Last week's free local paper, an excellent source of local information and items of interest, featured the Empire Box Factory in their "Street History" item on page 7. Douglas Street in Mount Cook was apparently named after "Robert Douglas Wallace who was granted the land deed on March 14, 1856". Charles Edward ROTHERHAM died in an accident at the Empire Box factory in August 1930, and was buried at Karori cemetery three days later, joining his brother Edward who died in a completely different sort of accident three years previously. As if this was not enough, their father too died of an accident, in 1931. Lying not far from them is the equally sad story of Fanny Phillips's three young sons. Read about how these deaths led to the proximity of, and connection in death of the two family graves.
When Edward ROTHERHAM and Dennis PHILLIPS were working together on the Nelson railway line being built south of Glenhope in 1927 little did they know they would end up lying only feet from each other in graves in Karori cemetery. The gelignite they and George Gillespie were placing in holes for blasting rock, under the supervision of Mr Russ, an experienced foreman, went off unexpectedly, killing them both almost instantly. George suffered serious injuries and was taken to hospital for treatment.
Edward and Dennis were both Wellington boys. Edward’s family lived at 175 Taranaki Street, while Dennis’s family lived in Karori. Arrangements were rapidly made for their bodies to be transported to Nelson by train, and then on the ferry across Cook Strait to Wellington. Edward was buried first, on 30 September, in a multiple plot in the Anglican section not far from the Standen Street entrance. Dennis was buried the next day, a few plots along the other side of the same row.
Dennis’s family had already been devastated by the early deaths of two brothers, whose names and details are inscribed on the headstone where they are described as “The Beloved Sons of Fanny Phillips”. Private Charles William Phillips had been killed in action while serving with the Royal Warwickshire regiment in France in 1918. He was only 18 and a half years old. More misery came to the family two years later, when another son, Sidney Christin Victor, died in India in 1920, aged only 20. Perhaps Charles and Sidney were twins. Sidney is described as “DVR” and the initials R.F.A. after his name suggest he was a driver in the Royal Field Artillery. The death of Dennis, who was still only 24 in 1927, must have been an extraordinarily grievous blow indeed for Fanny.
The Rotherham family suffered another terrible tragedy only three years later. Their older son, Charles Edward, who was working as a printer at the Empire Box factory in Douglas Street, Mt Cook, was found lying unconscious on the concrete floor of the factory just before 5 o’clock on Friday afternoon, 29 August 1930. His skull was fractured and he died two hours later at Wellington Hospital. No-one had seen him fall, but the inquest held a week later concluded he had climbed a ladder standing against a shaft nearby “for the purpose of oiling or otherwise attending to a machine, and while doing so fell off”.”
Charles was buried alongside his brother on Monday 1 September 1930.
His parents, Charlotte and Charles, would have been devastated by the death of another son. But only 13 months later Charles (snr) also died, in yet another accident. Aged 77 he was still working, as a labourer on the wharves. The work of watersiders was hazardous in the extreme, and the rate of injury and death was high for many years. Unusually there was no report in the Evening Post of the time about Charles’s accident so the details are not known. The headstone inscription however states “Born at Liverpool and died as result of accident on wharf”.
There is no record of Charlotte being buried in the same plot, and although it is in reasonable condition there is no evidence that any family have visited for some years.
The Rotherham family plot is CH ENG2 15J, and the Phillips plot is CH ENG2 50J. They both face towards the Peter Fraser memorial, and are alongside the road.
When Edward ROTHERHAM and Dennis PHILLIPS were working together on the Nelson railway line being built south of Glenhope in 1927 little did they know they would end up lying only feet from each other in graves in Karori cemetery. The gelignite they and George Gillespie were placing in holes for blasting rock, under the supervision of Mr Russ, an experienced foreman, went off unexpectedly, killing them both almost instantly. George suffered serious injuries and was taken to hospital for treatment.
Edward and Dennis were both Wellington boys. Edward’s family lived at 175 Taranaki Street, while Dennis’s family lived in Karori. Arrangements were rapidly made for their bodies to be transported to Nelson by train, and then on the ferry across Cook Strait to Wellington. Edward was buried first, on 30 September, in a multiple plot in the Anglican section not far from the Standen Street entrance. Dennis was buried the next day, a few plots along the other side of the same row.
Dennis’s family had already been devastated by the early deaths of two brothers, whose names and details are inscribed on the headstone where they are described as “The Beloved Sons of Fanny Phillips”. Private Charles William Phillips had been killed in action while serving with the Royal Warwickshire regiment in France in 1918. He was only 18 and a half years old. More misery came to the family two years later, when another son, Sidney Christin Victor, died in India in 1920, aged only 20. Perhaps Charles and Sidney were twins. Sidney is described as “DVR” and the initials R.F.A. after his name suggest he was a driver in the Royal Field Artillery. The death of Dennis, who was still only 24 in 1927, must have been an extraordinarily grievous blow indeed for Fanny.
The Rotherham family suffered another terrible tragedy only three years later. Their older son, Charles Edward, who was working as a printer at the Empire Box factory in Douglas Street, Mt Cook, was found lying unconscious on the concrete floor of the factory just before 5 o’clock on Friday afternoon, 29 August 1930. His skull was fractured and he died two hours later at Wellington Hospital. No-one had seen him fall, but the inquest held a week later concluded he had climbed a ladder standing against a shaft nearby “for the purpose of oiling or otherwise attending to a machine, and while doing so fell off”.”
Charles was buried alongside his brother on Monday 1 September 1930.
His parents, Charlotte and Charles, would have been devastated by the death of another son. But only 13 months later Charles (snr) also died, in yet another accident. Aged 77 he was still working, as a labourer on the wharves. The work of watersiders was hazardous in the extreme, and the rate of injury and death was high for many years. Unusually there was no report in the Evening Post of the time about Charles’s accident so the details are not known. The headstone inscription however states “Born at Liverpool and died as result of accident on wharf”.
There is no record of Charlotte being buried in the same plot, and although it is in reasonable condition there is no evidence that any family have visited for some years.
The Rotherham family plot is CH ENG2 15J, and the Phillips plot is CH ENG2 50J. They both face towards the Peter Fraser memorial, and are alongside the road.
