Letter: Admiral John Gore at Lake Bathurst and Goulburn

Author

Letter Writer

Subjects

History - general, Letter to the Editor

Tags

grave

RAN Ships

None noted.

Publication

March 2016 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)

Dear Sir,

Many thanks for your delightful article on ‘John Gore of Lake Bathurst’ – NHR September 2015.

You mentioned James Hassall and the lineage of that pioneer Anglican family. You might be interested to know that Roland Hassall’s daughter, Mary Cover Hassall, married one of the early pioneer Wesleyan missionaries, the Rev. Walter Lawry. But that is ‘by-the-by’!

I was interested particularly in your comment: It is not known exactly where Rear Admiral Gore and his wife are buried as the church at Lake Bathurst was not in existence at the time of their deaths, however other descendants of the family are buried there.

How right you are! And that sentence ignited my curiosity. Happily, I can now advise you of the whereabouts of Admiral and Mrs. Gore. This is, in itself, another example where the ‘Trove’ website of the National Library has proved invaluable.In the Saturday 11 April 1857 edition of The Goulburn Herald and County of Argyle Advertiser(page 5), there appear the following death and funeral notices:

‘At her residence, Gilmore, near Goulburn, on the evening of Tuesday the 7th instant, in her 80th year, Mrs. Sarah Gore, relict of the late Rear-Admiral John Gore.’

‘THE FRIENDS of MR. E. GORE are respectfully requested to attend the Funeral of his Mother, deceased, which will leave Gilmore on Saturday morning, and come into Goulburn by way of Thorn’s Bridge, at which place it will arrive at 2 p.m.’

I then checked the on-line records for the original St. Saviour’s (Anglican) cemetery in Goulburn. According to their indexes, the Admiral and Mrs. Gore were indeed buried in that cemetery. Now long disused but still in very good condition, the cemetery is in Cemetery Street, directly opposite the entrance to Goulburn Correctional Centre (i.e. the gaol). I visited this cemetery a year or two ago (as it’s also the final resting place of William Hovell, of ‘Hume and Hovell’ fame! The cemetery is easily accessed, even if it feels like you are visiting the gaol.

The transcription index below indicates that John Gore’s headstone notes that he is a ‘late Admiral RN’. Sounds like a perfect excuse for a field trip!!

http://austcemindex.com/?cemid=2371

A.J. Watters

CHAP RAN

Chaplain HMAS Newcastle