Obituaries Australia

The death took place yesterday at her residence, Lindfield, of Mrs. Lydia W. Kemmis, widow of the late Canon Kemmis, of St. Mark's Church, Darling Point.

Mrs. Kemmis was a daughter of the late Archdeacon James Gunther of Mudgee, and sister of the late Archeacon William James Gunther, of Parramatta. She was born at Wellington Valley, where her father was then officiating, in 1838, and at the time of her death was in her 90th year.

Mrs. Kemmis was married in 1860, and the early years of her married life were spent in Yass, where the late Canon was the incumbent of St. Clement's Church. On the Canon's appointment to St. Mark's, Darling Point, she entered on the active life of a clergyman's wife in a large Sydney parish, for which her loving sympathetic nature qualified her. For 34 years, until the Canon's death in 1897, she was employed in many of those problems which have to be solved in a parish. She took a prominent part in the Mothers' Union, and the Hospital Saturday movement, was on the council of St. Catherine's Clergy Daughters' School, and helped to the best of her ability the Bush Brotherhood, collecting for that order up to the last. After leaving Darling Point she had a senior class of girls in St. Clement's Sunday School, at Mosman, for some years. She maintained a strong affection for St. Mark's, and at a dinner held last year to commemorate the 78th anniversary of that church, her son, Mr. Maughan Kemmis, brought greetings from his mother, "whose interest in and love for St. Mark's is so abiding."

Mrs. Kemmis is survived by four daughters and five sons. The eldest daughter, Mrs. Towle, widow of a former manager of the Bank of New South Wales, at Auckland, resides there; the second is the wife of Mr. Cyril White, of Wahroonga; and the other two are unmarried. Of the sons, Theo is in Western Australia, Charles in North Queensland, Monti Maughan, and Stanley in Sydney.