Just goes to show that you shouldn’t believe everything you read in the paper (sorry TROVE its not your fault). I was going through a pile of archived newspaper cuttings, collected many years ago, before TROVE existed, and of course I read and checked all the ‘Mine Accidents’. There have in the past only been two mine deaths that were missed in the Eastern Goldfields so I was confident they would be there. I came across several news articles about a double fatality on the Lake View and Star in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. I of course looked up the names on the WAVMM, but couldn’t find them. How could they have been missed???
Men of the Lake View and Star
This was the heading:- EXPLOSION IN A MINE. TWO MEN KILLED.
The Daily News 14th Feb 1900
The Commissioner for Police received information this morning of an explosion which occurred at the Lake View and Boulder Junction mines late on Monday night. Two miners, Harry Wren and John Davey, were severely injured, and both subsequently succumbed to their injuries. Wren died before he could be conveyed to the hospital, and Davey about ten minutes after he reached that institution. Both the deceased were married men, with families at the Boulder.
There were several articles in different newspapers, so I had no doubt at first that it was correct. Then it got complicated. I couldn’t find any registration for the deaths for either man, or a burial for them. Then to confuse matter even more I found the following article.
Evening Star 14 February 1900
You will agree, that the coincidences are most unusual. So I then started to look for the two marriages, a double ceremony, to two sisters, which it says occurred about 6 months before , so in 1899. I thought this will be easy, and yes! no luck finding this either.
So obviously something was amiss. I then did another search for any mine deaths in 1900 and then in February. The only two names which fitted these dates were Henry UREN and John DAVIDSON. I suppose that at least the date and the name ‘John’ were correct. These two names were already on the register and when I searched them in TROVE, it came up with several articles with the correct names. I am so relieved that they hadn’t been missed and that I finally found them but it look absolutely ages. Mind you, I never did find that double marriage to two sisters in Boulder.
The two men are buried side by side in the Presbyterian section of the Kalgoorlie Cemetery. The next time I am at the cemetery I will go and visit the graves. I’m sure that the information on the weddings will turn up. I hope that we will also find their employee cards in the Lake View and Star Project.
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