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Samuel Thomas GillPrint Page Print this page


Photographs supplied by Kent Watson / Graeme Saunders

The headstone over grave, erected by the Historical Society of Victoria, commemorates artist Samuel Gill (1818 - 1880). The grave was restored circa 1939 and in 1997. 

In 1852 the painter Samuel Thomas Gill went to the Victorian gold diggings, and in the next twenty years produced drawings of Victoria and New South Wales, many published as lithographs.

Evidence of visits to New South Wales in 1856 and 1861 exists in the form of lithographs of scenes in that colony in those years. Twenty-four lithographed sketches by Gill, Victoria Gold Diggings and Diggers As They Are, were published in Melbourne and London in 1853. He has been called the `Artist of the Goldfields.`

After 1870 Gill fell into obscurity, though he continued to produce work, some of it in the nature of cartoons which were coarse in execution. On 27 October 1880 he collapsed in Post Office Place, Melbourne, and was found to be dead when taken to hospital. The next day an inquest was held and the cause of death was found to be 'rupture of an aneurism of the aorta'. His grave in the Melbourne General Cemetery was unmarked until 1913 when his body was moved to a private plot in the same cemetery and a stone erected, paid for by funds collected by the Historical Society of Victoria.

Location

Address:College Crescent , Melbourne General Cemetery, Carlton North, 3054
State:VIC
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -37.791811
Long: 144.961975
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Grave
Monument Theme:People
Sub-Theme:Arts
Link:http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/adbonli…

Dedication

Approx. Monument Dedication Date:October-1913
Front Inscription

Samuel Thomas Gill
The artist of the Goldfields
Died in Melbourne

October 27th 1880.
Aged 60 years.

Erected by the Historical Society of Victoria
October 1913. 

Plaque : 

National Trust of Australia (Victoria)

Samuel Thomas Gill 
Born 21 May 1818 Died 27 October 1880

The restoration of this grave by Lodge Bros, completed October 1997, was the first project of the National Trust Cemetery Restoration Appeal.  Project funding was provided by public donations and tours of this cemetery.

An earlier renovation of this grave was arranged circa 1939 by C J Thompson of Adelaide, S.T. Gill's niece.

 

Source: MA,ADB
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au