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Fremantle Cemetery Heritage Week Tour 2018

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The Fremantle Heritage Festival Week tour of the Fremantle Cemetery in May 2018 was conducted as usual by Don Whittington, a member of the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board. This year, the theme will be businessmen (and one woman). HWT# refers to the map reference in the Fremantle Cemetery's map for their Walk Trail One. [There is no Walk Trail Two.]

1. Fred Instone (1865-1934), stove-manufacturer, Anglican MON A339 (HWT#29). 'Fred Instone is remembered for his handsome wood-stoves, some of which are still in Fremantle houses today.'

2. James Lilly (1845-1905), shipowner, Anglican A 476, died by self-poisoning (HWT#28). His handsome monument is right on Samson Avenue, opposite the mausoleum. He died 18 April 1905 after taking strychnine. 'Around Fremantle he was known as the “father of WA shipping”. He built a vast Federation bungalow, Ivanhoe, overlooking Fremantle Prison.'

3. William Dalgety Moorepeople/mooregf.html (1834-1910), explorer and successful merchant, is buried at Anglican A700, on McKenzie Avenue (HWT#25).

4. William Watson (1864-1938), of Watsonia fame, Methodist B167 (HWT#23). 'Watson opened his first grocery and tea rooms at the corner of High and Market Streets. More shops followed. He switched his major interest to manufacturing bacon, hams and smallgoods at a factory and abattoir in Hamilton Hill. The enterprise also diversified to making butter and cheese under the Watsonia label. ... He was elected as the independent Federal member for Fremantle in 1922 and again in 1925 when he defeated Labor’s John Curtin by 6000 votes.'

5. John Bateman, (1789-1855), whose sons set up the firm of J&W Bateman, has a memorial at Congregational D3 (HWT#20).

6. John Wesley Bateman (1852-1907, third in the line from the John Bateman who arrived in 1830) died of 'ptomaine poisoning' 17 May 1907 at 54. He is buried in Fremantle Cemetery, Congregational MON D 83. His father John Bateman II (1824-1909) and his uncle Walter are buried there at D 28 and D 3 respectively (HWT#20). He was chairman of the Chamber of Commerce for a number of years.

7. Mary Higham (1819-1883) ran the family business after her husband died young, and is memorialised at Congregational D266 (HWT#18). Her husband John was buried in Skinner St Cemetery, and the gravestone was later brought to Fremantle Cemetery where it is GG#42 on the 'Heritage Trail'. Her son John Joseph (called Jack by Patricia Brown), died 1927 and is buried in Fremantle Cemetery, Congregational D 255.

8. There are at least four considerable Pearses: William Pearse Senior, (1808-66), who may be regarded as the founder of Plympton (and therefore of East Fremantle)who has a memorial at Freo Congregational D397, together with his wife Susannah and three young sons, Thomas, Andrew, and Walter; his son known as Silas Pearse who died in England in 1908; George Pearse who is interred at Freo Anglican A139; and James Pearse at Karrakatta Congregational AA59A. None of these is on the Heritage Walk Trail.

9. Elias Solomon (1839-1909), who was the first MP to represent Fremantle in the Federal parliament, is interred in the Jewish Orthodox section at F1 (HWT#15).

10. There are at least four considerable Samsons: Lionel Samson, (1799-1878) interred in Fremantle Cemetery, Jewish Orthodox, F2 - he established the oldest continuing family business in Australia (HWT#16); Michael Samson (1844-1907, eldest son of Lionel) was mayor 1905-07, dying in office, buried in a Samson family plot in the Jewish section at F27 and F28 (near HWT #16, 17); William Frederick Samson (1855-1900, youngest of Lionel's children) mayor 1892-93, buried in the same grave as his father; and William Frederick, son of Michael, knighted as Sir Frederick Samson (1892-1974, who holds the record for mayoral office - 21 years, 1951-72 (HWT#17).

References and Links

Heritage Trail

Garry to Don

Specifically which family member(s) will be discussed in the tour, of: the (four) Batemans, the (four) Pearses, and the (three) Samsons?

Get copies of the HWT map for the tourists. Or better ...

Get someone with minimal Photoshop skills to scan the Cemetery map, add the names of the relevant interees near their numbers - and print copies for the tourists.

At the start, tell the tourists about the QR codes on the signs on featured graves. They can use the QR reader on their smart phones to read the entries in the MCB guide.

At the start, tell the tourists about this page. They can click on the links and read the entries I've written. They could actually do that during the tour, or recollect in tranquillity later.


Freotopia

This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 11 March, 2018 and hosted at (original).html freotopia.org/cemeteries/heritagetour2018 (original).html (it was last updated on 6 December, 2023), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.

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