Biography

Buried by John Dawson Daniell. Witnessed by Police Constables Louis V Simpson (Regimental No.51) and John Fitzgerald Thomas (Regimental No.268). He was killed by suffocation from a fall of earth. It appears he was working single handed under a bench of ground only a few feet from the surface, taking out a seam of alluvial, when it came away and crushed him. He was working near the Orient Mine, Lake Austin, in the Cue district. He was the only support of his widowed mother and an invalid brother. At the inquest held to look into the circumstances of his death, after hearing all the evidence, the jury reached the verdict that he had come to his death by "suffocation by a Fall of Earth". William's parents were married in Victoria in 1864 (Marriage Registration Number 3534/1864, Victoria). William was the eldest of eight children born to the marriage. His siblings were: Ada Maude born 1867; Frederick born 1869; Louisa Emma born 1870; Henry born 1872 died 1872; Anne born 1874 died 1874; Emma born 1875; Joseph John born 1877.