Grave tales – Maclean Cemetery

When we travel to new towns you will always find us at the local cemetery. We photograph and document the memorials and add them to sites such as Findagrave so those doing family history research can find them.

When walking around the memorials, there are always a few that attract my attention. It could be because of the inscription, the age of the person who died, the size of the monument or some other unexplained reason. When this happens the genealogist takes over and I feel the need to find the story.

Last week I was in Maclean, a town founded by the Scots in 1862 on the Clarence River in northern New South Wales. The cemetery is on a hill on the town’s outskirts and has glimpses of the river.

One memorial that attracted my attention was that of Frederick and Lucy Skinner, aged 25 and 32 years, accidentally electrocuted on 12 December 1934. How tragic that these two young people died on the same day.

The story was covered extensively in the newspapers across New South Wales. The Macleay Chronicle article of 19 December 1934, detailed the outcome of the inquest. The cause was a downed power wire carrying 11,000 volts from the Nymboida hydro-electric system. It is believed it was knocked to the ground after an altercation with a flying fox.

On the morning of 19 December, the neighbour Mr Towell found one of his cows knocked down and lying on the ground. He yelled for help. Fred Skinner ran to the aid of his neighbour and in the process touched a piece of wire used as a bind for the gate. He had no idea the gate was electrified by the fallen power wire and was immediately thrown backwards, his hands still on the gate.

In response to Fred’s screams, his sister Lucy ran to help and, as she tried to drag him away from the fence, she was also electrocuted. Her brother Harold, aged 19 and sister Daphne, 14 also ran to help. Daphne received a shock but was thrown free and survived.

The children were living on the farm of their parents William and Una Skinner. William Skinner was a well known market gardener in the area. William and Una had eight children. The devastating tragedy that occurred that day resulted in William’s decline in health. He died two years later at the age of 65.