Robert Richardson

BIRTH & BAPTISM Name: Robert Richardson Birth Date: Abt 1874 Birth Place: Clarendon, Victoria Registration Year: 1874 Registration Place: Victoria, Australia Father: Joseph Richardson Mother: Mary Ann Stetson Registration Number: 7730 Note, Clarendon is a small settlement on the Midland Hwy between Geelong and Buninyong, where Joseph and his father-in-law, Robert Stitson, farmed for about 10 years before moving to Longwarry. Joseph and Mary Ann were married at Clarendon.

Southern Advocate, 10 Dec 1896, Korumburra Police Court Robert Richardson is working with James Kee of Whitelaw in clearing ten acres and ploughing it. WG Field has stiffed them for payment.

MARRIAGE First name(s) Robert Last name Richardson Sex Male Marriage year 1902 Spouse's first name(s) Ellen Spouse's last name Collier State Victoria Country Australia Record set Victoria Marriages 1836-1942 Registration number

He was not in the first AIF.

Ellen Matilda Davis, born Dunolly 1865, married 1883 to William James Collier (1854-1893), married Robert Richardson in 1902, and died at Parkville 1955, aged 90 yrs, possibly at the geriatric hospital there.

Vera Irene Richardson, born Mirboo North 1804, father Robert Richardson, mother Ellen Matilda Davis, died Boronia 1982, gentlewoman. Vera was a typiste in 1939 and 1946 electoral rolls, living with her mother at 18 O'Grady St Carlton. No father present.

There is also an 1889 land lease (selection) approved for Ellen Collier, at Mardan, which is a short distance from Mirboo North on the Meeniyan-Mirboo North Road, which places Ellen in Richardson territory. Since William James Collier died in 1893, the likelihood is that they moved to Mardan where William died, and Ellen met Robert who worked in the area.

ELECTORAL ROLLS: In 1909, Robert Richardson, farmer, is at Allambee East; with wife Ellen, home duties. Ditto in 1912, except Ellen Matilda is also now a farmer. DITTO in 1914. In 1915, Robert Richardson, farmer, is at Allambee East, sub Division of Mirboo North; with wife Ellen Matilda, farmer; and his sister. Elizabeth Minnie Richardson, home duties.

• *****BINGO! With Elizabeth Minnie in the household I can now be confident that I have the right Robert Richardson. It seems that Robert might have moved onto the farm that Ellen Matilda inherited from her husband. This also explains how Elizabeth Minnie met Walter Gorman who was working his mother's farm at Allambee East at the time.

In 1916 &1917, Robert, Ellen Matilda and Elizabeth Minnie are all on the farm at Allambee East. Robert and Ellen are farmers and Elizabeth Minnie keeps house.

In 1919, Robert Richardson, teamster, is at Leongatha; with wife Ellen Matilda Richardson, home duties.
DEATH & BURIAL
First name(s) Robert
Last name Richardson
Age 49
Registration number 15369
Sex Male
Birth year 1871
Death year 1920
Father's name -
Mother's name -
Death place Melbourne East (place his death was registered, not necessarily where he died)
State Victoria
[The Mercy, Epworth and St Vincents hospitals are all in East Melboure although St Vincents is on the Fitzroy side of Victoria Pde. If Robert died in the epidemic he might have been in the emergency influenza hospital at the Exhibition Buildings in nearby Carlton, when he died. Carlton is also very close to Brunswick]

Name: Robert Richardson
Death Age: 49
Birth Date: abt 1871
Death Date: Abt 1920
Death Place: Melbourne, Victoria
Registration Date: 1920
Registration Place: Australia
Registration Number: 15369

Robert died in East Melbourne in 1920 and is buried in Coburg. My best guess is that he was living with his brother Alfred who organised his funeral and placed a funeral notice. The influenza epidemic was rampant that year. and it is very likely he died of the flu.

The Age 9 Nov 1920
Funeral Notices
RICHARDSON -- The friends of the late Mr ROBERT RICHARDSON (of Leongatha) are respectfully notified that his remains will be intered in the Coburg cemetery. The funeral is appointed to leave 48 Blythe Street Brunswick this day (Tuesday) the 9th November at 2 o'clock pm. CHAS FINLAY 48 Blythe Street Brunswick and 331 Sydney Road, Phone Brunswick 446.

Name: Robert Richardson
Death Date: 9 Nov 1920
Cemetery: Coburg Pine Ridge Cemetery
Burial or Cremation Place: Coburg, Moreland City, Victoria, Australia

Robert Richardson
BIRTH unknown
DEATH 9 Nov 1920
BURIAL
Coburg Pine Ridge Cemetery
Coburg, Moreland City, Victoria, Australia
PLOT Church Of England H, Grave 481

NOTES:
When ‘Spanish’ flu arrived in Melbourne a little more than 100 years ago in January 1919, there were not enough hospital beds to accommodate the sick, so emergency hospitals had to be created. The largest emergency accommodation was set up in Carlton’s Exhibition Building in early February 1919 and operated until September. More than 4,000 patients were treated there and, a credit to the medical and nursing staff, the mortality rate was around ten percent and lower than in some of the major hospitals.
Because schools had been closed, other emergency hospitals were created in these buildings in suburbs like Richmond, Collingwood, and Armadale. The Williamstown Naval Depot, army base hospitals in St Kilda Road and at Broadmeadows were also used, as was the recently opened Footscray Technical College. Thirty-four emergency hospitals were created in addition to the established public hospitals and the infectious diseases hospital at Fairfield admitting the sick.

Victoria and the 'Spanish' Influenza, 1918–20
The recurrent epidemics of the late nineteenth century were dwarfed by the 1918–19 influenza pandemic—Influenza A(H1N1) or 'Spanish flu'. It was one of the worst natural disasters in history and perhaps the worst pandemic since the fourteenth-century Black Death in terms of mortality and social impacts. Emerging in the final months of World War I, in just over a year the pandemic was transported around the world by returning soldiers. It is not clear where or how the pandemic began, although some experts think it plausible that a milder form of influenza was carried to Europe by American troops in April 1918, transforming into a pandemic which spread westward across the world. It is clear the pandemic didn't begin in Spain but was given the name after the King of Spain became one of its earliest known victims.

An estimated 500 million people—or one third of the world's population—were infected, with somewhere between 20 million and 50 million dying from the disease (some say as high as 100 million), three-fifths occurring in Asia. In terms of single events causing major loss of life, the Spanish flu surpassed the First World War (17 million dead) and the Second World War (60 million dead), and perhaps both combined. The pandemic was notorious for inflicting an unexplained high-mortality rate on those aged between 20 and 40—a cruel underscore to the millions of young lives lost in four years of war.

The flu strain, H1N1—the parent strain for Swine flu a century later—was highly virulent, with a mortality rate of more than 2.5 per cent, compared to less than 0.1 per cent for other pandemics. While victims initially suffered the typical signs and symptoms of influenza—including aches, fever, coughing and an overwhelming weariness—a high proportion deteriorated rapidly. Patients' lungs filled with fluid (which is why it became known as 'pneumonic influenza') and they struggled to breathe. For nurses and doctors, a tell-tale sign of impending death was a blue, plum or mahogany colour in the victim's cheeks.

I have added a photo of the main hall of the Exhibition Buildings during the flu epidemic in case it is relevant.