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Yemmerrawanyea & |
The gravestone above commemorates the first death of an Australian-born person in Britain (which in those days included all Ireland), although at the time neither he nor those who took him to England knew the terms Australia or Australian.
Yemmerrawanyea (whose name has been spelled in various ways) was taken to England by Arthur Phillip upon his return at the end of his stint as the first British Governor of the Colony of New South Wales. He was accompanied by the unfortunate Bennelong, after whom the location of the Sydney Opera House is named (Bennelong Point, where he resided for a time, using "resided" rather than "lived" because "lived" is not a suitable word for anything that happened to Bennelong after the whites arrived on Australia's shores). Yemmerrawanyea's age, given as 19, can only have been guessed at, but whatever it was, he was only a very young man when he died in the home of a bloke called Edward Kent, after less than a year in England. Shamefully, we don't know what killed Yemmerrawanyea , except that it was possibly tuberculosis. Or perhaps it was simply Phillip's decision to take him to England, where Phillip hoped he would pick up enough information about English "civilisation" to persuade his people to adopt its ways. Of course, hindsight, combined with modern knowledge and understandings enable us to know that if Yemmerrawanyea had not died then and there he would probably have ended up similarly to Bennelong. Maybe he was lucky to have died when he did, although describing such an end as "lucky" is not really in any way adequate or suitable. "Lucky" for Yemmerrawanyea would have been the English deciding to send their convicts to some tropical hell hole in Africa, rather than what became Sydney, in what the invaders called the "Colony of New South Wales". Yemmerrawanyea's gravestone is in St John's Churchyard, Eltham, which is now a |
suburb of London (not, obviously, the Eltham that's a suburb of Melbourne!). Sadly, while Yemmerrawanyea's remains were also located there for some years, they were apparently removed, as is still the custom for many cemeteries around the world, to minimise overcrowding.
Unfortunately, no-one appears to know what happened to Yemmerrawanyea's remains after his burial. It's possible his remains were removed at some stage for sale to the highest bidder. Such thefts were not uncommon from London cemeteries, and while there's no evidence such a thing happened, Yemmerrawanyea's remains would have been much sought after by some so-called scientists. It's also possible the remains were removed after some years to free up the grave site. This also was far from unusual in a city with limited areas for burials. Sometimes the remains were stored in a sort of charnel house, and sometimes they were just dumped in a hole. Yemmerrawanyea's headstone was moved, allegedly in response to German bombing during World War 2. Consequently, it has not been possible to check the story of remains removal. If still in situ, they could be anywhere in the graveyard. So, even if they've not been removed, it seems as though it will not be possible to return his remains to his people and his country. What it seems the English didn't know, but which Bennelong did, and possibly Phillip as well, the failure to return Yemmerrawanyea's remains to his home has forced his spirit to wander the world, homeless, alone, and possibly dangerous, for ever more. Or so the pre-1788 and many post-1788 First Australians believed. And who are us non-believers to gainsay them? Whatever the truth, his failure to return to his home with Bennelong would have caused intense and extremely heart-felt pain to all who had known him. And fear! For, in all probability, they believed. And even any doubters among them would have wondered. |
Yemmerrawanyea's Gravestone's Location
(If not that of his remains or his spirit!)
(For more on this young man, click here)