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St John's Cemetery, Gordon
1867-2017 — 150 years

Read Pioneers at Peace: The Story of St John's Cemetery, Gordon by Jill Lyons

Home List of Burials and Cremations (Alphabetic) List of Burials and Cremations (Section/Row/Plot)
More Information Cemetery Plan Road Widening in 1931

Before the opening of St Johns Cemetery in 1867, if a person died in the vicinity of Gordon, New South Wales, it was necessary for the burial to take place on private property or at a cemetery at North Sydney, Ryde or Parramatta. Since the opening, more than 1,200 people have been interred at St Johns. The ashes of another 1,000 people are located in niches in the columbarium walls.

The first burial, on 8 May 1867, was that of Mary Ann Britton of Lane Cove. Mary Ann was just twenty-seven years old and left behind a husband, John, and three children under seven years old — two daughters, Alice and Sarah, and a son, William. John Britton later remarried. Of the children, the girls both married and seem to have died in the Mullumbimby area in the 1930s, with William staying in Sydney. The story of Mary Ann Britton and her family is but one of the many stories of those whose final resting place is St John's Cemetery.

A number of the people buried at St Johns were widely known, including Joseph Henry Maiden, Director of the Sydney Botanical Gardens and Government Botanist; and John Bradfield, designer of the Sydney harbour bridge. Naturally, many of the pioneering families in the Gordon district are represented, including members of the Pymble, Wall, McIntosh and Britton families. However, most of those buried at St Johns led unheralded lives as they contributed to the development of the Gordon area and formed part of the rich social tapestry of the area.

From the menu at the top of this page you can access a list of names of people believed to have been buried in the cemetery and of people whose ashes have been placed in niches in the columbarium walls. This list covers the period from 1867 to 2015. In compiling the list, the St Johns burial register from 1867 to 1950 has been consulted. For the rest, details have been taken from monuments and plaques in the cemetery and on the columbarium walls and from a list of names prepared by Jill Lyons, held at the Mt Kuring-gai library. Online records at the NSW Births Deaths and Marriages internet site and newspaper records at the Trove internet site have provided additional information.

Please note that we have no other information about any of the people named on the list of burials and cremations. If you have further particulars or wish to advise of possible errors in the information provided here, please contact us.