Biography

The deceased, whose baptised name was Frederic, had the lease of the Maninga Marley mine. In 1925 the mine was being worked alone by Frederick Sonnenschein. There were two areas, the part worked by the prospector, and the abandoned workings. He had been pottering about the property for many years and generally worked in some workings adjoining the old workings. An explosive charge broke through to the abandoned part which was full of water. When the deceased did not come to crib, a search revealed that the water had broken through. Baling operations were started, and eventually Sonnenschein's body was found in an underhand stope where it had evidently been carried by the rush of water. After the shot had been fired the deceased apparently returned to the face, and while there, the water must have broken through. Like a number of those who pottered about the old mines, Sonnenschein was said to be eccentric and during the war earned a little notoriety for his ill chosen out-outspokenness. He was esteemed harmless so long as he continued his work of extracting gold from the lease and, as this appeared to be one of his obsessions, no notice was taken of his occasional outbursts. The deceased was buried in the Church of England section of the cemetery, plot number 36. His wife, an Irish lass born 1851 in Dublin, Ireland, married three times. Her first husband, married 1870, died in 1871. Her second husband, married in 1872, died in 1890 and she married Fred in 1891. The lady died at Midland Junction on 30 June 1935 in her 83rd year, leaving three of six children she bore to her first two husbands. They were Charles Matthews, William John & Evelyn Olive (Lathlan).