Andersons Bay Cemetery is a major cemetery in the

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

city of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

. It is located to the southeast of the city centre, on a rocky outcrop which forms the inland part of

Lawyers Head Lawyers Head (often punctuated as the more grammatically correct Lawyer's Head) is a prominent landmark on the coast of Otago, New Zealand. Located within the city of Dunedin, this rocky headland juts into the Pacific Ocean at the eastern end of th ...

, a promontory which juts into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. The cemetery is bounded on the western and southern sides by Chisholm Park Golf Links, and to the east by steep slopes which descend to the

Tomahawk Lagoon Tomahawk Lagoon is a twin-lobed lagoon, located at the western end of the Otago Peninsula within the city limits of Dunedin, New Zealand. It lies close to the southeastern edge of the city's main urban area, near the suburb of Ocean Grove, which ...

. Despite its name, the cemetery is located in the suburb of Tahuna, which lies immediately to the south of the suburb of

Andersons Bay Andersons Bay (sometimes spelt in the grammatically correct former form Anderson's Bay, and often known locally simply as "Andy Bay") is a suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is located in the southeast of the city's urban area, sout ...

, and almost from the former (now largely reclaimed) bay itself, at the head of the

Otago Harbour Otago Harbour is the natural harbour of Dunedin, New Zealand, consisting of a long, much-indented stretch of generally navigable water separating the Otago Peninsula from the mainland. They join at its southwest end, from the harbour mouth. I ...

The cemetery is the largest in Dunedin, and as such one of the largest in the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. In existence by 1867, the cemetery was the city's main burial site from the early twentieth century until the 1980s, and also contains several older sets of remains which were re-interred here from other sites. Since the 1980s, the role of Dunedin's main cemetery has been split between several sites, with the

Green Park Cemetery Waldronville is a coastal settlement on the Pacific Ocean coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Established in the 1950s as a commuter settlement, it is located to the southwest of Dunedin city centre, and lies within the city's limits. W ...

Waldronville Waldronville is a coastal settlement on the Pacific Ocean coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Established in the 1950s as a commuter settlement, it is located to the southwest of Dunedin city centre, and lies within the city's limits. W ...

taking the majority of new burials. The

crematorium A crematorium or crematory is a venue for the cremation of the dead. Modern crematoria contain at least one cremator (also known as a crematory, retort or cremation chamber), a purpose-built furnace. In some countries a crematorium can also be ...

, opened in 1927, is still in use. The

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

(CWGC) commemorates 2

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

New Zealand servicemen cremated here. The cemetery originally went by the imposing name of the ''Eastern Necropolis'', but this quickly fell out of favour to be replaced with its current, more prosaic, name. Andersons Bay Cemetery is noted for its large military memorial section, with many ex-servicemen having been buried here. Notable among them are

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

recipients

Duncan Gordon Boyes Duncan Gordon Boyes VC (5 November 1846 – 26 January 1869) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. T ...

and

Horace Robert Martineau Horace Robert Martineau VC (31 October 1874 – 7 April 1916) was a British recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Military career ...

. The latter is one of 64

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Commonwealth service personnel buried here whose graves are registered and maintained by the CWGC, who are also responsible for 54 war graves from World War II.
CWGC Cemetery Report. The cemetery is also notable for its section of restored gravestones of early Dunedin Chinese settlers.The Chinese in New Zealand
Other prominent people buried in the cemetery include architects

Edmund Anscombe Edmund Anscombe (8 February 1874 – 9 October 1948) was one of the most important figures to shape the architectural and urban fabric of New Zealand. He was important, not only because of the prolific nature of his practice and the quality of ...

and

Francis Petre Francis William Petre (27 August 1847 – 10 December 1918), sometimes known as Frank Petre, was a New Zealand-born architect based in Dunedin. He was an able exponent of the Gothic revival style, one of its best practitioners in New Zea ...

References

External links

* {{coord, -45.9044, 170.5343, type:landmark_region:NZ-OTA, display=title Cemeteries in Dunedin 1867 establishments in New Zealand