Obituaries Australia

At the age of 92 years, and after 77 years as a Western Australian colonist, there passed away at her old home, the Preston Park, Preston Valley on the 2nd of this month a lady well known and widely revered in the person of Mrs Elizabeth Fowler (nee Dicey).

In January of 1935 the late Mrs Fowler, with others, landed from the brig Giraffe on the then comparatively unknown shores of Western Australia. As the wife of a sturdy pioneer of the colony she made her quiet and powerful influence felt everywhere. Nor did age dull her memory or enfeeble her faculties, for almost to the last she retained both in a remarkable degree, and she passed peacefully away as she had lived, utterly selfish, thoughtful for others, and deeply loyal and devoted to the land of her adoption.

The late Mrs Fowler lived to see the remaining ten of her family of eleven comfortably settled in their own homes and up to the time of her death had been privileged to see 62 grandchildren, 55 great-grandchildren, and two great-great grandchildren. An interesting feature of her life lies in the fact that she lived under the reign of four different sovereigns of the British throne.

Her body was interred in the Preston cemetery in the presence of a large gathering, comprising in addition to the whole of the local residents and friends, a number of other districts, the pall-bearers being Messrs James Forrest (Sea View), C. C. Forrest (Forest Hill), William Jackson, and Cecil Fowler.

A service, In Memoriam, held in the Preston Hall on Sunday last, and largely attended added the last rites of devotion to a memory that may well remain in permanent honor and esteem. The deepest sympathy is felt everywhere for Miss Elizabeth Fowler (the only unmarried member of a large family) who has for many years devoted her life solely of the care of her mother.