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William Townsend
William Townsend (1831-1894) was a sapper who arrived in Fremantle (the first time) on the Marion in June 1852. He was an 'instructing warder' (supervisor) until he was discharged from the Royal Engineers in 1861, when he became an assistant warder. According to an 1894 obit, he 'supervised the construction of public buildings in Perth, Fremantle, Bunbury and North, and bridges over the Avon, Warren, Connelly and Swan rivers. ... The [1879, second] lighthouse at Fremantle was one of the most important works erected by prison labor under his supervision.' He was a convert to Catholicism. He died at Northam but his body was apparently brought to Fremantle for burial in the Skinner Street cemetery. His gravestone (but not his remains) was removed and placed at #129 on the Heritage Trail in (the new) Fremantle Cemetery.
This is the stone on the Heritage Trail.
Source of this image currently unknown.
WA Record, Thursday 15 November 1894: 7.
References and Links
WA Record, 15 November 1894: 7.
Diane Oldman's page for Townsend is on her Sappers and Miners website, which has been archived in Trove.
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 15 November, 2016 and hosted at freotopia.org/people/townsend.html (it was last updated on 16 March, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.