If anyone could have related to the Split Enz’s song ‘Six Months in a Leaky Boat’, it would have been Cantab pioneer John Grubb. Leaving behind his wife Mary and his three daughters in Scotland, he was on his way to Australia to make them a new life when he found himself on New Zealand …
Shipwright John Blair Thompson watched his 11 year old daughter Isabella skip away from him, her happy laughter pouring into his ears. She had every reason to be joyful and excited, the school picnic was a few days away and the whole township of Lyttelton always looked forward to such an event. It was to …
Few New Zealanders have achieved such prominence or popularity, received such high honours, or been more sincerely admired and respected in their own lifetime than Heaton Rhodes. Blessed with intelligence, talent, good looks and wealth, he made the most of his advantages. He excelled at many things, and is remembered in Canterbury as the province’s …
“…unusual fatigue, to which, in his praiseworthy endeavors to find a suitable spot on which to locate his family, the deceased had exposed himself…” The Lyttelton Times January 1851 John Williams was painfully aware that he, his wife Isabella and their 7 children only had a few days of grace at their first Canterbury lodgings …
George Rhodes (1817 – 1864) Died of a chill Place of Death: Purau Buried at Lyttelton’s Anglican Cemetery, Christchurch The story of George Rhodes: http://www.peelingbackhistory.co.nz/the-rhodes-brothers/ Photo taken by Annette Bulovic The discovery of George Rhodes’ crypt at the Lyttelton Anglican Cemetery was to hold more than Chris and I expected…and not in …
William Barnard Rhodes (1807 – 1878) was the eldest of his 13 siblings and the first to arrive in New Zealand out of his 5 brothers! As Captain and co-owner of the ship ‘Harriet’, William saw a lot of the world. In 1836, while employed by the firm of Cooper and Levy, William sailed into …
