Obituaries Australia

The news of the sudden death of Mr Edwin Desailly was received with a good deal of surprise in Bairnsdale on Tuesday morning. It appears (says the "Courier") that the cause of death was heart failure. The deceased gentleman had been under medical treatment recently, and suffered a good deal during the last two days, but none of his friends anticipated a fatal termination. During Monday night he became worse, and Dr. Alsop was sent for in the morning, but before he arrived Mr Desailly had breathed his last, passing away at about 9 o'clock on Tuesday morning.

The deceasaed was one of the last of the pioneer squatters of Gippsland, having been a resident in this province for about half a century. He first took up Fulham station, near Sale, in conjuncttion with his two brothers, and afterwards removed to Emu Vale, with which place his name was identified for a great many years. Later on he removed to Hillside. His two brothers pre-deceased him, and the three Desaillys were known as pioneer squatters of Gippsland and New South Wales.

Mr Edwin Desailly was the son of the late Dr Francis Wisdom Desailly, and was a native of Tasmania. He leaves a widow, three sons, two of whom are married, and one daughter.

Mr Desailly was a man of equable temper and very highly esteemed by his personal friends. One of the qualifications for which he will be long remembered was his skill as a coachman, in which he was unsurpassed, and perhaps hardly equalled anywhere. His experiences were not confined to smooth roads and level country, as he would drive a coach and four through rough and timbered country, where such a feat would appear to anyone else to be impossible. He was one of the best experts in the district among livestock, as might be expected from his long experience, and was the senior partner in the firm of Desailly, Macarthur and Co.