On the 6th October 1938, at the Edwards Find Gold Mine near Southern Cross, an elderly miner called Frank Pagoda was overcome by dynamite fumes. His mate, Paul Casserly, made several attempts to rescue him, sustaining a fracture of the skull in his attempts, which eventually claimed his life on the 12th October 1938. He was awarded a posthumous Humane Society award, as well as another man, Thomas Liversedge, who also attempted to rescue the two men and survived.
“Greater love hath no man than he who lay down his life for a friend”
Although stories of bravery and daring abound in the Goldfields of yesteryear, this particular accident so captured the notice of the public that a famous journalist and poet, Dryblower Murphy, penned the following verse. He writes about the bravery of Casserly and of mateship to the end.
Evening News – QLD – 7 October 1938, page 3
LIFE’S TRAGIC SIDE – His Life for his Friend
Paul Casserly, age 35, who made a heroic attempt to rescue Frank Pagoda, aged 68, from the gas-filled winze at Edward’s Find, near Marvel Loch, Western Australia, died in the Southern Cross Hospital seven days later without regaining consciousness. Casserly, who voluntarily went down the mine, fell twice from the bucket that was hauling him and Pagoda to safety, and was seriously injured. He is survived by a widow and two children.
Sunday Times 16 October 1938, page 11
CASSERLY Miner and Mate
by Dryblower Murphy
Died a hero, after two brave attempts to save his mate, Frank Pagoda, of Marvel Loch, Paul Casserly.
He sneered not at death in a fellow man’s eyes.
To show how far war he was willing,
He plucked off no souvenir button to prize
And prove his “man’s” share in the killing.
“Mercy, Kamarad!” no lips had pleaded to him,
For the fraulien and kinder behind,
Nor watched he the dead eyes of Fritzie grow dim
Till fate drew its merciful blind.
He kicked no corpse over to rest in a rut
Where the shell-waggons rumble and rattle.
And the shrapnel’s loud screech and the Lewis’s phut
Make the symphony bars of the battle.
In a gas-sodden crevice came death-haunting grief
Where points the bone finger of fate,
But here shall be carved in an epitaph brief
“CASSERLY, MINER AND MATE.”
Victoria Crosses adorn many breasts,
But the battlefield never gave one
That so splendidly shine on humanity’s crests
As the deeds that in peace-time are done.
Not where war-banners wave, not where gun-muzzles growl.
Not where trumpets and bugles out blare.
Not where gunpowder fogs the clear sky befoul,
All heroes are doing their share.
Where the rock-drills are ringing, where living reeks spill
To the muffled explosion below;
A thousand hell-devils all saturnine sit,
Where the mole masses gather and go.
Patient and plodding, a pittance he drew,
Unsung by the grasping and great,
Just one of God’s Heroes who ne’er a foe slew,
“CASSERLY, MINER AND MATE.”
Crosses there be in this wonderful world
For valor, for that and for this,
Crosses made holy, chaste and unpearled,
That kings were contented to kiss,
But earth has not yielded a more precious one
That should high in the humble home hang
Of this hero of peace who his duty has done
Where the rock-drillers clatter and clang.
Of true living gold should be hammered this Cross,
lt matters not colour nor weight.
Besides it all, others would be as dull dross
“CASSERLY, MINER AND MATE.”
Paul Casserly Headstone – Southern Cross Cemetery
Southern Cross Times 15 Oct 1938
Moya Sharp
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Must tell cousin Alf Casserly (son of Paul) who now lives in Armadale W.A we got uncle Paul into the kal. hall of fame just before it closed.