Invercargill stonemason Ian Trainor devotes much of his time to honouring those who’ve long since passed by restoring historic headstones and memorials, many for free.

While Maiden Stone is his business, Ian, 67, just can’t help himself.

It’s the heart of the man, who’s worked on and driven many local charitable, restorative projects.

This Local Legend story is proudly supported by Distinct Funerals

“I like to think I’m doing something good so when I go through The Pearly Gates I will be looking up at Moses and saying, ‘I hear you’ve got some tablets that need repaired’,” he grins.

It all started after Ian, a funeral director, decided to follow his creative passion in 2001, setting up his monumental design and headstone restoration business.

“It was part of what I did anyway and then the business I worked for changed hands,” he says.

"In the beginning my wife and I would often install headstones in the weekend, so I could man the office during the week."

Maiden Stone's Ben at work at the Eastern Cemetery in Invercargill. Photo: Supplied

"Eventually your reputation builds up and now I have a team of four to design and install.”

He works a lot on old headstones, many of historical significance in remote places, restoring those that have toppled and fixing the lettering.

“Sometimes the descendants have moved away, and nobody has cared for these graves,” Ian says.

His explorations led him to the Baxter family graves in Invercargill’s Eastern Cemetery. They all died tragically in 1908.

“I found out they were all buried in the same plot without a headstone, so I made sure there was something there to mark their resting place.”

He also began pushing for the Invercargill City Council to remove some offending gum trees along the Rockdale Road side of the cemetery to protect the grave of British schoolteacher William Augustus Gordon, the brother of a famous war general.

The grave hasn’t been visible for more than 20 years.

Gordon was the brother of Major General Charles George Gordon C.B, who was a hero for his exploits in China and India during the 1800s.

The plaque currently marks William Gordon's grave. Photo: Supplied

Cemetery records show William Gordon was buried in 1863 close to the Tay Street-Racecourse Road intersection.

His grave and elaborate headstone feature in the 1970s book, ‘Our City – Our People’, sketched by local artist John Husband with short stories by legendary Invercargill journalist Fred Miller.

Ian was approached about providing a plaque for the grave which he happily supplied.

He’s also happy to help restore the old grave to its original status, providing the Invercargill City Council removes a large gum tree behind it.

“Bark and leaves from this are the main culprits causing the damage and mess on these surrounding plots,” he says.

“It’s been over a year since my request, and it doesn’t seem to be happening.”

Families from surrounding ancestral plots are also pushing for the tree removal, he says.

Ian helping the Braggs restore their family history, at Braggs Bay on Stewart Island. Photo: Supplied

Last week (Feb 12) Ian headed to Stewart Island to refurbish the dilapidated War Memorial.

While working for a client there, he met Donald Bragg whose great grandmother’s headstone had toppled at the family cemetery.

He was engaged by the Braggs to help with that restoration and during that trip Ian noticed the memorial was hard to read.

He now wants to have that rectified by Anzac Day as a voluntary contribution. RealNZ donated his ferry fares.

Not everyone is so nice. Maiden Stone just got back to its charitable work on 30 January after being out of action since early December when thieves stole the company’s gantry from the Eastern Cemetery.

“Even the cemetery isn’t safe from thieves,” he says.

This Local Legend story is proudly supported by Distinct Funerals

“Thanks to John at All Purpose Engineering, who fast tracked a new, lighter and stronger gantry for us, we’ve been able to carry on the huge task of restoring 50 stones per year on a voluntary basis.”

Ian admits he hasn’t got the work-charity life balance quite right but there’s just something in his DNA that keeps him working to honour the past.

As a youngster holidaying with his Auntie and Uncle near Kaitangata, where 34 miners died in an explosion in 1879, Trainor says he’s always held a fascination with broken headstones.”

While Maiden Stone’s worked on major ICC and Southland District Council projects, those of small family significance are just as important. Ian’s recently been working in Bluff Cemetery, where family tragedies have been steeped in story.

St John’s Cemetery off North Road was the target of a lot of vandalism a few years ago with headstones pushed over and broken.

Ian and his team restored 30 of those and while doing so learned from a Fraser Street local that as a kid they’d innocently remove the lead from old headstones and melt it down for fishing lures.

The headstone that marks the grave site of Maori Chief Paororo Toataua, between Colac Bay and Cosy Nook. The site is a significant Māori burial site and is Ian's next project. Photo: Supplied

Ian’s latest charitable mission is at Te Wakapatu between Colac Bay and Cosy Nook – an important Māori burial ground and the grave of Chief Paororo Toataua, the last chief in the south and friend of Captain John Howell, an early European settler and whaler who founded Riverton.

Seventy people are buried there and only 13 have headstones,” Ian says. Retired Bluff crayfisherman Vaughan Fisher is kindly paying for the restoration work to protect and restore this significant Māori resting place.

“I’ve laid a big concrete block where we will place plaques for all of those laid to rest there who don’t have headstones so that those early Māori and settlers are honoured.”

Upon discovering the graves each marked with a small rock, Ian erected white crosses in the meantime.

“We had to make people aware as there were campervans there and people having picnics.”

He’s now got his eye on restoring the large, 30- to 40-foot-long mausoleum honouring Invercargill’s first surveyor Turnbull Thomson.

“It’s falling into a state of disrepair, and I’ve suggested to the council that they get onto it soon as if that collapses it will cost more.”

No stone is left unturned.