Northern Cemetery, Dunedin

The Larnach Tomb:

William James Larnach is now best remembered as the man who built Larnach Castle. During his time, however, he was a banker, businessman, politician, and a government minister. He built this 'sepulchral chapel' in 1881 as a memorial to his first wife, Eliza Jane Guise, who died suddenly of a stroke. Also buried here are Mary Cockburn Alleyne, Eliza's half sister and William's second wife who died of blood poisoning during surgery in 1887, Kate Emily Larnach, William and Eliza's daughter, who died of typhoid, William James Larnach, who killed himself on the Parliament House in 1898, and Donald Larnach, hid eldest son, who also killed himself in 1910. Connie, his third wife, died in 1942 and is buried in Wellington.

The tomb has been repeatedly vandalized. It's stained glass windows have been shattered, doors broken, stones smashed, and the walls inside were defaced with graffiti. Sometime in the mid 20th century the original floorboards of the tomb were ripped up and Larnach's skull and other bones were stolen. In the 1970s they were found, returned to the coffin, and the floor was sealed with concrete.

However, the tomb continued to attract vandals and, judging by the evidence, many drunken parties were held here over the years. The Larnach descendants were unable to afford repairs to the tomb. Although the city council owns the cemetery, they are unable to use public money to repair individual memorials. In the mid 1990s they were able to do some repairs on the steeple in order to "make it safe for the public". An arson attack occurred in 1999, which was followed by a proposal by a wealthy Auckland businessman to move the structure to Auckland, finally aroused the city of Dunedin enough for them to repair the roof and surround the structure with an iron fence. In 2010 over $300,000 was raised for further repairs to the structure.

Eliza's name over the doorway.

There were also many Chinese people buried in this cemetery. Many of them have been exhumed and transported to China by their relatives and communities, but many still remain.