Biography

WILLIAM HENRY CLAYTON

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Block/Plot Details
Biography
Interments
Map Location

Burial register ID:	2159
Surname:	CLAYTON
First name:	WILLIAM
Middle names:	HENRY
Gender:	Male
Age:	55 Years
Cause of death:	Unknown
Burial type:
Date of death:	23-Aug-1877
Date of burial:	24-Aug-1877

Block:	116
Plot:	12
Inscription:	TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER WILLIAM HENRY CLAYTON WHO DIED 23rd AUGUST 1877 AGED 52 YEARS. THIS STONE IS ERECTED BY HIS DAUGHTER MARY VOGEL

Bio contributor: Historic Cemeteries Conservation Trust

William Clayton was an architect. He was born in Tasmania, the son of a farmer and merchant. In England he was articled to a prominent architect and in 1848 arrived back in Tasmania where he remained for the next 15 years, designing over 300 buildings.

He arrived in Dunedin in 1863 and joined William Mason under the style of Mason and Clayton. He designed the Colonial Museum (Wellington), All Saints’ Church, Edinburgh House, the Otago Provincial Government Buildings, and the Bank of New South Wales (Christchurch).

In 1869 he was appointed New Zealands’ first (and only) Colonial Architect and designed all manner of public buildings – custom houses, immigration and quarantine barracks, courthouses and prisons, schools, post offices, and hospitals and was also responsible for the design of the Government Buildings in Wellington (still the largest wooden building in the southern hemisphere), and Government House. He designed New Zealands first concrete house (his own home) and now part of Queen Margaret College.

The headstone was erected by his daughter, Mary Vogel, daughter of Julius Vogel.

Photograph of W H Clayton in 1860
Source: Alexander Turnbull Library Reference: PAColl-0069 Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of image

There are 1 Interments in this grave:

Surname	First names	Age	Date of death	Date of burial
CLAYTON	WILLIAM HENRY	55 Years	23-Aug-1877	24-Aug-1877