Now a public cemetery, Birch Hill Cemetery was once a private cemetery for the use of the family, friends and workers of Birch Hill Station, and remains a small cemetery tucked away in the hills off Birch Hill Road near Oxford.

Edward Bowler Millton, and his wife Maude (need Ford) had the current Birch Hill Station homestead built to a design by Samuel Hurst Seager, one of New Zealand’s leading designers of large houses, after the original house owned by his father, sea captain William Newton Millton, burnt down. Edward’s brother, J D Millton, also inherited land, on the Ashley Flats, and named the property ‘Rakahuri’.

In 1930, Edward Millton (now Lieutenant-Colonel), decided to honour the men and horses who had served in the Great War by commissioning and constructing a stone monument in the Birch Hill Cemetery. Many of the 8th Regiment‘s (New Zealand Mounted Rifles) horses came from Birch Hill.

Lieutenant-Colonel Millton and his wife had no children of their own. Their biggest contribution was the leaving of Birch Hill Station to the Sunlight League to be used as a home for children orphaned by World War Two. For many years the homestead was known as the Ford Millton Home, but it closed for good in 1985 and the house is now a private residence.

***

High-resolution photographs of the grave are available, plus one or two of the cemetery/church if applicable. This includes a full transcription, particularly for those stones that are hard to read or eroded.

Please consider a small donation to keep the site and the work going

***

BRYDON, Robert (d. 6th January, 2002).

CRI(?), Charles Oscar (d. ?). Illegible.

CROSS, Marjorie Anne (d. 17th August, 2006). Born in York, England 22nd April, 1918. Wife of William Watson Cross.

ENGEL, Heinz Albert (d. 4th June, 1998). Born in Germany in 1932.

ENSOR, John Henry (d. 31st August, 1986). Age 65. Husband of Sylvie.

ENSOR, Roger Willett (1923 – 2000). Husband of Valerie Anne Wilson Ensor.

ENSOR, Valerie Anne Wilson (1922 – 1997). Wife of Roger Willett Ensor of Mandalea and Garrymere.

HAMILTON, Annette Dea Herbert (d. 28th September, 1992). Nee Brown. Wife of Henry Warburton Fitzgerald Hamilton.

HAMILTON, Henry Warburton Fitzgerald (d. 8th January, 1977). Born 16th April, 1900.

JAMES, Arthur Reginald (d. 11th December, 1956). Also Grace Lydia, his wife.

JAMES, Patricia Ellis (1917 – 2005). Daughter of Reg and Lydia.

JAMES, Richard Ellis (1915 – 2002). Cherished companion of Pearl.

KENYON, Elizabeth Noeline (d. 14th March, 2005). Wife of Frank Kenyon.

MILLTON, Edward Bowler (d. 11th March, 1942).

MILLTON, Mary Lilian (d. 8th March, 1963). Wife of Frederick John Millton.

MILLTON, Maude Eliza (d. 4th Feb, 1946). Age 78. Nee Ford. Wife of Edward Bowler Millton.

SMITH, C C (31st January, 1936 – 29th May, 2004).

THOMPSON, Keith Marshall (1945 – 2010). Husband of Linda.

TOMKIES, S A (d. 18th May, 1993). Captain 2nd NZEF, 19th Battalion.

WHITE, Pearl Mae (d. 10th August, 1988).