Rookwood Cemetery Discoveries

 It was a post on another Facebook group of which I am a member, that reminded me of something I had written about elsewhere. Today I will elaborate on that incident and mention those that were involved who now call Rookwood "home". THE BOATING TRAGEDY IN SYDNEY HARBOUR IN DECEMBER 1893 The tragedy occurred on 17th of December 1893 and involved a party of a dozen people who were sailing off South Head at Port Jackson on Sydney Harbour resulting in the drowning of seven. The yacht “Ripple” had left Lane Cove early in the morning in the charge of its owner, Mr. Isaac Phizackerley, a well-known bicycle agent of Sydney. Accompanying him was Bertha Hilton and Arthur Alexander who lived nearby. They proceeded to the North Shore, where they picked up a party of ten others. The Ripple was engaged to sail to Middle Harbour, and they were to land at Clontarf for a picnic lunch. Vintage photo of Clontarf - Dictionary of Sydney  Everything went well and just after 3pm a course ...

 When you see five headstones side by side with the same date of death, most carved with "accidently killed..." you go searching for information. This was the case with a row of headstones located near the Merchant Navy Memorial in the Anglican section of Rookwood Necropolis. Let me tell you the story behind these headstones... THE LORD HOWE ISLAND PLANE CRASH 1948 But firstly. Lord Howe Island is a crescent shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand and is part of the state of New South Wales. It is 780 kms northeast of Sydney, 600 kms east of Port Macquarie and 900 kms south of Norfolk Island. It is only 10k long and only up to 2kms wide. Most of the small population, under 400, lives in the Northern part and the South are dominated by forested hills rising to 875 metres at their peak at Mount Gower. The area consists of 28 islands and rocks. Lord Howe Island showing mountainous terrain - Wikipedia Its industries are in Kentia Pa...

  I take my inspiration to write a blog about a Rookwood resident (or two) from many sources. It could be a newspaper article, an anniversary of a significant event, etc. etc. Today I have taken inspiration from a new historical fiction novel I read recently which has Victorian funeral practices at its heart. This novel was set in Sydney in the 1860’s and tells the tale of a young woman who becomes an embalmer and inherits her husband's business, an undertakers. Rookwood (or as it was known at the time of the setting of this novel, Haslem's Creek Cemetery) features prominently. Several well - known Sydney people of the time appear, and it is one of those people I highlight today. ARTHUR RENWICK Arthur was born in May 1837 in Glasgow Scotland, the only son of George, a bricklayer, and his wife Christina. He arrived in Sydney in July 1841 with his parents, who had paid their way to the colony, and his younger brother. His father, once settled, advertised as a plasterer operat...

The person I have decided to honour in this my 100th blog for Rookwood Cemetery Discoveries (I can barely believe how fast that number has been reached!), is someone I expect most of you wouldn't know by name, but his top selling product would be familiar! ADOLPHUS HERBERT (BERT) APPLEROTH Adolphus or Bert as he became known was born in December 1886 in Stanley Street West Melbourne to Wilhelm Berndt Albert Appleroth and Emma Audebairt, their only son. Wilhelm was from St Petersburg Russia and was rumoured to be a Russian-Finnish sea captain who jumped ship in Melbourne and his mother was the daughter of a wine merchant. Bert's elder sister Alberta Mabel died in 1887, the same year his mother gave birth to his sister Leonora Alexandra. The family were residents of Sydney when Bert began work in 1902 as a messenger boy at Lipton's Tea Agency then took a job as a tram conductor. He began experiments with mixtures of gelatine and sugar in the bath in his parents' hom...