eHive Object Details

Name/TitleLonsdale children and Smythe family : Old Melbourne Cemetery, c. 1920

About this objectA photograph of a very overgrown and damaged railed grave. More tombs and trees are seen in the background.

According to Selby, the grave had been wrecked by some vandals. Three long, inscribed, horizontal stones were inside the iron railing, the central stone having been broken into pieces. The stones had to be cleaned before they could be read. (119 in Selby's grave index, p. 380, OPMHoM)

Stone 1: Sacred to the memory of Ellen Peveril, born 26th January, 1842, died 25th March, 1842; Ralph Peveril, born 27th September, 1847, died 23rd May, 1852. The much-loved children of William and Martha Lonsdale.
"They will not return to us,
but by Thy grace, Oh Lord,
we hope to go to them."

Stone 2: In memory of H. W. H. Smythe, born on 27th May, 1815, died 8th May, 1853; also of Allan Smythe, only son of Henry and Jessie Smythe, who died in infancy.

Stone 3: Sacred to the memory of Allan Smythe, infant son of Henry and Jessie Smythe, died 3rd December, 1842; also to the memory of Jessie Smythe Baker, died 24th March, 1852, aged 12 months.

William Lonsdale was a captain in the 4th (King's Own) regiment when he married Martha, on 6th April, 1835, at Port Macquarie. Martha was the daughter of Benjamin Smythe, a civil engineer at Launceston. The following year Lonsdale was made the first police magistrate at Port Phillip, and the family moved there.

Henry William Smythe, Esq., married Jessie Allan, daughter of George Allan of Allan Vale, Launceston, on 19th February, 1841. After Henry's death, Jessie remarried Augustus F. Boyse in 1858, in Paris. Selby tells us that Henry was known as "Long Smythe" on the account of his being very tall.

William Lonsdale died in London in 1864, survived by his wife and two sons.

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. Selby wrote 1918 on this slide.

For more information about this image contact Royal Historical Society of Victoria.

MakerMiller, Everard Studley, 1886-1956.

Maker RolePhotographer

Measurements8.2 x 8.2 cm

Period1910-1920

Object TypePhotograph

Subject and Association KeywordsSelby, Isaac, 1859-1956

Subject and Association KeywordsMiller, Everard Studley, 1886-1956.

Subject and Association KeywordsOld Melbourne Cemetery (Melbourne)

Subject and Association KeywordsLonsdale, William, 1799-1864.

Subject and Association KeywordsMonuments and memorials

Subject and Association KeywordsChildren

Named CollectionImages collection

Object numberGS-TM-36

Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved