Boxing day tragedy

Posted bySharyn MoodiePosted inhorses, UncategorizedTags:, , , , , , , , , ,
Image: Sharyn Moodie

1880 – Young Parkes flour mill worker Joseph Sim was riding his horse over a hurdle at a Boxing Day event, when it caught on the post and fell on him.

“He was immediately removed in an impossible condition to the hospital for medical attendance’’, where he died without recovering consciousness.

While newspaper reports say the event happened on Boxing Day, his headstone records December 28 as his date of death, so he may have lingered in hospital for a few days before succumbing.

The Parkes flour mill. Image: State Library of New South Wales. Date unknown

Parkes, NSW

SOURCE: The Sydney Morning Herald Thursday 30 December 1880 p 5

Published by Sharyn Moodie

Travelling around Australia, I've found many amazing headstones, some almost illegible and rapidly crumbling. This page is an attempt to save some of the stories behind some of those interesting deaths. It is also an exploration of the way newspapers of the day reported them. These stories often use language and report in a way which is not seen as appropriate today, and are written from a very specific colonial context.

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