Woolston / Heathcote Cemetery Tour - Christchurch City Libraries

Charles Selby was born at Stroud on 23 June 1836 and educated at his father’s school.
He became a saddler and worked at Bristol, Bath, Penzance, Birmingham, Oxford,
London and towns in South Wales.
Howell boarded the Roman Emperor as an assisted immigrant bound for Canterbury.
Perhaps, like future author Samuel Butler, one of the gentlemen who came on this
vessel, he transhipped from the Burmah which was specially fitted out for the stock
which it was to bring to the Antipodes and then disappeared without trace.
The Roman Emperor arrived in 1860. Howell worked in Christchurch, moved to
Sydney and then came back as foreman to his old employer, John Craib Angus, a man
prominent in business and the Presbyterian church. In 1873 Howell went into
partnership with William White. After 18 months he set up his own establishment in
Tattersall’s Buildings at 162 Cashel Street, He carried ‘on a profitable and successful
business until December 1895 when he sold out to his two eldest sons’. For a time he
again took over the reins before becoming interested in the Timaru Flour Milling
Company and Zealandia Soap and Candle Works. In old age he decided to make a trip
‘Home’. Prior to his departure a dinner was tendered him as a mark of respect and
goodwill. Like many businessmen, he was active in the Masonic Lodge.
Interested in racing and trotting ‘as almost part of his business’, Howell was one of
the convenor and first chairman of the first Trotting Conference in 1895. A club –
originally intended to be a coursing club - was formed at Plumpton Park, Sockburn.
This did not flourish and there was established the Plumpton Park Racing and
Trotting Club.
Howell was one of the original promoters, being ‘gateman, secretary, treasurer, judge
and chairman’ and helping ‘to bring the club to the successful position which it …
attained’. In 1903 he could state that the club had 75 acres of freehold property at
Sockburn, these being ‘kept in good order and … equipped with grandstand, boxes
and all necessary buildings’. Indeed, Plumpton Park was the only club in New
Zealand which possessed ‘a racing and training track with grounds of its own’. In his
last years Howell saw his beloved park – now 106 acres in extent - purchased by
Henry (later Sir Henry) Wigram for his air school. The park was to become the
Wigram Air Force Base.
In his dealings with others in the trotting world Howell showed ‘enthusiasm, ability,
integrity and geniality’. In 1908 his peers commissioned Sydney Lough Thompson to
paint his likeness. As well, the C. S. Howell Handicap was established to perpetuate
‘the name of one of the most honourable and respected men in the early days of
trotting’.
On 30 March 1867, at St. John’s Anglican church, Latimer Square, Christchurch, C.
S. Howell harness maker, married Maggie Hall. Charles died at his daughter’s
residence in New Brighton, leaving four sons and two daughters.
The gravestone recalls Charles Selby Howell who was born on 23 June 1836 and died
on 29 April 1921; and his wife, Maggie, 64, who died at Opawa on 2 October 1906.
Woolston / Heathcote Cemetery
2006
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