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Waimate is a town in Canterbury, New Zealand. It is situated just inland from the eastern coast of the South Island.
In October 1871, the Canterbury Provincial council set up a board of members to establish the Waimate cemetery. The board members were: Michael Studholme, Leonard Price, John Manchester, James Bruce and John O'Keefe. The old Waimate cemetery covers an area of 2.33 hectares. The grounds are allocated in areas according to faith: Anglican, Catholic, Wesleyan, Presbyterian, Episcopalian and Free ground.
The Packers were among the first setters at Studholme in 1884. He was an Anglican, married Annie O'Halloran, a Catholic in 1879. In death they maintained their denomination division. Worthy is in the Anglican section of the cemetery, Annie in the Catholic section.
The earliest grave markers were of wood and Waihao stone. As the settlement prospered, other NZ stone including granite were used. In addition granite from Cathiners in Scotland and Carrara marble from Italy.
Over the years some of the gravestones have fallen in to despair and have been lost. Roger Kett's grave, the first recorded burial in the cemetery in 1874, is one such gave. Kett built the Kett's Hotel later known as the Railway Hotel and then the Criterion, in Queen St, opposite the band rotunda. The hotel was built in just six weeks under penalty, using logs from the Waimate bush strapped together to form the foundations. As the logs settled the floor took on an undulating appearance.
In Oct.-Dec. 1918 there were 17 deaths in Waimate from the influenza including Dr. Cruickshank, Mr. L. Giles and Mr Herbert Algar, a returned soldier. The returned soldiers attended this funeral and fired the salute over the grave. All three buried on the same day, it was a gloomy Friday, 29th Nov. 1918. On Dec. 3rd 1918 there were 38 patients in the Waimate Hospital with influenza and 10 in the Morven School which was commandeered. Gifts of milk, vegetables, etc were coming in freely. The hotels and tea-rooms were closed. The Technical School kitchen served 80 bed-ridden people in private houses with soups, beef-tea and puddings. Dr. Cruickshank gave her life for others' sake.
The headstones include urns, Celtic crosses, wrought iron fenced plots, sorrowing women and angels, scrolls. Sir William Jukes Steward. M.L.C. who died in 1912 is buried at Waimate. Source: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nzlscant/waimate_cemetery.htm
Notable burials:
Sir William Jukes Steward. M.L.C.