Mitcham General CemeteryThere are actually three different cemeteries in a cluster bordered by Old Belair and Blythwood Roads, Mitcham and all are administered separately. Mitcham General, (City of Mitcham Council) Church Of England (Anglican Church) and St Joseph's (The Order of St Joseph’s). This information sheet focuses on the Old Section of the Mitcham General Cemetery under the administration of Mitcham City Council.

The original two acres were established in 1854 for non conformist or 'dissenting' protestant denominations to compliment the neighbouring Church of England Cemetery. It is still accessed through its original entrance on Blythwood Rd and was originally designed in a circular plan of which only about a third was implemented. In-filling occurred from the middle of the 20th century due to the advent of the motor vehicle which enabled easy reversal, so less space was needed than for horse drawn vehicles which preferred to travel forwards. The cemetery is effectively closed, however, ancestral plots can be renewed and you and your descendants can continue to use them as few have been filled.

First Lease22nd June 1854 to George Prince, Thomas Mugg, William Finlayson and Peter Cumming.

First BurialNovember 3rd 1853 – William F Heath of 'Airlie House' Goodwood Road, now Colonel Light Gardens, died of consumtion aged 27 years. Buried by Mr Q Stow, Congregational minister. No lease was recorded.

Trustees1854 – Revd. Thomas Playford, George Prince and William Finlayson, all of Mitcham Village.

1886 – John Playford, John Gardiner, Edward Benjamin Overbury.

1913 – Appointment of Baptist Church and Alfred L Allen as trustees.

1938 – Administration of Cemetery re-organised.

1956 – Cemetery Trust passed responsibility over to the Council.

Curators1854 -1876 – Thomas Mugg.

1876 -1880 – J.F.H. Beecken, (It would seem that father and son worked together.)

1880 -1916 – H. Beecken.

1916 -1924 – C. Stanley.

1924 -1955 – H.D. Gregory.

1956 -1977 – H.A. Stewart.

1978 -198? – Geoff Milde.

198? -1999 – John Mullins.

1999 - Present – Mitcham Council.

Cemetery Extensions1922, 1925, 1927, 1936, 1937.

Other Cemetery Points Of Interest1929 c – Erection of an hexagonal office at the end of the main road.

1939 – Endowment Fund established

1957-1964 – Some land sales for Cemetery Endowment Fund.

1968 – Cemetery Endowment Fund transferred to Council consolidated revenue.

1995 – Mitcham Cemetery Advisory Committee established in the City Council.

1996 – Lions Club and Mitcham Council replaced the front fence and Job-skill placement. Don Knott worked for six months photographing all tombstone faces and graves up to 1900 and began to collate the cemetery records onto computer.

Every Cemetery has interesting people in it and the ones mentioned here are by no means meant to be judged as the most important. Everyone’s life was important and the tombstones, notation in the records or in the memory of another are memorials to their existence, contribution or influence upon this planet and those touched by them. If your ancestry dates back several generations in South Australia, you are sure to find an acquaintance or a familiar name here. Plot : Z 8. CHARLES EVANS. Died January 1913. Aged 63. Charles joined the navy as a young man and later lived in Spain where he worked on orange plantations. He was the gatekeeper and head gardener for the Barr-Smith's Torrens Park Estate. (which is now Scotch College.) Evans Ave is named after him.

Plot : U 11. WILLIAM LEWIS NEALE. Died December 1913. Aged 60. William was the S.A Education Department Inspector Of Schools, a Director of Education of Tasmania in 1905 and was the founder of S.A Public School Teachers Superannuation Fund.

Plot : Z 11. THOMAS PRICE. Died. May 1909. Aged 57. Thomas was born in Wales and arrived in 1883 and married Anne Elizabeth and had 5 children. Thomas was a stonecutter, mason, clerk and MP, later becoming the first S A Labour Premier between 1906 – 1909.

Plot : E 17c. ARTHUR HENRY GAULT. Died August 1917. Aged 52. Arthur was one of the first doctors to arrive in Mitcham in 1888 and established a medical practice in 1902. He was appointed as an early health inspector for the Mitcham council and built the 'Nunyara Sanatorium' in Belair in 1902. Arthur owned the first car in Mitcham in 1901. During the War he held the rank of Surgeon Major and did the work of three doctors. He was buried with full military honours with a firing party provided by the Mitcham Camp.

Plot : G 7. JOHN A.H. GARDNER. Died December 1886. Aged 29.John was accidentally killed fighting the RC Castle & Coy fire in Rundle St on Christmas Eve 1886. This monument was erected by a number of the citizens of Adelaide in his memory as a tribute of their admiration of his heroic conduct.

Plot : K 6. WILLIAM RASHLEIGH. Died March 1914. Aged 52. William was one of the first settlers in Hawthorn and took up 12¾ acres in 1853 from the SA Company for £150, the same price he sold it for in 1866. He was an omnibus driver.

Plot : M 3. CHARLES EVERETT. Died September 1892. Aged 77.Charles and Henrietta Everett built 'Harling House' in 1861 and lived there until 1873. He was a grocer and eventually his house became 'Sunset Lodge' the Salvation Army Home on the corner of Brenchley Grove and Belair Road, Kingswood in the 1920's.

Plot : M 38. JOHN GILL. Died January 1873.John was the Head Turnkey of the Adelaide Goal his wife Mary Ann was the daughter of Birdwood and Mitcham pioneers, John and Mary Ann Heritage who were one of the first families to take up land in Mitcham Village.

Plot : A 120. GEORGE VINEY. Died October 1910. Aged 62.This family were notable builders in Mitcham and surrounding districts. They quarried high quality blue-stone from Mr Fuller’s Brown Hill quarry opposite the present day caravan park and built Uniting Churches at Mitcham and Eastwood as well as the Mitcham Institute in 1870.

Plot : M 23. CHARLES ANDERSON. Died December 1909. Aged 89. Anderson Quarries were one of the longest operating quarries in the Mitcham District from the 1850s. The oldest Anderson family home built from blue-stone stands opposite the cemetery at 26 Old Belair Road and has the back-drop of some of their quarries in the hills behind.

Plot : M 23c. HENRY GREENWOOD PRINCE. Died July 1912 aged 60. Henry was the 6th child of George and Sarah Prince, he was a florist and died in the Parkside Lunatic Asylum of melancholia, great depression and heart failure in 1912 aged 61.

The Anderson Family

Anderson Family Home at 26 Old Belair Road

Dr Arthur Gault and his car

Charles Everett and family

Charles Evans

Plot : M 19. GEORGE PRINCE. Died October 1891. Aged 80.George arrived in Australia with his family in 1849 with their goods packed in good quality timber boxes that were used in the construction of their homes in Mitcham Village - homes like 'Montrose' and 'Kallawa' which is now part of Scotch College junior school near the corner of Albert and Muggs Hill Rd. George was a Baptist preacher, built the 'Ebenezer' chapel church and was one of the first cemetery trustees. Princes Rd is named after him.

Plot : M 14/14a. PHILIP LAFFER. Died April 1908. Aged 74. The pioneering homes of the Laffer family still stand, in Hollywood Drive Glenalta, 'Fairford' Sturt and off Chasewater St, Lower Mitcham. Laffers Rd named after the family.

Plot : M 5. JAMES PRINCE. Died November 1878. Aged 38.James was the 3rd child of George and Sarah Prince, and was a lawyer. He committed suicide by drinking a bottle of Laudanum and was found dead in his bed. Probable reason was his alcoholism, bankruptcy of his law practice and his expulsion from the church.

Plot : M 9. THOMAS PLAYFORD. Died September 1873. Aged 78.Thomas and his family settled in Mitcham Village in 1844 and could be considered to be a ‘founding father’ of Mitcham with his neighbours George Prince and William Finlayson. He was a Reverend of the Christian/Baptist church and one of the first Cemetery Trustees. Playford St in Mitcham Village is named after his family.

Plot : M 8. THOMAS WELBOURNE. Died October 1879. Aged 77.Thomas married Hannah Playford, the sister of Thomas Playford and was a labourer, shepherd, publican and cooper (maker of wine barrels), and lived in the street that now bears his name in Mitcham Village.

Plot : C 5. THOMAS MUGG. Died November 1880. Aged 86. Thomas was a carpenter, joiner, teacher, employed by the villagers to establish and operate a school that later became Mitcham Primary from 1847. He was one of the first people to take out a cemetery lease in June 1854 and was the first cemetery curator from 1854 -1876.

Plot : C 4,5. HENRY STANTON FYFFE. Died December 1863.Aged 42.Henry was a grocer, farmer, storekeeper and also operated the 1st Post Office in Welbourne St Mitcham from when it opened in 1883 and his wife Hannah was Post Mistress of the Edwardstown Post Office.

Plot : C 9/8. PETER CUMMING. Died July 1881. Aged 81.Peter was a draper, merchant and a member of the first Mitcham Council also being one of the first to take out a lease in the area, owning 870 acres at Coromandel Valley. He developed 'Craigburn Farm' straddling Sturt Creek over a decade, buying up sections of land as it was surveyed between 1847 and 1857. He sold out in 1864. In the 1920s this property was bought by Minda Inc. and is now gradually being subdivided.

Plot : C 10. ANDREW DAVIE. Died January 1875. Aged 73Andrew was a Brownhill Creek farmer until 1850 when he established 'Braehead Quarry' and a stone yard in Brown St Adelaide, which was one of the earliest outlets for Mitcham Stone.

Plot : C 11. WILLIAM FINLAYSON. Died December 1897. Aged 84William was a clerk, auctioneer, Baptist minister, farmer and a shepherd with a S A Company. He built 'Helenholm' for his family and promoted the Christian and later the Baptist church with Thomas Playford. He was one of the original Cemetery Trustees. Finlayson Rd, Netherby is named after him.

Plot : O C – between c45/45a. WILLIAM FREDERICK HEATH. Died November 1853. Aged 27William F Heath of 'Airlie House' (a 10 room dwelling built from Ayliffe stone in Penang Ave, Colonel Light Gardens). William was the first person buried in the cemetery on the November 3rd 1853, dying of consumption and buried by Mr Q Stow, Congregational minister. No lease was recorded.

Plot : A 81. JOSEPH FOUREUR. Died May 1935. Aged 92.Joseph set up a brewery on the corner of Murray St and Price Ave Clapham, making champagne and non-alcoholic beer and cordials.

Plot : A 80. THOMAS TILLEY. Died October 1930. Aged 77.

The Tilley family were pioneers and market gardeners in the steep valleys of Brownhill Creek. Some family members married into the Playford and other early Mitcham families. Tilley's Hill Rd is named after them.

Thomas Playford

Thomas Mugg

Peter Cumming

Foureur brewery 1910

William Finlayson

Philip Laffer

Mitcham Post Office

Thomas Playford the soldier

Plot : C 20. PHILLIS KINSMAN. Died February 1866. Aged 67 Phillis was a widow with a large family and she ran the first passenger conveyance (8 seater spring cart) from Mitcham to Adelaide in 1852 - 3 times a week, with a 2/6 return fare.

Plot : A 74/75. CYRIL OPIE. Died 1993. Opie's Bakery which is situated in Harrow Rd. (Note chef's hat on headstone.)

Plot : A 76. WILLIAM CHARLICK. Died July 1926. Aged 76.The Charlick's were one of the major grain and fodder merchants in Adelaide.

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Phillis Kinsman and her conveyance

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Prepared by Mitcham Local History Service and Heritage Research Centre

103b Princes Rd, Mitcham, SA 5062. Ph 8372 8261

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Last edit: 25/02/2010