HOOD, Mary Gravener/Gravenor née McMULLIN/McMULLEN/McMULLAN
Born 23 March 1867; died 16 November 1918, aged 52; buried 17 November 1918; age 52
Mary Gravener McMullin was born in Berrima, NSW, Australia on 23 March 1867, to Georgiana Wilson GRAVENER (from Deal, Kent) and Robert Anderson McMullin (a policeman/goal warder, born Londonderry, Ireland) who married in London on 15 February 1863.
Mary had two sisters born in Australia: Annie Gravener McMullen (born 1869 in Balmain, NSW and Eliza (Lily/Lillian) Gravener McMullen (born 1871 in Mt Pleasant, South Australia). (There is much variety in the spellings of McMullin and Gravenor, so the relevant spelling from each record is used in this account.)
When Mary was 12 her mother died in Adelaide, in 1879. Her father also died there, in May 1882. In March 1882 Mary and her sister Lily were taken into care in Adelaide because of neglect, perhaps while her father was widowed and working or ill. They then spent a year in an industrial school (i). The Police Court report is silent on the fate of their sister Annie at what must have been a difficult time.
Mary later met James HOOD (born 1856), who was from Glasgow. He was a sculptor with skills in wood, stone and marble carving who worked in Australia in the 1880s. He had previously migrated at 19 to Dunedin on the William Davie (one of five siblings who came to New Zealand in 1875 while three remained in Scotland). James worked for a while in New Zealand as a ‘carver’ or stone mason (ii), but then tried his luck in the Australian colonies.
The couple married on 16 August 1887 in Adelaide when Mary was 21 and James was 31. Four children were born while the couple were in Australia: the oldest Cora Lillian on 29 July 1888 in Adelaide, South Australia; Leslie Robert in Richmond, Victoria on 22 September 1890; Ronald William on 7 March 1892 also in Richmond, Victoria; and Malcolm Hopkins on 25 February 1894 in Emerald Hill, Victoria.
By 28 August 1896 the family was back in New Zealand where Elma Mildred was born in Filleul Street, Dunedin. The couple’s last child, Keith James, was born on 7 August 1903 in Christchurch.
School records show that the family moved from time to time while James worked on large projects such as the Dunedin Railway Station: St Mary’s Church, Timaru; the Bridge of Remembrance, additions to the Roman Catholic Cathedral and the Anglican Cathedral in Christchurch; the Lyttelton Cenotaph originally at the intersection of Oxford and London streets, the Auckland War Memorial Museum; and Wellington’s General Post Office, Parliament Buildings, and the Basilica in Hill St. (iii)
Most of their time, however, was spent in Christchurch, where in 1903, James was employed as an instructor in wood carving at Canterbury College (iv).
In June 1910 the family came to Wellington, living first at 73 Epuni Street, Aro Valley (v). By 1916, they had moved to 4 Davis Street in Thorndon, perhaps to be closer to James’ longest running job working on the exterior of the new Parliament House then under construction.
Based in the Museum Street workshop, James had a £600 contract with contractors, Hansford Mills and Hardie, to craft the decorative elements. (The coat of arms above the main entrance, window keystones, scrolls, reed and ribbon drops, shields, festoons, and wreaths can still be seen on the exterior of the building.)
From this work, James would have known John BARCLAY, the Public Works employee and overseer of works for the new Parliament Building. John died on 2 December 1918 from influenza.
World War I saw the two older Hood sons enlist for military service and sent to the Western Front in Europe, while their parents provided a home for Leslie’s wife, Minnie Amelia Jeanette JONES, whom he had married in 1915.
Mary and James’ third son, Malcolm, was balloted in 1916 and despite being sent to England was found unfit for active service. That was also the year of the marriage of Elma Hood to Alan SMITH, a soldier, on 19 April 1916 in the registrar’s office in Wellington where her sister Cora married Oliver Bertram KNAPP the following year on 23 May 1917.
In 1918 Mary became ill with influenza and was taken to the temporary hospital at Thorndon School, close to her home in Davis Street. She died there on 16 November 1918 of pneumonia and influenza. Aged 52, she was outside the most common age group for such deaths in the epidemic.
Unlike many families, all three of the Hoods’ older sons survived the war though none was unaffected. Ron did not return in time to see his mother before she died, though his brothers did.
Her youngest son, Keith, was just 15 when she died.
Memorial notices were placed in newspapers by various children in the years after Mary’s death. The quotation on her grave ‘O for the touch of a vanished hand And the sound of a voice that is still’ is from ‘Break’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson, thought to have been composed on the death of his friend, Arthur Hallam.
Karori Cemetery is also the final resting place for some of Mary’s family: her husband, James, and son Keith were cremated there; her son Ron (died 1952) is buried (in Rom Cath2, plot 330A with his wife Nora); while the ashes of her daughter Elma Mildred Smith died 1978) are in niche 39 DIV I1. Her other children were buried in Christchurch and Palmerston North.
Born 23 March 1867; died 16 November 1918, aged 52; buried 17 November 1918; age 52
Mary Gravener McMullin was born in Berrima, NSW, Australia on 23 March 1867, to Georgiana Wilson GRAVENER (from Deal, Kent) and Robert Anderson McMullin (a policeman/goal warder, born Londonderry, Ireland) who married in London on 15 February 1863.
Mary had two sisters born in Australia: Annie Gravener McMullen (born 1869 in Balmain, NSW and Eliza (Lily/Lillian) Gravener McMullen (born 1871 in Mt Pleasant, South Australia). (There is much variety in the spellings of McMullin and Gravenor, so the relevant spelling from each record is used in this account.)
When Mary was 12 her mother died in Adelaide, in 1879. Her father also died there, in May 1882. In March 1882 Mary and her sister Lily were taken into care in Adelaide because of neglect, perhaps while her father was widowed and working or ill. They then spent a year in an industrial school (i). The Police Court report is silent on the fate of their sister Annie at what must have been a difficult time.
Mary later met James HOOD (born 1856), who was from Glasgow. He was a sculptor with skills in wood, stone and marble carving who worked in Australia in the 1880s. He had previously migrated at 19 to Dunedin on the William Davie (one of five siblings who came to New Zealand in 1875 while three remained in Scotland). James worked for a while in New Zealand as a ‘carver’ or stone mason (ii), but then tried his luck in the Australian colonies.
The couple married on 16 August 1887 in Adelaide when Mary was 21 and James was 31. Four children were born while the couple were in Australia: the oldest Cora Lillian on 29 July 1888 in Adelaide, South Australia; Leslie Robert in Richmond, Victoria on 22 September 1890; Ronald William on 7 March 1892 also in Richmond, Victoria; and Malcolm Hopkins on 25 February 1894 in Emerald Hill, Victoria.
By 28 August 1896 the family was back in New Zealand where Elma Mildred was born in Filleul Street, Dunedin. The couple’s last child, Keith James, was born on 7 August 1903 in Christchurch.
School records show that the family moved from time to time while James worked on large projects such as the Dunedin Railway Station: St Mary’s Church, Timaru; the Bridge of Remembrance, additions to the Roman Catholic Cathedral and the Anglican Cathedral in Christchurch; the Lyttelton Cenotaph originally at the intersection of Oxford and London streets, the Auckland War Memorial Museum; and Wellington’s General Post Office, Parliament Buildings, and the Basilica in Hill St. (iii)
Most of their time, however, was spent in Christchurch, where in 1903, James was employed as an instructor in wood carving at Canterbury College (iv).
In June 1910 the family came to Wellington, living first at 73 Epuni Street, Aro Valley (v). By 1916, they had moved to 4 Davis Street in Thorndon, perhaps to be closer to James’ longest running job working on the exterior of the new Parliament House then under construction.
Based in the Museum Street workshop, James had a £600 contract with contractors, Hansford Mills and Hardie, to craft the decorative elements. (The coat of arms above the main entrance, window keystones, scrolls, reed and ribbon drops, shields, festoons, and wreaths can still be seen on the exterior of the building.)
From this work, James would have known John BARCLAY, the Public Works employee and overseer of works for the new Parliament Building. John died on 2 December 1918 from influenza.
World War I saw the two older Hood sons enlist for military service and sent to the Western Front in Europe, while their parents provided a home for Leslie’s wife, Minnie Amelia Jeanette JONES, whom he had married in 1915.
Mary and James’ third son, Malcolm, was balloted in 1916 and despite being sent to England was found unfit for active service. That was also the year of the marriage of Elma Hood to Alan SMITH, a soldier, on 19 April 1916 in the registrar’s office in Wellington where her sister Cora married Oliver Bertram KNAPP the following year on 23 May 1917.
In 1918 Mary became ill with influenza and was taken to the temporary hospital at Thorndon School, close to her home in Davis Street. She died there on 16 November 1918 of pneumonia and influenza. Aged 52, she was outside the most common age group for such deaths in the epidemic.
Unlike many families, all three of the Hoods’ older sons survived the war though none was unaffected. Ron did not return in time to see his mother before she died, though his brothers did.
Her youngest son, Keith, was just 15 when she died.
Memorial notices were placed in newspapers by various children in the years after Mary’s death. The quotation on her grave ‘O for the touch of a vanished hand And the sound of a voice that is still’ is from ‘Break’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson, thought to have been composed on the death of his friend, Arthur Hallam.
Karori Cemetery is also the final resting place for some of Mary’s family: her husband, James, and son Keith were cremated there; her son Ron (died 1952) is buried (in Rom Cath2, plot 330A with his wife Nora); while the ashes of her daughter Elma Mildred Smith died 1978) are in niche 39 DIV I1. Her other children were buried in Christchurch and Palmerston North.
Mary Gravenor Hood
(From the collection of Eric Wood, the husband of Peggy Wood née Hood, daughter of Ron Hood,
and grandchild of Mary Gravenor and James Hood)
(From the collection of Eric Wood, the husband of Peggy Wood née Hood, daughter of Ron Hood,
and grandchild of Mary Gravenor and James Hood)
Mary Gravenor and James Hood
(From the collection of Eric Wood, the husband of Peggy Wood née Hood, daughter of Ron Hood,
and grandchild of Mary Gravenor and James Hood)
(From the collection of Eric Wood, the husband of Peggy Wood née Hood, daughter of Ron Hood,
and grandchild of Mary Gravenor and James Hood)
Researched and written by Jenny Robertson (for whom James Hood was a great great uncle, the younger brother of her great grandfather, William Hood)
Grave Information:
Section: CH ENG2
Plot: 54 E
(i) South Australian Advertiser 16 March 1882, page 6 (published in the newspaper the day after the Police Court report.
(ii) James Hood could have moved back and forth across the Tasman or departed New Zealand after 1885 by when he had been resident in New Zealand for 10 years. Stone’s directory for 1885 shows him residing with his Hopkins sister and brother-in-law in Leith Street, Dunedin and there is evidence he was present in 1877 when he was a creditor of another brother-in-law, Andrew Craig, cabinet maker, who declared bankruptcy that same year.
(iii) Evening Post 18 May 1937 obituary of James Hood and The Press 26 April 1923
(iv) The Press 28 July 1903
(v) School records for Te Aro School