In Affectionate Remembrance of Robert Gibson, husband of Catherine Lily Gibson, Who was Killed by the accidental discharge of a gun, on the 22nd June, 1880, at Serpentine Creek, Victoria, aged 26 years

and was interred in the Bridgewater-on-Loddon Cemetery, 27th June, 1880. [Sandhurst?] : [s.n.], 1880. Die-cut mourning card, 75 x 114 mm; light foxing, otherwise in very good condition.

A poignant mourning card recording the accidental death of Robert Gibson near Serpentine Creek, northwest of Bendigo, in June 1880. Robert had married 17-year-old Catherine Lily Threlfall, of Inglewood, two years earlier, in 1878. Not only was Catherine now widowed at just 19, but she was also expecting the couple’s first child at the time of the tragedy: their son, Robert John Gibson, named in honour of the father who would never hold him, was born a short time later.

The following report appeared in Bendigo Advertiser, 24 June 1880:

‘FATAL GUN ACCIDENT. Our Inglewood correspondent furnishes, and also a correspondent at the Serpentine, particulars by telegraph of a shocking accident which happened on Tuesday to a young man named Robert Gibson, a native of the colony, who went out in the afternoon opossum shooting with a double-barrel gun. As be did not return at night, it was feared that an accident had occurred, and a number of the neighbors went out to search for him. They however returned unsuccessful. At daylight another search was instituted, and this time he was found by Mr. Mossop lying dead on the ground, with the left side of his head completely blown away. The gun was lying between his legs and the ramrod grasped in his hand. How the accident happened can only be surmised. It is believed that he was loading one barrel when the other accidentally went off, and shot him in the head. He leaves a widow, a daughter of Mr. Threfall, Bridgewater, aged nineteen years, and to whom he was married a little over a year ago. His mother resides in Sandhurst, and the intelligence of his awful death must have been a sad blow to her. Deceased was twenty-four years of age, and had been in the employment of Mr. Joel Horwood, of Bridgewater Park, for about ten years. He was always a steady, useful, and industrious servant, and at the time of his death, had charge of Mr. Horwood’s estate and stock at Serpentine. A magisterial inquiry was held at Serpentine yesterday afternoon, and a finding recorded that deceased was accidentally shot by the discharge of firearms.’