Canon Staples Hamilton

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WC19490718.2.38?items_...

PRESS, 26 March 1956 - Obituary
Canon Staples Hamilton, the last of the ministers ordained by Bishop Harper, the first Bishop of Christchurch,
died at the age of 96 in St George’s Hospital late yesterday after noon.

Last Sunday, Canon Hamilton read the lessons at St. Mary’s Church, Merivale, where he used to help occasionally in the services. He was still gardening and reading without glasses last year.

Canon Hamilton came to New Zealand from his native Yorkshire in 1875 and joined four brothers who operated a sawmill at Oxford. Later he won a scholarship and went to Christ’s College and then to Canterbury University College, where he gained his Bachelor of Arts in 1883. In 1882, Canon Hamilton was ordained by Bishop Harper. He began his church work as curate in the Woolston parish and then went to Ellesmere. Later he became first vicar at Leeston and in 1894 he went to Hokitika. From Hokitika he had to use a bicycle to go to Ross, 15 miles away, and to go further south he rode a horse.

After 21 years in Geraldine—from 1899 to 1920 —Canon Hamilton went to St. Matthew’s in St. Albans, where he stayed until his retirement in 1931. He was assistant priest at St. Mary’s Merivale, from 1931 to 1949, and was an honorary canon of Christchurch Cathedral from 1930 to 1931. Among Canon Hamilton’s four surviving sons are the Rev. Hugh Staples Hamilton, of Timaru, and Mr E. H. Hamilton, a well-known figure in business and local body affairs in Christchurch.

The Bishop of Christchurch (the Rt. Rev. A. K. Warren) referred at evensong in the Cathedral last evening to the death of Canon Hamilton. He said that Canon Hamilton had lived a long life devoted to the service of the Diocese of Christchurch.