Plaque for Unmarked Explorers grave
Donation protected
Sidney Harry Jeffryes 1884-1942
One of Australia's forgotten pioneers of the heroic era of Antarctic exploration will at last have a marked grave - 76 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH.
Sidney Harry Jeffryes, the relief wireless operator on Douglas Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) of 1911-14, was buried in an unmarked grave at Ararat in 1942 after 28 years as a patient at the Ararat Mental Hospital.
From 16th October 2018 he will have a bronze plaque on his burial plot, the final chapter in the tragic life of this unsung Antarctic pioneer who suffered a mental breakdown because of the cold and isolation and had to be relieved of his duties by Mawson who was recuperating after barely surviving a 500 km trek back to the huts after losing his two sledging companions.
Jeffryes was heard transmitting false messages in Morse code to the AAE’s base on Macquarie Island which Mawson established in late 1911 after leaving Hobart to relay messages from his main base to Australia. His messages said Mawson and the others were trying to murder him and he was the only sane person there.
The funds raised will be used to cover the cost of the bronze plaque (shown below) and associated costs incurred by the Mawson's Huts Foundation during this project. The plaque is being set into a concrete plinth kindly arranged by Friends of the Ararat Cemetery Trust. The Foundation is a not for profit charity established in 1997 to conserve the fragile wooden huts at Cape Denison, East Antarctica. These buildings were used as the expedition’s main base and it was there that Jeffryes spent most of 1913.
Jeffryes was the wireless operator on board the ship “Aurora” that was to collect Mawson and his entire team in early 1913, but was forced to leave without Mawson when he failed to return on time.
Jeffryes volunteered to stay behind as the wireless operator with five other members of the AAE to search and/or wait for Mawson’s return. However, the isolation and cold led to Jeffryes suffering a mental breakdown and he had to be relieved of his duties.
When the men were eventually rescued in December 1913 Jeffryes tried to commit suicide on the voyage back to Australia by taking opium which was used treat snow blindness. When the ship arrived in Adelaide in February 1914 Jeffryes boarded a train to return to his home in Queensland but left the train at Stawell and wandered naked through the bush for 12 days living on grubs and moths. Local residents reported him to police who admitted him to the Ararat mental hospital where he placed in J Ward for the criminally insane. He remained until his death on 16 October 1942. Records show he was buried the following day in an unmarked grave.
There is no hospital record of Jeffryes ever being visited by any member of the AAE and letters to Mawson went unanswered.
One of Australia's forgotten pioneers of the heroic era of Antarctic exploration will at last have a marked grave - 76 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH.
Sidney Harry Jeffryes, the relief wireless operator on Douglas Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) of 1911-14, was buried in an unmarked grave at Ararat in 1942 after 28 years as a patient at the Ararat Mental Hospital.
From 16th October 2018 he will have a bronze plaque on his burial plot, the final chapter in the tragic life of this unsung Antarctic pioneer who suffered a mental breakdown because of the cold and isolation and had to be relieved of his duties by Mawson who was recuperating after barely surviving a 500 km trek back to the huts after losing his two sledging companions.
Jeffryes was heard transmitting false messages in Morse code to the AAE’s base on Macquarie Island which Mawson established in late 1911 after leaving Hobart to relay messages from his main base to Australia. His messages said Mawson and the others were trying to murder him and he was the only sane person there.
The funds raised will be used to cover the cost of the bronze plaque (shown below) and associated costs incurred by the Mawson's Huts Foundation during this project. The plaque is being set into a concrete plinth kindly arranged by Friends of the Ararat Cemetery Trust. The Foundation is a not for profit charity established in 1997 to conserve the fragile wooden huts at Cape Denison, East Antarctica. These buildings were used as the expedition’s main base and it was there that Jeffryes spent most of 1913.
Jeffryes was the wireless operator on board the ship “Aurora” that was to collect Mawson and his entire team in early 1913, but was forced to leave without Mawson when he failed to return on time.
Jeffryes volunteered to stay behind as the wireless operator with five other members of the AAE to search and/or wait for Mawson’s return. However, the isolation and cold led to Jeffryes suffering a mental breakdown and he had to be relieved of his duties.
When the men were eventually rescued in December 1913 Jeffryes tried to commit suicide on the voyage back to Australia by taking opium which was used treat snow blindness. When the ship arrived in Adelaide in February 1914 Jeffryes boarded a train to return to his home in Queensland but left the train at Stawell and wandered naked through the bush for 12 days living on grubs and moths. Local residents reported him to police who admitted him to the Ararat mental hospital where he placed in J Ward for the criminally insane. He remained until his death on 16 October 1942. Records show he was buried the following day in an unmarked grave.
There is no hospital record of Jeffryes ever being visited by any member of the AAE and letters to Mawson went unanswered.
Organizer
David Jensen
Organizer
North Sydney, NSW
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