Obituaries Australia

The following is an extract of a letter just received by Mr. George F. Leslie, from his superintendent at Canning Downs:—"We have to record the melancholy death of your old stockman, James Pomphry which occurred as follows:—We went to the heifer station on Wednesday, 10th instant, to get horses, and as we only intended Pomphry to go a short way with us (Pomphry was stockman there) we did not think anything of missing him about Mount Sturt (distant from my heifer station about three miles.) The next morning his hutkeeper, Miller, came to Canning Downs to tell us that Pomphry had not been seen since he left with us, and that his horse had come home the previous evening. I started with nine others, and searched without success for the whole day and came to Canning Downs to get blackfellows to go in search next day, when Murphy, who was one of those left behind, came to inform us that Pomphry's body had been found. He had apparently been thrown from his horse against a log and had been killed instantaneously, as his hat and whip were close by him. He had fallen off his horse before we left him but seemed none the worse. When his body was found it was in a dreadful state: the face was literally smashed to pieces, and his skin was all eaten off by ants."

The deceased was an old and faithful servant of Mr. George F. Leslie's, having gone out with him to the Downs in 1840, and continued in his service ever since. He was a native of Woolmer, in Hampshire, and was about 65 years of age.