Emily MatherPrint Page

The headstone over the grave, which was erected by public subscription, commemorates Emily Mather who was murdered by her husband in 1891. 

In 1891 Emily Mather was brutally murdered by her husband, Frederick Deeming, who had murdered his previous wife and four childen in England. Many people in Melbourne felt that Deeming was Jack the Ripper because it was only several years after the Ripper murders.

Deeming was hanged in the Old Melbourne Gaol despite the best efforts of his attorney Alfred Deakin (later to become Prime Minister of Australia).

Emily was originally buried in a pauper's grave but her body was exhumed and conveyed to the Church of England consecrated ground in the cemetery on the 17th June 1892.

Mr Edward Thunderbolt, who was friend of the Mather family and treasurer of the memorial fund, placed a sealed bottle in the coffin which contained letters and papers relating to the tragedy. It also contained a copy of a letter from Mrs Dove Mather, mother of the murdered woman , to Mr Thunderbolt which was published in the Evening Standard on June 2nd, 1892. 

THE EMILY MATHER MEMORIAL.
Mr. Edward Thunderbolt, of West Melbourne, who interested himself in getting a memorial stone erected by public subscription over the remains of Emily Lydia Mather, of Rainhill, near Liverpool, the victim of the Windsor murder, desires to inform subscribers through our columns how the money (£34 10s. 6d.) had been spent. It was laid out as follows .--For the re-interment in the Church of England department, Melbourne General Cemetery, on June 17,1892, £5 19s.; photographs and their postage to subscribers of 5s. and upwards, as promised, £3: and the remainder (£25 11s. 6d.) to Jaguers and Son, monumental masons, Royal-park, for a marble floral urn monument, with carved drapery, and standing 9ft 6in. high, erected on October 1,1892.
The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic), 15 October 1892. 

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