Woolston / Heathcote Cemetery Tour - Christchurch City Libraries

Row K
No. 190-197
Wilfred Beadel, 73, died 22 July 1944
Reginald Heber Cholmondeley, 64, died 25 June 1942
Mary Jane Fry died 21 May 1943
Emma Leonora Cholmondeley, 1836-1923
Hugh Heber Cholmondeley, 88, ‘crossed the bar 13 July 1935’
Mary Christian Cholmondeley, 79, died 23 October 1911
Charles Pitt Cholmondeley, 60, died 28 May 1891
Archdeacon of Christchurch and Vicar of Opawa George James Cholmondeley, 67,
died 11 December 1901
Lena Cholmondeley, 67, wife of the above, died 14 December 1904
Joan Cholmondeley Tapper, 4, died 5 November 1918
Mary Cholmondeley, 54, died 15 October 1924
Charles Pitt, George and Hugh Cholmondeley were brothers of Georgiana Adelaide
Cholmondeley and Caroline Elizabeth Fry and sons of Thomas and Jane Christian
Cholmondeley, all of whom are buried elsewhere in the cemetery. They ‘belonged to
a branch of one of the oldest and noblest families in England’, which dated back to
the 11 th century. Their relatives included the Marquis of Cholmondeley and Lord
Delamare. Their property at Port Levy, ‘Vale Royal’, was named after Lord
Delamere’s residence in England.
In 1850 Charles Pitt Cholmondeley emigrated with his cousin, Thomas
Cholmondeley, on the Charlotte Jane. The latter was to write Ultima thule which
criticised the Canterbury Association; inherit property in his native Shropshire; marry
a titled lady; and die of malaria on his honeymoon in 1864.
Charles dwelt in a sod house at Port Levy till his parents and siblings joined him. He
then had the 12 room homestead, ‘Vale Royal’, built for the brood. Quiet, mild and of
delicate constitution, he owned, in 1882, 1966 acres of land worth 10, 705 pounds.
Eventually he went to live with his brother, Archdeacon Cholmondeley.
At the end of the 1880s Charles fell ill. He travelled to England to seek medical help
but found that his complaint was incurable. He returned to his adopted country and,
though paralysis deprived him of the use of his lower limbs, he did not complain. He
died in 1891.
The Church news waxed lyrical about Charles Cholmondeley, ‘an Israelite, indeed, in
whom was no guile’.
The general esteem in which he was held was not owing to the possession of
brilliant talents nor to services rendered to the public in any official capacity
but to that mysterious attraction which centres round a pure and simple life, a
life which finds in its trivial rounds and common tasks a road that leads it
daily nearer God.
Charles had been much liked by the Banks Peninsula Maori to whom he had sent a
load of presents each Christmas. The Church news commented:
Woolston / Heathcote Cemetery
2006
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