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Marmion Memorial
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The Marmion Memorial is in Mayor's Park beneath the Proclamation Tree on a traffic island at the intersection of Adelaide, Parry (formerly Edward), and Queen Victoria (formerly Cantonment) Streets.
William Edward Marmion (1845-96) was a Fremantle businsssman with an interest in whaling. He was a member of the first Fremantle Town Council, a foundation member of the Fremantle Chamber of Commerce when it was founded in 1873 and a member of the state Legislative Council in 1880. He was elected as the first member for Fremantle in the new legislative assembly following the granting of responsible government in 1890; he became Minister for Lands. The memorial was erected by public subscription and unveiled in 1902. It was the first memorial of its kind erected in recognition of public services rendered to the state. Pietro Porcelli sculpted the intricate Celtic cross in brown freestone imported from Waverley, NSW. The memorial was designed by C.L. Oldham and J. Herbert Eales.
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References and Links
The top photo (unknown provenance) shows Mayor's Park shortly after the unveiling of the Marmion Memorial when the tree was about ten years old. The photo at the right shows that the mature tree (now 130 years old) has now grown over the memorial. It also shows that - tho the text on the stone is exactly the same - it's not in the same arrangement - so it's not the original stone. There's also a section - a bit like a roof - missing off the top of Porcelli's cross.
Hutchison, David, Fremantle Walks: 182.
'The late Mr. W.E. Marmion. Memorial at Fremantle. Unveiling Ceremony. Speech by Sir John Forrest.', The West Australian, Friday, 10 January 1902, p. 7.
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 10 October, 2015 and hosted at freotopia.org/streets/marmionmemorial.html (it was last updated on 18 November, 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.