St Pauls Papanui Cemetery - Christchurch City Libraries

quality New Brighton monthly magazine which This was free to seaside
residents. Forwood used advertising revenue to cover his costs but sought
donations ‘from threepence upwards’. Soon Forwood was giving away eight
hundred copies per month. Although covering all aspects of life in the seaside
suburb, the periodical, a joint venture between Forwood and literary minded
vicar Henry Thomas Purchas, dealt especially with the Anglican church.
The Forwood belonged to the congregation at St. Matthew’s, St. Albans, Henry
contributing money to and being involved with bringing about extensions to the
building. Henry was a life member of the St. Matthew’s Young Men’s Guild and a
member of the Sons and Daughters of Temperance, Hope of St. Albans Lodge of
Druids and other local societies. He also mundane business interests, especially with
regard to shares.
For some years Henry was ‘in a delicate state of health’. Nevertheless, he looked
forward to attending St. Matthew’s 60 th birthday celebrations. Alas, ‘an attack of
bronchial pneumonia came on … and brought to a close a life of devout activity in
worship and good works’. Henry, 75, died at Abberley Road on 22 September 1925.
Susan Forwood, 68, died on 3 September 1931.
No. 217
Blakiston
Charles Robert Blakiston, fifth son of Sir Matthew Blakiston, baronet, of Derbyshire,
England, came to Australia as a young man with his brother, A. F. N. Blakiston.
Friends in England told him that Canterbury was ‘a High Church scheme and sure to
break down …. Don’t think of settling’. Ignoring this advice, he came ‘as it were, by
the back door from Australia’. He came with friends, the Macdonald brothers, taking
up Run No. 18, of 5000 acres (part of the Springs Station), stocking it with six rams
and 250 ewes. However, he soon passed the run over to the dominant person at ‘the
Springs’, J. E. FitzGerald. This was the site of the present Lincoln University.
Blakiston had 25,000 acres on the sea coast at Orari. This run was to become
associated with the Macdonalds, the Canterbury biographer, G. R. Macdonald, being a
grandson of one of these men. As well, Blakiston bought land on Ferry Road. There
he farmed a property called ‘Ashbourne’ – the name being taken from the area where
the Blakiston family had its seat in Derbyshire.
About 1880 the land was broken up for building sections. The name ‘Ashbourne’
survived for a time as a place name and people could recall guards on the Woolston
trams calling out ‘Ashbourne, Ashbourne’. A street name in the suburb which
survives is Mackworth Street.
In 1858 Blakiston married Mary Anne, daughter of Henry John Chitty Harper who,
two years earlier, had been enthroned as Bishop of Christchurch.
For a time Blakiston was in Canterbury provincial politics. In 1860-62 he was in
England where he was appointed manager of the Trust and Agency Company of
Australia, a branch of which he established in Hereford Street. He was manager for 35
years, retiring on a pension in 1897.
St. Paul’s Papanui Cemetery
2007
41