Charles Ross

From eurekapedia
Revision as of 15:17, 5 May 2014 by Cgervaso (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search
Memorial to those who died as a result of the Eureka Stockade located in the Eureka Memorial Park Association. Photography: Clare Gervasoni 2013.

Background

Charles Ross (or Henry Charles Ross)[1] was born c1827 in Canada. He arrived in Australia c 1853.[2]

Ross died on December 1854, aged 27.[3]

Goldfields Involvement, 1854

Ross was a participant in the Eureka battle. He seconded Mr Murnane’s motion at the Ballarat Reform League Bakery Hill meeting of 29 November 1854. Ross was said to have asked two digger’s wives to make the Southern Cross flag, the flag of the diggers. Raffaello Carboni called him the standard bearer. After the Bakery Hill meeting he hoisted down the Southern Cross and headed the march to the Eureka Stockade carrying the flag.[4]

Ross was shot around ten minutes after he was arrested. [5]

Flying the Eureka Flag from the Guardian Eureka Centenary Issue, University of Ballarat Historical Collection
...Another discharge of musketry was sharply kept on by the red-coats (some 300 strong) advancing on the gully west of the Stockade, for a couple of minutes. The shots whizzed by my tent ... Ross and his division northward and Thonen and his division southward, and both in front of the gully, under cover of the slabs, answered with such a smart fire. [6]

Ross was shot in the groin during the battle, but escaped and was in hiding until found and carried to the Star Hotel on a stretcher on 03 December 1854. [7]He died there later that day, as a result of gunshot wounds. He was buried at the Ballaarat Old Cemetery in the diggers’ enclosure. The informant for his death certificate was Dr Albert Sickler. [8]

Post 1854 Experiences

THE EUREKA VICTIMS – On Thursday morning, about 7 o’clock, the bodies of Captain Ross, James Brown, Thonen, the lemonade seller, and Tom the blacksmith, who fell at the Eureka Stockade, and had been buried apart from the others, were removed fro the grave from the others, were removed from the grave and placed in they containing the bodies of the others who lost their lives on the memorable 3rd of December. The removal took place in the presence of Mr Superintendent Foster, Mr Salmon, trustees of the cemetery, and Mr Lessman. The coffins were in excellent preservation. We understand that no procession will take place on Thursday next, the anniversary of the Eureka affair, but the grave of the fallen will be decorated with chaplets and flowers.[9]

See also

Independent California Rangers

Star Hotel

Edward Thonen

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/p/a/r/Susan-Parish/GENE2-0002.html

Further Reading

Corfield, J.,Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.

Townsend, Helen, Above the Starry Frame, Macmillan, Sydney, 2007.

References

  1. http://users.netconnect.com.au/~ianmac/eureka.html, accessed 05 May 2014.
  2. Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
  3. Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
  4. Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
  5. http://users.netconnect.com.au/~ianmac/eureka.html, accessed 05 May 2014.
  6. Carboni, Raffaello, The Eureka Stockade. (identified by Jack Harvey in The Site of the Eureka Stockade: Summary Notes, 1993.
  7. Townsend, Helen, Above the Starry Frame, Macmillan, Sydney, 2007.
  8. Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
  9. 02 December 1857.

External links

Photo of Charles Ross at http://users.netconnect.com.au/~ianmac/eureka.html, accessed 05 May 2014.