PLATINUM WEDDING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 249, 2 August 1937, Page 6

PLATINUM WEDDING.

MR AND MRS W. LILLY. THEIR MAJESTIES’ GREETINGS. (Special to the “ Guardian.”) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. Seventy years ago, on August 1, 1867, Miss Fannie Garlick was married to Mr William Lilly in the present Durham Street Methodist Church, and the ceremony, the third of its kind in the church, was performed by the Rev. Thomas Buddie. Yesterday Mr and Mrs Lilly, who now live at 20 Hardwicke Street, Sumner, received the congratulations of many of the friends they haie made during the years that have passed since their marriage. Two great surprises for them were a cablegram of congratulations from their Majesties the King and Queen, and ji telegram from the Governor-General (Viscount Galway). Mr Lilly was born at Shire Newton, Monmouthshire, England, oh July 4, 1842. He early entered the engineering trade, and at the age of 22 years determined to see something of the world. He came to New Zealand by the ship British Empire, in 1864, and had been in Christchurch only a short while when lie met Miss Fannie Garlick at the old Methodist Sunday School in High Street, one of the earliest Sunday schools in Christchurch.

Mrs Lilly was a daughter of Mr Thomas Gar lick, of Greenwich, one ot the chief officials at the Royal Observatory. She was born on September 24, 1844, and came to New Zealand with her parents in the Zealandia, which arrived in New Zealand in 1859.

Mr Lilly has worked in different parts of Canterbury as an engineer, and was in the employ, for considerable periods, of Andersons, Ltd., and P. and D. Duncan. There were seven children of the marriage, but two, including the only son, died in infancy. The remaining five daughters are Mrs Douglas McClymont (formerly of Ashburton, now of Ross), Mrs James Stout (Christchurch), Mrs R. H. Riggar (Ashburton), and Misses Maud and Elsie Lilly (Christchurch).