Rachael Comer
Timaru Herald
November 22, 2025
Medinella Fauth and her sister Annabelle Fauth decorate Ann Williams’ memorial at Timaru Cemetery with flowers at its unveiling this week.
AIMAN AMERUL MUNER / THE TIMARU HERALD
On the 165th anniversary of her death, the mother of Timaru’s first recorded European-born child was remembered with the unveiling of a memorial honouring her life.
Ann Williams died on November 18, 1860, in the doorway of the Timaru Hotel, which was located near the Landing Service Building.
She was the wife of whaler Samuel Williams, one of Timaru’s first European settlers, but after being unable to find her grave, researcher Roselyn Fauth knew she needed to be remembered.
After weeks of searching, and fundraising, that came to fruition and on Tuesday evening, a memorial for Ann was unveiled at the Timaru Cemetery in front of her husband’s headstone.
Fauth said the plaque was not about rewriting history.
“It is about restoring a name, acknowledging a life, and giving back a small measure of what was lost,’’ she said.
At the unveiling of Ann Williams’ memorial at the Timaru cemetery on Tuesday evening, also the 165th anniversary of her death, back from left, Les Jones of Aorangi and Harding Memorials, Lynne Kerr of the Timaru Civic Trust, Chris Fauth, Roselyn Fauth, Geoff Cloake, South Canterbury Museum curator of documentary history Tony Rippin, South Canterbury Museum director Philip Howe, and South Canterbury Museum educator Keely Kroening. Front from left, Medinella Fauth and Annabelle Fauth.
AIMAN AMERUL MUNER / THE TIMARU HERALD
“Particularly recognising a woman, a mother, when so many women have had their impact slide out of chapters in our Timaru story and into the margins.’’
She hoped that Ann would look down and be happy with how she was being remembered.
The project had also helped her feel comfortable at the cemetery, a place she used to feel scared, she said.
She now realised that had been more to do with her perspective and feelings on death.
The memorial for Ann Williams at the Timaru Cemetery.
AIMAN AMERUL MUNER / THE TIMARU HERALD
“The hunt for Ann has helped me come to terms with death, what is legacy, and how we can all make small ripples that will impact our community today and for all the generations who will follow.’’
She said it had been “really special’’ to unveil the monument with supporters.
“We are united by a stranger we never met, who died 165 years ago.
“After 165 years, Ann Williams is finally being named and remembered with the dignity she always deserved.”
The memorial has been placed in front of Ann’s husband Sam’s Williams gravestone.
AIMAN AMERUL MUNER / THE TIMARU HERALD
Her husband was one of the earliest Europeans to work along Timaru’s coastline.
“Sam first came to Timaru as a young man in the late 1830s, spending two whaling seasons here working for the Weller Brothers, alongside Māori whalers and local hapū who knew these waters well,’’ she said.
It was a pivotal chapter in Timaru’s history, because while it was short, it was one of the earliest connections between Māori and Europeans in South Canterbury.
“When the Wellers went bankrupt, Sam move to Banks Peninsula and worked for the Rhodes brothers, he told them about the good sheep pasture here, and the Rhodes brothers came down to establish a huge sheep station.’’
Fauth said they built a basic cottage on George St in 1851 and then moved to the Levels near Pleasant Point.
Sam Williams went to Australia to hunt for gold, and found treasure in Ann, and in Ballarat they had a daughter, Rebecca.
Years later he brought his wife back to Timaru and worked for the Rhodes family and moved into their beach cottage, on George St.
Their son William, born in 1856, would become the first recorded European baby born in Timaru, and it was thought his cradle was a gin crate.
Fauth said if their house was still standing, its neighbour would be the Timaru Landing Service Building owned by the Timaru Civic Trust, and there would be no other buildings, just harakeke, tussock and tī kōuka (cabbage trees).
Supporters of the Ann Williams memorial project at the cemetery this week.
AIMAN AMERUL MUNER / THE TIMARU HERALD
In 1860, the Williams’ opened a small hotel on George St which was owned by George Rhodes with Sam owning the chattels ‒ a place of rest for those arriving by sea or making their way down the long coastline, Fauth said.
But later that year, in November 1860, only months after the hotel opened, tragedy struck when Ann collapsed in the doorway of the new hotel and died.
Fauth said there was no doctor close at hand. Her burial was recorded by the town magistrate Captain Woollcombe and a brief notice appeared in the Lyttelton Times, but her grave was left unmarked.
Sam later married his children’s governess Mary Ann Gardiner.
However, a customer did not like the price Sam charged for beer and burned his hotel down.
He rebuilt only to have that hotel burn down, in the Great Timaru Fire of 1868.
The site was cleared and the clay cut away to level the section. That clay was used to form bricks for the Club Hotel, which stood on the corner site for many years, Fauth said.
She said Sam left Timaru and moved to Christchurch to run hotels, while his daughter Rebecca moved to Christchurch to raise her family, and son William ended up in Hokitika with his two friends.
Roselyn Fauth at Samuel Williams grave in May.
AIMAN AMERUL MUNER / The Timaru Herald
They found a substantial gold claim which was named after them and which was known as the Larrikins.
It was from a pile of tailings on Larrikins Rd that Fauth collected a rock and brought it home to incorporate into Ann’s monument.
She said Sam returned to Timaru after working as a rail ganger and he died there, with his friends erecting a headstone in his memory.
Fauth said recovering Ann’s story had been a journey of research, walking old places, piecing together records, learning about the early history of Timaru, and the cemetery, and learning from descendants and local historians.
“We discovered her journey from Cork to Ballarat, Australia, and then to Timaru, her marriage to Sam, the births of Rebecca and William, and the daily realities of building a life on an unsettled coastline.’’
She said, like so many early settler women, Ann’s courage, labour, and presence were essential, yet her name drifted from memory.
Sue Rhine, a relation of Sam and Ann Williams, visits Sam's grave at the Timaru Cemetery earlier this year.
Supplied
The memorial was about restoring a name, acknowledging a life, and giving back a small measure of what was lost.
“Particularly recognising a woman, a mother, when so many women have had their impact slide out of chapters in our Timaru story and into the margins.’’
She was grateful to everyone that helped bring Ann’s memory back into the light including South Canterbury Museum and Timaru District Council staff, volunteers, and descendants.
“Ann’s story reminds us that many lives lie hidden in plain sight, waiting to be remembered.’’
Timaru monumental mason Les Jones said he was “very proud’’ to be part of the project.
He said Ann held a special place in Timaru’s history.
Roselyn Fauth, left, Keely Kroening and Lewis Comer on a hunt for Ann Williams’ grave at Timaru Cemetery in May.
AIMAN AMERUL MUNER / The Timaru Herald
“The cemetery has many wonderful stories, and particularly in the older parts, there are some interesting links between the individuals and the families from those early settlers and pioneers.’’
He said his business was about making fitting memorials for loved ones, past and present, and he took an active interest in such tales.
“I am always keen to see memorials that help enrich the history of Timaru and our district, and commend Rose for her enthusiasm, curiosity, and energy to lead these projects.’’
Ann’s memorial was part of a wider project to also acknowledge more than 700 people who rested in free ground and unmarked graves at the cemetery.
On December 14, a plaque to remember them would be unveiled at Timaru Cemetery at 10am. The ceremony would be open to the public.
Honouring those who rest in unmarked graves (August 2025)
