Linwood Cemetery Tour Guide - Christchurch City Libraries

Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson K.B. d 5 March 1934 aged 92. Discoverer of
Arthur’s Pass, 1863. District Engineer, Nelson-Westport goldfield 1878. City
Engineer of Christchurch from 1901 to 1921.
Arthur’s father, Edward, was a prominent engineer in provincial Canterbury. His
sister, Mary, married Sir Julius von Haast. In 1866 a brother, George, was murdered
on the West Coast by the infamous Burgess-Kelly-Levy gang.
Row N
No. 5507
Wilson
William Wilson was a school teacher at Kineton, Warwickshire. About 1886 he
emigrated with his wife and two children. There came to live with the Wilsons,
William’s mother, Elizabeth.
William was associated with the Normal School. At Aranui he had a large building
which was used as a private school for boys. William was commonly known as
‘Wirihana’ Wilson, ‘wirihana’ being the Maori word for Wilson. The tram and bus
stop at Rowan Avenue were known as the ‘Wirihana Loop’ or ‘Wirihana Stop’.
While at Aranui, Wilson was active in the New Brighton Anglican church. However,
O. B. Stanford had no kind words for him. His establishment was a ‘second or third
rate boarding school away among the sandhills …’ Stanford accused Wilson of
‘attending fire sales if any groceries were to be obtained. Thus he got cheap if smoky
food for his boarders. If no suitable fire sales had occurred, food for the boys would
be less than what was expected for growing lads’.
Stanford stated that Wilson found builders who were dismantling houses and, with
second-hand timber, built cottages among the sandhills. He recalled his father renting
from Wilson a ‘rather dirty flea-infested cottage on the Pages Road’.
If William was something of a Wackford Squeers, his wife, Drusilla nee Death, was
different. Born in London and well-educated, she was ‘one of the best-known figures
in the women’s movement’. Elsewhere she was described as ‘keenly intellectual’ and
‘a woman of interesting personality and … rare intellectual gifts, a brilliant scholar
and an accomplished musician’. Her ‘experience … breadth of vision and alert
interest in all cu enabled her to speak with authority on matters of importance to
women, and her opinions on such matters were eagerly sought and greatly respected’.
Drusilla was a foundation member of the Canterbury Women’s Club and president of
the club’s music circle; a vice-president of the Musical Union; an active member of
the Navy League; and conducted a women’s choir. She had a private school for girls
at Cranmer Square and ‘to her enthusiasm and … wise guidance, many graduates of
Canterbury [University] College owed much of the success they achieved in the
scholastic world’. Among the young women she encouraged was her daughter, Grace.
Grace was an executive member of the Student Association and secretary of the
Christian Union. She had a brilliant academic career, graduated M. A. with Honours
in French and English and won the Eve Prize for Modern Languages. She died of
asthenia, aged 22, on 22 March 1907 and her funeral service was held at St.
Linwood Cemetery Tour Guide
Updated 2013
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