AustLit

Youngest daughter of Samuel and Esther Kirkham of Ashbourne, SA, Christina became the second wife of George Willis Kendrew (1859-1949), a Methodist minister.

At the present time little is known about her life, but her movements can be traced through those of her husband. She would have moved often with her husband's work. Between 1888, the date of the death of his first wife, and 1914, Kendrew worked in Templers, Angaston, Goolwa, Crystal Brook, Two Wells, Adelaide South, Clare, Solomontown and Willunga. At the outbreak of WWI, while ministering in the Willunga-MacLaren Vale district, he also served as Senior Chaplain to the forces. He was the first chaplain to go overseas from SA, joining the Second Imperial Force. He was farewelled at a function at the Central Mission on Sunday, 6 Dec, 1914 and sailed for the continent, leaving his wife and his son in SA. He served in Egypt, and had a V. D. (Volunteer Forces Decoration) conferred on him, but the strain was severe, and caused a serious breakdown from which he never really recovered. He was sent home as an invalid in 1917, and had to retire from active work for several years. In 1922 he went to work in Bute, and in 1925, in Gladstone. After his retirement in 1928 the Kendrews lived at 16 Fourth Avenue, East Adelaide. They died within 6 months of each other in 1949.