The Sad Story of the Worker’s Widow – by David McMillan
Bellvue GM – photo by Bonzle
Christmas 1908 would have been a sorrowful and despairing trial for Annie Reid (nee MARSDEN). Over the past ten months, she had lost her husband and eldest son to accidents at the Bellevue Gold Mine and had recently buried her aged father. Apart from some extended family, she was in central Western Australia in the middle of summer with her remaining son, who was in delicate health, and little means of support.
Like many others, the family had moved west from Victoria in about 1899. Gold was discovered at Bellevue, near Leinster, in 1895 and the town of Sir Samuel gazetted – the records show that the family was there by 1906.
In February 1908, Frederick Charles Jackson Reid, Annie’s husband, and the Bellevue Battery manager were examining a pulley belt when it caught on the pulley. It dragged Reid headfirst into the machinery. He was taken home at 10pm while an urgent wire was made to Lawlers for a doctor. The next day he was taken 32 miles to Lawlers Hospital – one can only guess at the means of transport and the condition of the track. He never regained consciousness and died on the 24 February. He’s buried at Lawlers Cemetery.
No inquest was held into this death, despite the Mines Regulation Act 1906 requiring one. The mine’s insurance company was prepared to pay Annie £400 (the full amount) but they required Annie to pay the doctor’s bill (30 guineas) and funeral expenses. She refused, claiming someone had blundered, presumably feeling that higher compensation was warranted. She took the matter up with the Department of Mines which wrote that
“…the Coroner and acting Coroner were satisfied that death was due to accidental causes and that no inquest was necessary. The report of the Inspector of Machinery on the matter does not cast any blame on the management of the mill”.
In desperation, she wrote her story to the Truth newspaper. Older readers will remember that this was a left-leaning, voice of the working-class tabloid which delighted in shocking its readers with its frequent exposure of personal scandal and social injustice. The paper published her letter with the heading A Miner Mangled at Mt Sir Samuel. The Sad Story of the Worker’s Widow. It proclaimed the hypocrisy of the Goldfields’ ALP members and the failure of the Department to administer the Act. Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to determine what became of her campaign – presumably she had to settle for the company’s offer.
In October her widowed father, James Marsden, died and was buried at Sir Samuel Cemetery. He had been an engine driver at the mine.
One week before Christmas, Annie’s oldest son, Charles Augustus Reid, an apprentice fitter, climbed onto the roof of the Bellevue Mine engine room, engaged in repairs to the belting. He fell through the corroded iron sheeting onto the driving wheel, which was in rapid motion, and thrown against the railing and into the engine pit. He was conveyed to his mother’s home, just as his father had been, and died shortly after. The Coolgardie Miner observed that he’d met his fate within ten feet of where his father had met his.
Charles Augustus Reid is buried at Sir Samuel Cemetery. Records indicate that there is a headstone on his grave.
Annie was only 37. At the time of writing, I’ve been unable to track her further. Walter Frederick Reid, her other son, joined the AIF in 1916 and served in France. He did not list her as his next-of-kin. He died in Brisbane in 1976.
Postscript: WAVMM reader John Pritchard has done some research into this family and has sent me the following information:-
Well, my short story here is that we know that the one remaining son was named Walter Frederick and with this, I have traced his history and have added the information to your story. Maybe the person who wrote the original information may be interested in this new material if they haven’t already got it. It covers the period from about 1916 when he enlisted for WW1 up to his death in 1976 and includes his marriage to Everil Alice Stamp in Exeter in 1918 and their migration back to Australia. Also involved is Everil’s daughter Catherine born prior to 1918. So far I haven’t been able to determine what happened to Annie but I am still working on that one.
