Obituaries Australia

Edwin Donkin, n.d.

from Pastoral Review, 16 December 1914

By all who knew him, the late Mr. Edwin Davis Donkin, of Mandamar, Barmedman, N.S.W., was sincerely loved and respected, and deep sympathy will be felt for his wife and family in their bereavement. He was always known as a kind neighbour, ready to give advice and render help to anyone he could befriend, and always took the deepest interest in all matters affecting the district in which he lived.

He was born at Romford, in Essex, on 23rd December, 1841, so at the time of his death was seventy-three years of age. He was the third son of the Rev. Thomas Donkin, an Anglican clergyman, who left England with his family, and arrived in Sydney in the year 1853, after a voyage of 153 days, calling at no port en route. Mr. E. D. Donkin went to Queensland in May 1860 to take a mob of 600 cows from Canning Downs, near Warwick, to Rannes, near Rockhampton, and in '73 went to Eton Vale, where he was made manager when Mr. Robert Ramsay went to England in 1874. He remained there for five years, and then took over the Mandamar property, where he lived till the time of his death, with the exception of seven years, when he managed Lake Cowal Station, N.S.W., for his brother, Mr. J. B. Donkin. He had many experiences in Queensland, and at one time owned a station on the Flinders, but had the misfortune to lose all his stock in a big flood.

In 1912, after sixty years' residence in Australia, the late Mr. Donkin left with his wife and daughters for a trip to the Old World, travelling in England, Scotland and Ireland, France, and Switzerland, and returning to Australia in December 1913.

In 1874 he married a daughter of Mr. I. R. Young, of Sydney, and his wife, and two sons and two daughters survive him. The elder son, Mr. Richmond Donkin, lives at Exeter, N.S.W., while the younger, Herbert, lives in Argentina, where he is part owner of an estancia, carrying from 10,000 to 12,000 cattle. The late Mr. Donkin took a deep interest in church matters, and the Church of England at Barmedman is deeply indebted to him and Mrs. Donkin.