GS-TM-38; John Jones Peers : Old Melbourne Cemetery, c. 1920; Miller, Everard Studley, 1886-1956.; A photograph of a light coloured tombstone with a round top and concave shoulders marking the burial of John Jones Peers and his son, Edward. An iron railing and tall weeds surround the slightly left-leaning stone.
A carving of a cloaked figure with long hair holding a scroll and seated in front of a harp, decorates the top of the tombstone. The inscription is carved towards the top of the stone leaving room for additional family members. Also, it appears that the mason carving the inscription used different fonts and styles, almost like they was advertising their skills.
Selby tells us that the grave was sited at the corner of the Wesleyan Division, near the oval in the centre. (p. 133, OPMHoM)
The inscription reads: (51 in Selby's grave index, p. 395, OPMHoM)
SACRED
To The Memory Of
EDWARD PEERS
Who Died February 12th 1842 ;
Aged 9 Years
-----------
Also To The Memory Of
JOHN JONES PEERS
Of Richmond His Father
Whose Remains Lie Here Intered .
He was born at Liverpool in England
on the 28th of March A.D. 1805
And Died At Sydney N.S. Wales
On The 21st August A.D. 1850 .
Newspaper reports tell us that Edward was an only son and died after falling from a horse. J. J. Peers died in O'Connell street in Sydney and was "deeply regretted by a numerous circle of friends".
Mary Anne Peers, his wife, was memorialised on her daughter and son-in-law's monument in Melbourne General Cemetery. She died in 1891 aged 88. John Jones and Edward's details were also included on this monument, and maybe their remains were reinterred here also.
Selby writes that J. J. Peers was contracted to build the Custom House by Lonsdale. He also bought land in the first land sale in 1837, and built the first Wesleyan Church, at the corner of Swanston and Flinders Lane, with his own money on his own land. He was also on the committee of the Melbourne Building Society.
In January 1833 Peers, a bricklayer, arrived from London via the Cape of Good Hope. He set up a bricklaying and plastering business with E. W. Sims in Hobart, which advertised "colouring and stencilling equal to paper." There is an account, given by John Jones Peers in the Hobart Town Courier of April 1837, in which he describes how he and his wife and two children survived a shipwreck at Cape Nelson. In 1845 he imported a brick making machine and commenced operations in Richmond.
Over the years Peers bought and sold land in Tasmania and Australia, leaving a valuable real estate portfolio on his death, which was managed by the Peers family and trustees for many decades following. One parcel of land, first purchased by Peers in 1837 at 344-350 Collins street, was put up for sale in the 1930s. Described as a "Magnificent Pile of Buildings" including "an Arcade of Shops from Collins Street to Little Collins Street."
There is a mention on a UK genealogy website that John Jones was an undischarged bankrupt when he emigrated to Victoria, and failed to appear at the hearings into his insolvency in Liverpool. He married a Peers and took his wives name.
This image is attributed to Everard Studley Miller who photographed many graves and tombstones in the Old Melbourne Cemetery (established in 1837) around 1920 as part of a project led by Isaac Selby to record and commemorate all aspects of Melbourne's second cemetery (the first being at Flagstaff Hill). The RHSV holds original glass negatives and albums of the photographs from this project.
One of the many glass slides purchased from retailers or specifically made for illustrated lectures given by Isaac Selby between c. 1930 and c. 1955 to raise money for the Old Pioneers Memorial Fund.
For more information about this image contact Royal Historical Society of Victoria.; Photograph; Images collection![Photography Photography](/wp-content/plugins/ehive-search/images/catalogue_photography.png)
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GS-IT-71; Pioneer Australian aviators : Lores Bonney and Bert Hinkler; Gunn's Slides (Firm); Lores Bonney, although little known today, was one of Australia’s most accomplished female aviators. She was born in South Africa in 1897 and moved with her family to Melbourne in 1903. In 1917 she met and married Harrey Bonney, a wealthy leather merchant and they went to live in Brisbane.
Lores had her first taste of flying when Bert Hinkler, famous Australian aviator, took her for a flight in his Avro Avian light aircraft in 1928. Lores took flying lessons and qualified first as a private pilot and later gained a Commercial Pilot’s Licence. She bought a De Havilland Gipsy Moth which she christened ‘My Little Ship’ and in this aircraft she embarked on long-distance flights. The first of these, in 1931, was from Brisbane to Wangaratta in Victoria in a time of fourteen-and-a-quarter hours, at the time the longest solo flight by a woman in Australia. Next, between 15th and 27th of September 1932, she became the first woman to fly around Australia
Lores next set her sights on becoming the first woman to fly solo from Australia to England, the opposite direction to most such flights. After “My Little Ship” had been thoroughly overhauled she left Brisbane on 12 April 1933 and headed north. On 20 April the aircraft was badly damaged in a crash landing north of Singapore and repairs took a month. After many further incidents and adventures Lores reached Croydon on 21 June.
Lores wanted to be the first person to fly solo from Australia to South Africa. For this flight she bought a Klemm KL32 monoplane and christened it “My Little Ship II”. She left Brisbane on 9 April, 1937. After a very eventful flight, including several crash landings, she reached Cape Town on 17 August.
World War 2 put a stop to Lores’ long distance flights and she never went back to flying. She died in 1994, aged 96.
In 1928, Bert Hinkler, originally from Bundaberg in Queensland, made history by becoming the first person to fly solo from England to Australia. He was born in Bundaberg in 1892, the son of a stockman. He became interested in aviation, joined the Queensland Aero Club and built two gliders.
In 1913 Hinkler went to England where he got a job with the Sopwith Aircraft Company. After war broke out in 1914 he joined the Royal Naval Air Service as an observer and gunner. Later, he qualified as a pilot and in July 1918 he was posted to No. 28 Squadron, RAF.
After the War, Hinkler bought an Avro Baby light aircraft and undertook a record-breaking flight from Croydon to Turin. He shipped the Avro to Australia and made several flights here. These included a non-stop flight from Sydney Bundaberg in eight and three-quarter hours, at the time the world’s longest solo flight. He returned to England, worked as test pilot for the Avro Company and bought his famous Avro Avian, registered as G-EBOV.
In February 1928 Hinkler flew his Avian from London to Darwin in sixteen days, becoming the first person to fly solo from England to Australia. He was given £2000 by the Australian Government and made an honorary squadron leader in the Royal Australian Air Force.
He went back to England and later went to Canada where he bought a De Havilland Puss Moth and flew it to England. He planned another flight to Australia in the Puss Moth. He left Heathrow on 7th January 1933 and disappeared. In April 1933 wreckage and his body were found in the Apennines between Florence and Arezzo. He was buried in Florence with full military honours.
When on his long flights Hinkler was known to sing to pass the time, leading C. J. Dennis to pen a poem about him called The Singing Ace.
One of the many slides purchased from retailers or specifically made for illustrated lectures given by Isaac Selby between c. 1930 and c. 1955 to raise money for the Old Pioneers Memorial Fund.
This image is provided for research purposes and must not be reproduced without prior permission.For a high resolution copy of this image, contact Royal Historical Society of Victoria; Glass slide; Images collection![Photography Photography](/wp-content/plugins/ehive-search/images/catalogue_photography.png)
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