The George Maxwell Memorial Cemetery is located on the corner of Rosebank Road and Orchard Street. The land measures approximately 1 acre and is administered by the Vestry/Cemetery Board of St. Jude's Church, with Battersby Funeral Services of Avondale acting as Sexton. It is Avondale's oldest cemetery. The cemetery was active years before St. Jude's Church was founded in 1884 and the parent Church of St. Luke in 1872.



The cemetery was previously known as the Rosebank Road Cemetery, Orchard Road Cemetery and the Avondale Cemetery. The cemetery was renamed to its current title in honour of George Maxwell, a parishioner of St. Jude's Church, who maintained the cemetery up until the late 1980s.



The land was once part of the farm of Dr Thomas Aickin. He donated the land when his infant son, William, aged 3, passed away in 1862 and became the first burial there on 3 August 1862. It was also his contribution towards setting up an Anglican church at Avondale.



In 1886 ownership of the property was transferred to Alan Kerr Taylor, John Bollard and Matthew Thomas Clayton upon trust for a cemetery and for religious charitable and educational purposes. The Deed of Conveyance dated 12th July 1886 is registered at the Deeds Office at Auckland. In 1958, the last member of the Cemetery Trust Board, Harold Bollard, appointed the General Trust Board of the Diocese of Auckland to be trustees of the cemetery.



Notable burials include: Dr Thomas Aickin who donated the cemetery land and was the second resident surgeon and effective superintendent at the Auckland Asylum (1869 – 1878); John Bollard the Minister of Parliament for Eden until 1914; and, Dr Daniel Pollen who served as the Colonial Secretary (1873 - 1877) and then the Colonial Premier (1875 - 1876).

Early burial records have been sketchy, lost, or in some cases possibly non-existent. Weather and rot have destroyed any early wooden crosses. A first survey was carried out in 1965, and the information added to a burial record book, housed at Battersby's Funeral Services.



In April 1980, the N.Z. Society of Genealogists carried out an updated survey, which included headstone transcripts. Survey results were lodged with Battersby's, St. Jude's Church, Auckland Public Library, the Archives of the Auckland Diocesan Church Office (basement of Holy Trinity in Parnell) and several copies going to the N.Z. Society of Genealogists.