TOMBSTONES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 226, 24 September 1929, Page 3

TOMBSTONES.

■ GRAA'ES OF THE PIONEERS. MINISTER DIES FROM EXPOSURE. A PRINCESS OF DENMARK.

The tombstones attached to the Avondale Presbyterian Church, right in the heart of the township, provide interesting reading. The cemetery is rarely used nowadays, and it is many years since a burial was performed there. It was away back in the "fifties" that this church was built, antedating St. Jude's Anglican by only a few months. A walk around the headstones reveals many names associated with the early days of Avondale, though, strange to say, apparently the first interment did not take place for over twenty years after the church was built. That grave marks the last resting place of Rev. David Hamilton, B.A. There is quite an imposing monument on that particular plot, and the inscriptions show that the Rev. Hamilton died while in the performance of his ministerial duties. One side of tlie monument bears the following words: —"Erected to the memory of Rev. David Hamilton, 8.A., clergyman of this parish, who after a pastorate of iifteen months died from exposure in the Manukau forest in the month of July, 1573; aged 29 years." On another panel fuller details are given:—"He left his house on July 9, for Huia, to conduct divine service, and proceeded on the 10th for Manukau Heads, but missed his way in the darkness. His body was found on the 20th and interred here on July 23, 1873." It is a pathetic story, briefly put.

Strange to say, in that little cemetery there are no less than three clergymen buried, the others being Rev. Alexander Mackenzie, M.A., B.D. and Rev. William Hill Phillip. How many people are aware of the fact that a Princess of Denmark found her last resting place in that little cemetery ? Yet such is the case, the inscription on a tombstone reading:— "Jessie Eva Hort Huxman, the Princess Torquil of Denmark, wife of Alexander Mackenzie, M.A., 8.D." Other interesting links with the early days of Avondale are found by stoneserected to the memory of Mr. and Mrs. William Forsyth.' The late Mr. Forsyth was one of the first builders to settle in Avondale, and he erected the original Avondale Town Hall. Here also rest the mortal remains of the late Mr. and Mrs. Redshaw, well-known residents of Roscbank Road. There is also memorialised the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Andrews, the latter being an old Crimean and Indian' Mutiny veteran, while many stones erected in later years bear names familiar to many now residing in Avondale, and whose parents were among the early pioneers of that 'district.