“A Most Unusual Story”

Victor Watts – Photo Wikitree

This is a strange story about one of the men who are listed on the Eastern Goldfields Miners Memorial Memorial which is located at the WA Museum Kalgoorlie Boulder in Hannan Street, Kalgoorlie. His name is Victor Watts. Several years ago I had a phone call from a homeowner to say that he had just bought an old house in Boulder and while he was digging in the back garden he came across a cemetery headstone. It seems he was breaking up an old concrete path to lay a new one when one of the slabs of concrete wouldn’t move and when he chipped a corner he realised that it was what looked like marble. He and a friend managed to turn it over and saw the inscription. He said although it was a ‘conversation starter’ his wife wasn’t very keen to have it in the garden and as he knew I was involved in local history he thought I could help.

Of course, I was most intrigued to see it, so with some friends, we went to see what it was he had found. It was indeed a very large marble headstone about 1.5m high and had been placed face down as part of an old path. When we were able to turn it over  (not easy as it was incredibly heavy), we saw an inscription as follows in pristine condition:

In Memory of Victor Watts
Native of Burra SA
Accidentally killed on the Perseverance Mine
22nd May 1902, aged 28 years
Late captain of Mines Rovers Football Club
Erected by his friends and clubmates.

A quick check of the cemetery records showed that Victor was buried in the “Pioneer Cemetery’ in Boulder, which closed in 1904. There is no headstone on his grave. Great effort was made to find any relatives, and the Mine Rovers football club was also informed, but with no luck. I think what probably happened was that the headstone was made (incidentally, I was told that the marble used was of very high quality), and as the cemetery was going to be closed, the family may have decided to have Victor moved to the new cemetery, which did happen in quite a few cases, and it just got forgotten about. We even searched the house deeds where it was found in case one of the ‘Watts’ family may have lived there, with no result.  This notice appeared in the Kalgoorlie Miner on the 24th May 1902

Victor WATTS Kalgoorlie Miner 24th May 1902

Victor’s headstone was moved from the home and is now stored safely at the Kalgoorlie Cemetery. There are plans to reinstate it at the Old Boulder Cemetery when current restoration work is done by the Eastern Goldfields Historical Society.

Kalgoorlie Miner, Friday 23 May 1902

I hope that one day Victor will get his headstone after all. He’s only been waiting 121 years.  This photograph is of the Boulder Cemetery today, as you can see his will be the only intact headstone in the whole cemetery.

Old Boulder Cemetery – Photo Sandy Duncan

W.A. Sportsman 24 May 1902, page 2

What we know about him:-

He was born in 1874 in Burra, South Australia. His father was William WATTS, and his mother was Jane, nee MOON. He had a married sister in Boulder, Lil CAMERON.

Post Script: We have now traced a relative of his, Kay Watts. Kay’s Great-grandfather and Victor Watts were brothers. We now have her permission to erect the headstone.