13/12/1827 BEATH GEORGE LOW JAMES BEATH/CHRISTIAN LOW FR626 M Leslie (Fife) /FIFE 444/ 0040 0100 VIEW (PAID) 

Addington Cemetery
Row F
Nos. 422
Beath
Here lie Maria Beath, 1846-1930, her husband, George Low Beath, 1827-1913, and their children, George Malcolm, 9, and Laura Christina, 13.
Although born in England, Maria was the daughter of Scots parents, Jemima Crawford Souter and her husband, Andrew Wilson Malcolm. Maria’s sister was Kate Sheppard.
Maria Malcolm and George Low Beath had married at St. John the Baptist Latimer Square Anglican church on 6 February 1867
George Low Beath of Leslie, Fifeshire, Scotland, was apprenticed as a draper. He left his home at 37 to take part in his brother’s Melbourne business, Beath, Schiess and Co. He came to Christchurch in the interests of this company, established his own drapery business, Beath’s, and ran it himself till 1896. Associated with him were relatives such as F. S. Malcolm and a son-in-law, J. E. Wickenden. In 1901 the business became a company.
Beath was a deacon in the Congregational Church on the Worcester Street-Manchester Street corner (which has now been converted to other purposes) and a founder and supporter of the Christchurch branch of the Young Men’s Christian Association.
One of George’s employees said: ‘He was the whitest man I have ever come across. He was generous and upright and the best of employers’. A much later description of how the Riccarton coach picked up George Beath has a comparison between the draper and a companion.
Mr. George Low Beath … is a much gentler person. His shy nervous manner indicates refinement and taste. He wears a silk dust coat over his dark suit and a grey bell-topper hat.
Beath was survived by ‘a widow and three children, Mrs. A. Bevan and Mrs. J. E. Wickenden, both of Christchurch, and an unmarried daughter, also of Christchurch’.