NEWSLETTER No. 122 MARCH 2018 Serving the community, families, schools, students, historians and other researchers The Springthorpe Memorial The Springthorpe Memorial in the Boroondara General Cemetery is included on the Victorian Heritage Register. The heritage citation explains why it is significant: “The Springthorpe Memorial is historically important in demonstrating nineteenth century social and cultural attitudes to death, and for reflecting Contents the ideals of the Victorian Garden Cemetery movement which aimed at providing comfort for mourners. The memorial is important in demonstrating uniqueness, no other example being known of such aesthetic composition, architectural design and execution, or scale. It is important in exhibiting good design and aesthetic characteristics and for SOCIETY NEWS the richness and unusual integration of features. The Springthorpe 3 Information about monthly Memorial is also important in illustrating the principal characteristics of meetings, tours and the collection the work of a number of artists including Desbrowe Annear, Mackennal, the glass manufacturers Auguste Fischer and the bronze work of Marriots.” 2018 KEW FESTIVAL 4 While the citation reflects on the Memorial’s historical and spiritual Details about our involvement in significance, it makes little comment about why it was constructed. Kew Festival activities Dr. John Springthorpe was a well-known and highly respected Melbourne NETTIE & VANCE PALMER doctor who worked as a pathologist at the Alfred Hospital and also as an 5 out-patient physician at the Melbourne Hospital. Besides running a An overview of the cultural contributions of these two Australian thriving Collins Street practice, he was a university lecturer in writers therapeutics, dietics and hygiene, writing numerous articles for medical and other journals. THE ARTISTIC SENSIBILITY The Memorial was built by Dr. Springthorpe to celebrate the love he felt for 7 Manuscripts in the Raymond and his wife, Annie Inglis Springthorpe (1867-97) who had died when she was Rosemary Vaughan-Smith Collection 30-years-old, giving birth to their fourth child. Her death occurred after only ten years of what he described as “an idyllic marriage”. Springthorpe THE FIRST COMMONWEALTH wrote copious notes in a diary and a scrapbook, both of which are held in 10 PARLIAMENT the State Library of Victoria. In these documents we can read how he tried Kew residents, rich and poor, to overcome his loss and about the development the Memorial that he was celebrate this important national to spare no cost in having erected. event Two years after his wife’s death, Springthorpe wrote to the Trustees of the Boroondara Cemetery, requesting a site for the erection of a memorial. In April 1899, he was shown a proposed site at the Cemetery with a glorious > Page 2 12 Front-page A Temple Tomb, Boroondara Vic. Postcard, Kew Historical Society collection Right Two rare early postcards of the central tableau of the Springthorpe Memorial. Kew Historical Society collection The Springthorpe Memorial (cont.) view towards Heidelberg, with Mount Macedon on the horizon. His diary entries convey a mounting excitement and a sense of achievement as he imagined a tomb surrounded by a garden. Harold Desbrowe Annear, the distinguished architect, was employed to construct a model of the tomb. He designed the tomb in the classical Greek Doric style with a lead-light glass In fact, the memorial remains the property of the roof and dark green granite columns. Within the tomb, the family, and before any work could proceed, approval noted sculptor Bertram Mackennal was commissioned to had to be sought and granted from family members. create impressive life-sized statues, depicting an angel of love This has been obtained, and the family are thrilled that placing a wreath over Annie’s head, while an angel of sorrow conservation work will prevent any further plays the lyre in a pitiful mourning posture. deterioration of this historically important memorial. Initially the statuary was enclosed in a glass pyramid, which Funds for conservation work will be sought via was removed in the 1940s when it was discovered that mould Government grants and philanthropic donations. was starting to appear on the marble. The copper snake heads Pauline Turville near the top of the ‘temple’ occasionally spout water when it rains and the stained glass roof casts a rosy red glow over the faces of the statuary. Kew Historical Society Inc. In this remarkable memorial, inscriptions feature everywhere. There are biblical inscriptions in English, ancient Greek and PATRON Latin on all four sides of the statuary group. The tiled floor also Sir Gustav Nossal AC, CBE contains various inscriptions. These include quotations from MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE 19th century poems including those of Walt Whitman, William President: Judith Voce Wordsworth and Robert Browning. Some were even written by Vice President: Assoc. Prof. Don Garden OAM Springthorpe. Annie’s Springthorpe’s name is not mentioned Secretary: Brad Miles on her memorial and the names of other descendants, who also Treasurer: David Benwell lie within the mausoleum, only have their initials in the Archivist/Newsletter editor: Robert Baker Curator: Judith Scurfield corners. Members: Mary Kelleher | Debbie McColl-Davis | Desley Springthorpe commissioned William Robert Guilfoyle, the Reid |Janet Walker | David White curator of Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens, to landscape a MONTHLY MEETINGS ‘garden of the dead’, which included flowering red gums from The Kew Historical Society holds monthly meetings in the Western Australia. However, much of the surrounding land was Phyllis Hore Room at the rear of the Kew Library. Meetings to be taken back by the Cemetery Trust in the 1930s, following are held at 8.00pm on the second Wednesday of the Springthorpe’s death, when it was discovered that this land had month, Refreshments are provided. not been paid for. Today, an imposing gate with a large aluminium and bronze shield, stone seats and sundials are all KEW COURT HOUSE Members of the Society played a key role in the that remain of this proposed garden. preservation of the historic Kew Court House. Volunteers staff Three years’ after his wife’s death, Springthorpe was to become the Kew History Centre on Level 1 every Friday & Saturday President of the Melbourne Medical Association. He established (11.00am–1.00pm). At the Centre, you can ask questions about Kew's history and view displays from the Society's a training system in dentistry and became the first president of collection. the newly established Royal Victorian Training Nurses Association in 1901, which he had helped found. He published NEWSLETTER a two-volume textbook, Therapeutics, Dietics and Hygiene in This is published quarterly and distributed to all members. 1914, and in that year enlisted in the Australian Army Medical Additional copies are made available to the community. Past newsletters can be downloaded from the website. Corps, eventually becoming senior physician to No. 2 Australian General Hospital in Egypt, and then in France. WEBSITES Throughout his war service and beyond, he became interested www.kewhistoricalsociety.org.au | in soldiers who suffered ‘shell shock’; a new branch of the victoriancollections.net.au/organisations/kew-historical- emerging field of psychiatry. society Preparatory work for the conservation of the Springthorpe Memorial is being undertaken by a working group, which also Kew Historical Society Inc. includes representatives of the Cemetery Trustees, the Friends Inc. No. A0010789W | ABN 97 824 890 237 of Boroondara (Kew) Cemetery, and the Kew Historical Society. PO Box 175 Kew VIC 3101 KHS Newsletter, No.122/2018 A collaborative approach is essential, as restoration of the ISSN 0155-1337 memorial is not the responsibility of the Trust. 2 K HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEWS JUNE MONTHLY MEETING EVENTS Topic: The Influenza Epidemic in Kew Speaker: Andrew Frost JANUARY TO JUNE 2018 In October and November 1918, the influenza epidemic broke out in the United Kingdom, India, Australia and New FEBRUARY MONTHLY MEETING Zealand. It was called the ‘Spanish Influenza’ because the Topic: Boroondara Cemetery: Returning it to a garden virus had originated in Spain. Initially, it was known as the cemetery ‘South African’ influenza, since it seemed to spread to Speaker: Helen Page Australia from there with troop transports returning from Helen, a horticulturist with a keen interest in old gardens, the War. Andrew will describe the impact of the epidemic was president of the Australian Garden History Society in Kew. Victorian branch for many years. She is currently a member Wednesday 13 June, Phyllis Hore Room, 8.00PM of the Boroondara General (Kew) Cemetery Trust. She, and an active group of volunteers have an ambition to return it to a garden cemetery. Come and listen to Helen explain why, how and when this is happening. THE COLLECTIONS Wednesday 14 February, Phyllis Hore Room, 8.00PM SIGNIFICANCE ASSESSMENT The Society is pleased to announce that it has appointed KEW FESTIVAL 2-18 MARCH Ms. Emma Russell, of History@Work to conduct an New Exhibition Opening Night (Friday 2 March) assessment of our collection. Emma has considerable SackVille Street Heritage Walks (Sunday 11 March). experience in conducting assessments to determine the 2018 McIntyre Lecture (Wednesday 14 March) historic, aesthetic and artistic, research and scientific, and Green Glam Fiesta Day (18 March) social and spiritual significance of collections. [For details, see