WHAT KILLED GREAT GRANDAD.... a Curious Mystery solved on TROVE.. PartOne

DIFFERENT FAMILY ANECDOTES ABOUT HOW GREAT GRANDAD WAS KILLED? BUT WHICH ONE WAS TRUE?

My Grandfather, Colin Hamilton McDade

When I was growing up in Brisbane, Queensland, the sad story about how my great grandfather was killed by a falling branch, was often talked about in my family. I knew, from a young age, that his untimely death in September of 1930, was a tragic tale of death by misadventure. I was familiar with the park where I was told the branch had fallen on my great grandfather's head and I had written about his death in several of my blog posts. I had no reason to doubt this well known family anecdote until a heart stopping telephone call one day. A relative who found me through one of my blog posts phoned me and related a far more chilling account of my great grandfather's death than the one I had been told. Her story was in no way similar to the one I was familiar with, and in fact, it echoed ominous overtones of a shocking and deceitful family cover up. That phone call, which sent chills down my spine, launched me on a lengthy quest for the truth. 

For many years since that conversation, I have been troubled by the curious mystery that surrounded my great grandfather's death. I could find no evidence, to prove which of the two distinctly different versions of how he had died, was accurate or even if either of them were true, until this week I had an exciting find. 

Several days ago, I finally discovered concrete evidence of how my paternal great grandfather, John McDade was killed. Let me to start at the beginning...

MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER...

John McDade was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1872. Born into a family of generations of coal miners, John himself, was a miner who laoured in various coal mines in and around Glasgow, until 1923, when with his wife Elizabeth and nine children, he emigrated to Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Having lived in Australia for less than seven years, John McDade died on September 9th, 1930. What caused his death bcame the subject of a curious mystery which just this week I finally solved.

THE STORY THAT I WAS TOLD ABOUT JOHN MCDADE'S DEATH... 

Aged in his 50's, while walking home from work one evening, through Wickham Terrace Park, John McDade was hit on the head by a falling tree branch. When he arrived home, his family took him to the hospital to have his injury attended. After being examined by doctors and declaring that he was fine, John was sent home that same night. The following morning, complaining of pain in his head, he collapsed and died from his head injury. 

I was told that a falling branch killed John McDade Image Wikipedia ©©

OH HECK! WHY HAVE ONE VERSION OF A FAMILY STORY WHEN YOU CAN HAVE TWO

Some years ago, a McDade relative whom I had never met, contacted me. She is, as I am, a great granddaughter of John McDade. I descend from the third son, Colin Hamilton McDade and she, from from my grandfather's younger sister.  I was of course, thrilled, and for many months we conversed on the telephone, sharing stories about our family history. During one of these telephone conversations, my cousin left me speechless, as she told me a very different account of John McDade's death, than the one I had heard previously. This story, she informed me, she had heard from her mother and as I listened quietly to her words, a chill darted down my spine....

A COUSIN'S MORE CHILLING CHRONICLE OF JOHN'S DEATH...

My grandfather, and one of his brothers got into a heated argument one evening after a few beers, and the argument ended up in a fierce fist fight. Their father, John stepped in to try to stop the fight and was accidentally punched in the head. John died the next morning, from his head injury, and the family invented the story of the falling branch to avoid my grandfather and his brother going to jail.

Did a punch to the head really kill my great grandfather?  Image Wikipedia ©©

WAS JOHN MCDADE THE VICTIM OF MANSLAUGHTER OR MURDER?

As you might imagine, this more sinister narrative of John McDade's death cast serious aspersions upon my grandfather and one of my great uncles. If the tale was true then, my grandfather and his brother were responsible for the death of their father. I was shocked to think that John McDade's death may have been cloaked in fiction to prevent my grandfather and his brother from being charged with manslaughter, or even worse, unpremeditated murder! My mind ran amok with visions of a drunken brawl between two brothers, which ended up in a fatal punch that killed their father. I could simply not erase this image from my thoughts, so shocked was I, and it was with a most unpleasant perception of dread, that I embarked on my search for the truth. I had a personal obligation to find the facts since, for my entire life, I had I avoided walking through the park in Wickham Terrace, where I believed my great grandfather to have been killed - just in case a falling branch might bring about my own demise. To add to this, my acute awareness of the dangers of falling branches, had prevented me from allowing my own children to play beneath the trees in our back garden, when there was even the slightest whisper of wind.  The story of my great-grandfather's death by a falling branch, therefore, had profoundly affected my life and suddenly something that had been a very part of the fabric of my background threatened to be untrue. I felt driven to solve the the burdensome question of 'whodonit' which now overshadowed my great grandfather's death.

Family anecdotes cannot always be relied upon as being the truth.

JOHN MCDADE'S DEATH CERTIFICATE

John's death certificate had been of no help in solving the mystery. It declared that he had died of a brain hemorrhage but made no mention of a head injury. I  had only hearsay that an injury to the head had been the cause of  John McDade's death. I had seemingly no way to determine if he had received a fatal injury, let alone whether  the culprit responsible for his to early departure, was  a branch ....or a punch in the head. 

A SEARCH FOR NEWSPAPER REPORTS

If a serious incident had indeed been hushed up in my family, I wanted to know the truth. I searched for newspaper reports on the Trove website (newspapers digitised by the National Library of Australia), but I found nothing at all about my great grandfather's death beyond a funeral notice. Either my great grandfather's death had not been considered newsworthy enough to be reported, any newspaper in which the story had appeared had not yet been digitised. 

ASKING OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS....

I asked other McDade relatives for their versions of my great grandfather's death. My paternal aunt, took immediate exception to the accusation that my grandfather, her father, had in any way been responsible for John McDade's death.  She was adamant that a branch falling from a tree had caused his death. One always has to keep in mind, that when family anecdotes are perpetuated, it is often difficult to find a path to the truth. The seeds of doubt had been planted in my mind by a more malevolent version of my great grandfather's death, and I could not help but wonder if the tale of the falling branch had in fact been nothing but a conspiracy designed to keep my grandfather and his brother from trouble with the law. I knew that finding the truth would require more than my aunt's version of this story, to convince me of its authenticity. I needed real evidence of a cause of death.

Last year, I travelled to Brisbane to meet with some of my McDade cousins. In a park, not far from the Wickham Terrace park where I believed my great grandfather to have been hit on the head by a falling branch, we discussed the death of John McDade. My father's cousin had also heard, from his own father, an account of what happened. He, like myself, was genuinely horrified to hear the injurious account that I had been told, which gave the cause of death as an accidental punch. His father, along with my grandfather, were the two sons, who allegedly in this previously unheard version of events, had caused their father's death in a drunken punch up. 

In the park that day, my cousin related the account of John McDade's death that he had heard first hand from his father. 

TO ADD TO THE CONFUSION..... A THIRD VERSION OF JOHN MCDADE'S DEATH

Bertie (Robert) McDade's account of how his father died went as follows. 

John McDade was working in a park, blowing up tree stumps, when a large piece of a tree stump landed on his head. His sons, Bertie and Colin (my grandfather), were out riding motor bikes together when they received a call to tell them their father had been injured. Riding their bikes home to see their father, they were involved in an accident. An ambulance was summoned, however, when it arrived, the sons refused treatment, saying that they urgently needed to get home to see their father who had been injured. 

You might think, as I did, that this seemed far too an elaborate story to be contrived and I began to think, when I heard this account, that I was nearer to finding the truth. My own story had involved a branch falling from a tree, and although in this version, John McDade's death was allegedly caused by part of a blown up tree stump, at least the culprit was looking like being a tree! And then,  just as I relaxed, and settled into some sense of relief, a dark and foreboding thought occurred to me....  a good lie is ALWAYS well contrived... My heart sank. All I had in truth, were three different versions of an accident, with now a tree stump to add to my list of offenders. I wondered if I would ever know the truth about how John McDade died.

I had written several blog posts mentioning John McDade's 'death by falling branch' and the thought that this might not be true, was not sitting comfortably with me. Although it would be much more convenient for me to accept the fallen branch version of my great grandfather's death, than to contemplate that he had been punched to his death, I resolved to continueto seek the facts.

TROVE MAKES THE BRISBANE TELEGRAPH AVAILABLE TO SEARCH

Recently, on facebook, my good genea-friend, Shauna Hicks, alerted me to the fact that the Brisbane Telegraph newspaper had been digitised and was available to search on Trove. With a spare hour to myself, I logged onto the Trove website and entered 'John McDade' into the search box, also narrowing my search to Queensland newspapers. I had previously searched digitised newspapers for information about my great grandfather's death and found nothing, but it is important to remember that newspapers are continually being digitised and added to Trove.

The first article I found was from The Central Queensland Herald,  dated March 2, 1939, which described the death of a 55 year old man named John McDade,  entitled, "Fatal Explosion Caused by a Box of Matches". The date and place of death (after a near faint thinking I might have to add a box of matches to the growing list of suspects in my great grandfather's death), ruled out this particular man as being my great grandfather. Feeling sincerely sorry for the family of this man from Tennant Creek, who had dropped a box of matches into gun powder he was about to detonate, I was, at the same time, relieved that this had not been my great grandfather's grizzly end. This widely reported death in news reports continued for a number of pages of results, so I narrowed my search further, adding 'tree' to 'John McDade'. 

STRUCK BY FALLING TREE

And then, there it was!  There before my eyes was a report about my great grandfather's death, entitled Struck by Falling Tree. The story was reported in The Week, on Friday, September 12, 1930. The address matched that of my great grandparents in electoral rolls, although my great grandfather had obviously fibbed just a little about his age, most likely for the purpose of obtaining employment. In 1930, John McDade was aged 58 years. 

The Week  Friday September 12, 1930  Image, Trove

THE  NEWS ACCOUNT OF JOHN MCDADE'S INJURY IN THE WEEK,  SEPTEMBER 12, 1930

John McDade, 54 a married man, of King Street, Windsor, employed by the Brisbane City Council under the relief scheme, was felling a tree in Victoria Park on Sept 5, when he was struck by a limb. He did not feel any effects of the injury at the time and continued to work. During the night, however, he complained of pains in the head and as he became worse on Saturday morning ambulance bearers were called. They found that he was suffering from a fracture of the skull and took him to the Brisbane Hospital in an unconscious condition. His condition is serious.

"StateLibQld 1 115724 View over to Brisbane from the hospital at Herston across Victoria Park, looking south, ca. 1936" by Item is held by John Oxley Library ©©

NOT ALL OF THE BRISBANE TELEGRAPH HAS BEEN  DIGITISED YET

Two additional headlines from The Telegraph [Brisbane, Qld], dated September 8 and September 10, 1930, caught my attention on Trove. These were INJURED WORKER  and DEATH FROM INJURY. Unfortunately, both of these articles are listed as [coming soon].  By clicking on this blue link I have been able to request that the Trove website emails me as soon as the full articles are released for viewing.  Despite the articles being incomplete, sufficient information was available for me to be certain that these news reports were related to the death of my great grandfather. I am waiting with bated breath now for these two news items to be released for me to read in full.


INJURED RELIEF WORKER , September 8, 1930

John McDade, one of the relief workers employed by the Brisbane City Council... was injured when he was struck by a falling limb of a tree in Victoria Park, ...remains in a critical condition....


DEATH FROM INJURY, September 10, 1930

John McDade, of King Street Lutwyche, employed by the ...Brisbane City Council under the relief scheme... was injured on Friday when felling a tree in Victoria Park, died in hospital...

JOHN MCDADE'S CONDITION WAS REPORTED AS SERIOUS ON THE 12TH OF SEPTEMBER YET HE WAS REPORTED ON THE 10TH OF SEPTEMBER TO HAVE DIED?

I knew from John McDade's death certificate, that he had died on September 9th, 1930. From his funeral notice which appeared in the Brisbane Courier Mail, I was aware that he had been buried on September 10th. Two days later, the the report in The Week on September 12th 1930, informed me that his condition was serious. I'm guessing that was the truth [tongue in cheek] considering he had been buried in Lutwyche Cemetery, two days earlier after passing away on Monday September 9th, (as reported correctly in The Week, September 10,1930) NOT EVERYTHING YOU READ IN A NEWSPAPER IS CORRECT!


THE REAL CAUSE OF  JOHN MCDADE'S DEATH

Not everything we read in the news is correct, and although the news reports varied in minor details, they provided an accurate and an obviously well witnessed account of the injury that John McDade received whilst working alongside other relief workers in Victoria Park on September 5th, 1930. I had achieved what I had set out to do which was to establish the cause my great grandfather's death. Now, however, I had to face the realisation that I had spent my life avoiding the wrong park. John McDade was hit by a falling branch in Victoria Park, Herston and not the park in Wickham Terrace. On a positive note, however, I had dispelled an unpleasant accusatory anecdote and exhonerated my grandfather and great uncle from an action most unpleasant. Relieved, (an understatement!) that John McDade had not been killed by a blow to the head, from one of his own sons during an argument, I went on to research the actual circumstances of his death. I now had a number of questions which I felt warranted answers, including, whether safety measures were put into place for labourers employed by the city council, many of whom would have been unskilled in the jobs allotted to them, could John McDade's death have been avoided and was he the only worker killed in employment under the Brisbane City Council relief scheme?


UNDERSTANDING THE BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL RELIEF SCHEME

I have yet to discover whether there was an inquest held into the death of John McDade, but the fact that he was working under the Brisbane City Council Relief Scheme, has allowed me to understand the circumstances of his death. John McDade was a victim of the Great Depression and as an unemployed worker he had been contracted to the Brisbane City Council to undertake outdoor work for pay to support his family. In 1930, his youngest child was only eight years old. News items in Brisbane newspapers provided me with some understanding of the relief scheme and the part that workers like my great grandfather played in the formation of Victoria Park and other notable Brisbane landmarks. I have also mentioned some informative websites in my sources below.

Workers employed under the relief scheme in Victoria Park, Herston, Brisbane, Sunday, September 21, 1930 Image  Sunday Mail  [Brisbane] TROVE 

Government Relief Scheme  Image:http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/16697398

After passing the Unemployment Workers Insurance Act, in 1922, Queensland was the only state in Australia which had a program to support workers who were unemployed. In July of 1930, the Country Progressive National Party in Queensland, passed another act know as the Income (Unemployment Relief) Tax Act. This act was intended to provide for the payment of relief workers in cities, towns and rural areas who were contracted to work outdoors by local councils. In Brisbane, relief workers were paid to construct and improve roads, bridges, schools, parks and playing fields. The construction of parklands involved the levelling and draining of land,  often the construction of concrete channels and drains, fencing and the felling of existing trees to make way for roads, and the planting of trees and gardens. So, this was the work that my great grandfather was involved in when he was fatally injured. Having been a miner for most of his life, it has occurred to me that he may not have had any or much experience in felling large Australian eucalyptus trees, such as were in Victoria Park prior to its being cleared.

The Courier Mail (Brisbane) 23 April, 1930

Image:http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/21497095?searchTerm=road%20through%20victoria%20park&searchLimits=l-state=Queensland

600 Relief Workers in Victoria Park April 1930
Image:  http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/21511715?searchTerm=CONSTRUCTING%20A%20NEW%20road%20through%20victoria%20park&searchLimits=l-state=Queensland

THANKYOU TO THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA

Family stories passed down from generation to generation can become like Chinese whispers. Members of different branches of my family had three different accounts of how my great grandfather had been injured and died. Not one story was entirely accurate although two were closer to the truth than the third. I am grateful to the National Library of Australia and its website, Trove. Without the digitisation of Australian newspapers, I might never have solved a worrisome mystery and proved that beyond doubt I can now hold a branch of a tree accountable for my great grandfather John McDade's death in 1930.

THE STORY DOES NOT END THERE.....PART TWO:

WHAT THE BRISBANE TELEGRAPH FINALLY REVEALED... AND
MY SHOCKING FIND WHEN I RESEARCHED THE WORKERS' CONDITIONS IN VICTORIA PARK. 

Sources:

NEWSPAPERS

Trove


BRISBANE CITY  COUNCIL RELIEF SCHEME

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/printArticleJpg/21527103/3?print=y

Queensland Historical Atlas

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/21533854


VICTORIA PARK, HERSTON, BRISBANE

Queensland Government Department of Environment and Heritage Protection

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?l-state=Queensland&q=CONSTRUCTING+A+NEW+road+through+victoria+park


NEWS ARTICLES ABOUT THE DEATH OF JOHN MCDADE

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?l-state=Queensland&l-title=840&q=John+Mcdade+Victoria+park




PART 2 - NEXT POST: WHY JOHN MCDADE'S ACCIDENT SHOULD NEVER HAVE OCCURRED.... COMPLAINTS HAD BEEN MADE BY UNSKILLED WORKERS IN VICTORIA PARK.... Stay tuned!