The Friends of Linwood Cemetery

01/03/2026

🪦Thank you for following us
Rob Stevenson; M Margaret and
Lea Shar Smart 🪦

10/07/2025

Always happy to promote our lovely cemeteries and local history! Christchurch City Council

This looks like a fun thing to visit if you love local historical stories and cemeteries 🙂👌🏼🫶🏼🪦🪦🪦https://www.newsline.ccc.govt.nz/news/story/stories-from-the-grave

07/05/2025

Shout out to our newest followers! Excited to have you onboard! Rowel Granton Soreño, 啪嗒没

07/05/2025

It's War Graves week (2-9 May).

Lying in Linwood Cemetery is Corporal John Andrew MCGEE 13/1039A who was known as Jack.
He died aged 33 on 17 November 1918 at Christchurch Hospital of Influenza.

According to his obituary, "he was the third son of Andrew McGee, a well known grazier of Victoria, and Mrs McGee, of Mount Eden, Auckland and was employed on the clerical staff of the New Zealand Refrigerating Company, Ltd., at their Islington office. He was very well known and exceedingly popular throughout the district and took a keen interest in the various sporting associations.
He was a vice-president of the Papanui Tennis Club and of the Hornby Rugby League Football Club

He was born on the 31 May 1885 in Victoria, Australia and on his enlistment into the New Zealand Army on 15 December 1914, he was employed as an assayer for Mr Longmuir of Hamilton Road, Ponsonby, Auckland. He had previously been a military volunteer in the New South Wales Reserves and the West Australia Light Horse [Brigade].

He served with the North Auckland Mounted Rifles and was wounded at Gallipoli on 28th August 1915 having sustained serious bullet wounds to the face, the side of his nose, right leg, right side and his left eye damaged by bullets.

Jack's war ended on the 2 November 1916 having been medically discharged and after spending time in hospital in England, he headed home to New Zealand onboard the S.S. Tainui.

Jack rests at Block 48 Plot 100 in the cemetery.

For more about War Graves week and all sorts of tips on research, see:
https://www.cwgc.org/war-graves-week/

09/04/2025

On the 15th April it will be 113 years since the sunk.

This just released, interesting news article discusses what the stitching together of 715,000 images of the wreck has revealed, including that the "Titanic sank with the lights still on as the ship’s crew remained at their posts to keep the electricity running, saving hundreds of lives" and that the "new images also exonerate William Murdoch, the Scottish first officer long accused of abandoning his post." Williams body was never found.

https://tinyurl.com/37hvtwbf

Many do not realise that William Murdoch's wife was a New Zealander - Ada Florence MURDOCH nee BANKS.
Born 28th December 1873 and marrying William on 2 September 1907 at St Deny's Church, Southampton, England, died on 21st April 1941 and is buried in a family plot Linwood cemetery. (Images taken 2010).
For a fuller account see https://www.flickr.com/photos/porkynz/4333368629

10/06/2024

We appreciate you taking an interest in our page and thank you for your 'likes'. ⚰️
Kelly Van Wieren
and
Natasha Hardaker

06/05/2024

Mary Isabel SMITHSON ... maybe she liked Battenberg cakes! The tile patterning on her grave reminds me of that distinctive design.

Mary, employed in domestic duties at the time of death, aged 41 on 9 June 1910 at Christchurch, died of cancer of the stomach. She was the daughter of John and Sarah SMITHSON of Leeston, Ellesmere, Canterbury.

She is buried at Block 20 Plot 9

Family:
Parents - John and Sarah SMITHSON
Siblings:
Charles Collier - birth registration 1865/14053
Hannah - birth registration 1866/20860
Martha - birth registration 1870/29656
Jane Helen - birth registration 1872/396
Emily Sarah - birth registration 1874/38327
Edith Horsley - birth registration 1876/14623
Herbert John - birth registration 1878/5596

Mary's mother Sarah died at Leeston aged 48 on 7 November 1879, not long after son Herbert's birth.

Her father died 1882 aged 66 and had emigrated from Yorkshire in 1863 and is buried in St James Anglican Churchyard with Sarah.

For further family details and sources see:
https://flic.kr/p/2j7jP2x

06/05/2024

Beth Craig
S Angel Woodthorpe
Kathryn Macgregor
Steph Cameron
and
Vicki Jane

Thank you so much for your support liking and/or following us.
It is appreciated. 🪦

27/11/2023