Sydney: Nameless in the big city

It would appear that several words have been deliberately chiselled off this memorial stone in Camperdown Cemetery, Newtown.

Through the wonder that is Google, I determined that the Ernestine’s husband was Gordon Sandeman Esq., and that he was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. [“Assembly” being the second missing section].

Also, strangely, the letters “HON” and “BLE”, being an abbreviation for the honorific “Honourable“, appear to have been added after the original lettering.

2 thoughts on “Sydney: Nameless in the big city

  1. Ken

    Fascinating, looks like the wife’s family weren’t happy about something, but why remove Assembly. Maybe they were going to remove teh rest and were interrupted.

    Reply
  2. Robert Bennett

    Ernestine’s brother was the business partner of Gordon Sandeman and Ernestine died young – it’s thought that she had one son and that Gordon re-married.
    Oddities
    The chiselling away of his name *may* have been gordon’s work if the marriage to the next Mrs was dicey
    While the title was quite exotic in Ernestine’s family they were not particularly wealthy individuals

    Would love to know why that was chiselled off… desecrating a tombstone would not have been done lightly but I can’t find any hint of a scandal attached to Gordon or Ernestine

    Reply

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