Edmund Duggan

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Duggan Headstone in the Boroondara Cemetery, Ballarat Heritage Servies Picture Collections.

Background

Edmund Duggan died on 02 August 1938 aged 72, and was buried at Boroondara Cemetery on 03 August 1938. Beatrice Ann Duggan, Edmund Duggan and Sarah Ann Keene are buried in the same grave,[1]

Goldfields Involvement, 1854

Post 1854 Experiences

Mr. Edmund Duggan, author of 'The Southern Cross,' has received a letter from a surviving Eureka miner, and it is likely he will figure In the Riot Scene for the rest ol the run of that melodrama In Melbourne. For an old gentleman close on 80, the description is vivid, and to the point. Part of it we here quote: — 'Allow me the honour of Introducing myself to your notice. . . My attention has been drawn to posters announcing that a drama. staged by you at the Bijou introduces the events leading to the stand made by us against the miserable state of affairs then existing, ending with the massacre at Eureka, early on the Sunday morning of 3rd December, '54, and by that sacrifice gaining Home Rule for Australia. I am 'Eureka Jim,' wounded in the chest, leg, and skull. I take it I am the last living defender of the people's claim to freedom, right, and justice. I am now between 70 and 80, and still active. 'As known, on the 30th November, at a meeting of diggers at Bakery Hill to await the return of 'our deputation to Sir Charles Hotham, and getting more troops, licenses were burnt. The glare of the fire attracted the attention of the Commissioner, and the last digger hunt took place there and then. The diggers then assembled, put themselves for ward to be taken to the logs as having no licenses. News came that several companies of the 40th were coming up the road, and at about 6 p.m. the advance guard got out of the carts that brought them, and marched with bayonets fixed and gleaming in the light of the setting sun. It was resolved to inter cept the main body, so Long Fred Fenn and I, as second In command, left the camp, and this was what really happened. Captain Wise was seen approaching on horseback almost before the diggers could get into hiding. Ad vancing with a dirty white on a stick, he asked the captain to parley with us. He waved his sword, and saying he did not want to hold converse with a lot blank rebels. The agreed signal was given — three shots — and the 40th fell upon the troops, and after a short struggle we got possession of 21 muskets and as much ammunition as we could carry. Cap tain Wise, seeing how he had been ambuscaded rode up at gallop for assistance, and the carts nearest followed suit. We packed the wounded soldiers into carts. It was quite dark by now. We could barely distinguish the troops sweeping down the road. Here was the real fight with the troops, the Stock ade being but a massacre led by treachery.[2]

See also

Further Reading

Corfield, J., Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/35660319?q=%22Eureka+Stockade%22&c=collection&versionId=44394844

References

  1. http://www.kewcemetery.com.au/FindGrave.aspx, accessed 24 March 2013 by Kathleen Gervasoni
  2. Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 13 May 1908.

External links