[Editor: This obituary, regarding Duncan Gillies, was published in The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (Sydney, NSW), 16 September 1903.]
Mr. Duncan Gillies.
Mr. Duncan Gillies, Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, was found dead in his bath at the Speaker’s rooms, Exhibition-building, Melbourne, on Saturday morning. His health had caused much anxiety of late (heart trouble) and he had evidently fainted in his bath.
Born in Glasgow in 1834, he went to Ballarat in 1852, and was a member of the first Mining Court. The miners sent him to Parliament in 1859, and for nearly 45 years he was never out of public office — portfolios of Lands, Mines, Hallways, Education, the Treasury, &c.; Agent-Generalship (1895-97), and finally the Speakership. He refused knighthood in 1887.
At the inquest Mr. J. C. Stewart, solicitor, stated that in 1897, while in London acting as Agent-General for Victoria, Mr. Gillies married Mrs. Turquand Fillan, a widow. The lady, who is about 42 years of age, was disappointed that Mr. Gillies did not, as he evidently expected, obtain a higher position in Victoria after he vacated the Agent-Generalship, and she went to South Africa as a nurse when the war broke out. She visited Melbourne about 18 months ago, and it is believed she returned to South Africa.
Source:
The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (Sydney, NSW), 16 September 1903, p. 724
Editor’s notes:
&c. = an alternative form of “etc.”; an abbreviation of “et cetera” (also spelt “etcetera”), a Latin term (“et” meaning “and”, “cetera” meaning “the rest”) which is translated as “and the rest (of such things)”, used in English to mean “and other similar things”, “other unspecified things of the same class” or “and so forth”
Duncan Gillies = (1834-1903) a miner, and Victorian politician; Premier of Victoria (1886-1890); he was born in Overnewton (near Glasgow, Scotland), came to Australia in 1852, and died in Melbourne in 1903
See: 1) Margot Beever “Gillies, Duncan (1834–1903)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
2) “Duncan Gillies”, Wikipedia
[Editor: Changed “The lady who is about 42, years of age” to “The lady, who is about 42 years of age”; inserted a full stop after “returned to South Africa”.]
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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