918
• William Cunningham (1883–1959), senior officer in the New Zealand Military Forces and lawyer
• John Duthie (1841–1915), businessman and politician, including Mayor of Wellington (1889–1890)
• Peter Fraser (1884–1950), Prime Minister (with memorial)
• John Hosking (1854–1928), judge of the Supreme Court^[7]
• Joseph Kinsey (1852–1936), businessman, collector, and philanthropist from Christchurch^[8]
• Cybele Ethel Kirk (1870–1957), educator, suffragist and temperance worker
• Harry McNish (1874–1930), member of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914 antarctic expedition. He modified the small boat, James Caird, allowing to fetch help for the rest of the crew
• Charles Morison (1861–1920), New Zealand barrister^[9]
• Thomas Orde-Lees (1877–1958), member of the 1914 Trans-Antarctic Expedition
• Elizabeth Pinfold (1859–1927), recipient of the Belgian Queen Elisabeth Medal
• Mary Player (c. 1857–1924), servant, midwife, welfare worker, feminist and social reformer^[10]
• Randolph Ridling (1888–1975), recipient of the Albert Medal for Lifesaving

References

1. "About Karori Cemetery". Wellington City Council. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
2. "Karori Cemetery". Wellington City Council. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
3. "Wellington (Karori) Cemetery". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
4. "Trentham (St John's Anglican) Churchyard". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 16 December 2016.Incidental information from Trentham Churchyard CWGC web page, not given on Karori Cemetery's.
5. "Wellington (Karori) Crematorium". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
6. "The All Golds". Archived from the original on 10 October 2017. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
7. "Obituary". The Press. Vol. LXIV, no. 19324. 31 May 1928. p. 10. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
8. "Late Sir J. Kensey". The New Zealand Herald. Vol. LXXIII, no. 22413. 8 May 1936. p. 12. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
9. "Details". Wellington City Council. 12 July 2012. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
10. Millen, Julia. "Mary Josephine Player". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 6 August 2015.

External links

Friends of Karori Cemetery

• Wellington cemeteries search

41.275°S 174.750°E / -41.275; 174.750