Rookwood Cemetery Discoveries

 I joined the Friends of Rookwood over 10 years ago after undertaking a couple of tours of the Cemetery and promptly fell in love with its fascinating history and that of the inhabitants. The Friends use all the funds raised from those tours, talks etc. to go towards funding restoration programs within the Cemetery and I have seen many headstones and monuments restored. The big passion project of the Friends since its inception decades ago was to restore the largest mausoleum within the Cemetery that had been gifted to the authorities to do as they thought best. The restoration was constantly brought up in meetings and talks but as the years went by and costs blew out it seemed an impossibility that the Mausoleum would be brought back to any of its original magnificence. Last Tuesday I attended the official reopening of the Frazer Mausoleum recently restored with major funding from the NSW Government and input from the Rookwood General Cemetery now part of the Metropolitan Memori...

 When I heard Queen Camilla would be attending a library in Sydney (she is a great advocator for reading) I thought this is the perfect segue for writing about a truly great man whose obsession has benefitted us all in NSW and in fact Australia, if not the world. DAVID SCOTT MITCHELL David was born on the 19th of March 1836 in Sydney, the only son of Dr James Mitchell, a physician of Scottish origin, and his wife Augusta, nee Scott. He had two sisters. He was in the first intake of 24 undergraduates at the newly established University of Sydney in 1856 and was admitted to the Bar in 1858 but never practised the law or any other paid profession. During his twenties he led a carefree existence and a busy social life indulging in cricket, dancing, cards, debating as well as writing poetry and performed in amateur dramatics. His father was a wealthy man who had acquired large land interests in the Hunter Valley, in the Branxton and Cessnock area, where coal was found.  At the age ...

 As a member of the Friends of Rookwood volunteer gardening group, over the last two Saturday fortnights we have been endeavoring to clean up graves in Sections 3 and 4 of the Old Anglican section which will be highlighted in the forthcoming Military Tour in November - details further on. Some are commemorating those bodies that did not come home after WW1 or those that did and died earlier than perhaps, they should have due to their war injuries. There are others from WW2 and even some American Civil War veterans.  One grave I had worked on a few years back was in dire need of some TLC. The man buried there was a war hero, one most of us have never heard of and this blog honours him today. RALPH NORMAN SPENDELOVE   Ralph was born in Toowong Queensland on the 4th of August 1890 to Benjamin James Spendelove and his second wife Amy Ann Benham. He was the third child in a family of six; two boys and four girls.  Benjamin was from Staffordshire England. He married Emma H...

 It's October and Spring has sprung (well it's trying to) and our minds turn to gardens flourishing, spring cleaning and maybe a spot of painting, etc. to spruce the place up! Here are a few people who fit the bill and call Rookwood home. GEORGE KERSLAKE AND NATHANIEL TAUBMAN GEORGE KERSLAKE George's full name was George Henry Tuck (his mother's maiden name) Kerslake and was born @ 1854 in Teignmouth, Devon, England, the eldest son to Robert George Kerslake and Elizabeth (nee Tuck). He was the eldest son of eight. Robert was a gardener and George followed in his footsteps.  George married Hannah Underhay in 1877 and by the 1881 Census he was listed as a market gardener. They made the journey to these shores arriving on the 13th of January 1884 stopping in Adelaide and Melbourne before disembarking in Sydney.  George Kerslake - portrait taken @ 1905 for the Royal Horticultural Society - from Ancestry.com He was employed by Wilheim Von Der Heyde, who with George Todman se...

 On the 10th of July 1901, people were astonished to read in their afternoon newspaper edition that a massive fire had broken out at the Hordern's Palace Emporium Haymarket. The main buildings had been destroyed with damages estimated at £1,000,000. The tragic news received was that 5 employees had lost their lives.  *Warning: graphic details are contained herein* THE HORDERN PALACE EMPORIUM FIRE OF 1901 Before I expand on the tragic incident, let me quickly touch on the origins of the firm. It began as a drapery business of Mrs. Ann (Anthony) Hordern in 1823 which eventually moved to Melbourne in 1839 but their sons Anthony II and Lebbeus returned in 1844 to set up their own drapery firm in George Street. The business moved to larger premises in the Haymarket in 1856 and by the time Anthony II's sons, Anthony III and Samuel joined the business in 1869 the firm was called Anthony Hordern & Sons. During the 1870's the company purchased several surrounding buildings and r...