On 2 November 1918, little more than a week before the war ended, Anglican Archbishop of New Zealand Dr Samuel Nevill opened the Anglican Memorial Home for Boys in Dean Street, Vauxhall, Dunedin. This was dedicated as the Dunedin diocesan memorial to soldiers who had fallen in the war.
The substantial brick house, set on a ten-acre plot of land off Dean Street (later renamed Glendevon Place) had been refurbished to accommodate 15 boys, either orphans or the children of absent soldiers, although it was first used to take in boys whose parents had been attacked by influenza. Plans were to build three or four additional houses or ‘cottages’ to cater for as many as 100 boys. However, only one further house was in fact opened, on 23 October 1920.
Girls were admitted to the Memorial Home after the closure of St Mary’s Orphanage in 1933. By 1971, because of changes in foster care policy, the home housed as few as ten children. It closed in 1972.
Sources: ‘Anglican Memorial Home’, Oamaru Mail, 9/7/1918, p. 1; ‘Anglican Home for Boys at Vauxhall: Opened by the Primate’, Evening Star, 2/11/1918, p. 9;’Anglican Home for Boys: Opening Ceremony’, Otago Witness, 6/11/1918, p. 23; ‘Anglican Memorial Home: Annual Reports’, Otago Daily Times, 2/11/1922, p. 8, [illus. p. 34]; John H. Evans, Southern See: The Anglican Diocese of Dunedin, Dunedin, 1968, pp. 165-7; Orphanages and Children’s Homes in Otago and Southland (pdf), Hocken Collections, [n.d.], p. 11.
M.E. Lawlor, “Some of the boys in the Anglican Memorial Home”, ‘Dedication of the Anglican boys’ second memorial home at Anderson’s Bay’, Otago Witness, 16/11/1920, p. 34 (supp.); text: Bruce Ringer, 2017.
Community contributions