I have a mystery which I hope some of you can help with. Rev. Charles Hugh Richardson Harper who was rector of West Harling, England, 1899-1915. He and his 2nd wife died in Australia, she in 1944, he in 1947. His first wife was the sister of his second! His dying wish [in written form] was that his ashes should be interred in the first wife's grave in Jerusalem. He even wrote the inscription. However, I have checked with Jerusalem, and only the first wife is buried there. The problem in Australia straight after the war was that few ships were available to take him back to England, and he died in Australia. He had no children by either marraige so who was there to see to his last wishes? Can anyone think of a way of finding out where the ashes of Grace and Charles are interred? The details are: Grace Burton Harper died 16th August 1944 aged 73 Charles Hugh Richardson Harper died 18th May 1947 aged 78 inscription: "We believe in the the eternal goodness" His address was Wychwood Kuring-gai, Chase Ave, Turramurra, NSW. He died at Strathfield. Grace died at Bel Air Private Hospital. Her cremation service took place at "a beautifully situated spot, overlooking a high up reach of the Lane Cove River above Fuller's Bridge. The plain wooden casket with the ashes I plan to take with me to England and some day lay it with Agnes on Mount Zion, Jerusalem." He had been assisted in his last years by a Miss Helen Elizabeth Windeyer and his Will 'ordered' her to see to the Jerusalem 'project'. Any thoughts on how to track this down? Progress so far has been that it would appear that both of the HARPER's were cremated at the Northern Suburbs Crematorium which unfortunately does not have online information. Unless some kind person lives close by and could do a lookup for me I will snail mail my enquiry to them. It has been suggested that as Rev.HARPER died at Strathfield he could have been cremated at Rookwood Crematorium, however this is also not online. One kind person looked up the Rookwood MI's CD but found no reference to him although this does not discount the actual burial and cremation information. No funeral notice has been found in the Sydney Morning Heralds up to five days after both deaths - hers on 16th August 1944 and his 18th May 1947. Are there any local area newspapers which can be consulted? I did discount the Death Certificates as being of little use, but this was based on the English certificates not the more detailed Australian certificates, so this will be followed up. Peter South Australia

Peter plz try the nsw births deaths and marriages index online or if not nsw births deaths and marriages they should helpyou good luck ----- Original Message ----- From: Peter Blades <prazorb@hotkey.net.au> To: <AUSTRALIA-CEMETERIES-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2003 9:56 PM Subject: [[AUS-CEM]] HARPER's - Where are their ashes? > > I have a mystery which I hope some of you can help with. > Rev. Charles Hugh Richardson Harper who was rector of West Harling, > England, 1899-1915. He and his 2nd wife died in Australia, she in > 1944, he in 1947. His first wife was the sister of his second! > > His dying wish [in written form] was that his ashes should be interred > in the first wife's grave in Jerusalem. He even wrote the inscription. > However, I have checked with Jerusalem, and only the first wife is > buried there. The problem in Australia straight after the war was that > few ships were available to take him back to England, and he died in > Australia. He had no children by either marraige so who was there to > see to his last wishes? > > Can anyone think of a way of finding out where the ashes of Grace and > Charles are interred? The details are: > > Grace Burton Harper died 16th August 1944 aged 73 > > Charles Hugh Richardson Harper died 18th May 1947 aged 78 > > inscription: "We believe in the the eternal goodness" > > His address was Wychwood Kuring-gai, Chase Ave, Turramurra, NSW. > He died at Strathfield. Grace died at Bel Air Private Hospital. > Her cremation service took place at "a beautifully situated spot, > overlooking a high up reach of the Lane Cove River above Fuller's > Bridge. The plain wooden casket with the ashes I plan to take with > me to England and some day lay it with Agnes on Mount Zion, Jerusalem." > > He had been assisted in his last years by a Miss Helen Elizabeth > Windeyer and his Will 'ordered' her to see to the Jerusalem 'project'. > > Any thoughts on how to track this down? > > Progress so far has been that it would appear that both of the > HARPER's were cremated at the Northern Suburbs Crematorium which > unfortunately does not have online information. Unless some kind > person lives close by and could do a lookup for me I will snail > mail my enquiry to them. > > It has been suggested that as Rev.HARPER died at Strathfield he > could have been cremated at Rookwood Crematorium, however this > is also not online. One kind person looked up the Rookwood MI's > CD but found no reference to him although this does not discount > the actual burial and cremation information. > > No funeral notice has been found in the Sydney Morning Heralds > up to five days after both deaths - hers on 16th August 1944 and > his 18th May 1947. Are there any local area newspapers which can > be consulted? > > I did discount the Death Certificates as being of little use, but > this was based on the English certificates not the more detailed > Australian certificates, so this will be followed up. > > Peter > South Australia > > > ==== AUSTRALIA-CEMETERIES Mailing List ==== > ================================================================== > "Please "do not" post virus warnings to the list. > ================================================================== > Hey have you updated your AntiVirus program lately ? ? > Is your AV continuously activated while online ? ? > Does your AV continue to check each and every email as it is down loaded ? ? > Does your AV continue to check every Website you inter into ? ? > Better to be safe than sorry . . . let HouseCall check out your system FREE ! > http://housecall.antivirus.com/. > other sites you might want to check out . . . > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~clifflamere/Aid/AID-VirusProtect.ht m > -this one mentioned in Missing Links Vol. 5 No. 44 http://antivirus.cai.com/ > - this one was mentioned on the Listowner List > http://www.grisoft.com/html/us_index.cfm > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 >