May Squares #21 In Memoriam

Postcards from The Great Ocean Road ~ Joining Becky for May Squares, featuring scenes along Victoria’s  iconic Great Ocean Road.

#SquaresRenew ~ moving forward, reconstructing, renewing or burgeoning

The heritage listed Great Ocean Road follows the coast of south-eastern Victoria from Torquay to Allansford for 241 kilometres, past beautiful sandy beaches and bays, through lush rainforests and over rugged limestone cliffs. Built by soldiers returned from World War One between 1919 and 1932, and dedicated to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, the road is the world’s largest war memorial. Construction of the road provided employment for more than 3,000 returned servicemen, giving them purpose and providing much needed rehabilitation after the horrors of war. The Great Ocean Road linked towns along the coast previously only accessed by sea or tracks through the bush and created a route now acknowledged as one of the most scenic tourist drives in the world. 

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Loch Ard Cemetery, Port Campbell National Park

Only four of the 52 people who died in the sinking of the Loch Ard were ever recovered. The bodies of survivor Eva Carmichael’s mother Mrs Rebecca Carmichael and her sister Raby, Arthur Mitchell and Reginald Jones were all placed in coffins made from timber from the wreckage, and laid to rest in a tiny cemetery on the headland above  the gorge. 

A memorial plaque records the names of all those who were lost,

 and headstones mark the final resting place of the four who were buried.

This one records the burial of Rebecca and Raby and also the loss for Eva of almost all of her family; her father Evory, sisters Margaret and Annie and brothers Evory and Thomas. 

Once she had recovered from her ordeal, Eva Carmichael returned to Ireland to live with her one remaining brother William. In 1884 she married Thomas Townshend and they had three sons. Eva died in Bedford, England on 8th April 1934 aged 74.

The second survivor of the wreck of the Loch Ard, Tom Pearce, was awarded the first ever gold medal by the Royal Humane Society of Victoria on 20th June 1878 for his bravery in saving Eva’s life. He returned to England and married Edith Strasenburgh in 1884. They had two sons and a daughter. Tom continued his career at sea, rising to the rank of Ship Master with the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. After suffering ill health, he died on 14th December 1908 at the age of 49.